JSPES, Vol. 40, Nos. 1-2 (Spring-Summer 2015)
pp. 97–116

Towards a Religious Studies that is Less Religious: The 'Words Against Death' Model and the Need for a Genuine 'Science' of Religion

Edward Dutton

University of Oulu, Finland

The discipline of Religious Studies is shown to be, to a great extent, a form of extreme liberal theology. It is argued that the entire discipline would benefit from adopting scientific vocabulary, assumptions, and standards - Wilson's 'consilience' model. This is illustrated by exploring a prominent Religious Studies 'theory' in depth. Accordingly, a critique of Douglas Davies' 'Words Against Death' model of the human response to death is presented. The logical and conceptual difficulties with it are highlighted, as are the aspects of it which are accurate, and it is shown that a consilient version of the 'theory' would be persuasive and a contribution to knowledge.