find more resources at oneclass.com
Lec2: Belief
January 10, 2017
5:11 PM
What is Belief

Dictionary
o State or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person
o Something believed, esp. a tenet or body of tenets held by group
Ruel - weak vs. strong beliefs
o Main point - people mean different things by belief (tone and applicability of the term)
N

O
TE

Difference between an "essential" definition of religion and a "functional" one
o Essential
 What we believe
 Universal core/essence, applicable to all religions
 Does not exist
o Functional
 What we practice/religious actions we take
 Why people choose to practice religion
Nye
o Problem with conception of religion as essentially about mental processes
o Over-focus of belief as central facet of religion, devaluation of many other things
 Direct by-product of historical precedents
o e.g. Shiva as Lord of the Dance
 Functional goals - network of relations between temples, more than just belief
o "Belief" is not a universal term; no equivalent term in many other languages
o Assuming religion is concerned with belief = taking primarily Christian concept and
making it universal
S.
C

A
Review
SY
Emphasis on Belief

EA

Martin Luther: 95 Theses
o Questioning how the religious institution should be behaving
o Disputing that the Catholic Church was positioning itself between an individual and God
 Over-emphasis on rituals and need to pay money
o Attacked catholic Church's selling of indulgences (slips of paper for people to buy their way
into heaven; way for church to gain wealth)
Protestant Reformation
o Long-term protest movement against increasing corruption of Catholic Church
 Led to schism of western Christianity into Catholicism and various Protestant
denominations
o Importance of printing press
o Luther saw the Bible as only true source of religious authority
 Salvation can only come through faith; not good deeds
Religion scholars and belief
o Tylor: religion is the belief in spiritual beings

FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com

 Protestant Christian view, not universal
Sometimes doing is just as important
o e.g. when we kneel - is it a reflection of belief or does it create belief?
S.
C
SY

TE

O

Cognitive vs affective
o Richard Gombrich studying Sinhalese Buddhism
o What we say/think we believe vs. what our actions indicate we believe
o e.g. Timon and Pumbaa
 Cognitive belief - "hakuna matata", no worries
 Affective belief Habitus
o Cultural context of people's lives
 Impact on our beliefs
 How specific beliefs are viewed/practiced
o The way a group/culture moves is by shaping and recreating social actions & systems
o e.g. Simba is exposed to 2 cultures that influence his beliefs
 Responsibility vs. "hakuna matata"
 Our beliefs may be affected by our habitus but we can choose to live up to our
responsibilities
Reductionist
o Religion is really about something else (of this world)
o Critique of religion
o Beliefs are false/meaningless
 Humans make up images of god for human purposes
 Xenophanes: horse gods look like horses
 All gods are made in image of those who worship them - construction for seeing
ourselves
Non-reductionist
o Assume beliefs point to a reality or "essence"
o Different religions = different perceptions
 e.g. blind men and the elephant
o "Religion is a distinct element of human activity, that can't be explained in solely human
terms" (p.114)
o We cannot prove or disprove that the sacred/God exists
Cognitive approaches
o Study of the brain
o How religious activities are constructed by cognitive activities
o Attribution of natural phenomena with human characteristics
 Biologically hardwired to recognize ourselves in natural world
N

A
Theories of Belief
EA

FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Lec2: Ritual
January 17, 2017
5:19 PM
S.
C

TE

Examples of rituals
o Birthdays, getting ready in the morning, graduation, funerals, praying
Stupas
o Places of daily devotion
o Ritual - walk in circular motion around it
o Symbolically worshipping the universe system
o Explaining ongoing rituals of Buddhist circumambulation/stupa reverence
 Potentially transformative t personal/karmic levels
 As 'social glue' (Durkheim)
 People can engage in ritual in many different times and ways that don't have much to
do with 'belief'
8 ways of looking at ritual (Nye)
o Meaning
o Symbolism
o Communication
o Performance
o Society
o Repetition
o Transformation
o Power

Meaningful action
o Subjective
o Not about the act itself, but the relation between act and person
Not necessarily repeated (e.g. rite of passage)
'Sacred' vs. 'profane' acts
o Profanus - 'outside the temple'
o Depends on location/timing
o To find 'sacred' look for 'profane'
Change over time
o Time and place
o Individual and community changes
SY


