List of religion scholars
Encyclopedia
Scholars of religious studies
Religious studies
Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...
- Edwin David AponteEdwin David AponteEdwin David Aponte is a Latino cultural historian, religious studies scholar, and contributor in the on-going development of U.S. Hispanic theology....
- Karen ArmstrongKaren ArmstrongKaren Armstrong FRSL , is a British author and commentator who is the author of twelve books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic nun, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical faith...
, author of A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. - Miguel Asín Palacios, Spanish Arabist, work on the mutual influence between Christianity & Islam.
- Robert Baker AitkenRobert Baker AitkenRobert Baker Dairyu Chotan Aitken Roshi was a Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He co-founded the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in 1959...
, author of numerous academic books on Zen Buddhism - Herbert BergHerbert BergHerbert Berg, a scholar of religion, was trained at the University of Toronto's Centre for the Study of Religion in the late 1980s and early 1990s; he is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and is the interim Director of the...
, scholar of Islamic origins - Peter BergerPeter L. BergerPeter Ludwig Berger is an Austrian-born American sociologist well known for his work, co-authored with Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge .-Biography:...
, author of The Sacred Canopy - Pascal BoyerPascal BoyerPascal Boyer is a French anthropologist, and Henry Luce Professor of Individual and Collective Memory at Washington University in St. Louis.He is a Guggenheim Fellow.-Work:...
, author of Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought - Rudolf BultmannRudolf BultmannRudolf Karl Bultmann was a German theologian of Lutheran background, who was for three decades professor of New Testament studies at the University of Marburg...
- John CorriganJohn CorriganJohn Corrigan is a religion scholar, known for being the author of a number of books on religion. He currently is the Lucius Moody Bristol Distinguished Professor of Religion and Professor of History at Florida State University. He is a leader in the academic study of religion and emotion and in...
, co-author of Religion in America, editor of the "Chicago History of American Religion" book series (University of Chicago Press) - Frank M. Cross, emeritus professor Harvard Divinity School, interpreter of the Dead Sea ScrollsDead Sea scrollsThe Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
- Ioan P. CulianuIoan P. CulianuIoan Petru Culianu or Couliano was a Romanian historian of religion, culture, and ideas, a philosopher and political essayist, and a short story writer...
, author of The HarperCollins Concise Guide to World Religions and Out of This World - Miguel A. De La TorreMiguel A. De La TorreMiguel A. De La Torre is a professor of Social Ethics and Latino/a Studies at Iliff School of Theology, a religious scholar, author, and an ordained minister.-Biography:...
- Wendy DonigerWendy DonigerWendy Doniger is an American Indologist and Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School, the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the Committee on Social Thought...
(formerly published as Wendy O'Flaherty) is a leading researcher in HinduismHinduismHinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
among other topics on religion. - Émile DurkheimÉmile DurkheimDavid Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist. He formally established the academic discipline and, with Karl Marx and Max Weber, is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern social science and father of sociology.Much of Durkheim's work was concerned with how societies could maintain...
, author of The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, a seminal work on sociology of religion - Diana L. EckDiana L. EckDiana L. Eck is Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies, as well as a Master of Lowell House and the Director of The Pluralism Project, at Harvard University...
- Mircea EliadeMircea EliadeMircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...
, author of The SacredSacredHoliness, or sanctity, is in general the state of being holy or sacred...
and the Profane - Steven EnglerSteven EnglerSteven Joseph Engler is a Canadian scholar of religion. He currently is associate professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Canada...
- Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
- James George Frazer, author of The Golden BoughThe Golden BoughThe Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer . It first was published in two volumes in 1890; the third edition, published 1906–15, comprised twelve volumes...
- Sigmund FreudSigmund FreudSigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
, author of Totem and TabooTotem and TabooTotem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics is a book by Sigmund Freud published in German in 1913 under the title Totem und Tabu: Einige Übereinstimmungen im Seelenleben der Wilden und der Neurotiker...
