Introduction to the Study of Religions: Subject Matter and Approaches

Author(s)

An adoption and partial rewrite by Tim Jensen and Karna Kjeldsen of an English draft version of an introduction to Horisont - a textbook for the Danish upper-secondary school RE, edited by Associate Professors Annika Hvithamar and Tim Jensen, and Upper-Secondary School teachers Allan Ahle and Lene Niebuhr, published by Gyldendal, Copenhagen 2013. The original introduction was written by Annika Hvithamar and Tim Jensen.

Department of the study of religion, University of Southern Denmark

Thanks are extended to the publisher, Gyldendal, as well as to our upper-secondary school IERS partner, Nyborg Gymnasium, for allowing us to use the material and the draft English translation as the basis for this adoption as well for the assistance in the production of this module

Abstract

This module thematises the concept of religion and gives an introduction to the history of the scientific study of religions and some of the theoretical and methodological approaches used in the scientific study of religions. In the different tasks you can try to use some of these approaches and also analyse and discuss the concept of religion and how it is used in society.