N
What is Ritual?
O

A
Ritual
EA

Ritual studies


Protestant Reformation
o Emphasis on belief
o Disapproval of 'empty rituals'
o Them vs. us (they have empty rituals, we have belief/true religion)
o Protestant view challenged by ritual studies ( = we all engage in rituals)
Crisis in 1990s
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Does the term mean anything if so many things can be called 'rituals'
Ritual theory used for explanation, not as description
 Ritual theories used as tools for critical thinking (explanation) and not for labelling as
ritual (description)
Is this behaviour a ritual? (old) vs. What does this behaviour mean? (new)
Ritual theories
o Many focus on function rather than content


A
o
o
S.
C
John Beattie
 Instrumental vs. expressive action
o Literal vs. symbolic meaning
 Some actions may be instrumental OR expressive (have meanings attached), some
actions may be both
 Driving a car (instrumental); flashy/expensive car (expressive)
 This theory doesn't give meaning
TE
Malory Nye
 Rituals are symbolic actions, represent more than their physical properties (intrinsic)
o Turner - symbols as 'lowest unit of ritual'
o Meanings are culturally determined and affected by context
o Jung - universal archetypes (little evidence)
o Each symbol can/does have many meanings
 e.g. a cross, the colour white
N
O
Emile Durkheim
 Ritual as 'social glue', agent of bringing people together
 Regular attendance at religious site
 Ritual does not just express relationships; performance of rituals actually creates those
relationships
SY
Sigmund Freud
 Ritual = neurosis
 Unhealthy state of mind
 People create rituals as way of seeking comfort from pressure of their lives, avoids real problems
 Not always true (depends on context)
EA
Harvey Whitehouse
 Rituals and memory
o Ritual has to take a form so that people can remember
o 'Imagistic' mode: high intensity ritual practice (traumatic/violent)
 Triggers high levels of memory retention
 e.g. Simba going to elephant graveyard
o 'Doctrinal' mode: mundane repetition (routine)
 e.g. 'Hakuna Matata'
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Lec3: Ritual and Rites of Passage
January 24, 2017
5:10 PM

S.
C

TE


Actions are not inherently religious
o Depends on context (person, culture, etc.)
o Actions are given (or not given) meaning
Ritual studies changed assumption that religion was only about belief
Idea that actions matter
o Shift in focus
 Old questions: is this behaviour a ritual?
 New question: what does this behaviour mean?
How rituals bind people together and create relationships (Durkheim)
o e.g. Ainu bear sacrifice (bear - a mountain god)
 Captured bear cub is raised by the community and eaten by the community (skull is
sacrificed)
 By being killed, the bear is released into its natural state
 Ainu are being chosen by mountain god
o e.g. Sioux sun dance
 Building the tent
 Dancers self sacrificing - ordered universe
o e.g. the Nuer/Xhosa cow sacrifice for atonement
Objects are far less important than actual ritual
Rites of Passage
N
Special subset of rituals
Examples
o Baptism; circumcision
o Coming of age ceremonies e.g. sweet sixteen
o Academic e.g. graduation
Grimes - "We undergo passages, but we enact rites"
o Enacting and bringing transformation
o Creating rites of passage for life passages
o Set of symbol-laden actions by means of which one passes through dangerous zone,
negotiating it safely and memorably
o Rites change
Van Gennep
o Rituals and transformation
 Space, time, social relations, etc.
 Boundaries
 Rites of passage
o 3 stages
 Separation - Death of old self i.e. leaving home
 Liminality - 'threshold' or barrier; anti-structure
 Incorporation - Birth of new self; go home (new/old)
SY


O

A
Ritual Studies

EA

FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
The Lion King
o Possible to have several rites of passage in a film
 Separation
 Threshold
 Symbolic death
 Journey
 Liminality
 Incorporation (back into being the ruler)
o What does Simba learn
 He needs to return and take up his responsibilities
EA
SY
N
O
TE
S.
C

A
find more resources at oneclass.com
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Lec4: Texts
February 9, 2017
10:28 AM
Text: "a book or other written or printed work, regarded in terms of its content rather than its
physical form" (dictionary)
o Content vs material
o Books vs works
S.
C

