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All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few- Stendhal

Comparative Religion is a much-needed reflection on religion and the role they play in everyday life. It is an analytical study of the varied forms of belief which we see at homes and within the society and subsequently in politics and world affairs. Mainly, is the study of the unobservable dimensions of religion such as belief and the diversity of one religion with respect to the cultural backdrop. The study of comparative religion makes one view the similarities and differences in religions beyond symbols and rituals and the study of society with the religious variable. It adopts ideas from various disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and history of religion to view the structure of religion. It breaks away from conventional theology which is an attempt to unravel the supernatural aspect of religion and understand that with allegiances to one particular faith. Through the ages, there have been attempts to interpret other religions which may not have been free of subjective bias. There have been 3 strategic stances to interpret other religions around the world, namely the Christian Theology, Rationalism and Universalism. Interpretive ideas of other religions were roughly constructed between the fifth and the fifteenth centuries as it evolved in a time of religious competitions. First, Christianity viewed non-biblical religions as evil forces and associated it with devil worship by demons. They also provided in a unified view when they assumed other religions to be derived from the common starting point. (Paden, 1994). Second, they assumed all religions to have degenerated from the original Christian monotheism and fallen to a lower point. They attempted to draw similarities as they thoroughly plagiarized by assuming that certain myths, symbols and religious persons were copied from them and were explained to their satisfaction. Third, they assumed other faiths to be

allegories of Christianity and viewed how certain texts point to the Christian truths. For eg. Hebrew Scriptures prefigured the revelation of the Christ. Fourth, the most belittling views of other religions prevailed as there were comparisons with the superior and clean religion of Christianity and the other religions which were deemed corrupt and lower. The religions which did not point to the coming of Jesus or bear any similarities which could have later been assumed as a break from Christianity, were presented with bias as a lower religion. For example when the coming of Muhammad was different from the coming of the Christ and no comparisons could be drawn. Muhammad was shown as a robber, crafty and lustful. Later on this view became less aggressive in nature when Asian religions were acknowledged to be impressive in their own right. Yet, the other religions were shown to miss out certain aspects of spirituality which was considered complete in Christianity. Lastly, not all comparisons were belittling in nature as it was assumed that every human has the capacity to arrive at some truth about god. This gave way to the advent of the concepts of Natural Religion, which was the religious sentiments common to all and the Revealed Religion which was faith in the revealed truths of the Bible. All these ideas were highly competitive in nature and extremely strategic to increase the number of their followers. (Paden, 1994) Rationalism arrived to challenge the views of Christian Absolutists and to undermine the faith aspect of religion. It reduced every religion to a social and a personal need. This is perhaps where Comparative Religion adopted the facts presented by members of various disciplines. It considered reason to be mans best tool. It put adopted the middle ground between Christian views and Liberal Modernity of Deism which defied the concept of a supernatural revelation yet believed in some supreme power of sorts which was supposed to be worshipped. It assumed authority in a personal moral order and connected the belief to virtues and vices. (Paden, 1994) It

also assumed that each religion will view their belief systems to be the right ones. As John Russell rightly exclaimed that Nothing can be said by a Christian, on behalf of the inspiration of his scriptures, which might not be said by the Buddhist, the Confusious, or the Mussulman on behalf of the inspiration of theirs. Universalism came through to find common points of agreement in each religion and assumed them to be different paths to the same goal. Ideas of deism were adopted here when Universalists believed in natural religion and affirmed the concept of a higher being. These are still prevalent in Asian traditions. The earliest known instances of Universalism was in the fifth century B.C when Herodotus, a Greek historian assumed that the neighboring gods were Greek divinities under localized names, for eg. Ammon was the Egyptian name for Zeus. The other gods were merely different in name as they were manifestations of the same universal principles or different attributes of the same divine being. (Paden, 1994) It created two levels of religious consciousness. The wise, which bore the higher notion of a supreme being and the ignorant masses which disagreed and fought on religious matters. Universalists believed in the standards of religious wisdom as opposed to what is good in religious history. Asian religions in the twentieth century had adopted the concepts of Universalism. Sri Ramakrishna preached that the substance is one under different names, similar to Herodotus belief and that everyone is seeking the same thing in different areas around the world which creates room for differences in the climate, temperament and names of this substance. Mystics around the world seem to have a unified vision of the ideal. (Paden, 1994) Myths and Rituals, the common practices that underlie all religions show the similarity in the beliefs of all faiths.

In essence, all these belief systems gave way to modern comparative religion and they are still practiced in their original form in certain areas in the West. Biblical religions may continue to interpret their religion to other faiths and on the other hand, Rationalism and Universalism stand to question the narrow minded claims of conventional belief systems and to break away from the dogmatic approach. (Paden, 1994) What is Comparative Religion today and how the various disciplines have influenced the study of Comparative Religion. To reach how Modern Comparative religion came into being, it is vital to analyze what the two main theorists said about religion as it is these concepts that constitute the bedrock of religion studies today. The two main groups were the Religionists and the Social Scientists. The religionists believed in an idealistic assumption that religion arose to fulfill the need of God. Till today, when people are asked what is religion?, their answer is similar to the beliefs of the Religionists. They believed that religion exists in its own right because man need to connect to God and this happens to be an innate need. Social Scientists oppose this view Religionists are then unable to explain how certain groups and cultures do not bear religious affiliations. Social scientists consist of people from various disciplines of Psychology, Anthropology and Sociology who see the role of religion to be rather non-religious as they strive to examine why humans have the need for it. Anthropologists study religion as a case of culture. According to the social scientist Cliffford Geertz, Religion prevails for socio-political reasons and is present to motivate people and steer them in a particular way. (Deshpande) Psychologists reduce religion to be a psychological need. US psychologist William James distinguishes between the institutional religion and the personal religion which a person has

regardless of culture. Psychologists mostly focus on the personal religion. Leonardo Da Vinci recognizes religion as a need in the parental complex as God appears as a sublimation of parents. (Deshpande) Sociology studies the impact of religion on society and basically unravels the institutionalized version of religion. Sociologist Emile Durkheim identifies religion as the expression of society and believes that religion helps people unite the group or a society as a cohesive unit by bringing about the social regulation of competition. Social orders work because people share the basic categories of thought and moral beliefs and reinforce them through cultural rituals and this is fulfilled by religion. (Deshpande) Adopting all these ideas, modern Comparative religion believes that religion is cultural specific and that all religions are different and the point is not to find similarities and find one source, but to appreciate the differences that are present. Within the extreme views of religion, one being that commonality among religions is as faulty assumption and the other that studies religion as an extract of the cultural matrix, William Paden expressed that religions should be seen as phenomena as opposed to true or false beliefs. There is a need to understand the religions with respect to their contexts and most importantly what are the facts that make them religious. (Deshpande) Comparative religion adopting from all these factors, aims to study the belief part of religion which is the main reason for it to be different from a mere group.

Bibliography Deshpande, S. S. (n.d.).

Paden, W. (1994). Religious Worlds:The Comparitive Study of the Worlds Religions. Beacon Press.

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