The origin of the modern perception of religion can be traced to the Enlightenment. This book shows how the concepts of "religion" and "the religions" arose from controversies in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England. The birth of "the religions," conceived of as sets of beliefs and practices, created a new science of religion in which the various "religions" could be studied and impartially compared. Harrison gives a detailed historical picture of the emergence of this concept and how it led to the discipline of comparative religion.
Peter Harrison is a former Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford and is presently Research Professor and Director of the Centre for the History of European Discourses at the University of Queensland. He was the 2011 Gifford Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and holds a Senior Research Fellowship in the Ian Ramsey Centre at Oxford.
