REL 100
“INTRODUCTION TO
RELIGIOUS
STUDIES”
Dr. Steven Leonard Jacobs
Aaron Aronov Endowed Chair of
Judaic Studies
&
Associate Professor of
Religious Studies
© 2007
What is the
Academic Study
of Religion?
The Academic Study of
Religion is
Cross-Disciplinary
&
Cross-Cultural
The Academic Study of
Religion is
Anthropological:
Descriptive (“Is”) vs.
Normative (“Ought”)
The Academic Study of
Religion
Requires the Practical Skills of
Interpretation, Translation,
Understanding, & Analysis
The Academic Study of
Religion
Organizes, Systematizes,
Compares, Redescribes, &
Analyzes the Data
The Academic Study of
Religion
Requires Knowledge of:
Anthropology, Economics, History,
Language, Linguistics, Literature,
Philosophy, Political Science,
Psychology, Sociology, Theology
Professor Martin S. Jaffee, University of
Washington (Seattle, WA) on
“the mission of religious studies:”
“…the core or foundational mission of religious studies
is one of skepticism; one should not rest content,
therefore, with received truths or surface meaning, but
should treat all texts as constructions generated by
multiple interests and capable of multiple meanings.”
“Personal Self-Disclosure, Religious Studies
Pedagogy, and the Skeptical Mission of the Public
University,” Public Lecture, The University of Alabama,
4 November 2002.
Ring, et. al. on
“Studying Religion”
“The modern critical study of religion looks
not only to the positive contributions that
religion has made, but also to the suffering it
has caused and the destruction it has
wrought.”
Nancy C. Ring, Kathleen S. Nash, Mary N. MacDonald, Fred
Glennon, Jennifer A. Glancy (1998), Introduction to the Study
of Religion (Maryknoll: Orbis Books), 59.
Wilfred Cantwell Smith on
“Comparative Religion”
“…it is the business of comparative religion to
construct statements about religion that are
intelligible within at least two traditions
simultaneously.”
Wilfred Cantwell Smith (1959), “Comparative
Religion: Whither – and Why?”
“Dr. Jacobs’ ‘Mantra’”
THIS IS
NOT
SUNDAY SCHOOL!
The Academic Study of
Religion – Problem!
The Question of
Authority
Russell T. McCutcheon (1999), “Theoretical
Background: Insiders, Outsiders, and The Scholar of
Religion”
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
“Which Perspective is Authoritative”
Which viewpoint is to be authorized?
Is etic scholarship to be judged by the informant?
Is the informant to be judged by the comparative
conclusions reached by the observer?
Does scholarship operate apart from the concerns of
insiders, or is it intimately connected to their lives?
Is the goal of scholarship on human behavior, belief,
and institutions to have the people whom we are
studying agree with our conclusions and
generalizations, or, is it, instead, the goal of developing
logical, scientific theories on why it is that humans do
this or that in the first place, regardless of what they
think?
To whom do scholars of human behavior answer?
The Academic Study of
Religion – Problem!
The Question of
Definition
According to Professor W. Richard Comstock
(University of California, Santa Barbara, 1986),
a definition is
“…nothing more than a brief text
initiating an open set of interconnected
texts providing the linguistic context
through which the sense of the word to
be defined receives specification and
clarification.”
Émile Durkheim on
“Religion”
“A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices
relative to sacred things, that is to say, things that are
set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which
unite into one single moral community called a Church
[sic] all those who adhere to them.”
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912)
According to Professor Clifford Geertz
(Princeton University, Princeton, NJ),
a religion is
“…a system of symbols which acts to
establish powerful, pervasive, and longlasting moods and motivations in men [sic] by
formulating conceptions of a general order of
existence and clothing those conceptions with
such an aura of factuality that the moods and
motivations seem uniquely realistic.”
(1966)
Ring, et. al. on
“Religion”
“As an abstract noun, ‘religion’ signifies a human
propensity to seek order and meaning within the
mystery of life. By ‘a religion’ or ‘religions’ we mean
particular traditions…which in their constellations of
ideas and practices provide order and meaning for
their followers, connecting them to what are considered
the ultimate powers of life.”
Introduction to the Study of Religion, 1998, 2-3.
Ring, et. al. on
“Religions”
(cont.)
“Religions, we could say, are systems of symbols in
which the ideals, the aspirations, and the experiences
of a community is represented…Religions express the
human desire to understand and to engage the power
of life…Religions suggest that this world of the senses,
with all its unsatisfactory aspects, is not all that there
is.”
Introduction to the Study of Religion, 1998, 13, 32; 34.
Ring, et. al. on
“Religion”
(cont.)
“’Religion’ is a term that ordinary people use when they
talk about gaining access to whatever it is they
consider ultimately life-giving…’religion’ is a term that
scholars use when they study people’s ideas and
practices concerning whatever they consider lifegiving.”
Introduction to the Study of Religion, 1998, 58.
Ring, et. al. on
“Defining Religion”
(1)
(2)
“Religion is awareness expressed through
symbols of relationship to, or participation in, the
fundamental power of life.
“Religions are symbol systems which facilitate
relationship to, or participation in, what the
members understand to be the fundamental
power of life.”
Introduction to the Study of Religion, 1998, 62.
According to Professor Jonathan Z. Smith
(University of Chicago, IL)
religion is
“…solely the creation of the scholar’s
study. It is created for the scholar’s
analytic purposes by his [sic]
imaginative acts of comparison and
generalization. Religion has no
independent existence apart from the
academy.”
(1982)
According to Professor Mark C. Taylor
(Williams College, Boston, MA),
religion is
“…a complex adaptive network of
myths, symbols, rituals, and
concepts that simultaneously
figure patterns of feeling, thinking,
and acting, and disrupt stable
structures of meaning and
purpose.”
(2004)
???QUESTION???
What are “NRMs”* and How are They to
be Defined?
e.g. Ahmadis, Brahma Kumaris, Cao
Dai, Raëlians, Soka Gakkai, Umbanda
*(New Religious Movements)
According to Walter H. Martin, et. al. (2003),
The Kingdom of the Cults (Minneapolis:
Bethany House):
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
(12)
(13)
(14)
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Mormons
Christian Scientists
Theosophical Society
Buddhism
Baha’i
New Age
Unification Church
Scientology
Eastern Religions
World Wide Church of God
Seventh-Day Adventists
Islam
Unitarian Universalists
The Academic Study of
Religion – Problem!
“Insider” vs. “Outsider”
“Emic” vs. “Etic”
The Academic Study of
Religion – Problem!
