Abstract

In the field of religious studies, like any other field, the development of each phenomenon is due to one or some causes. Scientific inquiries into the issue of religious experience, a relatively new phenomenon, are not exceptions in this regard, and various factors have played a role in their development. They include harsh attacks against natural theology, Protestants' views and their conflicts with Catholics, their critique of the Scripture, the influence of Lord Herbert and those who were of the same mind with him, and the impacts of Enlightenment philosophy, idealism, Romantism and Pietism, and Kant's ideas.