Edmund Hardy und das Archiv für Religionswissenschaft

Abstract

In the course of the academic establishment of the Study of Religion (Religionswissenschaft) as an independent academic discipline in the second half of the 19^th century, the first specialised journals also appeared. In the German-speaking world, the Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, first published in 1898, is of particular importance. Its founder and first editor was the Bremen grammar school teacher Thomas Achelis (1850-1909). The first volume opened – as an editorial – with Edmund Hardy’s (1852-1904) text “Was ist Religionswissenschaft? A Contribution to the Methodology of the Historical Study of Religion”. The following study first places the beginnings of the Archiv für Religionswissenschaft in the context of the history of science, then gives an overview of the most important biographical data of Edmund Hardy and the fundamental aspects of his scientific work. Finally, we will consider the further development of the Archiv für Religionswissenschaft with the transition to the new editorship by Albrecht Dieterich (1866-1908) and finally briefly review the reception of Hardy’s work.