Insiders & Outsiders
in
Conversation
The Academic Study of
Religion – Problem!
The Study of Religion in
the Secular, State
University
Context, Setting
The Academic Study of
Religion -- Problem!
The Study of Religion
versus
Theology
The Academic Study of
Religion – Problem!
The Question
Of
TRUTH
According to Professor Stanley Fish,
Dean Emeritus, University of Illinois
Chicago
“…it is one thing to take religion as an
object of study, and another to take
religion seriously. To take religion
seriously would be to regard it not as a
phenomenon to be analyzed at arm’s
length, but as a candidate for truth.”
(2005)
Jacob Neusner on
“Faith and Scholarship”
(1) How does the practitioner of a faith
negotiate the conflicts between the
affirmations of the tradition and the
results of critical analysis?
(2) How does one understand his/her
position vis-à-vis one’s readers and
students?
Jacob Neusner on
“Faith and Scholarship”
(cont.)
(3) How does one avoid that which is
“unseemly” – apologetics – through
suppressing what contradicts
contemporary sensibility?
(4) Is there no place in departments of
religious studies for the
representation of conviction, or
should faith be left off campus?
Jacob Neusner on
“Faith and Scholarship”
(5) Where are the acute, not
merely chronic, tensions between
faith and scholarship?
Jacob Neusner on
“Faith and Scholarship”
Answer:
Two unremitting sources of controversy:
(a) The political problem is not to be ignored.
(b) The cultural problem derives from the premise
that the academic study of religion that Judaism
is a religion to be studied like any other religion,
compared and contrasted as well.
Jacob Neusner (2005), “Opinion: Faith and
Scholarship,” The National Jewish Post and
Opinion, February 23: 12.
Dr. Tim Murphy, Assistant Professor. Department of
Religious Studies, The University of Alabama, on
THEORY
(1)
What is THEORY?
Characterized by jargon, clarity, technical, formal,
abstract, set of concepts to explain and
understand, observable, testable, evaluative,
explicit, critical phenomena
Professor T. Murphy (cont.)
• (2) What does THEORY study?
• Objects of belief;
• Relationship(s) between subject and
object (i.e. believer and “God”);
• Behaviors that define that relationship
Professor T. Murphy (cont.)
• (3) Types of THEORY:
• >Explanatory: Why? Questions of
causality? (N.B. Functionalism is a set of
assumptions that reinforce social norms.)
• >Interpretive: Theories of meaning
culturally specific; universal (N.B.
Hermeneutics is the science of
interpretation.)
Professor T. Murphy (cont.)
• (4) Conceptual Dimension of THEORY:
• THEORY as Critical Thinking
• -----------------------------------------------• Thus, the work of the academic study of
religion is that of the focused intellect.
Daniel L. Pals,
Seven (Eight) Theories of Religion
• Introduction
• “…the business of defining religion is
closely linked to the enterprise of
explaining it.”
• “…the matter of definitions is
considerably more difficult than
common sense, at first look, would
have lead us to believe.” (pg. 12)
Pals (cont.)
• Introduction (cont.)
• “Theories of religion, no less than
definitions, may also be either functional or
substantive in character.”
• “…with theories of religion no less than
with definitions, the seemingly simple often
masks the deceptively complex.” (pg. 13)
“Animism and Magic:
E. B. T. Tylor & J. G. Frazer
• “…the description (ethnography) and
scientific analysis (ethnology) of an
individual society, cultural or racial group
in all of its many component parts.” (pg.
18)
• “…the scientific study of [hu]mankind
(anthropology) (pg. 19)
Tylor & Frazer (cont.)
• “…two great laws of culture come clearly
into view:
• #1: the principle of psychic unity, or
uniformity, within the human race;
• #2: the pattern of intellectual evolution, or
improvement, over time.” (pg. 20)
Tylor & Frazer (cont.)
• “…any organized community or culture
must be understood as a whole;”
• “the complex systems must be explored
scientifically.”
• ----------------------------------------------------• “…the ethnologist gathers facts, classifies,
and compares them and searches for
underlying principles what [s]he has
found.” (pg. 20)
Tylor & Frazer (cont.)
• “…religion is ‘belief in spiritual beings.”
• “the essence of religion, like mythology, seems to be
animism – the belief in living, personal powers behind all
things.”
• He (Tylor) insists that any account of how a human
being, or the whole human race, came to belief in
spiritual beings must appeal only to natural causes, only
to considerations or the kind that scientists and
historians would use in explaining an occurrence of any
sort, nonreligious as well as religious.” (pg. 24)
Tylor & Frazer (cont.)
• “Like their myths, their religious teachings arise
from a rational effort to explain how nature
worked as it did.” (pg. 25)
• “If one asks why, across almost all cultures, the
gods have human personalities, the answer is
that they are spirits modeled on the souls of
human persons.” (pg. 26)
• “In the end, then, :Tylor’s theory provides a
mixed portrait of religion and its development.”
(pg. 28)
Tylor & Frazer (cont.)
• (Frazer)
• “…primitive thinking is in fact governed not by one but
by two quite difference systems of ideas: the one is
magic, the other religion. Understanding both of
these, and the connection between them, is the key
that offers entry into the primitive mind.” (pg. 34)
• “Magic is built on the assumption that once a proper
ritual or action is completed, its natural effects must
occur as prescribed.” (pg. 35)
Tylor & Frazer (cont.)
• “Magic cannot work because the primitive
magician is simply wrong.
• “…religious people claim that the real powers behind the
natural world are not principles at all; they are
personalities…ultimately it is the personalities of the
gods that control nature.” (pg. 36)
• “…this turn to religion should be read as a sing of
progress…Religion actually improves on magic and
marks an advance for the human race…religious
explanations are found to be better than magical ones in
describing the world as we actually experience it.” (pg.
37)
Tylor & Frazer (cont.)
• “This great fund of information which
Frazer had at his disposal gave him
great confidence in the scientific merits
of this theory, and with it, his account
of the origin of religion.” (pp. 43-44)
“Religion and Personality:”
Sigmund Freud
• “Human beings are often driven by contradictory
feelings of both love and aggression directed
toward the same object or person.” (pg. 55)
• “…one of his concerns is to find the place of
religious belief in the sequence of normal
growth.” (pg. 63)
• “Freud found no reason to believe in God
and therefore saw no value or purpose in the
rituals of religious life.” (pg. 65)
Freud (cont.)
