Religion: autonomous, specific or subjected field of study? Reflections on the History of Religions drawn upon the Protestant Reformation

Abstract

Based on analyses regarding different approaches to the relationship between history and religion, the present study aims to comprehend to what extent religion can be considered an autonomous and specific field of study, i.e., we seek to investigate whether religion has a specific epistemology or if it should be under the scope of culture. By considering history a discipline, is religion disconnected or subjected to Cultural History? To illustrate such dillema its possible ramifications, we draw on the Protest Reformation to better understand how the religious dimension, mainly the iconoclasm during the Reformation, and the impacts of the different conceptions of religions at that time were perceived by hagiography.