Religious studies--also known as comparative religion or history
of religions--emerged as a field of study in colleges and
universities on both sides of the Atlantic during the late
nineteenth century. In Europe, as previous historians have
demonstrated, the discipline grew from long-established traditions
of university-based philological scholarship. But in the United
States, James Turner argues, religious studies developed outside
the academy.
Until about 1820, Turner contends, even learned Americans showed
little interest in non-European religions--a subject that had
fascinated their counterparts in Europe since the end of the
seventeenth century. Growing concerns about the status of
Christianity generated American interest in comparing it to other
great religions, and the resulting writings eventually produced the
academic discipline of religious studies in U.S. universities.
Fostered especially by learned Protestant ministers, this new
discipline focused on canonical texts--the "bibles"--of other great
world religions. This rather narrow approach provoked the
philosopher and psychologist William James to challenge academic
religious studies in 1902 with his celebrated and groundbreaking
"Varieties of Religious Experience."
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