28 CHAPTER THREE INTRODUCING RELIGIOUS STUDIES Grace Kao A question :frequently asked of someone pursuing a university degree in religion is "Are you interested in becoming a pastor, priest, or rabbi?" While arguably innocent and sincere, the question nevertheless betrays a radical misunderstanding of the nature of the academic enterprise called "religious studies" or else "the study of religion, " "comparative religion,'' or "the history of religions." This chapter is intended to clarify some popular misconceptions about religious studies as well as to introduce some questions and methodological tools that scholars of religion pursue or employ in their work. IDSTORICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF THE FIELD "Religion [may be] coterminous with hwnan life , while understanding of religion is of rather recent origin " (Capps, 1995, p. ix). Scholars generally cite two major factors that led to the academic study of religion as we know it today. First, the use of distinct tools and methods of inquiry as well as a mindset privileging objectivity and rationality grew in prominence during the modem period French mathematician and philosopher , Ren e Descartes (1596-1650), provides a paradigmatic case of this "Enlightenment mentality " in his quest for a method that would yield indubitable knowledge. A comparable interest in certainty and analytical rigor can be seen in German philosopher Immanuel Kant's (1724-1804) tripartite taxonomy of human inquiry: metaphysics (what can I know?), ethics (what must I do?), and aesthetics (for what should I hope?). Second, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw a significant rise in the interest in the "exotic" as information about foreign cultures poured into Europe as a result of colonialism and military conquest, missionary enterprises, trade , travel, and other forms of exploration. Accordingly, the earliest scholars of religion gave th emse lves the task of translating these non- Western texts and/or registering similarities and differences among this vast data in categories familiar to them , such as belief, myth, and ritual, and by way of the modem analytical framework discussed earlier.vi While interest in religion undoubtedly predates the modem period, such interest was almost always connected to confessional or apologetic goals. More specifically, those who studied religion prior to this time generally focused on their own for the purpose of deepening existential commitment to it (i.e., a catechismal or dogmatic approach) or else scrutinized the religious beliefs and practices of others in order to demonstrate the superiority of their own religion and thus provide a rationale for missionary activity aimed at conversion. In contrast, the study of religion from an academic perspective requires neither a prior devotional attitude nor a dismissive one. As will be shown in later sections, however, not all theorists who have been influential in shaping the field of religious studies have successfully refrained from making normative judgments about the religion(s) they most favor or abhor. Structurally and institutionally, the academic study of religion especially took shape among This chapter appears in An Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies, edited by Michael K. Herndon, 28-39. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 2004.