Autor: Marsden, Georg M.

Buch: The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship

Titel: The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship

Stichwort: Literatur, parallele Entwicklung im Bereich von Religion und Literatur

Kurzinhalt: Legitimation der Literatur by technical methodologies, often evidenced by esoteric terminology

Textausschnitt: During the 1960s and the 1970s the field of religion continued to grow, but in order to establish its academic credibility, it was increasingly marked by an emphasis on the scientific study of religion and decreasingly seen as a haven in the universities, or even in mainstream church-related colleges, for religious perspectives. The leaders in the field of religious studies now more often presented it as analogous to the social sciences rather than to the uplifting humanities, such as literature. The transformation in religious studies since the early 1960s had some parallels in the field of literature. Literature was no longer regarded first of all as uplifting, as it had been in the 1950s, but rather became a field whose academic status was legitimated by technical methodologies, often evidenced by esoteric terminology. Segments of religious studies followed similar paths, transforming themselves into cultural study and the comparative studies of the history of religions.