• “Like Tylor and Frazer, Freud is certain that
religious beliefs are erroneous; they are
superstitions.” (pg. 65)
• “…religious behavior always resembles mental
illness.” (pg. 66)
• “Religious teachings, therefore,…are ideas
whose main feature is that we dearly want them
to be true…religious beliefs are in the end
delusions…they cannot pass the test of the
scientific method…the only way we have of
reliably telling us what is true and what is not.”
(pg. 72)
Freud (cont.)
• “Religion that persists into the present age
of human history can only be a sign of
illness; to begin to leave it behind is the
first signal of health.” (pg. 72)
• “…the real power of religions is to be
found beyond their doctrines, in the deep
psychological needs they fill and the
unconscious emotions they express.” (pg.
77)
“Society as Sacred:
Émile Durkheim”
• “…the central importance of society – of social
structures, relationships, and institutions – in
understanding human through and behavior.” (pg. 88)
• “For Durkheim, religion and society are inseparable
and – to each other – virtually indispensable.” (pg.
89)
• “…morality, the obligation of each to others and all to the
standards of the group, is inseparable from religion.”
(pg. 95)
• “…religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices
relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart
and forbidden.” (pg. 99)
Durkheim (cont.)
• “…these practices unite into one moral community,
called a church [sic], all who adhere to them.” (pg. 99)
• For Durkheim, the critical distinction is between the
‘sacred’ and the ‘profane’. (SLJ)
• “The totem…is simultaneously the symbol of both the
god and the clan, because the god and the clan are
really the same thing!” (pg. 104)
• “…worship of the totem is nothing less than worship of
society itself.” (pg. 105)
• “Religious beliefs and rituals are in the last analysis
symbolic expressions of social realities.” (pgs. 108-109)
Durkheim (cont.)
• “Worship of the totem is really a statement of loyalty to
the clan.” (pg. 109)
• “The function of rituals, which are more fundamental
than beliefs, is to provide occasions where individuals
renew their commitment to the community, reminding
themselves in the most solemn fashion that they depend
on the clan, just as it depends on them.” (pg. 109)
• “Originally, there were no gods to command a ritual;
there was only the ritual, which over time itself created
the gods.” (pg. 110)
• “Whatever the mood of society, the rites of religion will
invariably reflect and reinforce it.” (pg. 110)
Durkheim (cont.)
• “Religion’s true purpose is not intellectual
but social. It serves as the carrier of social
sentiments, providing symbols and rituals
that enable people to express the deep
emotions which anchor them to their
community.” (pg. 111)
“Religion as Alienation:
Karl Marx”
• “…as the shaper of communism, he presents us less
with a theory of religion than a total system of
thought that itself resembles a religion.” (pg. 125)
• “…because Marx’s philosophy is so far-reaching,
what he offers as a ‘theory’ of traditional religion
makes up a rather small – and not necessarily
central – part of this thinking.” (pg. 125)
• “Economic realities determine human behavior.
• Human history is the story of class struggle” (pg. 127)
• “The institutions we associate with cultural life…must be
understood as structures whose main role is to contain
or provide a controlled release for the deep, bitter
tensions that arise from the clash between the powerful
and the powerless.” (pg. 136)
Marx (cont.)
• “In each age of the past, ethical leaders…have
helped to control the poor simply by preaching to
them, by telling them what is right and what is
wrong.” (pg. 137)
• “It is capitalism that leads the rising middle
class to adopt a new form of religion,
Protestantism, which is much better suited to
its interests in trade, investment, and individual
enterprise.” (pg. 138)
• “Religion, he says, is pure illusion. Worse, it
is an illusion with most definitely evil
consequences.” (pg. 138)
Marx (cont.)
• “…religion is so fully determined by economics that it is
pointless to consider any of its doctrines or beliefs on
their own merits.” (pg. 138)
• “…no thinker considered in this book…discusses
religion in quite the same mood of sarcastic
contempt as that of Marx.” (pg. 139)
• “The alienation evident in religion is therefore to be seen
as a reflection, a mirror image of the real and underlying
alienation of humanity, which is economic and material
rather than spiritual.” (pg. 141)
• “…it [religion] is pure escapism…it is also fundamentally
destructive.” (pg. 142)
Marx (cont.)
• “Religion’s role in history has been to offer
a divine justification for the status quo, for
life just as we find it.” (pg. 142)
• “For him, belief in God and in some
heavenly salvation is not just an
illusion, it is an illusion that paralyzes
and imprisons.” (pg. 143)
• “…religion, for all its evil doings, really
does not matter very much.” (pg. 143)
“The Reality of the Sacred:
Mircea Eliade”
• “…life can be changed by what he
called ‘sacramental experience.’” (pg.
159)
• “…symbols are the key to any truly
spiritual life.” (pg. 16)
Eliade (cont.)
• “The profane is the realm of everyday business
– of things ordinary, random, and largely
unimportant. The sacred is just the opposite. It
is the sphere of the supernatural, of things
extraordinary, memorable and momentous.
While the profane is vanishing and fragile, full of
shadows, the sacred is eternal, full of substance
and reality. The profane is the arena of human
affairs, which are changeable and often chaotic;
the sacred is the sphere of order and perfection,
the home of the ancestors, heroes, and gods.”
(pg. 163-164)
Eliade (cont.)
• “The language of the sacred is to be found
in symbols and in myths…A myth is not
just one image or sign; it is a sequence of
images put into the shape of a story. It
tells of the gods, of the ancestors or
heroes, and their world of the
supernatural.” (pg. 169)
Eliade (cont.)
• “…symbols and myths rarely exist in isolation. It
is their nature always to be a part of larger
symbol systems; they ‘connect up’ with other
images, or other myths, to form a
pattern…Symbols always lead naturally to other
symbols and to myths in such a way as to create
a framework, a world that is a complete,
connected system, rather than a chaotic
jumble…The ‘bigger’ the symbol, the more
complete and universal it is, the better it conveys
the true nature of the sacred.” (pgs. 176-177)
Eliade (cont.)
• “…the mission of the ‘history’ of religions is
first to discover symbols, myths, rituals,
and their systems, then to trace them
through the human past as they have
been changed and interchanged from one
age or place to the next…The historians
seek to compare and contrast these
materials to determine their different levels
and types of significance as carriers of the
sacred. (pg. 178)
Eliade (cont.)
• “…the natural logic of symbols and myths
pushes them always to become more
universal, to shed the particulars of a
single time and place and approximate
ever more closely to a universal
archetype…in the actual circumstances of
human experience, symbols decay and
degenerate as well.” (pg. 178)
Eliade (cont.)
