an introductionin the Western tradition, it is not unusual to find offerings on subjects such
as ritual, myth, feminist approaches to religion, gay issues and religion,
black religion, ecology and religion, theory and method, special topics
such as death or the nature of the self treated in a cross-culturally manner,
and the sociology and psychology of religion. Many contemporary
Religious Studies departments are multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary,
and they thus can offer courses that are typically cross-listed with other
departments within the curriculum.
The history of Religious Studies in Great Britain tends to be a rela-
tively recent phenomenon, with its real birth located in the 1960s when
the expansion of English universities make it possible for the new disci-
pline to develop, even though its emergence is controversial in England.
The Manchester Department of Comparative Religion is the first theo-
logical faculty in Europe to require each student to take at least one
course in the subject. The Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University
includes members that teach non-Western religions, whereas the School
of Oriental Studies at Oxford University gives students an opportunity to
study foreign religious traditions. The first genuine department of
Religious Studies was established at the University of Lancaster, offering
courses in the major religious traditions and various methodological
approaches to the study of religion.
The situation in Scotland has been depicted as initially an export indus-
try with renowned scholars such as James Legge, a sinologist of the nine-
teenth century and John Nicol Farquhar, a historian of Indian religion
(1861–1929), leaving to teach in other countries. There have been, how-
ever, notable exceptions to the Scottish diaspora, such as John and
William Muir, known respectively for the study of Sanskrit and a book
on Muhammad, Richard Bell who worked on the Qur’an, W. Montgomery
Watt who was a scholar of Islam, James Hastings, editor of the
Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, and the Scottish judge Adam
Gifford who established the annual Gifford Lectures at the University of
Edinburgh providing a platform for the ideas of many leading scholars.
The 1960s marked a period of social and educational change and expan-
sion that gave an impetus to Religious Studies, though the 1980s pro-
vided evidence of setbacks due to political and social changes. In 1991,
Religious Studies was supported by the Millar Report by stressing the
educational value of Religious Studies.
If Religious Studies is multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary, can it be
stated that it is truly a discipline? According to Walter Capps, it is a dis-
cipline because it manifests a second-order tradition, which is “a coordi-
nated account of the primary schools of interpretation, methods of
approach, traditions of scholarship, and, most significantly, a shared