Dr. Ricards
4.0 RS2 Outline for Test 1
Study and History of Religion
I.THE STUDY OF RELIGION
A. Introduction
1. What is Religion?
2. Working definition: A human seeking of and responding to
what is experienced as “holy/sacred”
B. Approaches to the Study of Religion:
1. ETIC
2. EMIC
C. Similarities among Religions
1. Substantive (Essential): a. There is a Holy Reality.
b. Human Fulfillment comes by being in
harmony or subordination to that Reality
1. Search for ultimate value
2. Analysis of the human condition
3. Effort to find final well-being
c. Belief in the reality of a fundamental
moral order
2. Functional: Emotional, Social, Intellectual
3. Formal: Conceptual, Performative, Social
D. Types
1.
2.
3.
4.
of Religion
Cosmic
Acosmic
Historical
Mixed Types
II.THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS
A. Issues concerning the origins of religion
1. Anthropological theories: Tylor & Animism; Codrington & Marret: Mana
2. Sociological Theories: Durckheim & Totemism
3. Psychological Theories: Freud: “The Primal Scene”
B. Critiques of A.
C. Issues in the evolutionary explanation of religion
1. J. G. Frazier: ages of "magic, religion, science"
2. Other theories: Goddess theory; “entheogenic” plants
D. Critiques of C.
E. Robert Bellah’s Neo-Evolutionary Classification
1. Primal
2. Archaic
3. Classical
4. Modern