• “The natural tendency of symbols and
myths is to grow, to spread out their
significance in new associations; but in
different times and places there are also
variations that ‘flow simply from
differences in the mythological creativity of
the various societies, or even from a
change of history.” (pg. 178)
Eliade (cont.)
• “…the ‘nostalgia for Paradise’ is a
concept central to his theory.” (pg.
179)
• “…in the end, his own strong
sympathies lie nearest to a sort of
cosmic folk religion and the
satisfaction offered by the archaic
frame of mind.” (pg. 186)
“Society’s ‘Construct of the Heart:
E. E. Evans-Pritchard”
• “…a theorist of religion who actually entered two
primitive [sic] societies, learned their languages,
lived for a time by their customs, and carefully
studied them in action.” (pg. 199)
• “…in any culture, certain fundamental beliefs must be at
all costs preserved.” (pg. 209)
• “From its (Nuer Religion) narrative two things clearly
emerge: (1) a picture full of correctives for nearly every
one of those theorists who formed a personal image of
‘primitive religion’ without ever having come into contact
with the real thing, and (2) the portrait of a complex,
well-ordered religious system, one that seems almost
surprisingly Western and even ‘modern’ [sic] in
character.” (pg. 219)
E. E. Evans-Pritchard (cont.)
• “…their (i.e. the primitives’) whole world
may be a very different one from ours, and
this world cannot be properly explained
until we have worked very hard and very
long to understand how it functions from
the insider.” (pg. 222)
“Religion as Cultural System:
Clifford Geertz”
• “…a serious rethinking of the fundamentals in
the practice of anthropology and other social
sciences (pg. 233)
• “…an appreciation of religion’s distinctively
human dimension: the ideas, attitudes, and
purposes that inspire it.” (pg. 234)
• “We must describe not only what actually
happens but what people intend by what
happens.” (pg. 241)
• “Cultural analysis is…always a matter of
‘guessing at meanings, assessing the guesses,
and drawing explanatory conclusions.” (pg. 242)
Geertz (cont.)
• “…any attempt to make broad, general statements about
all of humanity must be viewed with the strongest
suspicion.” (pg. 242)
• “…analysis of culture is not ‘an experimental source in
search of a law but an interpretive one in search of
meaning.” (pg. 242)
• “a theory can and should try to anticipate what will
happen.” (pg. 242)
• CULTURE: “A PATTERN OF MEANINGS,” OR IDEAS,
CARRIED IN SYMBOLS, BY WHICH PEOPLE PASS
ALONG THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF LIFE AND
EXPRESS THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARD IT. (pg. 244)
Geertz (cont.)
• RELIGION:
• (1) A SYSTEM OF SYMBOLS WHICH ACT TO
• (2) ESTABLISH POWERFUL, PERVASIVE AND
LONG-LASTING MOODS AND MOTIVATIONS IN MEN
[sic] BY
• (3) FORMULATING CONCEPTIONS OF A GENERAL
ORDER OF EXISTENCE AND
• (4) CLOTHING THESE CONCEPTIONS WITH SUCH
AN AURA OF FACTUALITY THAT
• (5) THE MOODS AND MOTIVATIONS SEEM
UNIQUELY REALISTIC (pg. 244)
Geertz (cont.)
• “…religion consists of a worldview and
an ethos that combine to reinforce each
other. A set of beliefs people have
about what is real, what gods exist, and
so forth (that is, their worldview)
support a set of moral values and
emotions (that is their ethos), which
guides them as they live and thereby
confirms the beliefs.” (pg. 255)
Pals’ Conclusions
•
•
•
•
(1) How does theory define the subject?
(2) What type of theory is it?
(3) What is the range of the theory?
(4) What evidence does the theory appeal
to?
• (5) What is the relationship between a
theorist’s personal religious belief (or
disbelief) and the explanation he [sic]
chooses to advance? (pg. 269)
Pals Conclusions (cont.)
• “…religion consists of belief and behavior associated in
some way with a supernatural realm, a sphere of divine
or spiritual beings.” (pg. 270)
• “THERE IS A SENSE IN WHICH ALL OF THE
THEORIES WE HAVE CONSIDERED OFFER AT
LEAST A POSSIBLE CHALLENGE TO RELIGIOUS
BELIEF BECAUSE, FROM THE START, THEY RULE
OUT ALL SUPER-NATURAL ENDEAVORS…THE
THEORIST OF RELIGION APPEALS ONLY TO WHAT
ARE DESCRIBED AS ‘NATURAL CAUSES’.” (pg.
279)
Pals’ Conclusions (cont.)
• “…the future of theoretical study in religion
belongs most likely to the humanities rather than
the sciences, even though the ideals of the latter
remain part of its inspiration.” (pg. 282)
• “…religion in the end seems to be a matter not
of impersonal processes that can be known with
certainty because they have been scripted by
the laws of nature, but of personal beliefs and
behaviors that can only be plausibly explained
because they have arisen from complex, partly
free and partly conditioned choices of human
agents.” (pg. 282-283)
Anthropology of Religions:
Definitions
• ANTHROPOLOGY
• the science that deals with the origins, physical and cultural
development, biological characteristics, and social customs and
beliefs of humankind;
• the study of human being’s similarities to and divergence from other
animals;
• the science of humans and their works;
• the study of the nature and essence of humankind
• ETHNOGRAPHY
• the science description of individual cultures
Anthropology of Religions:
Definitions (cont.)
•
CULTURE
1. the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as
excellent in arts, letters, scholarly pursuits, etc.;
2. that which is excellent in the arts, manners, etc.;
3. a particular form or stage of civilization, as that of a certain nation or period;
4. development or improvement of the mind by education or training;
5. the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group;
6. the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and
transmitted from one generation to another;
7. the cultivation of microorganisms for scientific study, medical use, etc;
8. the act or practice of cultivating the soil;
9. the raising of plants or animals;
10. the product or growth resulting from such cultivation.
•
Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (1998)
Professor Michael Dean Murphy, Chair,
Department of Anthropology, The University of
Alabama
• What is “Religion?”
• “…culturally constructed beliefs and
practices concerned with supernatural
forces and personalities.”
Professor M. Murphy (cont.)
• “…the application of the weight of anthropological
theory and method to the analytical and social
quandary of religion or religions:
• What is it?
• What are they?
• What do we speak of when we speak of “religion,”
and how does that relate to particular “religions?”
• What makes religion?
• What does it do for us?
