Mircea Eliade's The Sacred and the Profane and James George Frazer's The Golden Bough have been profoundly criticized for being Perennialist. The Perennial Philosophy sought unity among religious experiences, mythologies, practices, and systems. For example, the concept of the "dying god" and its "eternal return" seems to be found as a repeated theme through many religious and cultural traditions. However, the problem with comparison in religious studies, as Johnathan Z Smith famously pointed out is that it tends to flatten real difference. Giles Deleuze perhaps put this problem best when he described the loss of divergence's intensity or vivacity when difference's divergence is flatten in the procrustean bed of a concept acting as mold. Let's explore whether comparative religions is a doomed endeavor, or if there is perhaps some fruit that can be grasped when one experience, mythology, practice, or system is compared to another.

Trying Too Hard