Rajnarayan Basu and His “Science of Religion”

Autor(en)

Julian Strube

Abstrakt

This article explores the genealogy of the "science of religion" developed by the Bengali intellectual Rajnarayan Basu (1826-1899). One of my central aims is to demonstrate that a "science of religion," or Religionswissenschaft in the sense of Friedrich Max Muller, has emerged within a global context that was actively shaped by "non-Western" actors. To this end, I will focus on exchanges between the Indian reform movement of the Brahmo Samaj, Christian Unitarians, Transcendentalists, orientalist scholars, and members of the Theosophical Society. All these actors were concerned with the origin of religion, its modern meaning, and its function in shaping the future of society. Building on an analysis of the global exchanges revolving around these issues, special attention is paid to the inherent tensions between religious universalism and a nationalist insistence on "true religion," which directly pertains to contested demarcations between reform and revival, or modernity and tradition.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Religionswissenschaft

Journal

Method and Theory in the Study of Religion

Band

33

Seiten

289-320

Anzahl der Seiten

32

ISSN

0943-3058

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341519

Publikationsdatum

2021

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

603909 Religionswissenschaft, 601023 Globalgeschichte

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Religious studies

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/rajnarayan-basu-and-his-science-of-religion(0d548ab2-6598-4964-9222-48417fba49be).html