History is one of the most important cultural tools to make sense of one’s situation, to establish identity, define otherness, and explain change. This is the first systematic scholarly study that analyses the complex relationship between history and religion, taking into account religious groups both as producers of historical narratives as well as distinct topics of historiography. Coming from different disciplines, the authors of this volume ask under which conditions and with what consequences religions are historicised. How do religious groups employ historical narratives in the construction of their identities? What are the biases and elisions of current analytical and descriptive frames in the History of Religion? The volume aims at initiating a comparative historiography of religion and combines disciplinary competences of Religious Studies and the History of Religion, Confessional Theologies, History, History of Science, and Literary Studies. By applying literary comparison and historical contextualization to those texts that have been used as central documents for histories of individual religions, their historiographic themes, tools and strategies are analysed. The comparative approach addresses circum-Mediterranean and European as well as Asian religious traditions from the first millennium BCE to the present and deals with topics such as the origins of religious historiography, the practices of writing and the transformation of narratives.

An historical analysis of religious education in the public sphere -- The root of the problem -- Influential theoretical positions -- Some contemporary responses to old problems -- Addressing assumptions -- Reconceptualising education -- What does it mean to be religious? -- New possibilities for religious education? -- What should religious education aim to achieve in the public sphere? -- Practical considerations : what might this mean for the teacher? -- Epilogue and some practical considerations : what might this mean for a religious education curriculum?

This is a new release of the original 1923 edition.