Comparative Religion Whither and Why

Smith starts by explaining development of the study of religion. Tracing back to when explorers from the East moved and interacted with different religions practiced by different people. He classifies the study of religion into two. The first part is before the world war when information about religions as collected and stored together systematically. The second and final phase is the current situation where in depth analysis of the data collected is done. " The history of religions: Essays in methodology (1959): 31-58. Approaches to Islam in religious studies Introduction In the article Approaches to Islam in Religious Studies, Fazlur Rahman seeks to elaborate how outsiders (non-Muslims) can effectively study Islamic religion without conflicts on their findings and observations. Fazlur’s arguments are based on Abdul Rauf’s protest to no-Muslims studying Islamic where he stated that “If need be, they can study it with fairness, but they may not study the nature and origin of Islam, for they can never truly understand it” (Rahman 189) With regard to Rauf’s statement, Fazlur clarifies this argument by stating that for a scholar to effectively study any religion, it is important that they rule out any prejudice.