COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RELIGION.

By Enyioma E. Nwosu PhD, Lecturer, Department of Religious & Cultural Studies.

INTRODUCTION
The world’s many religious persuasions of humanity are presented through Comparative
study of religion. A study of religion that focuses on describing the religions at their face
value and not to harshly criticize or evaluate them. That is, there exists more than one religion
to compare. More so in almost all Universities, there are departments of religion as well as
students for such study. In the University of Calabar Nigeria, there is the Department of
Religious and Cultural Studies. It is a prominent part of the Faculty of Arts. This academic
discipline is therein an enjoyable one. Though, in the present day Nigeria as observed Ejizu
(2012), ‘the pendulum in the national education policy has shifted (from education, the Arts
and Humanities) to the Sciences (natural and applied including medicine and technology)’. It
also has to be recalled that the times now record increase thought and tilt towards secularism
and the claim that religion, no matter what type, is no longer needed. Yet many find it
worthwhile to be religious as well have religious studies as academic discipline. This thesis
introduces her intention to research religion, from attacks on religion, even on the object of
worship, up to its comparative study. However, it encourages the study through a systematic
and comparative analysis of religion not minding modernism.

The contemporary is an age of science and technology embodied in modernism. Science and
religion are important to many for which, Albert Einstein is quoted to have observed that,
‘science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind’ (1990). The
phenomenon religion, has many attacks especially in the modern times. For instance the
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture, Friedrich Nietzche (1844-1900)
is thought of as one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. His observation that “God
is dead,” remains outstanding in religious reflections. Probably for the thought that, almost
every religion of the world has God at the centre, although conceived and portrayed
differently as the case may be. Omoregbe (2014:25) maintains that, ‘the concept of God is
central to religion’. From the field of Neuro-theology it is also posited that God, the hub at
which religion revolves, is in the human brain. Some scientists so seek the biological basis of
spirituality. There is a serious effort probably to conclude that God is all in human head:

What all the new research shares is a passion for uncovering the neurological
underpinnings of spiritual and mystical experiences for discovering, in short, what
happens in our brains when we sense that we have encountered a reality different

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 from – and, in some crucial sense, higher than, the reality of everyday experience
(Newsweek, May 14, 2001).
Onunwa (2012:2) opines fervently, ‘I come from a country where religions are no longer
relevant in public affairs or have been made redundant, yet the society is moving’. Outlining
the dysfunctional roles of religion to include, ‘lack of personal thought, fixed perspective,
lack of power, religions rule with fear, tampered women’s right and operating on principles
of deceit’. He emphasizes:

There is corruption all over the world, including United States of America, United
Kingdom, Russia, the entire Europe, yet I do not think they are using Religion to
combat the crimes of Drugs, money Laundering, Political Grafts, Economic and
political frauds, Racism, anti-social behaviour, terrorism and other related crimes.
Cuba is one of the best run Third World Countries with excellent free medical
policies, yet it is not known as a country with strong religious faith (12).
In the same vein, Segal (1994) argues for, ‘an analysis of religion in secular rather than
religious terms. The origin, function, meaning, and even truth of religion are subject to
reductionism’. Not minding religious arguments and debates, the world has record of
atheism, polytheism and agnosticism. To say the least, Smart (1984) recalls that, ‘in the
western countries there has been a considerable growth in agnosticism in the last hundred
years. And this could be said to have its focus in an ethic which centres on human welfare,
while rejecting the supernatural’.

Nonetheless, Poole (1990) recalls the thought of one time director general of Britain’s
Meteorological office, John Houghton avidly in support of religion. ‘Science is dealing with
things that are given. Attitudes of awe, wonder and humility before the facts are essential, if
human is to be in harmony with both the environment and the creator’. So ‘to the sphere of
religion belongs the faith that the regulations valid for the world of existence are rational, that
it is comprehensible to reason. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound
faith (religion)’, Professor Einstein vouches. This thesis upholds that the more the attacks the
stronger the phenomenon. Therefore having advanced some of the attacks, here comes the
all-important inquiry, what is religion?

Religion

Religion, like the New Testament Basileia (Kingdom), is so composite and complex a word
that no comprehensive synonym, phrase or sentence can bring out its full meaning’ (1998).
Globally, according to walks of life and conviction, people view religion differently. It is a

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factor in human life. ‘Religion is very much with us’ (Idowu, 1973) and, means so much to
talk about often. ‘It is such a prominent feature in human society that it cannot be simply
ignored. World history would be incomplete without reference to religion, nor can history of
any nation be written without reference to it’ (2002:1). ‘It so becomes obvious that this
phenomenon of human concern is the most complex, most involving phenomenon studied in
the humanities’ (2012:6). Many avoid attempting defining religion, either for endless
controversy and debate over proper definition and the thought that defining religion is almost
always ‘a fruitless exercise’. The difficulty in definition of religion arose partly from the
uncertain root of the word’ observed Iwuagwu (1998). The other arises from the fact that
religion involves the whole human life and fact that certain human beings explain it from
various points of view for some reasons. Many definition attempts have been so made that it
nearly becomes hectic to continue. For instance, Professor Leuba had once collected forty-
eight definitions and added his own two. Iwuagwu recalls, ‘none of them exhausted the
meaning of religion’.

