Hvad religion er, fortæller historien os

Resumé

Against Rudolf Otto and his like, the article insists that there is not such thing as the essence of religion that can be grasped only by people equipped with some mysterious sort of religious intuition. Religion can only be studied as religions, i.e. in the different forms it assumes in various historical circumstances. Fundamentally the study of religion therefore must be a historical discipline and accordingly it can learn a lot from the new insights that have been won in history since the 1960s. The historical anthropology of the French Annales-school is mentioned, but the main focus of the article is on the impulses that can be found in the socalled "historische Sozialwissenschaft" developed by German historians. It is especially underlined that the theoretical discussions of this school have presented clues to old problems in the humanities, for instance the relation - so important in the history of the study of religion - between "Verstehen" and "Erklären".

The article is a Danish translation of a lesson given by professor rudolph in German at a conference on "Methodology in the Study of Religion", held at the University of Aarhus in June 1992.