purpose: religion is one of the most thrilling and radical studies in college and wants to share the validity and radical excitement of pursuing → wants students to understand comparison and how it plays such a strong role in not only religion, but any major or aspect of life

goal: share the perspective of humanities (especially religion) being of the same level, or even more advanced than stem counterparts ! wants to CHALLENGE readers perspectives

author: an educator in religion who appears frustrated by the publics view on the field

audience:

FOUR STAGES OF COMPARISON

1. negotiation of sameness/difference in set of observations
2. identification of patterns in data set
3. construction of a classificatory scheme that organizes patterns into meaningful whole
4. theory to explain patterns

sometimes sameness is justice, sometimes sameness is deadly

much of human failue lies in the ability to maintain a sense of balance in comparisons

diffusion theory- idea religious complex in one place came from another and religion "spreads out"

polytheism accepted that there were different names for gods, different features but in a way