Upon finishing my first sections of readings from each of the two texts it has become increasingly apparent that my personal way of looking at religion and how it affects and is affected by the outside world fits much more closely with the Phenomenological method used in The Sacred Quest than Nye’s method of understanding. The Phenomenological approach, the one being used in The Sacred Quest, means looking at religion through the eyes of someone that is religious while Malory Nye believes that, “The study of religion is primarily concerned with people and cultures” (Nye 2).  Although I concede that religion often shapes and is shaped by the world happening around it, studying the events that could have had an impact on the religion is taking an outsiders role looking onto the surface whereas if one were to take the view of someone who practices that religion you would be able to better understand not only how but why these events helped to shape the religion. I personally have no shame in admitting that I am hardly a religious person so for the majority of my life I have been taking the approach of seeing how events shape religion from an outsiders view, just as in Nye’s book, so this Phenomenological approach offered up in The Sacred Quest seems like a more fresh and interesting way of looking at things.