Naturalism and Protectionism in the Study of Religions
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| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Monograph |
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| Description | The monograph argues that the study of religion has long been split into two competing paradigms: reductive (naturalist) and non-reductive (protectionist). While the naturalistic approach seems to run the risk of explaining religious phenomena away, the protectionist approach appears to risk falling short of the methodological standards of modern science. The author uses primary source material from Greek and Latin sources to show that both competing paradigms are traceable to Presocratic philosophy and early Christian literature: Naturalists are distant heirs, not only of the French Enlightenment, but also of the Ionian one, and protectionists owe much of their arguments and strategies, not only to Luther and the Reformation but to the earliest Christian literature. |
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