불교학과 종교학

The Buddhist Studies and the Science of Religion

&nbsp;&nbsp;Since the “science of religion” (Religionswissenschaft) emerged in the mid nineteenth century as a new approach to the study of religions, it has wrestled with the issue of its identity as an academic field. Its relation to the scholarly traditions within particular religions has been one of the hot methodological issues at hand. Each scholarly tradition within a particular religion―for example, Christian theology, Buddhology, and so forth―had been regarded as the champion of scholarly approach to that particular religion, and thus enjoyed corresponding privilege in religious academia. The “science of religion” scholars took much effort to articulate their methodology to establish it as a secular academic field.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The two scholarly camps of religious academia, however, cannot be separate from each other completely. They share the fields of their studies with each other, i.e., the religion(s) of mankind, although a scholarly tradition within a particular religion focuses on its own religion while science of religion is characterized by its interest in plural religions and comparative studies. Furthermore, the latter owes much to the former for its materials.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The relation between a science of religion scholar who is engaged in studies of a particular religious tradition and the scholarly tradition within that particular religion itself is a hot issue at hand. We see many cases of tension and even hostility between them. The history of the science of religion is actually full of the stories of those cases. It however would hinder development and progress of the works of both camps if they keep hostility to each other and turn their backs to the mutual benefit that their cooperation would bring to them. The same applies to the relation between the science of religion scholars who deal with the topics regarding Buddhism and the scholars of traditional Buddhist studies. The former can take advantage of the extensive and detailed works of the latter, and the latter of the former’s up-to-date methodology and perspectives as well as their insights into new research topics.