Cicero the Latin writer used, religio and thought it originated from ‘leg-‘or latin verb
relegere, Servius held the view that religio came from lig’ or the verb religare (to
bind back); Lactantius agreed with Servius on relegare, ‘bond or relationship’ or
communion between the human and the Divine’. This still offers limited solution to
the issue of definition (1998).
The foregoing is part of the reason why this research began from few of the attacks on
religion. Whatever the form and intensity of arguments whether for or against, there has since
time immemorial been the existence of both human and spiritual beings. No matter
secularism, humanism, atheism and such other philosophies, the world cannot deny
completely the experience of the supernatural and such influence on humanity. No doubt the
fact, that the spiritual controls the physical. This brought worship into human life. As an
example, ‘one may presume that private and public worship to Africans, stems from the
awareness that human is a creature and consequently depends on powers superior to that of
humanity’ (Nwosu, E. 2014). The power that brought humanity into being and humanity on
one part are involved in a relationship, which affects virtually all the living and even the
society at large.

Such human –divine relationship is viewed as religion. It is embodied in whatever name each
people, group or culture accepts to call or address the divine with. But religion has given
many path-ways to the world including, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, African traditional
religion (ATR), Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism, etc. Even,

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some religious groups have sections or sects, up to denominations as in Christianity, Islam,
etc. Brown (2017) says it is so because, ‘no two people ever respond to God’s presence the
same way. Each person’s prayer is personal and each person’s response to God has its own
individual quality and characteristics’. Individuals can share own experiences with others in a
community and so ‘religion is an individual and a social activity’. According to Nwosu
(2018),

Religion in whatever way defined, is, human beings' relation to that, which they
regard as holy, sacred, spiritual or divine (God). Worship is probably the most basic
element of religion, but moral conduct, right belief and participation in religious
institutions are generally also constituent elements of the religious life as practiced by
believers. Again worshippers are human and, humanity is gregarious. Its life is full of
diverse activities. Such involves more than one person at one time or the other. The
white can go to the black and the black also go to the white. God has made all
dependent of the other whether directly or indirectly; so warranting a rapport.
This form of relationship referred to as religion defines itself operationally as humanity’s
quest for the Divine and the Divine revelation of self to humanity. Religion takes a lot and
forms, up to spirituality and spiritism apart from physical experiences and even varied
activities.

Classification of Religion:

Religion with its philosophy ‘is a free unprejudiced rational inquiry in the nature, meaning
and purpose of religion’, Omoregbe opines. This is viewed as a pointer to classification.
Religion so defined and viewed for which various theories have been propounded, is
classified herein. This work aligns with Wotogbe-Weneka (2012) in classifying religions
thus.

We talk of three broad categories: (a). those religions that are redemptive in nature.
Best examples include Judaism, Christianity Islam, etc. (b). Those said to be morality
based religions. The eastern religions such as Confucianism, Shintoism, Hinduism,
Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, etc. (c). The so called Primitive Religion, whose adherents
were so described by some early foreign writers as savage, primitive and who are said
to be lacking in either imagination or emotion.
Within the classification, Owete, et al. in Mbonu (edited) opines, ‘it is noteworthy to state
that a religious tradition may be atheistic, agnostic, communal, shamanic, Olympian,
polytheistic or monotheistic’ (2015). Religions have contents of mysticism, salvation,
scripture, priesthood, calling, spirit-possession, ritual, prayer, pilgrimage, sacrifice, offering,

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etc. These features probably engineered dimensions of religion. Ninian Smart is quoted also,
to have identified six dimensions of religion, summarized in this thesis thus:

Doctrinal dimension- a religion has a system of doctrines. Mythic dimension,

religions have myths. Ethical dimension, every religion has a set of social and ethical
norms. Ritual dimension, worship, sacraments, hymns, ‘preaching of the dharma’,
initiations, etc. Experiential dimension, the evoking of religious experiences and
feelings and the sixth is institutional dimension of religion. Every religion is
institutionalized, through a separate organization, such as church in Christianity,
mosques in Islam also in Sangha in Buddhism.
Cosmology in religion is how humanity views reality. This could be why nearly all is
interested, in religion, as observes Ejizu (2008).

