A Religious Understanding of Religion: a Model of the Relationship between Traditions

Abstract

A large part of the academic study of religion consists in its objective investigation of a range of forms of human thought and behavior. This deals with the history of religions; with the interactions between religions, societies and cultures in the past and present; with the historical and literary analyses of religious texts; with the sociology of religious practices and organizations; with the psychology of religious experience and belief. And all such study is, in principle, entirely independent of the question whether or not there is any transcendent Reality of limitless value such as religious people affirm when they speak of God, Brahman, the dharmakāya, the Tao, and so on.¹