Western Europe
Michael Stausberg
Prehistory of the study of religion 16
Searching for the roots 16
‘Religion’: a foundational concept 17
The sacred and the holy 18
The emergence and institutionalization of the study of religion:
the 1870s to the 1990s 19
Dimensions and places of emerging institutionalization 20
Early reference works and textbooks 21
Subsequent institutionalization throughout Europe 21
Fascism and National Socialism 22
Post-World War II developments 23
Scholarly associations and what’s in a name 23
The decline of institutionalized Christendom and a field on the rise 24
Changing constituencies 25
Changing religious background of the scholars 26
Developments in scholarship 27
Post-World War II scholarly journals and reference works 27
Textbooks and historical survey works 28
The great age of the phenomenological treatises 29
Leading figures 29
Religious education 31
The twilight of the phenomenology of religion 31
From structuralism to anthropology 33
Beyond disciplinary boundaries 34
Gender matters 35
Emerging issues and perspectives 36
Acknowledgments 38
References 38