The Curious Case of the Phenomenology of Religion INDREK PEEDU Abstract Phenomenology of religion as a research project has fallen out of favour in the past few decades. Yet discussions about the fea- sibility and relevance of the phenomenological approach continue. In one way or another most of the current approaches in the study of religion rely on the disciplinary background of the earlier phe- nomenologies. This article analyses a couple of the more recent pro- posals that have reconsidered the relevance of the phenomenological approach, aiming to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of these proposals in relation to the goals of the study of religion. Based on this review and analysis of current discussions I argue in the second half of my article that the phenomenology of religion can still serve as an important part of the study of religion and avoid criticisms it previously invited if it is remodelled into an endeavour of ‘typologi- cal analysis’ in the sense explained in the second half of this article. Keywords phenomenology of religion, religious studies, typological analysis, comparison, conceptual tools In one way or another all contemporary approaches to the study of re- ligion relate to the phenomenology of religion. The most prevalent way is certainly conceptual: many (if not most) of the conceptual tools, their meanings and their supposed universality have been taken from the ty- pological and categorical distinctions of earlier generalized phenomenol- ogies. This is apparent from postmodernist approaches, which strongly oppose the phenomenology of religion, to the modern cognitive study of religion that aims to analyse and explain religion as a general phenom- enon by highlighting many of the same characteristics that earlier were central to the phenomenologies of religion. Aside from conceptual tools, there is also the understanding that one should maintain neutrality in