Pachis & Wiebe/Chasing Down Religion, 4. Comparative Religion Scholars

This chapter discusses the comparative-historical method, which is to develop comparisons between religious phenomena (comparative) while accounting for their developments within particular contexts through time and space (historical). Ugo Bianchi, an Italian Historian (1922-1995) said that 'The notion of religion that emerges from the continued comparison of new and varied historical materials is an analogical notion.' This chapter focusses on correspondence between Bianchi and two prominent American scholars of religion.