• [N.B.: The focus of the analysis is generally
ethnographic. Doug Padgett]
Professor M. Murphy (cont.)
• The Four (4) Classical Anthropological
Approaches to the Study of Religion:
• (1) Evolutionary: focusing on change
• (2) Functionalist: focusing on “social glue”
• (3) Psychodynamic: focusing on human
experience
• (4) Symbolic: focusing on cultural context
and code
Professor M. Murphy (cont.)
• General Characteristics of Contemporary
Anthropology of Religion:
• (1) Sympathizes with the “practicalities” of
religious experience: religion on the ground,
in the populace, and the tensions felt there
between official, institutional notions and the
polytheistic, even inclusive atmosphere of
majority religious life.
Professor M. Murphy (cont.)
• Characteristics (cont.):
• (2) Is methodologically and
theoretically diverse.
• (3) Attempts to overcome the
prejudicial, Western-biased
understanding of religion found in
flawed but still valuable works.
• (4) Emphasizes place. (Doug Padgett)
Professor M. Murphy (cont.)
• SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT…
• Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881), the
“Father” of Anthropology:
• “Religion deals so largely with such
uncertain elements of knowledge that all
primitive [sic] religions are grotesque and to
some extent unintelligible.”
• Source: Ancient Society (1877)
Professor M. Murphy (cont.)
• “Towards of Methodology:”
• (1) What is considered to be respected, disgusting,
or taboo? What is held in awe?
• (2) What are the centers of the “cityscape?”
• (3) What are the sources legitimating the authority
of the religious and secular leaders?
• (4) Which persons or public positions are regarded
as charismatically empowered?
• (5) what is the worldview of that society? Its
symbolic universe? How does these support
everyday life?
Professor M.Murphy (cont.)
• “Towards a Methodology:” (cont.)
• (6) How do media news programs serve as regulatory agencies
of this worldview?
• (7) what is the principal value-system?
• (8) Is the dominant reference group prescribed or selected?
• (9) How do the functional options of religious or ritual life
change within their structural contexts?
• (10) To what extent are the members of that society allowed to
define for themselves a holistic view of their ultimate
concerns?
• John K. Nelson (1990), “A Field Statement on the Anthropology
of Religion,” [Based on the work of Ole Riis]
Professor M. Murphy (cont.)
• Anthropology of Religion Websites
• www.ameranthassn.org/ars.htm
• www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/419
www.htm
What is “History?”
• (1) the branch of knowledge dealing with
past events;
• (2) a continuous, systematic narrative of
past events as relating to a particular people,
country, period, person, etc., usually written
as a chronological account;
• (3) the aggregate of past events;
• (4) the record of past events and times, esp.
in connection with the human race;
What is “History?” (cont.)
• (5) a past notable for its important, unusual, or
interesting events;
• (6) acts, ideas, or events that will or can shape the
course of the future, immediate but significant
happenings;
• (7) a systematic account of any set of natural
phenomena without particular reference to time;
• (8) a drama representing historical events.
• SOURCE: Random House Webster’s Unabridged
Dictionary (1998)
“History and Phenomenology of
Religion in the Study of Religion”
• “The history of religions and the phenomenology of religion are
generally understood by scholars to be nonnormative – that is,
they attempt to delineate facts, whether historical or structural,
without judging them from a Christian or other standpoint. At
any rate, their tasks are considered to be different from that of
articulating and systematizing a faith. The same, in principle, is
true for the comparative study of religion, through this
sometimes is thought to cover the theology of other religions,
such as the Christian appraisal of Hindu history. Needless to
say, the fact that a discipline aims to be nonnormative does not
mean that it will succeed in being so. Also, the history and
phenomenology of religion tend to raise essentially
philosophical questions of explanation, where the issues are
often debatable.”
•
SOURCE: Encyclopedia Britannica (1994-2000)
What is “Phenomenology” in the
Study of Religion?
• “Phenomenology is an approach to the study of
religions that emphasizes impartial observation
of all forms of religious experience without
personal or social prejudice.
• A phenomenologist studies religious experience,
never the validity of truth claims.”
Phenomenology (cont.)
• “Bracketing is the discipline of intentionally setting aside
your own personal or social bias towards something you
see others doing that is unfamiliar to you.
• “Participant-observation is a method of observing
religious experience in which an observer enters into the
observed experience as far as possible, while still
remaining somewhat objective.
• SOURCE: www.stormwind.com
Phenomenology of Religion
• (1) An effort at devising a taxonomic (classificatory)
scheme that will permit the comprehensive cataloging
and classifying of religious phenomena across the lines
of religious communities.
• (2) A method that aims at revealing the selfinterpretation of religious persons of their own religious
responses.
• SOURCE: Encyclopedia Britannica (1994-2000)
What is “Philosophy”
• (1) The rational investigation of the truths and
principles of being (natural philosophy),
knowledge (metaphysical philosophy), or
conduct (moral philosophy).
• (2) The critical study of the basic principles and
concepts of a particular branch of knowledge
(e.g. the philosophy of religion).
•
SOURCE: Random House Webster’s
Unabridged Dictionary (1998)
What is “Philosophy of Religion?”
• (1) the attempt to analyze and describe the
nature of religion in the framework of a general
view of the world;
• (2) the effort to defend or attack various
religious positions in terms of philosophy;
• (3) the attempt to analyze religious language.
• SOURCE: Encyclopedia Britannica (19942000)
What is “Psychology?”
• (1) the science of the mind or of mental states and
processes;
• (2) the science of human behavior and animal behavior;
• (3) the sum or characteristics of the mental states and
processes of a person or class of persons, or of the
mental states and processes in a field of activity.
• SOURCE: Random House Webster’s Unabridged
Dictionary (1998)
Substantive Approaches
vs.
Functional Approaches
in the Study of Religion
• Substantive approaches define religion by its content or
specific practices.
• Functional approaches define religion by specific
practices that explain how religion operates in individual
lives.
• SOURCE: Ralph W. Hood, Jr. (1998), “Psychology of
Religion,” in William H. Swatos, Jr. (Ed.),
Encyclopedia of Religion and Society (Walnut Creek,
CA: AltaMira Press), 388.
Schools of Psychology and Their
Relationship to Religion
• (1) Psychoanalytic School: Sigmund Freud
– unconscious basis of religious beliefs,
emotions, and practices; clinical cases
studies & biographical analyses.
• (2) Analytical School: Carl Jung –
hermeneutical and interpretive, rather than
causal or explanatory; individual case
studies; dream interpretation; analyses of
literature.
Schools (cont.)
