Cognitive historiography and the history of religions

This article explores the history of religions as a proper historiographical enterprise (rather than as a synonym for the academic study of religion, religious studies, etc.). It suggests the promises and perils of traditional historiographic methods and proposes the way in which cognitive scientific theory might augment and provide a corrective for those methods. It also proposes a stipulation for the category of “religion” as a kind of cross-cultural human behavior that can serve as the object of historical studies.