Al Faruqi's Methodology of Studying Religion and Its Applicability: A Case Study of the Akan Religion

This thesis focuses on Al Faruqi’s method on the study of religious phenomena which has been developed in his book entitled “Christian Ethics”. The prime objective is to apply his method on the study of African Traditional Religion. It exposed and examined the usefulness of Al Faruqi’s methods of studying religion, specifically, the principles of disengagement; theoretical principles, and meta-religion, in relation to the Akan religion in Ghana. Information’s about the Akan religion in this study however was based primarily on a set of texts published in the 21st c. in English by native intellectuals. Though the study on one side argued that, Al Faruqi’s methods just like any other method of studying religion cannot be said to be free from some forms of criticism, on the other side, it pointed out that, the method’s tremendous contribution to the study of religion in general cannot as well be undermined. The study in its attempt to apply Al Faruqi’s methods - jointly via, a descriptive, comparative, interpretative and exegetical methods - highlighted how his principles contribute to the understanding of the Akan religion in Ghana. And as such, it has been envisaged that, this work will help readers appreciate the uniqueness of Al Faruqi’s methodology of studying religion, and as well, discover how his method can be applied in studying African Traditional Religion in general.