Author : Arvind Sharma
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 0791483258
Total Pages : 324 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (914 download)
Book Synopsis Religious Studies and Comparative Methodology by : Arvind Sharma
Download or read book Religious Studies and Comparative Methodology written by Arvind Sharma and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comparison is at the heart of religious studies as a discipline and foundational to the field's methodology. In this book, Arvind Sharma introduces the term "reciprocal illumination" to describe the mutual enlightenment that can occur when a comparison is made between one tradition and another, one method and another, or between a tradition and a method. Developing the concept of reciprocal illumination through historical, phenomenological, and psychological methods, Sharma demonstrates how to use comparison, while avoiding the pitfall of treating it as merely raw material for higher order generalizations.