The Relation Between Religion and Religious Studies

FAIN: FR-10120-78

Dale R. Bengston
Southern Illinois University (Carbondale, IL 62901-4302)

The purpose of the project is to clarify the issues on the relationship between religion and religious studies by focusing, first, on the nature of the new religious consciousness, and, secondly, on the role of the participant-observer in religious studies. Since the 1960s, the new emerging religious consciousness has had profound effects on the study of religion. This will be a long-range project concerning the ever-present need for religious studies to seek self-understanding as an intellectual discipline within the humanities.