“‘God(s)’ as a Comparative Category”

In this paper we argue that, despite the fact that the term ‘god’ may be used effectively as a comparative concept in the study of religion within narrowly circumscribed contexts, the risks of doing so as a broad cross-cultural category outweigh any possible benefits. We advance an account of the kind of meaning that complex concepts, like ‘god’, have. This account guarantees a risk that certain further concepts that are associated with ‘god’ in some cultural contexts will be illicitly transferred to its use in others. The centrality of ‘god’ in western and Christian contexts makes this risk particularly acute, to the point of not being worth the trouble.