The Threefold Method of Studying Religion

Abstract

This paper is devoted to methodological way of research in religious studies, which could unite three different methods: first, cognitive science of religion (CSR), second, Marxist historical materialism, third, method of conceptual history. The CSR deals with data of social and evolutionary psychology describing social processes primarily by means of natural sciences. The Marxist approach, in its turn, points out specific human traits of social interaction. In this context, the Marxism could analyze religion-state and church-state relations as a product of complicated process of production, exchange, distribution and consumption of material goods resp. as a product of class inequality and struggle. The conceptual history (in R. Koselleck’s understanding) covers a particular but nevertheless important field of building the intellectual (philosophical, political, theological) worldview which reversely influences the whole religious community changing its cultural identity. Each method does not contradict others, however, each of them explains different aspects of religious life. The CSR explains the stability of the religious tradition, Marxism – its social roots and drive belts, while the history of concepts deals with the worldview evolution of an intellectual upper class, which produces theologies. The paper is provided with an example of applying the proposed synthesis to philosophy of religion of the German Idealism.