Religion is fundamentally world-view. As such it provides a unified picture of the

cosmos usually consisting of a web of interconnected beliefs, ideas and symbols that
seek to explain rationally the order in the universe, an order that is believed to
undergird human life and the universe as a whole.
Characteristics of Religion:
There are distinguishing features of religion referred to in this work as the characteristics.
Including, dynamism, religion is constantly changing. It is cumulative. Its practices have
lived for years or generations. Again, religion is somewhat human-made. It is easy to accept
that humanity invented religion but it is of divine origin. Put simpler, religion is human-made
but with divine origin. That notwithstanding, human-made objects so serve religious
purposes. Religion though teaching concepts beyond earthly life, is transmitted socially and
not even biologically. It is also, a common property of a group. This could agree with, what
Omoregbe (2002) meant in asserting that, ‘religions are basically one in various forms and
religious differences are basically on cultural expressions’.

Functions of Religion:

This research finds it as part of a helpful premise to touch lightly, the functions of religion.
These include, enlightenment and cultural appreciation, purification, defence, promoting
development, aiding character formation, providing spiritual food for they that hunger and
thirst spiritually, being a kind of guidance to disciples and even others and the herculean task
of explaining humanity’s cosmology, amongst other functions.

Elements of Religion:

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‘Religion in its essence is the means by which God as spirit and human’s essential self
communicate’. Humanity’s quest for the divine employs some approaches of communication
with the supersensible world. These connections between the two worlds, human and
spiritual, is viewed as elements of religion. According to Anyanwu (1999), ‘there are certain
elements that all religions share in common and the harmonious working together of these
elements make up what we usually term religion’. They can be summarized and compressed
into, Creed, worship, cultic functionaries or priesthood, festivals, place of worship, objects of
worship, code of conduct, prayer, music or songs, sacrifices, symbolism, congregations, etc.
These form base of comparative study of religion, no matter the theories arising from the
observation of Omoregbe (2002),’that religion means different things to different people’.
Again a slight evaluation between comparative religion and religious dialogue, sharpens the
look on the main trust of this thesis.

Comparative religion and Religious Dialogue:

Before comparative study of religion as a sub-head in this research, a consideration of it and

religious dialogue is deemed helpfully needful. Though the two are aspects of the study of
religion. A critical study of comparative religion and probable lecturing in religious dialogue,
inform a difference or distinction no matter how slight, between the two compartments of the
study of the religious traditions of humanity. This careful analysis spots some bias in
religious dialogue. This is to say that, dialogue intends conversion into own religion, while
comparative religion as study ventures to show that all religions are one in various forms. As
earlier mentioned, ‘a study that focuses on describing the religions at their face value and not
to criticize or evaluate them’. Concerning this mission bias of religious dialogue, Nwosu
(2018), explains:

Dialogue is not just a conversation involving people, but an exchange of ideas very
vital to life here and beyond, as it has to do with religious experience. There must be
underscored here the fact, that it is geared towards problem solving. The underlying
aim no doubt, is to convert the world for Christ in the Christian perspective. Any
other religion that takes part in it might also have some aim since problems are
inevitable in the world of humanity. For the Christians, the principle of ‘epoche’ is
needed so to succeed without being carried away.
This clearance is viewed important to report in an academic context. More so, as most of
what is said about religious belief in these days seems to be marked by an exaggerated
individualism.

Comparative Study of Religion:

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Comparative Study of Religion, is a branch of the study of religion concerned with the
systematic comparison of doctrines and practices of the world’s religions. Comparison, is a
process of assessing similarity and non-similarity, and as it applies in this topic. Humanity,
even in the present modernity behaviour and culture, has remained homo religiosus
(religious). From this background of humanity, many religious persuasions sprang and
continue to sprout till date. Iwuagwu avers:

Comparative study of religions is very important. That is why it is an important

course in the religious study Programme of universities and colleges. Such a study
gives critical judgment, enables the learner to comprehend his religious faith, to
defend it or to balance his judgment. It enables the learner to place his religion in its
proper perspective. Religions are in this course classified through comparative
analysis; and the student is trained to acquire the philosophical base for which ever
religion he had adopted (1999:26).
Professor Ejizu’s Inaugural lecture (2008) further confirms that, ‘humans are identified with a
number of distinct traits, as homo sapiens (a rational being), as homo symbolicus (a symbol-
using, and meaning-seeking animal); or homo viator (a being that hopes), etc.’ Humans,
distinct from the rest of creatures in the universe are important actors in the different religious
traditions of the world. Again in humanity there is also individuality, which affected and
continues to affect religion and warranting comparison. Comparative study of religion creates
a deeper understanding of the fundamental philosophical concerns of religion including
ethics, metaphysics, nature and form of salvation, life and death and so many other mysteries
of life as found in the religious world.

