Weakness

But the youth of science is not yet a sign of its weakness. Judging from the rich results achieved by the history of religions in such a short time, it is hoped that the new science promises to grow into a fruitful field of human knowledge. The attention of scientists is more and more focused on it; new research is growing. We can confidently say that in the near future its success will be even more noticeable due to the fact that many foreign universities have opened a special Department for new science.

§2. The task of science
The General task of the history of religions is clear in itself; it is to illuminate historically such a large phenomenon of human life as religion. But the most particular problems of historical study of the religions of different peoples were not always the same. We are not talking about unscientific attempts to construct the history of religions in such a way that it confirms pre-planned positions; here the goals are not scientific, but rather purely practical. With regard to such attempts, it is only necessary to say that all science ceases to be a science if it renounces purely scientific tasks, and even more so-from scientific impartiality.

But even with a purely scientific construction of the history of religions, its tasks may be different. When the only thing even originated the interest in the study of religions both ancient and new world, scientists could not ignore the fact that between religions of different peoples who lived and developed independently from each other and under very different conditions, you can always find a similarity in ideas about God, world and man, and in religious forms of worshiping God. Therefore, scientists who have devoted themselves to the study of religions, at first set out to make a careful comparison and comparison of all religions, to indicate both similar and different from each other beliefs and religious rites. And science itself was then mostly called ” Comparative history of religions.” At present, this comparative method seems to be out of date; but it brought its share of scientific benefit: thanks to it the principle of unity of religion was firmly established, which served as the main starting point for further scientific conclusions and the establishment of the laws of religious development.