Social Science as a Complement to the Historical Perspective: The Case of New Religions
Scholars trained in different disciplines are likely to consign different importance to descriptive and explanatory variables in their studies of the same social reality. While the historian can construct a picture of new religious movements (NRMs) as developments of traditional religions with littl...
| Published in: | Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Diagonal-Verlag
2012
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| In: |
Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | Scholars trained in different disciplines are likely to consign different importance to descriptive and explanatory variables in their studies of the same social reality. While the historian can construct a picture of new religious movements (NRMs) as developments of traditional religions with little or nothing in common with each other, the sociologist can argue that the very fact that the new religions are new will result in their sharing certain characteristics, a number of which are briefly elaborated. It is suggested that, just as our knowledge of the past can help illuminate contemporary research, there are certain advantages of being able to study people while they are alive, and that some of the findings from such studies might be used for comparative purposes in the study of the new religions of the past. |
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| ISSN: | 2194-508X |
| Contains: | In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/zfr.2006.14.2.121 |