, The Future of an Illusion, and Moses and MonotheismMoses and MonotheismMoses and Monotheism, 1939 by Sigmund Freud, ISBN 978-0394700144 is a book where Freud hypothesizes that Moses was not Jewish, but actually born into Ancient Egyptian nobility and was perhaps a follower of Akhenaten, an ancient Egyptian monotheist, or perhaps Akhenaten himself... - Rajmohan GandhiRajmohan GandhiRajmohan Gandhi is a biographer and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and a research professor at the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.Gandhi's maternal grandfather was C...
, author of Revenge and Reconciliation - Arnold van GennepArnold van GennepArnold van Gennep was a noted French ethnographer and folklorist.-Biography:He was born in Ludwigsburg, Kingdom of Württemberg...
- Anthony GiddensAnthony GiddensAnthony Giddens, Baron Giddens is a British sociologist who is known for his theory of structuration and his holistic view of modern societies. He is considered to be one of the most prominent modern contributors in the field of sociology, the author of at least 34 books, published in at least 29...
- René GirardRené GirardRené Girard is a French historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science. His work belongs to the tradition of anthropological philosophy...
, whose theological works include Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World - Richard GombrichRichard GombrichRichard Francis Gombrich is a British Indologist and scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli, and Buddhist Studies. He acted as the Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford from 1976 to 2004. He is currently Founder-President of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies...
- Justo GonzalezJusto GonzalezJusto L. González is a Cuban-American Methodist historian, theologian, a prolific author, and an influential contributor in the development of Latino/Latina [Hispanic] theology.-Education:...
, author of The Story of Christianity and a leading figure in Hispanic theology - Wouter HanegraaffWouter HanegraaffWouter Jacobus Hanegraaff is full professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy and related currents at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands...
, author of New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought - Nathan O. HatchNathan O. HatchNathan O. Hatch is president of Wake Forest University, USA, having been officially installed on October 20, 2005.-Biography:Born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Hatch graduated summa cum laude from Wheaton College in Illinois and earned his master's and doctoral degrees from Washington...
, author of "The Democratization of American Christianity" - Friedrich HeilerFriedrich HeilerFriedrich Heiler was a German theologian and historian of religion.Heiler came from a Roman Catholic family...
- Steven HeineSteven HeineSteven Heine, Ph.D., is a Professor of Religion and History as well as Director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Florida International University . He specializes in East Asian and comparative religions, Japanese Buddhism and medieval intellectual history, Buddhist studies, and religion and...
, scholar of East Asian Buddhism, especially ZenZenZen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
and DogenDogenDōgen Zenji was a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher born in Kyōto, and the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan after travelling to China and training under the Chinese Caodong lineage there... - Zora Neale HurstonZora Neale HurstonZora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance...
, author of Mules and Men Hoodoo in American - Ada Maria Isasi-DiazAda Maria Isasi-DiazAda María Isasi-Díaz is professor emerita of ethics and theology at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. As a Hispanic theologian, she is an innovator of Hispanic theology in general and specifically of Mujerista theology...
- William JamesWilliam JamesWilliam James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
, author of The Varieties of Religious ExperienceThe Varieties of Religious ExperienceThe Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature is a book by the Harvard University psychologist and philosopher William James that comprises his edited Gifford Lectures on "Natural Theology" delivered at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland between 1901 and 1902.These lectures... - Grace Jantzen
- Carl G. Jung
- Klaus Klostermaier
- Hans KüngHans KüngHans Küng is a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and prolific author. Since 1995 he has been President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic . Küng is "a Catholic priest in good standing", but the Vatican has rescinded his authority to teach Catholic theology...
, Catholic theologian, author of Tracing the Way. Spiritual Dimensions of the World Religions - Gerardus van der LeeuwGerardus van der LeeuwGerardus van der Leeuw was a Dutch historian and philosopher of religion.He is best known for his work Religion in Essence and Manifestation: A Study in Phenomenology, an application of philosophical phenomenology to religion...
- Peggy LevittPeggy LevittPeggy Levitt is Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Wellesley College. Peggy specializes in religious transnationalism, the immigrant experience, the migration and development nexus, and economic, political and cultural globalization.- Biography :Peggy Levitt is an...