• (3) Object Relations Schools:
reconstuction of early infant (preOedipal) states; clinical case studies of
adult subjects.
• (4) Transpersonal Schools: address
“spiritual realities” in a non-reductive
manner.
Schools (cont.)
• (5) Phenomenological Schools: favor
descriptive approaches to religious
experience.
• (6) Measurement Schools: regard
psychology as a science within the
naturalistic tradition; provide the essential
database for the empirical psychology of
religion.
• SOURCE: Ralph W. Hood, Jr., Ibid., 388-389.
Areas of Investigation in the
Psychology of Religion
•
•
•
•
•
(1) Scale construction;
(2) Intrinsic-Extrinsic-Quest Religiosity;
(3) Coping and Psychopathology;
(4) Religious Development
(5) Conversion, Glossolalia, and Religious
Experience;
• (6) Religion and Death;
• (7) Religion and Psychotherapy.
• SOURCE: Ralph W. Hood, Jr., Ibid., 389-391.
What is “Sociology?”
• (1) the science or study of the origin,
development, organization, and
functioning of human society;
• (2) the science of the fundamental laws of
social relations, institutions, etc.
• SOURCE: Random House Webster’s
Unabridged Dictionary (1998).
Current Dilemmas
in the
Sociology of Religion
• (1) Imbalances (e.g. exotic edges of religious
life vs. beliefs of ordinary people;
preoccupation with secularization;
refocusing attention on the middle of the
Western picture; the incorrect assumption
that the West is leading the way);
• (2) Isolation and insulation from mainstream
sociology (i.e. assumption of mainstream
sociologists that religion is or marginal
interest in contemporary society);
Current Dilemmas (cont.)
• (3) Theoretical possibilities (integration rather than
marginalization of the role of religion in the modern
world; religion as cultural resource rather than social
institution; rational choice theory; how to account
for changes in religious life);
• (4) Substantive suggestions (sociology of health
and its relation to religion; sociology of law and its
relation to religion; patterns of religio-political
allegiances).
• SOURCE: Grace Davie (1998), Ibid., 478-488.
The Work of Professor Rodney
Stark, Baylor University, Waco TX
• “The Rational Choice Theory of Religion:”
• “In an environment of religious freedom,
people choose to develop and maintain their
religious beliefs in accordance with the laws
of ‘religious economy” – i.e. people act
rationally in choosing their religion.”
The “Evolution of Thought,”
according to Auguste Comte (1798-1857),
the “Founder” of Modern Sociology”
• (1) Theological stage: events are
explained by reference to supernatural
beings;
• (2) Metaphysical stage: more abstract
unseen forces are invoked;
• (3) Positivistic stage: humanity seeks
causes in a scientific and practical
manner.
The Tasks of the Sociology of
Religion
•
(1) To further the understanding of the role of religion in society;
•
(2) To analyze its significance in and impact upon human history;
•
(3) To understand the social forces and influences that in turn shape
religion.
•
The sociologist of religion is concerned with religion only insofar as
its relates to the context in which it inevitably exits.
•
SOURCE: Grace Davie (1998), “Sociology of Religion,” in William H.
Swatos, Jr. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion and Society (Walnut Creek,
CA: AltaMira Press), 483.
Themes and Perspectives
in the
Sociology of Religion
• (1) Definitions;
• (2) Secularization (a debate by Western
scholars about Western society);
• (3) Dimensions of religiosity;
• (4) “Civil religion;”
• (5) New Religious Movements and New Age
• (6) Fundamentalisms;
• (7) Religion and the Everyday
• SOURCE: Grace Davie (1998), Ibid., 485-487.
THE MANTRA
OF
THE DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES
@
THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA!
• STUDYING RELIGION
• IN
• CULTURE!
Mallory Nye
on
“Religion and Culture”
• “…what we call ‘religion’ is something that
humans do, and so the study of religion is
primarily concerned with people and
cultures…the study of religion is
comparative…this study of religion is crosscultural, looking at religions across a range of
different cultures.”
• SOURCE: Mallory Nye (2003), Religion: The
Basics, 2.
Nye (cont.)
• “…this study of religion and culture is about
looking at cultural and religious diversity, in
different parts of the world, as well as close to
home in our own cultural location. It is about
exploring how current events are shaped by
practices and influences that could be labeled
‘religious’, and how much of what we see and do
is affected by such religiosity.”
• SOURCE: Mallory Nye, Ibid., 2-3.
Nye (cont.)
•
The study of religion and culture:
1. Religion is studied as a human activity.
2. The study of such ‘religion’ is concerned with what
humans do, the texts and other cultural products
they produce, and the statements and assumptions
they make.
3. Religion is not a sui generis category that exists in
itself – that is, there is no essence of ‘religion’.
4. The study of religion and culture is based on
methodological pluralism and interdisciplinarity.
5. There is a strong emphasis on studies with an
empirical basis.
Nye (cont.)
•
The study of religion and culture:
6. The study of religion and culture requires a measure of
theoretical and methodological relativism.
7. As religion is a human activity, the analysis of religion and
culture is an analysis of gender, ethnicity, and other social
relations and categories.
8. The study of religion and culture is cross-cultural, multicultural,
and post-colonial.
9. The use of the concept (or category) of religion is culturebound – it is itself a product of these histories and political
processes.
10. The study of religion and culture is highly relevant to our
understanding of the contemporary world.
•
SOURCE: Mallory Nye, Ibid., 207-209.
Ring, et. al. on
Cultures and Religion”
• “Cultures propose different understandings
of what it means to be human, and they
educate the potential human being so that it
may approach the cultural ideal of
personhood…Religion provides guiding
narratives and paradigmatic rituals to
encourage the development of the person
and community.”
• SOURCE: Sharon Ring, et. al. (1998), Introduction to the Study of Religion, 55.
Bryan Rennie’s
“Six Dimensions of Religion”
•
•
•
•
•
•
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
Experience (Revelation)
Response (Faith)
Knowledge
Ethics
Community
Expression (Witness)
• (1992)
Ninian Smart’s
“Six Dimensions of Religion”
•
•
•
•
•
•
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
Ritual
Mythical
Doctrinal
Ethical
Social
Experiential
• SOURCES: The Religious Experience of Mankind
(1969); The Religious Experience (1996); Dimensions
of the Sacred (1996).
Frank Whaling’s
“Eight Dimensions of Religion”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
(1) Religious Community
(2) Ritual and Worship
(3) Ethics
(4) Social and Political Involvement
(5) Scripture/Myth
(6) Concept
(7) Aesthetics
(8) Spirituality
• SOURCE: Christian Theology and World Religions,
1986.
