Asking Old Questions Anew: On the “History” of “Religions”

Abstract

By taking Hesiod's work from the subfield known as “ancient Greek religion” as both its starting point and case study, this article utilizes the work of Bruce Lincoln to demonstrate that, despite the contrary arguments, the role of history in the study of religion remains central, necessary, and frankly a prerequisite for a sober academic study of religions past and present. Therefore, by resorting to Lincoln's foundational work for a critical study of religion that does not negate the phenomenon itself but clearly indicates that it is a historical, human, and thereby examinable phenomenon—rather than an ahistorical, sui generis, and therefore non‐empirical one—the article attempts to ask questions that seemingly seem outdated but have been inadequately addressed, or consciously avoided, by contemporary scholars of religion. Three core questions are briefly examined: Is religion the topic of investigation in a given text? When working with historical textual sources, do we have a way to determine the content and aim of the author(s)? And, lastly, given that all our language is ultimately anachronistic, must historians of religions find other ways to approach religions of the past?