The Scientification of Religion: A Historical Study of Discursive Change, 1800–2000

by Kocku von Stuckrad

The enigmatic relation between religion and science still presents a challenge to European societies and to ideas about what it means to be 'modern.' This book argues that European secularism, rather than pushing back religious truth claims, in fact has been religiously productive itself. The institutional establishment of new disciplines in the nineteenth century, such as religious studies, anthropology, psychology, classical studies, and the study of various religious traditions, led to a professionalization of knowledge about religion that in turn attributed new meanings to religion. This attribution of meaning resulted in the emergence of new religious identities and practices. In a dynamic that is closely linked to this discursive change, the natural sciences adopted religious and metaphysical claims and integrated them in their framework of meaning, resulting in a special form of scientific religiosity that has gained much influence in the twentieth century. Applying methods that come from historical discourse analysis, the book demonstrates that religious semantics have been reconfigured in the secular sciences. Ultimately, the scientification of religion perpetuated religious truth claims under conditions of secularism.

Genres: Philosophy

238 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2014

About the author

Kocku von Stuckrad is Full Professor of Religious Studies and since 2013 the Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He has published extensively on topics related to the cultural history of religion in Europe, method and theory in the study of religion, discursive study of religion, the diversity of knowledge systems, esoteric and mystical traditions in European intellectual history, the history of astrology, religion and (philosophies of) nature, as well as on religion and secularity.

Professor von Stuckrad served as President of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture (ISSRNC) and was a founding board member of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE). Currently, he is President of the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion (NGG). He was co-chair of the Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion Group and is currently the co-chair of the Religion in Europe Group of the American Academy of Religion.