Compendium

Religious Studies — Domain Index

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Religious Studies

Academic + comparative study of religions: traditions, texts, history, theology, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, ritual, art. Religious Studies treats religion as a human phenomenon worthy of scholarly description without privileging any single tradition’s truth claims; theology operates from within a tradition’s confessional frame. Both included.

Planned subdomains

  • Comparative religion — methodology, theory, cross-tradition themes, typologies, study-of-religion history (Tylor + Frazer + Durkheim + Weber + James + Eliade + Otto + Geertz + Asad + Smith)
  • World traditions by family (Tier 1 done):
    • Abrahamic — Judaism + Christianity + Islam (shared Genesis 1-11, Abrahamic monotheism, prophetic tradition)
    • Dharmic — Hinduism + Buddhism + Jainism + Sikhism (shared karma + samsara + dharma + moksha vocabulary, Indian subcontinent origins)
    • East Asian — Confucianism + Taoism + Shinto (often layered + complementary rather than exclusive)
    • Indigenous + New Religious Movements — African + Native American + Aboriginal + Diaspora + 19th-21st c NRMs
  • History of religion — paleolithic ritual + Axial Age Jaspers + religion in antiquity + medieval + Reformation + colonial + secularization debates
  • Philosophy of religion + theology — arguments for/against God (ontological + cosmological + teleological + moral + problem of evil) + faith + reason + religious epistemology + comparative theology
  • Sociology of religion — Weber + Durkheim + Berger + Casanova + Stark-Bainbridge rational choice + secularization + revival
  • Religion + politics — civil religion + religious freedom + theocracy + secularism + pluralism + religious nationalism + fundamentalism
  • Religion + science — conflict/independence/dialogue/integration (Barbour 4-fold typology) + evolution + cosmology + bioethics
  • Religious texts + hermeneutics — biblical criticism + Quranic studies + Vedic studies + textual transmission + canon formation
  • Religious art + music + ritual — iconography + sacred architecture + chant + dance + drama + pilgrimage

Tier 1 status (5/5 done)

  • comparative-religion.md
  • abrahamic-traditions.md (Judaism + Christianity + Islam combined)
  • dharmic-traditions.md (Hinduism + Buddhism + Jainism + Sikhism)
  • east-asian-traditions.md (Confucianism + Taoism + Shinto)
  • indigenous-and-new-religious-movements.md

Tier 2 — In progress

Tier 3 — Catalogs online

  • Tier 3 index
  • sacred-texts-catalog — 17 sections covering Tanakh + Talmud, Christian canon variations + Patristic + LDS, Quran + 6 Sunni + 4 Shia hadith, Vedas/Upanishads/Smriti/sutras, Pali Canon + Mahayana + Tibetan, Jain Agamas, Sikh, Confucian Wujing/Sishu, Daoist canon, Shinto, Bahá’í, Zoroastrian, Manichaean, Mandaean, Yazidi, NRMs, indigenous oral

Planned Tier 2 (specific tradition deep dives)

  • Christology + soteriology + ecclesiology + Trinitarian theology
  • Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh + 4 Sunni madhahib + Jafari) + kalam theology
  • Talmud + Mishnah + Halakhic process + responsa literature
  • Buddhist Abhidharma + Madhyamaka + Yogacara + tathagatagarbha
  • Vedanta (Advaita + Vishishtadvaita + Dvaita + Achintya Bheda Abheda) + Samkhya-Yoga
  • Daoist alchemy (neidan + waidan) + Daozang canon + ritual studies
  • Mysticism comparative (Eckhart + Sufism + Bhakti + Zen + Kabbalah + Hesychasm)
  • Religion + gender + sexuality
  • Religion + ecology (Tucker-Grim Yale Forum)

Planned Tier 3

  • Sacred texts catalog (canon + canonization process + manuscript traditions + critical editions)
  • Religions of the world catalog with adherent stats + geographic distribution
  • Denominations + sects catalog (Sunni schools + Christian denominations + Hindu sampradayas + Buddhist lineages)
  • Religious calendar (festivals across traditions by month)
  • Pilgrimage sites catalog

Adjacent domains

  • Philosophy — philosophy of religion + ethics + metaphysics + epistemology overlap
  • Society — religion-state law + RFRA + religious freedom + secularization sociology
  • History — religious history all eras, especially ancient + medieval + Reformation
  • Anthropology — ritual + cultural religion + ethnography of religious life

— end of index —

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