# Comparative Religion

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Category: Religion
Slides: 31
Updated: 2026-05-15T22:19:10.132Z
Tags: religion, comparative

## Summary

"He who knows one, knows none." Friedrich Max Müller's phrase, lifted from Goethe and applied to religions, became the founding aphorism of comparative religion in the 1870s. To understand any single tradition you have to compare it with others, because what looks like the essence of your own from inside is just one variant from outside. Key sections include: Comparative Religion.; Opening The science of religion.; Chapter I What religion is.; Chapter II Friedrich Max Müller.; Chapter III The anthropological line.; Chapter IV Rudolf Otto and the holy.; Chapter V Mircea Eliade.; Chapter VI Ninian Smart's seven dimensions.; Chapter VII Phenomenology of religion.; Chapter VIII William James and religious experience..

## Slide Outline

1. Comparative Religion.
2. Opening The science of religion.
3. Chapter I What religion is.
4. Chapter II Friedrich Max Müller.
5. Chapter III The anthropological line.
6. Chapter IV Rudolf Otto and the holy.
7. Chapter V Mircea Eliade.
8. Chapter VI Ninian Smart's seven dimensions.
9. Chapter VII Phenomenology of religion.
10. Chapter VIII William James and religious experience.
11. Chapter IX Max Weber and religious sociology.
12. Chapter X The "world religions" framework.
13. Chapter XI Tomoko Masuzawa's critique.
14. Chapter XII Jonathan Z. Smith.
15. Chapter XIII Talal Asad and the genealogy of "religion."
16. Chapter XIV Clifford Geertz and thick description.
17. Chapter XV The cognitive turn.
18. Chapter XVI Wach, Bellah, and types of religious community.
19. Chapter XVII The contemporary methods.
20. Chapter XVIII The insider/outsider problem.
21. Chapter XIX Theologies of religious pluralism.
22. Chapter XX New religious movements.
23. Chapter XXI Lived religion.
24. Chapter XXII Secularisation and its critics.
25. Chapter XXIII The teaching tradition.
26. Chapter XXIV Religion and violence.
27. Chapter XXV Watch & read.
28. Chapter XXVI The shelf.
29. Chapter XXVII Why it still matters.
30. Chapter XXVIII The next decade.
31. The end of the deck.

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