Comparative Religion
A History

Eric J. Sharpe

Throughout its history, comparative religion has enjoyed an uncertain, sometimes hostile, relationship with Christian theology. Eric J. Sharpe chronicles this hazardous interaction up to the present day, explaining the varying emphases of those Christians who sought to understand other religions in order to more effectively displace them, those who considered that something might be gained for Christianity by absorbing non-Christian insights, those who hoped for a new world religion to emerge from discussions between numerous religions, and those rationalists who sought to diminish respect for religion by analyzing its origins and development.

"Sharpe has read broadly and synthesized information judiciously. . . . This is a good, lively, and useful book." —Religious Studies Review