Religious Studies

The role of religions in today’s society is becoming increasingly important, both in local and global contexts. Each day we are exposed to them, and so we are also determined and perceived by religious semantics. A key component of comparative religion is the well-founded, empirical work and the examination of the various world religions, worldviews, and ideologies. Being a science of mind and culture, it refers to social, cultural, and historical backgrounds and tries to investigate and examine them neutrally, empirically, historically, and systematically. Comparative religion studies are not the same as theology because, among other things, they discuss the various religions and their contents in terms of their interrelationships, what role they play in society, and how they have changed from the past to the present.
Today, religions as forces shaping society play an increasingly significant role in local as well as global contexts; for example, religious semantics increasingly determine current-day politics. The central aim of scientific studies of religions is, therefore, a theoretical and empirical examination of the subject of religion. As a perspective of cultural studies, it deals with religion in its cultural, social, and historical contexts by encountering its subject from an external perspective. As cultural studies, religious studies do not analyze “religion” as a truth hidden among various phenomena but instead humanly designed religious interpretations of the world in their social contexts.