- Bruce LincolnBruce LincolnBruce Lincoln is Caroline E. Haskell Professor of the History of Religions in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.For many years his primary scholarly concern was the study of Indo-European religion, where his work came to criticize the ideological presuppositions of research on...
(University of ChicagoUniversity of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
), author of Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11, Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship and Discourse and the Construction in Society - Bronislaw Kaspar Malinowski
- Martin E. MartyMartin E. MartyMartin Emil Marty is an American Lutheran religious scholar who has written extensively on 19th century and 20th century American religion. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1956, and served as a Lutheran pastor from 1952 to 1962 in the suburbs of Chicago...
(University of ChicagoUniversity of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
), author of the series Modern American Religion, editor of The Fundamentalism Project - John MacquarrieJohn MacquarrieJohn Macquarrie FBA TD was a Scottish theologian and philosopher, the author of Principles of Christian Theology and Jesus Christ in Modern Thought...
Christian Existentialist and Systematic Theologian - Josef W. MeriJosef W. MeriJosef Waleed Meri is a leading specialist in Islam in the pre-modern period, Islamic culture, social history, and interfaith relations. He is Ariane de Rothschild Academic Director in Muslim-Jewish Relations at The Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations , The Woolf Institute of Abrahamic...
- George Foot MooreGeorge Foot MooreGeorge Foot Moore He graduated from Yale University in 1872, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. He was awarded the highest theological qualifiction – the D.D....
, scholar and theologian, author of History of Religions (two wolumes - 1914, 1919) and Judaism (two volumes, 1927) - Maerian MorrisMaerian MorrisMaerian Morris is a Neopagan author, scholar, digital and performance artist, editor, and priestess. She edited Green Egg Magazine from 1993 to 2001, is a former High Priestess of The Church of All Worlds, and is the founder of Westernesste, a modern Neopagan church, and The Sidhevairs, a digital...
, scholar of neopaganismNeopaganismNeopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...
, Hellenic Reconstructionism, comparative religions, mythopoeia, editor of "Green EggGreen EggGreen Egg is a Neopagan magazine published by the Church of All Worlds from 1968 through 1976 and 1988 through 2000, and restarted in 2007. It was created and edited for most of its existence by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart....
" - Friedrich Max Müller, editor of Sacred Books of the EastSacred Books of the EastThe Sacred Books of the East is a monumental 50-volume set of English translations of Asian religious writings, edited by Max Müller and published by the Oxford University Press between 1879 and 1910...
- Rudolf OttoRudolf OttoRudolf Otto was an eminent German Lutheran theologian and scholar of comparative religion.-Life:Born in Peine near Hanover, Otto attended the Gymnasium Andreanum in Hildesheim and studied at the universities of Erlangen and Göttingen, where he wrote his dissertation on Martin Luther's...
, author of The Idea of the Holy - Elaine PagelsElaine PagelsElaine Pagels, née Hiesey , is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she is best known for her studies and writing on the Gnostic Gospels...
, author of The Gnostic Gospels - Geoffrey ParrinderGeoffrey ParrinderGeoffrey Parrinder , was a professor of comparative religion at King's College London, Methodist minister, and author of over thirty books...
former professor at King's College LondonKing's College LondonKing's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
and author of What World Religions Teach Us (1968) - F. E. Peters, Professor at New York UniversityNew York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
and author of numerous books on Christianity, Judaism and Islam - Roy RappaportRoy RappaportRoy A. Rappaport was a distinguished anthropologist known for his contributions to the anthropological study of ritual and to ecological anthropology.-Biography:...
- Olivier Roy
- Wilhelm SchmidtWilhelm SchmidtWilhelm Schmidt was an Austrian linguist, anthropologist, and ethnologist.Wilhelm Schmidt was born in Hörde, Germany in 1868. He entered the Society of the Divine Word in 1890 and was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1892. He studied linguistics at the universities of Berlin and...
- Arvind SharmaArvind SharmaArvind Sharma is the Birks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University. Sharma's works focus on comparative religion, Hinduism, and the role of women in religion. Some of his more famous works include Our Religions and Women in World Religions...
