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Retrospect and Prospect in Scottish Study of Religions: Tension of Phenomenology, Reductionism, and Cultural Studies

SHIN AHN 1

1배재대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This essay explores three types of religious studies (RS) by examining current academic trends and key faculty members of the departments of religious studies in four major Scottish Universities: Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Stirling. First, mentioning the tension between RS and theology, I analyze two contrasting historiographies of the British Academy and the British Association of Study of Religions. The former locates RS at the margin of theological studies, whereas the latter emphasizes the autonomous status of RS. Second, I summarize the past contributions of Scottish RS scholars such as F. McLennan, W. R. Smith, J. Frazer, A. Lang, J. Legge, J. N. Farquhr, W. M. Watt, and D. B. MacDonald. It should be noted that it was not in Scotland but outside Scotland that they played an important role in making creative ideas for RS. Third, the RS in Edinburgh started from its theological faculty and evolved into a major field under the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Religionism and globalism are two main characteristics of the RS in Edinburgh, which applies phenomenological and theological approaches to the study of religion. After the closure in the late 1980s, the renewed RS in Aberdeen and Glasgow uses the reductive approaches to the study of religion, including social science and theology. Without th influence of confessing theology, the RS in Stirling debunks the Western concept of religion and proposes the contextual and cultural studies based on field works. In conclusion, these three types of RS in Scotland will develope better models for the study of religious phenomena on their own terms.

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