COMMUNITY
• “How Christianity and Judaism come to define
themselves in mutually exclusive terms in an
important study in religious change.” (pg. 235)
• “The shame of this situation is that Christians over
the centuries have forgotten the enormous debt they
owe to Judaism, the religious movement that gave
them birth.” (pg. 238)
• “Study of the contact between two or more cultures
dramatically reveals what is true for all religions:
human institutions are not static, but dynamic.” (pg.
238)
COMMUNITY (cont.)
• “Contemporary fundamentalism is a complex phenomenon,
and there is not a single profile that adequately describes all
Protestant fundamentalisms, nor is there even complete
agreement on the question of who qualifies as a
fundamentalist.” (pg. 253)
• “Fundamentalism develops as resistance to aspects of the
modern world that are often confusing and even alienating.”
(pg. 254)
• “New religious movements are particularly likely to be seen by
outsiders as evidence of alienation from the larger society,
which may in fact be true…many of those who join what are
often called ‘cults’ believe they have found peace in a
community setting.” (pg. 255)
COMMUNITY (cont.)
• “When we say that religion is reconciling we mean
that practicing a religion helps us to grow and
develop into responsible and free persons and to
contribute to the society in which we live.” (pg. 261)
• “When we say that religion is alienating, it means
that we perceive that religious traditions require us
to abdicate responsible decision making, that they
impeded our freedom to think freely, and that they
may contribute very little to the society in which we
live.” (pg. 262)
COMMUNITY (cont.)
• “Relying on the cultural and religious myths within
which we live, we find our place in relation to one
another, to nature, and to God or the source of life
that we consider to be ultimate.” (pg. 264)
• “Religions recognize that all personal
transgressions affect the community by weakening
the bonds that unite its members.” (pg. 268)
• “The sharing of food is among the most deeply
symbolic and reconciling rituals known to
humankind.” (pg. 269)
COMMUNITY (cont.)
• “Western modernity seems to lack an adequate understanding
of the many and intricate ways that groups of human beings
are connected with one another.” (pg. 273)
• “People who follow the mystical path of prayer seek
experiential union with the source of life and power in their
religions.” (pg. 279)
•
[N.B: Prayer, Meditation, Retreats, Fasting, and Charity are,
also, possible ways to achieve this goal.]
• SOURCE: Sharon Ring, et. al. (1998), Introduction to the Study
of Religion.
DOCTRINES & TEXTS
• “A great deal rests on who a text is seen as coming from:
authority comes from authorship…the authority of the author,
and authorship itself, is not so much claimed by the author, but
given by the reader.” (Nye, pg. 165)
• “…a questioning of the intentions of the author, as rooted
within a particular patriarchal culture and milieu, can ‘allow’
and encourage alternative readings of these texts.” (Nye, pg.
168)
• “The study of texts requires we pay close attention to both
author and reader, and how they exist together in a relationship
through the text.” (Nye, pg. 169)
DOCTRINES & TEXTS (cont.)
• “…how one reads a text and gives it meaning comes from
one’s particular cultural location…how a person reads a text
may well be determined by their gender, as well as other
cultural factors of difference, such as their ethnicity, age, class,
and culture.” (Nye, pgs. 170-171)
• “Not only to texts express important ideas within particular
religious traditions, they also act as places in which ideas are
examined, re-evaluated, and in many cases put into practice.
Texts are read, as well as being lived and performed, and the
examination of any particular text cannot do any more than
produce another text that seeks to elaborate on its many fluid
meanings.” (Nye, pg. 173)
DOCTRINES & TEXTS (cont.)
• “Hermeneutics is about recovering an understanding of the
meaning of texts.” (Nye, pg. 151)
• “…how texts are used within particular religious
locations…what they are saying…what their authors intended
them to say…how they are being read and understood by
particular religious practitioners.” (Nye, pg. 155)
• “…the study of texts becomes the study of texts and contexts.”
(Nye, pg. 155)
• “…there can be no single and definitive reading of any text. All
texts can be read in a multitude of different ways, as each text
is a play of words and meanings both within and between
texts.” (Nye, pge. 157)
DOCTRINES & TEXTS (cont.)
• “…scriptures, in and of themselves, are not naturally or
essentially holy…they become sacred within the lives of
communities that respond to them as sacred and holy realities;
the community’s response bestows holiness on them.” (Ring,
et. al., pg. 181)
• “The community invests these writings with authority…each
community uses its scripture to evaluate what ultimately
matters…a religion considers its scriptures canonical, that is,
normative for belief and practice.” (Ring, et. al., pg. 182)
• “Doctrines (literally, teachings) are formal and authoritative
statements which articulate a religion’s beliefs.” (Ring, et. al.,
pg. 199)
DOCTRINES & TEXTS (cont.)
• “A creed is a statement in verbal form
of the faith of an individual or a
community. By means of its creed, a
religion both defines and teaches the
beliefs its members must accept.”
(Ring, et. al., pg. 200)
ETHICS
• “…an ethnos, a way of being in and relating to the
world.” (Ring, et. al., pg. 99)
• “…religion’s legitimating role, an explanation and
justification of society’s moral order.” (Ring, et. al.,
pg. 101)
• “From the perspective of religious ethics, an
informed conscience is always one that is shaped
and open to the wisdom that comes through the
religious tradition, wisdom that has its source in
some divine or transcendent order.” (Ring, et. al.,
pg. 217)
ETHICS (cont.)
• “Religious ethics are also social ethics in that they
related to the way institutions and societies organize
and structure themselves…The fundamental norm
for social ethics is justice…Distributive justice refers
to the proper distribution of social benefits and
burdens…The common good refers to the communal
nature of human experience. Humans were created
for community, not isolation, and this means that the
good of each person is bound up with the good of
the community.” (Ring, et. al., pgs. 124-125)
• “Rituals support a particular moral way of life,
embody values and relationships, and remind us of
our moral responsibilities and commitments.” (Ring,
et. al., pg. 127)
MYTH
• “First, in assuming religion is
concerned with belief, we are taking a
primarily Christian concept and making
it the basis for a universal concept of
what religion is mean to be about. And
second, the practice of religion in nonChristian contexts may emphasize
other aspects of behavior than belief
such as ritual.” (Nye, pg. 103)
RELEVANCE TO INDIVIDUAL
• “…the ideology of a male god works to legitimate the
economic and political subordination of women.”
