Scientific

The scientific study of the history of the religions of both the ancient and modern world began relatively recently. Almost until the beginning of the nineteenth century, scholars do not seem to have fully accepted the idea that the numerous religions professed and professed by various peoples deserve to be the subject of independent historical study. The reason for this was partly due to the religious intolerance that Europeans often found before the beginning of the last century in relation to all non-Christian religions. There can be only one religious truth, and it is fully expressed in Christianity; all other religions, especially pagan ones, are a crude superstition, which is least worthy of scientific study: this is the point of view that was then guided. The study of false religions seemed to be something sinful, a kind of betrayal of Christianity; here they even saw a danger for weak and unstable souls, who may, they say, be carried away by the fatal lies of paganism.

But even apart from these religious reasons, the history of religions up to the last century could not be the subject of a special independent science due to the lack of proper material. The brief information contained in the writings of Greek and Roman writers on the religious beliefs of the ancient peoples was too scanty, fragmentary, and not scientifically reliable material to be used for a strictly scientific account of the history of religions.

Only since the last century began a friendly and painstaking work on the study of religious monuments of various peoples. The rich religious writing of the Hindus, Chinese, ancient Persians, Buddhists, not to mention the Greeks and Romans, was translated into European languages, systematized and covered by a variety of historical references. The application of the method of natural Sciences in this area has yielded the most fruitful results; the way of careful analysis and study of the most minute details relating to a particular religion, led to the fact that, perhaps, the ancient Confessors themselves, for example, the Vedic religion, did not have such a thorough acquaintance with their religious beliefs, which have reached our modern researchers of Vedic literature.