Table Of ContentCategory Formation and the History of Religions
Religion and Reason 1
Method and Theory
in the Study and Interpretation of Religion
GENERAL EDITOR
Jacques Waardenburg, University of Lausanne
BOARD OF ADVISERS
R. N. Bellah, Berkeley
U. Bianchi, Rome
M. Despland, Montreal
H. J. W. Drijvers, Groningen
W. Dupré, Nijmegen
S. N. Eisenstadt, Jerusalem
C. Geertz, Princeton
K. Goldammer, Marburg
U. King, Bristol
P. Ricoeur, Paris
M. Rodinson, Paris
K. Rudolph, Marburg
N. Smart, Santa Barbara
L. E. Sullivan, Chicago
G. Widengren, Stockholm
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin • New York
Category Formation
and
the History of Religions
with a new preface
by
Robert D. Baird
Second Edition
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin • New York 1991
Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague)
is a Division of Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin.
Librarj of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Baird, Robert D., 1933 —
Category formation and the history of religions / by Robert
D. Baird. - 2nd ed.
p. cm. — (Religion and reason ; 1)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-89925-809-3
1. Religion —Historiography. 2. Religions —Study and
teaching. I. Title. II. Series.
BL41.B25 1991
200'.72 —dc20 90-26031
CIP
Deutsche Bibliothek Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Baird, Robert D.:
Category formation and the history of religions : with a new
preface / by Robert D. Baird. — 2nd ed. — Berlin ; New York :
Mouton de Gruyter, 1991
(Religion and reason ; 1)
ISBN 3-11-012821-7
NE: GT
© Copyright 1971/1991 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-1000 Berlin 30.
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Printing: Gerike GmbH, Berlin. — Binding: Mikolai, Berlin.
Printed in Germany.
Preface to the Second Edition
This is a book on methodology, that is, the logic of method. It is an
analysis of a variety of methods as well as an attempt to delineate the
logic of a religio-historical method. As such, it does not seek to instruct
the reader how to use such a method, nor does it offer a theory of
religion for the purpose of explaining religion.
When this book was first published, the history of religions was
referred to by Philip H. Ashby as 'an area of scholarly pursuit in search
for a definition of itself ('The History of Religions,' in: Religion, ed.
Paul Ramsey, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1965, p. 5). There
was no unified approach to religious phenomena among those who
considered themselves historians of religions. Without seeking to settle
the issue for everyone in the field, I felt it necessary to settle some
basic issues for myself in order to define the limits of a method.
Twenty years later, there are more rather than fewer issues with
which to deal. There is no more unity to the field now than there was
then. The basic lack of clarity about the logic of the methods we
use continues to persist. Historians of religions have followed the
anthropologist into the field, often without clear knowledge of the
assumptions and limitations of ethnography, interview methods, sam-
pling, and participant observation. In addition, they have sought more
to explain religion than to understand it, and have frequently turned
to anthropology and structuralism to provide explanatory theories.
Some things, however, have not changed. There are still those who
use whatever method 'seems to work' without a careful analysis of its
logic in order to determine if it is capable of producing valid knowledge
under any conditions. Some continue to ignore methodology and work
with data, while others 'do' methodology without applying it to any
particular data. Moreover, it sometimes appears that, for some, making
a work interesting is more determinative for the inclusion of data than
verification and the acquisition of valid knowledge about the past. The
role of anecdotes in fieldwork as well as in the study of texts needs to
be reassessed for its validity as well as its limits for verification.
If this book were being written today, it would include an analysis
of these trends. But that would make the book longer rather than
different. For I remain convinced that the issues dealt with here are
foundational for understanding religion in its historical context. The
nature of definition remains basic, for without clearly defined categor-
ies little progress can be made in identifying, much less understanding,
religious phenomena.
