School of Comparative Religion

School of Comparative Religion
Name	School of Comparative Religion
Established	1920s
Type	Independent institute
Location	Unspecified
Focus	Comparative religion, interfaith studies

Contents

School of Comparative Religion.

The School of Comparative Religion emerged as an independent institute in the early twentieth century, associating with figures such as Ralph Waldo Trine, Annie Besant, Aldous Huxley, Rudolf Steiner, Mircea Eliade and institutions like the Theosophical Society, University of Chicago, Columbia University and the British Museum; it drew on antecedents in movements connected to Transcendentalism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Vedanta Society and the Baháʼí Faith to frame comparative inquiry and public lectures.

History and Origins

Founded amid intellectual currents that included the London School of Economics, Harvard University, Oxford University, Cambridge University and salons frequented by James Frazer, William James, Ernest Renan, Friedrich Max Müller and Walter Pater, the School of Comparative Religion built on precedents from the World Parliament of Religions, the International Congress of Religions, and associations around Madame Blavatsky and Swami Vivekananda. Early patrons and correspondents involved networks connecting S. Radhakrishnan, Paul Tillich, Thomas Merton, D.T. Suzuki and Hermann Hesse, while archival exchanges occurred with libraries such as the British Library, the Library of Congress, and the Vatican Library.

The School articulated a mission resonant with statements by Eleanor Roosevelt, John Dewey, Martin Buber, Rabindranath Tagore and Jiddu Krishnamurti to promote comparative study across texts like the Bhagavad Gita, Bible, Qur'an, Tao Te Ching and the Dhammapada, and to convene dialogues involving representatives from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and indigenous traditions represented by figures such as Black Elk and Chief Seattle. Pedagogy mixed seminar formats modeled on Émile Durkheim's sociology, philological methods associated with Wilhelm von Humboldt, and field methods in the spirit of Bronisław Malinowski, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Margaret Mead.

Course offerings ranged from introductory surveys referencing the comparative methods of James Frazer, Mircea Eliade, and Max Müller to specialized seminars on the Upanishads, Talmud, New Testament, Hadith, Zen koans, and ritual practices documented by Victor Turner, Emile Durkheim, and Mary Douglas. Practical language training included Sanskrit, Classical Arabic, Biblical Hebrew, Classical Chinese and Pali alongside methodological classes drawing on the historiography of Edward Said, textual criticism of Bart D. Ehrman, and hermeneutics as treated by Hans-Georg Gadamer. Electives engaged contemporary intersections with institutions such as the United Nations, NGOs like Amnesty International, and conferences like the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

Faculty lists featured scholars in conversation with names such as Mircea Eliade, Joseph Campbell, Huston Smith, Karen Armstrong, Ninian Smart, Wilhelm Schmidt, R.C. Zaehner and Geoffrey Parrinder; visiting lecturers included Joseph Needham, Harold Bloom, Alain Daniélou and Erich Fromm. Alumni pursued careers linked to entities including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the World Council of Churches, UNICEF, and cultural institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution, and notable graduates corresponded with networks around Evelyn Underhill, Paul Tillich, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton and Cornel West.

The School produced journals and monographs in dialogue with periodicals like Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Numen, History of Religions and presses including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Routledge; its bibliography cited comparativists such as Max Müller, Mircea Eliade, Jonathan Z. Smith and Edward Said, and it hosted symposia attracting contributors like Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Research projects ranged from philological editions of texts associated with Adi Shankara, Philo of Alexandria, Ibn Arabi and Moses Maimonides to ethnographies in regions tied to the Amazon Rainforest, Tibetan Plateau, Ganges Delta and the Sahel, often collaborating with museums such as the Field Museum.

The School influenced curricula at universities including Harvard Divinity School, Yale Divinity School, Union Theological Seminary, King's College London and University of California, Berkeley and contributed to interfaith initiatives involving the World Council of Churches, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, Religions for Peace and the United Nations. Its methodological legacies are evident in comparative works by Huston Smith, Karen Armstrong, Phil Zuckerman, and theoretical debates involving Edward Said, Talal Asad, Bernard Lewis and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, while archival materials inform contemporary projects at institutions like the British Library, the Bodleian Library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the New York Public Library.

Category:Comparative religion institutions