Prospects for relational approaches in the Study of Religion. A response to Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz and Mattias Brand

Abstract

This response to Brand’s and Kollmar-Paulenz’ commentaries further develops the case for a relational paradigm in the Study of Religion by addressing critiques concerning comparison, generalization, and historical scope. It argues that relational approaches do not reject abstraction but relocate scholarly inquiry from the essence of “religion” to the historically contingent relations through which the category is constituted. A comparative survey of English, French, Spanish, and Italian encyclopedias demonstrates that the shift from essentialist to relational understandings extends beyond the German context while simultaneously challenging narratives of a homogeneous European Enlightenment. Rather than abandoning comparison, the article advocates historically situated, non-universalizing forms of theorization that remain sensitive to conceptual dynamics and relations of power. It concludes by arguing that safeguarding epistemological pluralism and academic freedom is indispensable for the future development of relational scholarship in the Study of Religion.