The purpose of this study is to search for a development of ’religionswissenschaft’ and a ’comparative study' in this process. Also, t비s paper seeks to evaluate three tasks related to the comparative study of religion. The ’sience’ of religion began with F. Max Miiller(1823-1900 Germany/UK). He emphasized the comparative study between various religions and the quoted words of Goethe, "He who knows one, knows none". The science of religion was developed by Comelius P. Tiele(1830-1902) and Pierre D. Chantepie de la Saussaye(1848-1920). Saussaye used the term ’phenornenology of religion' at first instead of the ’comparative study of religion'. The ’phenomenology of religion is a boundary or middle position between the history of religion and the philosophy of religion. Nathan Söderblom(1866-1931) attempted a phenornenological study on religion and settled for providing a good example to bring harmony between the comparative study of religion and theology. Rudolf Otto(1869-1937) brought to a focus the comparative study between Hinduism and Christianity. W. Brede Kristensen (1867- 1953) rejected the evolutional comparative study on religions and emphasized an objective survey considered from phenomenology. Mircea Eliade(1907 - ) understood the liturgy of religion as ’hierophany’ which means the apearance of God. He reached the peak of the typological study on religions. Raffaelo Pettazzoni (1883-1959) emphasized the combination of the history of religion and phenomenology for two types of religions. Wtlfred Cantwell Srnith(1916 - ) attempted a personal approach on religions and divided them into curnulative tradition and faith. He gave a definition of faith as the ’universal hurnan guality' and emphasized the importance of dialogue on the comparative study of religion. Ths paper suggested three useful tasks regarding a comparative study of religion. First, syncretism is the ’deskriptivphänomenologisch’ terrninology used in the scientific area of religion but this term brought about a negative meaning in the area of theology. Secondly, dialogue among living various living religious believers is very useful for understanding other people. Thrdly, continuity and discontinuity between the Gopel and non-Christian faith is actually a rnajα issue in the plurality of religions in the world.

• Eun-Soo Kim(전주대학교 교수/기독교학부) | 김은수