In this essay an overview of the theoretical issues pertaining to the collection of essays assembled is given. Addressing the issue of dizversity in religions and in the study of religion the argument is made that religions as lived phenomena constitute discursive formations in which diversity as a problem is an index of encounter. However it is especially the way this strategy of reducing the many to the one in the history of theorising religion that comes in view. In this context, the political nature of religion as discourse and the discourse of the study of religion is discussed with particular reference to the history of Christianisation of South Africa, religion in education, and the history of theorising religion. In this essay an overview of the theoretical issues pertaining to the collection of essays assembled is given. Addressing the issue of dizversity in religions and in the study of religion the argument is made that religions as lived phenomena constitute discursive formations in which diversity as a problem is an index of encounter. However it is especially the way this strategy of reducing the many to the one in the history of theorising religion that comes in view. In this context, the political nature of religion as discourse and the discourse of the study of religion is discussed with particular reference to the history of Christianisation of South Africa, religion in education, and the history of theorising religion.