David Thornton - Religious Educational Bias

“A good many historians of religions are so absorbed in their special studies that they know little more about the Greek or Egyptian mythologies, or the Buddha’s teaching, or the Taoist or shamanic techniques, than any amateur who has known how to direct his reading. Most of them are really familiar with only one poor little sector of the immense domain of religious history.” (Eliade's Images and Symbols page 27)

-Eliade shows the insightful point that many historians or people who think they have an understanding of religion by knowing of the religion they believe in, are narrowly educated in the realm of historical religious studies. Greater understanding of one’s own religion comes from a comparative view of man’s religious history. Deemphasizing mythological history whether because of it’s “pagan” or “heretical” attributes only presents the individual with a narrow minded view of the religion in its relation to other people’s and culture’s beliefs. Eliade goes on in his writing to discuss the effect this has on the modern individual’s deciphering of historical mythology. If a person’s “religious education” is so narrowly pursued, then their interpretation of other mythologies and theologies will in turn be somewhat biased due to educational inclination and past focus. I have certainly experienced this which is why I find Eliade so insightful because I grew up in a reformed PCA church in which my parents required me to attend. This religious background before I came to college inhibited a clear understanding of different mythologies and their significance because I had only been educated from a Christian religious perspective in which ancient Greeks or Egyptians mythologies were heretical and inherently misleading to the modern Christian individual. Whether it be polytheistic views of ancients of ideas of mysticism, I was basically brought up to denounce these things. This class has not led me to accept them as truth, but it has given me a greater perspective towards appreciating and understanding the historical beginnings of my own beliefs.