The middle of the 19th century marked the beginning of the study of religion. Max Muller
first used the term, Science of Religion, modelled after the science of language. ‘Science of
religion simply put is, academic critical study of the subject, with objectivity and no bias in
studying a people’s religion, like other discipline within the university’. The scientific study
of religion as we know it today, became an independent discipline. Realizing the distinction
between theology and religion was the most important aspect of the science of religion.
According to Wotogbe-Weneka (2012),

Herodotus through his writings made the religions of foreign people known. For he
was said to have visited more than 50 different nations and tribes recording in detail,
peoples habits and customs, both secular and religious. He established through his
studies the ‘principle of the equivalence of gods’. Using what today is known as “the
comparative method in the study of Religion.

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At this point, ‘it came to be known that theology cannot be comparative because it dealt with
single religion unlike Religious Studies or Comparative Religion which is interested in every
religion of mankind’.

Aim:

The aim of comparative study of religion as conceived by this thesis, is to show that all
religions are basically one in various forms. Religious differences are basically on cultural
expressions and religious intolerance is based also on cultural intolerance.

Approach for Comparative Study of Religion:

‘The contemporary study of religion covers a wide range of interest and methods which often
complement each other’, posits Whaling (1995).This amongst other approaches includes
historical and phenomenological approaches. ‘Theoretical debates about History and
phenomenology are closely related’. So these (historical and phenomenological) get the
required contents well prepared in matters of comparative religious research. Truly,
comparative religion involves the study of human beings and the sacred reality. This suggests
it is ‘both anthropocentric and hiero-centric’. So, historical approach makes the historical
survey, ‘the origin, initial problems, founder, membership, growth or expansion, basic
doctrines, practices, influences, etc. While, phenomenological approach is ‘primarily a
systematic and comparative classification of all religious phenomena and seeks to understand
the phenomenon. Investigating, rituals, prayers, pilgrimage, myth, symbolism, and other
constituents of religion. Whaling further maintains that phenomenology, aids the work of the
comparative religionist, ‘through the use of epoche and the search for objectivity’, regarding
the essence of religion and nature of religious experience’ (1995).

Guides to Comparative Study of Religion:

The following steps are suggested for the comparative religionist embarking on a
comparative study of religion. Religion must be studied as religion. Avoiding criticism but
describe religions on their face value as earlier observed. (b). there should be empiricism and
objectivity. (c). the study must appreciate people’s values. Must be take how the penitents of
the religion have it. (d). there should be no approximation of data or even in collection of
data. In this, the warning from Wotogbe-Weneka (2015) should be followed that, ‘in being
objective however, the investigator (i.e. the comparative religion’s scholar) would be able to
note that objectivity could be seen from two perspectives: the objectivity of non-involvement

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and the objectivity of involvement’. Meaning human feelings like fear, emotions or hope be
avoided and presentations be made without elements of bias, emphasizing ‘the agnostically
neutral standpoint, as best position for comparative religionists.

Why Study Comparative Religion:

Comparative study of religion makes for the knowledge and understanding of other people
and culture. Understanding peoples problems and proffers remedy or solution. The
understanding of people’s viewpoints, helps one to one benefit of clearing doubts.
Comparative study of religion makes for peaceful coexistence, development of spiritual and
physical spheres. It can also, help overcome religious fanaticism. Omoregbe (2002) strongly
maintains that,

God is the point at which all religions melt into, and anybody who has had the
experience of God comes to see religious differences as superficial. God is a universal
God. The God of all races, all cultures, and all religions. Mystics see all things as one
in God. They testify eloquently that religious differences mean nothing to God, that
whoever seeks God sincerely, in any culture, any race, and any religion, will find him.
The comparative study of religion helps correct ethnocentricity and narrow-mindedness
which is the background of fanaticism, cultural bias, prejudice and superiority complex. The
religious fanatic does not realize that as ‘God has no favourite language, culture and race, that
he has no favourite religion’.

Conclusion:

The investigation took an ascending order of research that is, from religions to the
comparative study of religion. Found some oppositions termed attack, in this work,
discovered that the human religious persuasions have continued to flourish from time
immemorial, even in the face of agents of modern change. Science and technological
situations of the present, supposed by many to be inimical to religion have existed because of
religion. So confessed Professor Einstein, “I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without
that profound faith (religion)”. Religion has given many path-ways as world religions which
comparative study of religion describes at face value without strict evaluation and criticism
on, nature, meaning and purpose, though religions have characteristics. Therefore
recommends comparatively studying of religions for the correction of ethnocentricity,
unnecessary individualism or narrow-mindedness which ferments and fans fanaticism,

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cultural bias, prejudice and superiority complex. Humanity needs comparative study of
religion so, to continue to understand that ‘that God (the divine) has no favourite religion.
Comparative study of religion as a discipline is encouraged and recommended.

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