In the intervening years I have sought to apply the religio-historical
method presented in this volume. Perhaps it is coincidental that my
volume Essays in The History of Religions, utilizing this method, is
also being published this year (Toronto Studies in Religion, New York:
Peter Lang, 1991). These two volumes should complement each other.
Had it been possible, minor revisions would have been made. I
might have developed certain arguments at greater length, and would
have liked to have modified the masculine language so as to be more
inclusive.
Category Formation and the History of Religions was the first volume
published in the series Religion and Reason. There are now nearly
forty volumes in this important series. I am pleased that the publisher
has considered this volume worthy to be reissued in paperback format,
and wish particularly to thank Dr. Marie-Louise Liebe-Harkort, Edi-
tor-in-Chief of Mouton de Gruyter, for her support.
Iowa City, November 1990 Robert D. Baird
Preface
It is necessary to indicate the relationship between the method here articu-
lated and another work on 'Indian Religious Traditions' which I have con-
tributed to a book on man's religions. While I think I avoided certain method-
ological mistakes in that work, it was completed before the present method
was entirely worked out. In that essay I did not always ask the 'religio-
historical' question of the data, although I was beginning to move in that
direction. Hence that essay on religion in India is only a dim illustration of the
present method. Such a concession does not mean that the method is inap-
plicable. Its application is the goal of my present researches.
In any work of this nature, there are intellectual debts which can never be
repaid. Even those thinkers with whom one disagrees most sharply are respon-
sible for clarifying issues in the mind of the one who rejects their positions.
Although it may not always be apparent, I am particularly indebted to the
work of Wilfred Cantwell Smith. While I have not always accepted Professor
Smith's answers, his questions have opened new areas for methodological
discussion. My differences with him should not completely conceal this debt.
A note of appreciation is due to my students at the University of Iowa,
whose searching questions have helped to sharpen the approach here set forth.
This approach has been enriched by my encounter with students, and will
hopefully continue to inform and enrich my teaching.
Mr. Raymond Rohrbaugh and Mr. George M. Williams, graduate students
in religion, have read the manuscript and have made valuable suggestions re-
garding style and content. My colleague, Professor Robert P. Scharlemann,
has read the manuscript thoroughly and has given freely of his time in a
discussion which is probably not over yet. Of course, none of the above are
responsible for any error of fact or judgment which might remain.
Finally, as any scholar knows, a supportive family is an inestimable asset.
To my family this volume is dedicated.
Robert D. Baird
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank the following journals for permission to use
his own material previously published in article form:
The Journal of Religious Thought, for 'Syncretism and the History of
Religions', Vol. XXIV, No. 2, 1967-68, pp. 42-53. Also for 'Factual
Statements and the Possibility of Objectivity in History', Vol. XXVI,
No. 1, 1969, pp. 5-22.
History and Theory, for 'Interpretative Categories and the History of Reli-
gions', Beiheft 8, 1968, pp. 17-30.
Union Seminary Quarterly Review, for 'Normative Elements in Eliade's
Phenomenology of Symbolism', Vol. XXV, No. 4, pp. 505-516.
The author is also indebted to the following for permission to reprint
copyrighted material:
Sheed and Ward, for Patterns in Comparative Religion by Mircea Eliade.
Hans Kiing, for 'The World Religions in God's Plan of Salvation', in
Christian Revelation and World Religions.
Wilfred Cantwell Smith for The Faith of Other Men.
The New American Library, Inc., for The Meaning and End of Religion by
Wilfred Cantwell Smith.
Charles Scribner's Sons, for Questions of Religious Truth by Wilfred Cantwell
Smith.
Clarendon Press, Oxford, for Definition by Richard Robinson.
The University of Chicago Press, for History of Religions: Essays in
Methodology, edited by Mircea Eliade and Joseph M. Kitagawa.
Lutterworth Press, for Religion and the Christian Faith by Hendrik Kraemer.
Harper and Row Publishers, for Myth and Reality and Rites and Symbols of
Initiation: The Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth, both by Mircea Eliade.
