The Western Epistemic Tradition and the Scientific Study of Religion
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This book provides an account of how a science of religion was able to emerge from the devotional, catechetical, theological, and philosophical forms of ‘religious studies’ that have generally characterized this field of scholarship. Although elements of the scientific study of religion can be found in the scholarly engagement with religion in the academy today, it is still primarily associated with religious and nonscientific humanistic quests for meaning, and the foundations for a flourishing existence. The idea of a scientific study of religion first emerged some 2500 years ago with the ancient Greeks but this history will show that the conditions for a strictly scientific study of religion didn’t emerge until the end of the nineteenth century. The purpose of this new science, like that of the natural and social sciences, is to seek objective knowledge about religious thought and behaviour for its own sake. For that reason, it is argued, the scientific study of religion ought to be established in the curriculum of the modern research university.
This book is intended for students who are enrolled in religious studies programs, their teachers, university administrators, and others who are simply curious about the character of the study of religion most appropriate in the context of the modern research university.
Published: May 10, 2023
| Section | Chapter | Authors |
|---|---|---|
| Prelims | ||
| Preface | Donald Wiebe | |
| Chapter 1 | ||
| Setting the Boundaries for the Scientific Study of Religious Phenomena | Donald Wiebe | |
| Chapter 2 | ||
| The Deep History of the Scientific Study of Religious Thought and Behaviour | Donald Wiebe | |
| Chapter 3 | ||
| From Myth to Proto-Science: A Transformational Turning Point in the History of Human Thought | Donald Wiebe | |
| Chapter 4 | ||
| The Rise and Decline of the Sciences in the Hellenistic Period | Donald Wiebe | |
| Chapter 5 | ||
| Latin Christendom and Scientific Thought in the Middle Ages | Donald Wiebe | |
| Chapter 6 | ||
| The Renaissance, Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment | Donald Wiebe | |
| Chapter 7 | ||
| The Age of Discovery and the Protestant Reformation | Donald Wiebe | |
| Chapter 8 | ||
| Crossing a Threshold in the Scholarly Study of Religion | Donald Wiebe | |
| Chapter 9 | ||
| Modernity, Postmodernity, and the Study of Religion | Donald Wiebe | |
| Chapter 10 | ||
| Epilogue: A Scientific Revolution in Slow Motion | Donald Wiebe | |
| End Matter | ||
| Bibliography | Donald Wiebe | |
| Index | Donald Wiebe | |
Reviews
In an era in which even academics cannot tell the difference between truth and power, the burden of argument and claims to identity rights, Wiebe’s staunch physicalism is an important prophylaxis against contemporary absurdities and scientific obscurity. Based on an exposition of the Western epistemic tradition, Wiebe persuasively demonstrates why a genuinely scientific study of religion is essential to the modern academy and integral to the endeavour of the university.
Professor Anders Klostergaard Petersen, University of Aarhus
Donald Wiebe argues that the academic study of religions should be restructured as a scientific enterprise, accepting only naturalistic explanations and pursuing knowledge for its own sake. In this incisive book of intellectual history, Wiebe shows that the scientific study of religion has been made possible by a long intellectual tradition – “the Western epistemic tradition” – that draws not only from the European Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution, and the Renaissance, but also from the proto-science of Aristotle and the Ionian pre-Socratics, and ultimately from the evolutionary development of the cognitive capacities of the human mind. This book is invaluable for anyone who wants to take seriously this neglected option for the contemporary university.
Professor Kevin Schilbrack, Appalachian State University
Something is rotten in the state of Religious Studies. The discipline’s damaged foundations have been neglected for far too long, and ghosts and spooky dogmas haunt its crumbling academic halls and bookish endeavours. As Hamlet bravely uncovered the institutional web of corruption, omertà, and decay in his kingdom, so Donald Wiebe engages with the history of the study of religion from Antiquity to the present to denounce how fully scientific approaches to religion have been, and are still, constantly belittled or crushed by theological, political, and spiritual agendas. Wiebe’s book is the ultimate honest review of the field, and its unparalleled critical acumen and challenging theses make it a must read for seasoned religious studies scholars, experienced historians of religions, and students unaware of the field’s problematic history.
Leonardo Ambasciano, author of An Unnatural History of Religions
Overall, Wiebe demonstrates a deep knowledge of the field’s history and debates but, more importantly, offers a particular solution which he deems the only feasible one for the discipline’s survival and future: a scientific study of religion based on the scientific principles of modernity. I agree with his assessment although few in today’s ideologically-laden academia, I reckon, would espouse his diagnosis and cure. This, however, does not mean that one should give up the attempt to persuade their peers and Wiebe’s long career and publications have repeatedly indicated his persistence and consistency.
Religion