A
What are 'Texts'?
Why Texts?
SY



TE

O

Max Muller
o Argued scholars of religion should make sacred texts their primary focus of study
o Study of religion = has traditionally prioritized study of sacred texts
A restrictive, traditional view of "core texts"
o Buddhist sacred texts: the Sutras
o Christian sacred texts: the Bible
o Hindu sacred texts: the Vedas
o Islamic sacred texts: the Quran and Hadith
o Jewish sacred texts: the Tanach, Mishnah, Talmud and Midrash
Problems
o There are many more texts than these
 Commentaries, etc. non-canonical or extra-canonical texts
 Fiction from cultural milieu influenced by or reflective of religious values
o There are many other kinds of texts - 'visual', 'oral' and 'popular' (e.g. movies)
Protestant Reformation (Martin Luther) emphasized texts
Culturally held position that a religion's true 'beliefs' can be mined from 'original' texts
Johnathan Culler
o Distinctions between how we can consider texts in terms of their poetics, hermeneutics and
responses
 Poetics - form, style, rhetoric
 Hermeneutics - meaning
 Responses - being read, by who, why, where and how?
N

Meaning of Texts
Texts have many possible meanings
o However, lots of disagreements
o Sacred text disputes
 Language is complicated
 Literal vs. symbolic
Meaning goes beyond words/content
o Physical text
 e.g. Judaism, Sikhism
 Preservation/destruction
o Understanding vs actual content
EA


FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
TE
S.
C
Theories of Text
 Foucault + Barthes
o Authority of the author
o Intent often not important
o Identity often is important
 Status, expertise, gender, etc.
 Judith Fetterley
o Gendered readings
o Authors, characters, audience (who speaks, who has a name, etc.)
o Meaning not always about 'intent'
 Wolfgang Iser + Stanley Fish
o Importance of reader
o Knowledge of text's content, author, etc.
 Jacques Derrida
o Text are important
 We live in worlds shaped by texts
 e.g. course syllabi, sacred texts
o The meanings of texts are variable
 Unstable links between words and reality
 Meaning affected by changes in context, author, reader
 Meaning of words not fixed
A
find more resources at oneclass.com
Conclusion
EA
SY

O



We should study both major religious works, more minor or popular texts, and other cultural
products
Study not only content, but also context and use
Texts create cultural worlds, and influence how we experience the world
Idea of 'death of the author' suggests that authorship gives authority and particular meanings to a
text
o Reader either gives or withholds that authority
Readers also create meanings as individuals and as parts of interpretive communities
N

FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Lec5: Definitions
February 14, 2017
5:17 PM
O

S.
C

Definitions are
o Created by people
o Interpretations
o Subject to change
o Don't always fit the data
o Powerful
"indigenous"
o Impact of definitions on people's lives
 Treaty rights e.g. land claims
 Indigenous people were often viewed by colonizers as less than human
 Religious practices illegal; residential schools; not allowed to vote until 1960
o 'indigenous traditions' definition
 Self-identity
 Community members defined by
 Genealogical relations
 Connection to specific place
Is it 'religious'?
o Anything can potentially be considered religious
o Determined by
 Context/info
 Definition
TE

A
Definitions
Religion is about 'meaning and value beyond self-centredness) *Huston Smith)
Religion is 'the state of being ultimately concerned' (Paul Tillich)
Religion is 'a feeling of absolute dependence' (Friedrich Schleiermacher)
Religion is a system of beliefs and practices related to sacred things, uniting people into a
community (Emile Durkheim)
Religion is anything that involves 'non-falsifiable realities' (James Cox)
'Try to define religion and you invite an argument' (Patrick McNamara)
Dictionary
o 'an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of
gods'
o 'an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group'
Key points
o Many definitions are possible
o Often have very different meanings
o Using one definition - some aspects might fit, and some might not
o Using two definitions: one might apply and the other might not
Nye: nothing is 'intrinsically religious'
o We MAKE things religious, nothing is religious on its own
SY




N
Other Possible Definitions
EA





FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o
'religioning' - something that people do


Religions
o Bounded, specific traditions (e.g. Buddhism, Christianity, etc.)
Religion
o General/universal (e.g. meaning, value, etc.)

