The Academic Study of Religion Explained

Religious studies draws inspiration from multiple academic disciplines: sociology, anthropology, history, neuroscience, biology, psychology, political science..so no matter what you're interested in, you can probably find a home in religious studies!

Twitter: @andrewmarkhenry

Special thanks to another friend and colleague, John Balch, for help describing the scientific study of religion. Follow him on Twitter at @PerplexedMonist

[thebonfireofgains]

Sir I am so glad I found your channel. I found the motivation to do my master's thesis for political science on religious literacy and its effect on perception and political behavior. Been meaning to find a way to intersect my major with my interest in religious studies. So thank you! :D

[helenaandrzejewska]

I'm in my first year of studying Religious Science and going through your videos before my exam in Religious Theories is so helpful, I can not thank you enough! There really should be more channels like this out there, but I'm glad that at least you are around, providing such quality content.

[henryzhang]

Thank you so much for making this video -- it is extremely useful for a person contemplating a doctoral degree in religious studies!

[lshulman]

This is great! Another that I will add to the videos I include for my own online class: introduction to the study of religion.
BTW, I like the simple, abstract background in this video. Avoids distractions and flows well when you switch between your own image and other images - stable background gives better continuity throughout the video.

[mayms]

All religions are made in earth.
‏I left Islam when I read the Qur’an and the biography of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam
‏Now I live in Iraq and I can't talk about it even with my family I might be killed, and society will reject me, it's very difficult for me
‏and many Arabs leave Islam every day, but they cannot announce that because they may be killed and of course society rejects them.

[eduardoreyes]

As always an incredible and informative video! Keep it up and I can't wait to see what's next.

[elizabethkleine]

I have actually been pretty interested in Religious Studies for awhile but Philosophy of Religion really cemented it.

[varana]

In addition to the content, the looks of this video are really great! :)

[victorvanboxtel]

@ReligionForBreakfast Being a religion science student in The Netherlands I always find myself explaining why I study religion science. They always assume I am religious myself. It's funny the first 10 times but gets slightly annoying. Keep up the great video's I used your video on Freud for a exam (philosophy of religion). Thanks

[johnnydrydenjr]

As usual, very good video. However, something on the phenomenology of religion as a criticism of the tendency toward reductionism and explanation that you mention would have been helpful.

[Notorax]

Very interesting indeed! Funny enough I always found it odd that the english language doesn't really have a separate 'job title' for scholars of religious studies; in Sweden we have: 'religionsvetare' and 'religionshistoriker' as the job title for scholars of religion and historians of religion. Very good video as allways!

[ButterOyama]

Hey, love your videos. Can you recommend a channel that focuses on Shintoism, Buddhism, and/or Greek mythology from an academic perspective?

[Elsenoromniano]

I know this question comes pretty late and that it probably won't get answered, but in the slim chance that it is I am going to make, since i discovered you channel recentely (via your religion in Zelda video, curiously) and I'm frankly in love with it .

As someone very interested in the history and practice of religion and as an applied linguist by formation, would you know some scholar who approaches it from the perspective of linguistics. To clarify, I know that Felicitas Goodman and J. Samarin made some studies on the phonetic and prosodic characteristics of glossolalia (or "speaking in tongues"), but I was wondering if any similar studies were made on the characteristic (be it syntactic, lexic or prosodic) of ritualistic speech, or the influence of religious differences on the formation or preservation of language varieties (Pensylvanian Dutch comes immidiately to my mind, although that would be more sociology of language than linguistics, I guess).

[ultimusprimus]

So many other fields at play in religion it’s wild

[timothymclean]

And of course, then you have the methods of study some religions create to study themselves, generally called "theology". It is...somewhat unclear how useful these are in helping people understand religion, aside from letting outsiders understand that particular religion better.

[Alkemisti]

I have sometimes used the word 'threskiology' (θρησκεία).

[spiritualanarchist]

Don't drink & discuss religion kids ! the more one studies religion, the more angry religious people get when you try to tell them something factual in a discussion ..;)).

[shadbakht]

Does it also encompass the philosophy of religion?

[ErosAnteros]

Heyhey! What are your thoughts on the classical myth models? Like the dying and rising god, the dismembered sacrificial creator? Do you think that they are anachronistic or simplistic?

[legoracers]

This may interest you islam& science by Dr zagloul Najar. Quran & modern science by Dr Zakir Naik. 😊