Talk:Religious studies
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Visit http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religionswissenschaft, where you can read the German article about religious studies, which is currently under construction. Maybe there is someone who could translate the article into perfect English. --Mephisto-DE 17:25, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)
Other than adding information on the history of Religionswissenschaft as a university department in European universities, I see nothing in the German article that is not already covered in the English religion article. Unless Britain and other English speaking countries follow the continental lead, is there any reason to expand this stub? If I were to expand it, I simply would add that this article is a history of the development of "Religious science" departments at many European universities, then make links to the German and any other language article that describes it in greater detail.
In U.S. universities, it is still part of philosophy, and I think rightly so.
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As a Religious Studies major and enthusiast, I can definitely say that Religious Studies is, in most institutions, its own department and discipline. (In a minority of U.S. universities, it is under the Philosophy or History departments. Sometimes it is called the Department of Religion.) Religious Studies is distinct from Theology or Biblical Studies.
"...is there any reason to expand this stub? If I were to expand it, I simply would add that this article is a history of the development of "Religious science" departments..."
Yes we should expand it! Religious Studies, although a multi-disciplinary field of study, is an academic field with its own history, methodology, intellectual figures, etc. The history of Religious Studies as a discipline definitely deserves its own article.
The main difficulty in doing this is the fact that there are very few sources, that I can find at least, detailing the development of Religious Studies as a discipline. One of the reasons for this may very well be that it is relatively young, having been developed in the mid-20th century.
- Dws 20:39, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)