EA
SY
N



TE

Religion is complicated
o Diverse (between traditions and within traditions)
o Social and individual
o Transcendent (abstract) and concrete (day to day)
Religion involves 'supernatural beings' (Antoine Vergote)
o Some forms of Christianity (Unitarian Universalism)
o Some forms of Buddhism
o Not focused on belief in supernatural beings
Academic study of religion is not interested in whose search for 'truth' is correct
o Instead - data accessible to everyone
o Focus on people, not god(s)
o Study of what people do
Anything can be potentially be considered 'religious'
Change the question - is something religious?
Instead: in what ways might something be religious?
O

S.
C
Conclusions
A
'Religions' vs. 'Religion'
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Lec6: Culture
February 28, 2017
5:17 PM


O

S.
C

What is culture?
o Everything
o Music, film, literature, fashion, food, etc.
What do we study
o Everything
o Specific theories
o Elite/high and popular/low
How do we study culture?
o Interpretive 'lenses'
Nye
o Religion is an aspect of cultural life
o Term 'culture' does not refer to an entity in itself. Culture is something that is done, we have
culture, and we do culture
Syncretism/hybridity
o Culture/religion is never static
o Syncretism (culture hybridity) - mix of different cultures together
o New circumstances/ideas/technology
 Not necessarily the same as hybridity
o Result of mixing is often hard to understand or predict
o May be very positive
TE

A
Culture
N
Theories of Culture
Culture is what people do (Hall)
Each group has its own culture (Tylor)
Religion can also create divisions (Nye)
Religion as 'social glue' (Durkheim)

Theories possibly useful to essay
o Subcultures and resistance (Hebdige)
o Power - popular vs. elite (Williams/Hall)
o Change/hybridity/syncretism (various)
o Religion = society (Durkheim)
o Religion = symbols (Geertz)
EA
SY




Durkheim


Religion has 2 important functions
o Brought people together (social glue); created solidarity (through large scale rituals)
o Gave people a way of understanding and seeing society; through religious identities that
people came to have social identities
Act of worshipping a totem
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Social construction of religion - all religious actions are really about worshipping the people
themselves
o Ways that society pictures and worships itself
o Rituals become more important than belief/doctrine
Durkheim's definition
o A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say,
things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral
community called a Church, all of those who adhere to them
o
S.
C
A

Clifford Geertz
Religion is a system of symbols, which acts to establish powerful, pervasive and long-lasting
moods and motivations in people
o By formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing those conceptions
w/ aura of factuality so that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic
EA
SY
N
O
TE

FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Lec7: Power
March 7, 2017
10:23 PM
•
Power - social, political, economic
Power relations exist in all human communities and institutions
o Including religion
• Power relations within a religion
• Power relations between religion and larger/other elements of society
Power relations are complex
o Power is not inherently 'bad'
o Create, sustain power
o Subvert, resist power
o People/institutions with power in some contexts may NOT have power in others
S.
C
•
•
A
What is Power?
SY
•
O
•
•
•
Ideology: "makes the rule by one group over another appear 'natural' and unquestionable"
Power as natural/obvious
Markers - e.g. spaces, buildings, clothing, titles, age, gender, etc.
Theories of ideology - critique/expose it
Religion can be an ideology
o Leads us to accept (unjust) system
o Comfort/ illusion
o Teachings
Need to critique/remove religion before we can change the unjust system
"religion is ideology when it masks and legitimates inequality"
"religion is not te actual cause of social and economic suffering, i.e. it is not harmful in itself.
Rather, religion is a symptom of a sick social system
Comfort/illusion
o Religion as 'opium'
o Comforts us, masks suffering
o Reward after death vs. conditions of life
N
•
•
•
•
•
TE
Karl Marx
Not Marx
Yet we can see instances where religion has been used to oppose an (unjust) system
Christianity
o Martin Luther King (USA)
o Desmond Tutu (South Africa)
o Stan McKay (Canada)
EA
•
•
Gramsci
•
•
Hegemony: the complex means by which those who are ruled over come to accept and feel they
have a stake in the powers that are exploiting and controlling them
Particular forms of culture are imposed by the ruling elite as the preferred or dominant form
o This happens through process of consent
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
•
Ruled over classes tend to internalize the ideology/dominant culture and behave as if
it is their own
•
•
S.
C
•
Proposes two different forms of 'state apparatus' that enable the ruling group to exercise power
over the population
Repressive state apparatus
o Force, violence or threat of violence
o e.g. polite, army, etc.
Ideological state apparatus
o Education, media, religion etc.
o Make existing power structure appear natural/obvious
Interpellation: unknowingly participate in own exploitation
o Trick or brainwash
o Illusion of choice
o Critique - cannot know someone's state of mind
TE
•
A
Althusser
Foucault
Power, knowledge, discourse
Who talks, who appears knowledgeable, who seems to be in charge
Panopticon
o Always being watched but can't see watcher
o Internalize surveillance + modify behavior
EA
SY
N
O
•
•
•
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Lec8: Gender
Gender Issues
•
•
Feminism
o Goal is to achieve equal political social and economic rights for women
Equal rights and opportunities
o Politics, media, business, religions, etc.
Evidence of ongoing gender bias
o Equal pay for equal work
o Absence of female CEOs, university professors, etc.
S.
C
•
Gender construction
Both maleness and femaleness are constructed and always changing
Androcentrism
Patriarchy
o Organization of societies so that men tend to exert a large degree of control and power over
women is fairly ubiquitous
TE
•
•
•
Mary Daly
O
Male-dominant religion is by-product and result of patriarchy
Religion could also be a way to fight patriarchy
o Relation between gender of god(s) and gender of people in power
o Male god = tool in oppression of women
o Over-generalization (but still seems relevant much of the time)
N
•
•
A
March 14, 2017
5:19 PM
Luce Irigaray
Language/'the symbolic'
o Itself is exclusively a male domain
o Reflects gendered perspectives
SY
•
Hala Shukrallah
• Women often given task of representing 'traditional values' (for everyone)
o e.g. Muslim women who wear head scarfs
• May connect to issues of patriarchy and/or gender constructions
EA
Leila Ahmed
•
•
Head scarfs - not easily understood
Female dress as a sign of oppression - direct by-product of other unequal power dynamics
Talal Asad + Gayatri Spivak
•
Agency
o Issue of choice
o Possibility of resistance
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
More apparent when we rebel, but also possible to choose conformity
Link between agency and gender
• What are options and how do they differ according to one's gender
• Who is being granted agency (bias)
• e.g. nuns who wear veils are devoted vs. Muslim women who wear head scarfs are
oppressed
Judith Butler
S.
C
Biology itself is a by-product of culture
Gender as constructed by culture and religion
Gender as performance
o e.g. public vs. private
o Visual representations through clothing, gestures, etc.
EA
SY
N
O
TE
•
•
•
A
o
o
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Lec9: Visual Culture
March 21, 2017
5:04 PM
DV3093 group office hours
A
•
Visual Culture Studies
•
SY
N
O
•
S.
C
•
•
•
Broadening of art history in terms of material considered
o Pop culture, contemporary art, etc.
Relatively new, interdisciplinary, approach in academic studies
Interprets visual constructions as an expression (or formation) of human culture
Art = another way of speaking
o Externalizes thoughts, goals & aspirations, how humans understand themselves and make
their world
o Symbolic acts of communication
e.g. Opposition to painting of Virgin Mary depicting her as a Black woman w/ elephant dung as her
exposed breast
o What is considered dirty or impure is something that is out of place/doesn't belong
o Meanings are culturally determined
o Contemporary interpretation, not meant to be offensive
Plate's 'Field of Vision'
o Starts w/ the image itself
o Medium and message (form and content)
o Creator(s)
o Discourse (title, responses, etc.)
o Meaning/interpretation is always affected by other factors
o Historical context
o Identity of viewers
o Cultural context
o Institutional context
TE
•
How can we understand religion through visual culture
•
•
•
Didactic images - teach a message
At in churches can serve as books for the illiterate
o e.g. 'Wheel of life' painting in Tibetan Buddhism
Iconography: image + writing
EA
Built spaces - religious, architecture and social needs
•
•
•
e.g. Muhamad's house
o Mosques follow similar format i.e. large enclosed courtyard
o Decorations - mosaics, no animals or humans
• Opposed to depictions of the divine in human form
Icons
o Contested role of images in major world religions - site of disagreement
Iconoclasm
o Destruction of religious images or the opposition of their veneration
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o
e.g.
•
•
•
EA
SY
N
O
TE
S.
C
o
A
o
Islam vs. Arabian polytheism
Judaism vs. Christianity
Protestant vs. Catholicism
Indulgence print
• Includes unauthorized indulgence for 20 000 years each time specific prayers are said
• Purchase one's way out of sin
1566 - Catholics becoming Protestant - turning against their own images as reflection of
corruption of Catholic church
• Different visions of churches as a result
• Protestant church - whitewashed, sculptures eradicated
• Primacy of the image replaced by primacy of the word
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Lec10: Contemporary Religions
March 28, 2017
5:24 PM
A
Terms
S.
C
 Globalization/localization
o World becoming increasingly interconnected as a result of trade and cultural exchange
o Appadurai - 5 scapes

