Religious Studies and Bias

One of the trickiest parts of studying religion at the university level is the struggle to maintain clear boundaries between your religious beliefs and your growing and changing understanding of religion. The effort must be made to understand the biases that, for most people, go largely unexamined. In order to understand the beliefs of others, in order to attempt to bridge worldviews, historical periods, differences in language and culture, each student of religion must be prepared to turn themselves into objects of study, always remembering that some portion of the mind goes unexamined.

Students will often talk about ‘being objective’ or ‘having an open mind’, but it is fairly common to see beginners and veterans alike struggling with their assumptions and stumbling over their blind spots.

People’s approach to the study of religion usually reflects their personal interests: the topics they focus on, the information they see as significant, the relevance they find in particular ritual or philosophical elements of particular religions. Their bias warps their reception of other people’s beliefs. At the same time, this bias is the basis of their desire to study religion. The passion and commitment required depend on the student’s understanding of what is valuable and interesting about religion.

The real difference, I think, between doing confessional research into your own religion (Sunday school, seminary, etc…) and the study of religion from a social scientific perspective lies in the constant challenge to acquire an understanding of beliefs that you do not hold. You may use psychological theory, a critical historical method, perform ethnographic research, but in the end you are attempting to communicate with some distant individual, or community, and learn about their beliefs. This dialogue requires self-knowledge.

Ninian Smart called his approach to religious studies ‘methodological agnosticism’. This stance describes the scholar who, ignorant of the actual truth of any religious claims, approaches every such claim with respectful suspicion.

This is an accurate description of the appropriate approach to the academic study of religions, I think. The student, whatever her level of study, needs to recognize the level of uncertainty in the information she possesses, not just about religion but about the ‘truth of things’. This recognition of our lack of knowledge about the ‘truth of things’ is what creates the possibility of taking other people’s beliefs and practices seriously.

Although we cannot remove our biases, and ignoring them is not safe, we should attempt to grow in our awareness of the impact of our biases on our program of study. We should attempt to take seriously Socrates’ observation: "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."

This is not a thing you learn once. There is no safety from personal bias at any point in religious studies.