Religious Studies

Religious studies emerged in the nineteenth century, when scientific and historical analysis of the Bible has flourished, and Hindu and Buddhist texts were first being translated into European languages. Early influential scholars included Friedrich Max Muller, in England, and Cornelius P. Thiele, in the Netherlands. Today the practice of religious studies scholars around the world. In the first years of its existence it was known as comparative religion or the science of religion, and in the United States, there are those who now know the area well as the history of religion (associated with methodological tradition dates back to the University of Chicago in general and, in particular, Mircea Eliade, since the late 1950's until the end of 1980).