(Nye, pg. 70)
• “…studies of religion have to look in different places
for the broad range of activities that could be
designated as ‘religious’ within any particular
context.” (Nye, pg. 95)
• “…gender is a very important category of analysis
for the study of religion and culture…there are other
categories of difference as well as gender – such as
race, class, ethnicity, age, and sexuality.” (Nye, pg.
96)
RELEVANCE TO INDIVIDUAL
(cont.)
• “Androcentrism is the assumption that male-ness,
the male perspective, and men’s experiences are the
central nad most important points of reference.”
(Nye, pg. 74)
• “There is no essential basis for gender – instead
gender is dependent on what each particular culture
holds gender to be.” (Nye, pgs. 76-77)
• “…if we take the assumption that gender is culturally
constructed, then one could also argue that
sexuality is too.” (Nye, pg. 78)
• “…power is an element of gender division.” (Nye,
pg. 79)
RELEVANCE TO INDIVIDUAL
(cont.)
• “Studies of religion and culture require a broadbased approach which assumes the premise of
diversity – that religions are products of the politics
of such differences, and are experienced through the
particular lenses of people who are shaped (in their
different ways) by their own particular combinations
of identities.” (Nye, pg. 97)
• “Religious authorities exercise control by mandating
how people are to organize and manage various
aspects of their lives.” (Ring, et. al., pgs. 308-309)
RELEVANCE TO INDIVIDUAL
(cont.)
• “Profound loss is a mystery which calls
into question our most basic
convictions and apparent certitudes
about good and evil, reward and
punishment, as well as about the image
of the deity that informs our living.”
(Ring, et. al., pg. 310)
RITUAL
• “…rituals are just one particular type of bodily place in which
religiosity is practiced.” (Nye, pg. 125)
• “Eight particular ways of looking at rituals: (Nye, pgs 128 ff.)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
meaning
symbolism
communication
performance
society
repetition
transformation
power
RITUAL (cont.)
• “Rituals are symbolic, routine, and repetitive
activities and actions through which we make
connections with what we consider to be the most
valuable dimensions of life.” (Ring, et. al., pg. 73)
• “Ritual actions enable us to maintain continuity with
significant persons and events from the
past…Rituals, further, commemorate significant
events in the life of our communities and provide a
means for renewing the meaning of those events
among us…Rituals help us individually and
communally to make sense of life’s transitions,
providing some structure to ease movement from
the familiar to the unknown.” (Ring, et. al., pgs. 7374)
RITUAL (cont.)
• “Religious rituals connect our individual and
communal efforts to order life and create
relationships with what we perceive as ultimate or
sacred orderings.” (Ring, et. al., pg. 75)
• “Religious ritual expresses the connection with our
perception of ultimacy or the sacred in the universe.
Religious ritual expresses our deepest
understandings of the world…Religious rituals are
often expressive of our imaginative
capacities…Religious rituals also express our
embodiness in the world…Religious rituals enable
us to make connections with our heritage and
history.” (Ring, et. al., pgs. 76-80)
RITUAL (cont.)
– Types of Religious Ritual:
– (1) Life-cycle Rituals
– (2) Life-Crisis Rituals
– (3) Periodic (Cyclical) Rituals
• (Ring, et. al., pgs. 81-94)
SACRED
• “Religious language…concerns itself with
those dimensions of human existence in
which the ultimate and the holy manifest
themselves. Religious language is rooted in
human experience of what ultimately
matters…[Religious language] speaks about
the world and human experience in such a
way that the sacred becomes
apparent…Religious language is a way in
which the mystery within human experience
reveals itself.” (Ring, et. al., pg. 144)
SACRED (cont.)
• “While parables deal with the unpredictability of the
sacred and often challenge or subvert a particular
worldview or moral understanding, myth offers
perspectives on such ultimate questions as the
origins of the universe, the meaning of being human,
the beginnings of evil, the destiny of the world and
its inhabitants …Myth describes the
interrelationships between men, women, nature, and
the sacred that constitute social order or disorder;
parables remind us that such order is far from
permanent…Within a religious tradition, myth is a
narrative that builds a worldview.” (Ring, et. al., pg.
154)
SACRED (cont.)
• (1) myths place a spiritual or mystical function;
• (2) myths present an ordered universe and clearly locate us
within that universe; they diminish the threat of chaos and
reduce anxiety;
• (3) myths integrate individuals into the group, teaching us how
to negotiate relationships and achieve our goals as
constructive group members; they also provide patterns of
behaviors to imitate in times of crisis when we cannot think or
plan logically;
• (4) myths contribute to psychological development and
enrichment, guiding us through life stages from childhood
through death.” (Ring, et. al., pg. 156)
SACRED (cont.)
•
Types of Myth:
•
(1) Myths of Origin (generally about the relationships which must be
in place for the present community to function)
•
(2) Myths of Alienation (presence of aspects of human life which we
cannot change)
•
(3) Myths of Destiny (motivate religious people to remain faithful to
their traditions in the hope of late experiencing harmony and
fulfillment)
•
(4) Prophetic Myths (judge the accuracy of a community’s myths in
terms of a competing story whose order it supplants)
•
“The language we use to talk about the sacred, which may be a
dimension of human experience but not one we can access directly, is
the language of metaphor.” (Ring, et. al., pg. 173)
SYMBOL
• “Cultures propose different understandings
of what it means to be human, and they
educate the potential human being so that it
may approach the cultural ideal of
personhood…Religion provides guiding
narratives and paradigmatic rituals to
encourage the development of the person
and community. Via word and ritual, religion
transmits its vision of true humanity from
generation to generation.” (Ring et. al., pgs.
55-56)
SYMBOL (cont.)
• (1) Religion is awareness expressed through
symbols of relationships to, or participation
in, the fundamental power of life.
• (2) Religions are symbol systems which
facilitate relationship to, or participation in,
what the members understand to be the
fundamental power of life. (Ring, et. al., pg.
61)
SYMBOL (cont.)
• “Representational symbols or signs point to or stand
for something else but do not necessarily participate
in the realities for which they stand (e.g. green light).
• “Presentational symbols are things which suggest
something else by virtue of analogous qualities (e.g.
church as ship; God as shepherd).
• “The meaning of symbols is determined by the
contexts in which they are located.
• “Symbols may awaken our consciousness to new
ways of thinking about ourselves and our world.”
(Ring, et. al., pgs. 66-67)
RELIGIOUS STUDIES 100
• THE BEGINNING OF THE END
• OR
• THE END OF THE BEGINNING???