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Explanations of Religion as a Part of and Problem for Religious Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Martin Prozesky
Martin Prozesky
Affiliation:
Department of Religious Studies, University of Natal
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Extract

In the present context the word ‘explanation’ is taken to mean an identification of the factors which would disclose to us why a phenomenon exists and/or functions as it does, and it is my purpose in this paper to do three things: firstly to argue that explanation as just defined is the supreme goal to which the academic study of religion should direct its investigations; secondly to offer what I consider the most illuminating method of explanation in this context; and thirdly to consider certain problems which arise from that method for our subject as presently conducted. As such, the present essay is also a commentary on and defence of the central methodological ploy in my recent book, Religion and Ultimate Well-Being: An Explanatory Theory (1984), though it can stand on its own quite independently of the book.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , September 1988 , pp. 303 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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