We can characterize approaches that concern themselves with both religion and science in terms of the questions they ask, the presuppositions they bring to their research, the methods that they use to study religion, and the range of scientific topics that they typically engage.

1. Questions: We can distinguish between two broad kinds of questions that inform scholarly research: (1) Questions about how religion and science have related, are related, or should relate. How, for example, can or should religious and scientific perspectives on topics, such as human origins, human nature (anthropology), or cosmology relate in the present? How have religion and scientific perspectives on various topics been related in the past? Questions such as these generally fall under the heading of science and religion. (2) Questions about how religion can be or has been understood scientifically. How might we best understand religion scientifically, e.g. from the standpoint of biology, evolution, human development, cognitive processes, social interactions, and cultural developments? How has religion been understood scientifically in the past? Questions such as these generally fall under the heading of the scientific study of religion (or science of religion).
   

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3. Methods and presuppositions: Researchers and programs that focus on how science and religion are or should be related typically emphasize the importance of dialogue between scientific and religious / philosophical perspectives. Students typically are trained in philosophical and/or theological methods of reflection and expected to acquire familiarity with a range of religious, philosophical, and scientific perspectives. Researchers and programs that focus on the scientific study of religion typically adopt the naturalistic presuppositions of scientific study more generally and utilize one or more empirical methods for studying religion (e.g., experimental, survey, ethnographic, and/or historical). Researchers and programs that emphasize the history of either science and religion or the scientific study of religion utilize historical methods and may engage critical theoretical perspectives that have emerged from science studies.
   

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5. Range of scientific topics: We can distinguish between religion-based programs that engage a wide range of scientific topics, e.g., cosmology, geology, evolution, and cognitive sciences, and those that are more focused on the mind and its development.
   

The training in the study of religion differs within the science of religion programs, depending on their disciplinary base:

Programmes with a base religious studies that emphasize historical and ethnographic methods, emphasize theory and method in the study of religion, and provide in depth training in an area or tradition with accompanying language study, e.g. UCSB, Aarhus.

Programmes with a base in area studies, history, or anthropology that support the study of religion often without explicit support for thinking about theory and method in the study of religion more generally, e.g. British Columbia (Asian Studies), Belfast (Anthro/Psych) and Oxford (Anthropology).

Programmes with a base in sociology or psychology that support the study of religion from a particular methodological perspective, e.g., ethnographic, survey, experimental, again typically without explicit support for either thinking about theory and method in the study of religion in-depth study of particular areas or traditions, e.g., British Columbia (psychology), Santa Barbara (psychology).

This section provides information on programmes, journals, and conferences that focus on the scientific study of religion (i.e., science of religion) as it relates to cognition (or more broadly the brain, mind, culture interface) utilizing a range of empirical methodologies (e.g., experimental, ethnographic, historical).