Jain Journal 1974 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 96

The Place and Importance of Jainism in the Comparative Science of Religions
O. PERTOLD
The comparative science of religions is a new science, which has been started by the great Sanskrit scholar, Professor Max Mueller. Its roots, however, are already in the English philosophical system, which is called deism, and in the German religious philosophy of the 18th century A.D. But Max Mueller brought a system into it, and developed it into a quite separate branch of human knowledge.1 After Max Mueller many scholars, especially Oriental scholars, of the continental universities worked further on the new science. The most important of them is C.P. Tiele, late professor at the university of Leyden in Holland, who rebuilt the whole science of religions and created a real foundation of the theoretical investigation of religion. While the comparative science of religions has been studied on the continent as a branch of the Oriental studies, it was conceived as a special science since the very beginning in Great Britain, where two advanced gentlemen have started special institution for promoting this new science, which were the Hibbert lectures in England and the Gifford lectures in Scotland.3
The aim of this new science is to get a thorough knowledge of all religions in the world, to classify them, to find out what is the real and essential substance of religion in general, and show what of the so-called
The Comparative Science of Religions has been established by his books Origin and Growth of Religion and Introduction to the Science of Religion, and further developed in his Gifford lectures, viz. 'Natural Religion', 'Physical Religion', 'Anthropological Religion', and 'Theosophy'. But still more important for the science of religions are his translations of Indian scriptures from Sanskrit into English, and his Sacred Books of the East, where most of these translations have been published. Cornelius P. Tiele (b. 1830 in Leyden, d. 1910). He has given a system of the theory of the science of religions in his Gifford lectures Elements of the Science of Religion, 2 vols., Edinbourgh 1827. His further books on the religions, which have been translated into English are : Outlines of the History of the Religion to the spread of the Universal Religions, London 1877, History of the Egyptian Religion, London 1882, Western Asia according to the most Recent Discoveries, London 1893, and Religon of the Iranian Peoples (only part 2 translated into English by Mr. Nariman), Bombay 1919. The first Gifford lecturer has been Max Mueller and his first lecture 'Natural Religion'.