, author of Women in World Religions - Christian Smith, author of Soul Searching: the Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers
- Huston SmithHuston SmithHuston Cummings Smith is a religious studies scholar in the United States. His book The World's Religions remains a popular introduction to comparative religion.-Education:...
, author of The World's Religions - Jonathan Z. SmithJonathan Z. SmithJonathan Zittell Smith is a historian of religions. His research includes the theory of ritual, Hellenistic religions, Māori cults in the 19th century, and the mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana...
(University of Chicago), author of Map is Not Territory; Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown and To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual - Wilfred Cantwell SmithWilfred Cantwell SmithWilfred Cantwell Smith was a Canadian professor of comparative religion who from 1964-1973 was director of Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions. The Harvard Gazette characterized him as one of the field's most influential figures of the past century...
- William Robertson SmithWilliam Robertson SmithWilliam Robertson Smith was a Scottish orientalist, Old Testament scholar, professor of divinity, and minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He was an editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica and contributor to the Encyclopaedia Biblica...
, Scottish theologian, early work in the "higher criticism" of the Bible. - Ninian SmartNinian SmartProfessor Roderick Ninian Smart was a Scottish writer and university educator. He was a pioneer in the field of secular religious studies...
, author of Dimensions of the Sacred - Nathan SöderblomNathan SöderblomLars Olof Jonathan Söderblom was a Swedish clergyman, Archbishop of Uppsala in the Church of Sweden, and recipient of the 1930 Nobel Peace Prize...
- Rodney StarkRodney StarkRodney Stark is an American sociologist of religion. He grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota in a Lutheran family. He spent time in the U.S. Army and worked as a journalist before pursuing graduate studies at The University of California, Berkeley...
- Michael StausbergMichael StausbergMichael Stausberg is a Professor in Religious Studies He was born in Köln, Germany, April 28, 1966. He studied in Bonn, Tübingen, Bergen and Rome. He is now resident in Bergen, Norway.-Academic career:...
- John Shelby SpongJohn Shelby SpongJohn Shelby "Jack" Spong is a retired American bishop of the Episcopal Church. He was formerly the Bishop of Newark . He is a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author...
, author The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love and other works - Einar ThomassenEinar ThomassenEinar Thomassen is a Norwegian Professor in Religious Studies at the University of Bergen. He also has a position as an adjunct professor at The University of Aarhus....
- Toulmin, JoshuaJoshua ToulminJoshua Toulmin of Taunton, England was a noted theologian and a serial Dissenting minister of Presbyterian , Baptist , and then Unitarian congregations...
(1740-1815), English radical Dissenting minister - Edward Burnett TylorEdward Burnett TylorSir Edward Burnett Tylor , was an English anthropologist.Tylor is representative of cultural evolutionism. In his works Primitive Culture and Anthropology, he defined the context of the scientific study of anthropology, based on the evolutionary theories of Charles Lyell...
- Joachim WachJoachim WachJoachim Ernst Adolphe Felix Wach was a German religious scholar from Chemnitz, Kingdom of Saxony, who emphasised a distinction between the history of religion and the philosophy of religion....
- James WebbJames WebbJames Webb, Jim Webb or Jimmy Webb may refer to:Public service*James B. Webb, known as J. B. Webb , influential in shaping Australia's international relations and aid during the 1950s, 60s and 70s*James E...
, author of The Occult Underground and The Harmonious Circle. - Max WeberMax WeberKarl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself...
- Christian K. WedemeyerChristian K. WedemeyerChristian Konrad Wedemeyer, FRAS is an American scholar and political and social activist. He is Associate Professor of the History of Religions at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, and an associate member of the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations...
- Zakir NaikZakir NaikZakir Abdul Karim Naik is an Indian public speaker on the subject of Islam and comparative religion. He is the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation , a non-profit organization that owns the Peace TV channel based in Dubai, UAE. He is sometimes referred to as a televangelist...
- Edmond La Beaume CherbonnierEdmond La Beaume CherbonnierThe Rev. Dr. Edmond La Beaume Cherbonnier is an American scholar in the field of religious studies, Professor of Religion, at Trinity College, and an Episcopal Church deacon...
, professor and scholar, author of Hardness of Heart (1955)