Ethno, media, techno, finance, idea

Create imaginary world

Further scape could be added - religionscape - to highlight role that religious
TE
EA
SY





O

N

groups have w/ globalization
o Benedict Anderson

Nations have no objective existence other than that they create a sense of
community
o Localization - response to globalization

Tendencies to homogeneity/centralization appear alongside tendencies to
heterogeneity/decentralization
Nationalism/ethnicity
o Imaginary communities - something communities are constantly involved in
o Association of nationality and religiosity (Western Europe and North America Christianity)
o Emergence of religious difference as response to new national identity (e.g. India)
o Ethnicity - more localized form of nationalism
Multiculturalism/transnationalism/diasporas
o Multiculturalism - most debated topic
o Transnationalism - people moving across the globe for permanent settlement or
temporary travel
o Diaspora - cultural dispersion of people cross the globe but perceive themselves as
united by transnational and cultural connections
Fundamentalism/violence
Secularization
Pluralism
De/re-traditionalism
Modern forms of religion
o All modern forms usually have similarities w/ older forms
o Response to modern society, hybrid; but often maintain old connections
o e.g. neo-Paganism

Stresses gender equality at level of social practice and in terms of theistic ideas;
also strong ecological awareness (nature and 'the earth' as living deity)

General trends of contemporary culture
Decline in religious attendance
 Why a decline in attendance at formal religious services does not indicate people are any less
religious than before
o e.g. Protestant Reformation
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
More individualistic form of religious practice
Happening outside of service
Description of a decline in religion is actually describing a decline in Christianity


o
RLG101 Conclusion
'Toolbox' for thinking about religion
Definition, culture, power, gender, belief, ritual, text, visual culture, contemporary religion
What the study of religion is, what it means to think through and with it
Not about what religions are good or bad
TE




S.
C
 Religion is a continuous activity
 Common view that religion is on the decline
 'people these days'
o Specific evidence for these views

Actual data or feelings/anecdotes?
A
Are people more or less religious?
Exam
EA
SY
N
O
 Part A - multiple choice
o 40 questions
 Part B - image analysis
o 10 marks
o Description of imagine and what you know about it
o Religious context it's connected to
o Apply 2 different theories
o Short conclusion about how analysis of the image can be useful in the study of religion
 Part C - short answer
o 20 marks
o 4 of 6 questions
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Ch.1: Some Basics
January 11, 2017
8:29 PM

Sigmund Freud
o Proposed that religion is a misguided and unhealthy outcome of problems inherent in a
young boy working through his relations with his father
 Making up heavenly father-figure to compensate for relations with his own father
o Ignored his own particularly cultural assumptions in this theory
 Humans become religious depended on ideas of behaviour specific to particular
culture
Culture and cultural difference is a crucial factor
S.
C

A
Religion and Culture
Religion and Religions
TE
SY
N

Religion: 'universal' aspect of human culture
Religions: particular groups and traditions
Religious: used in general sense to describe a type of thing or behaviour or experience
Religioning: an action, processing of practicing religion
What we understand the universal experience of religion to be is shaped by our own religion
Characteristics of religion
o Major texts - sacred books
o Foundational ideas, 'beliefs' and worldviews
o Particular histories and leaders
o Often a sense of having a distinct identity
'world religions' approach
o Misses complexity and diversity of a religion
 Suggests e.g. all Christians or Hindus or Muslims are the same
o Leaves considerable geographic gaps
 The main religions we know of are not the only religious traditions in the world
o Mainly about classification of cultures and traditions - argued to be a mainly political activity
o Merely a starting point - points out obvious differences between groups on world-wide scale
 Encourages us to look at cultural issues & political conditions underlying these
differences
O






Religion as a Universal
Argument: religion is universal, shared by all humans
o Religion is not innate to humanity - as shown by atheists, humanists, etc.
o Secular ideologies (e.g. Marxism, communism) have developed to fulfil roles and functions
previously filled by religion
Word 'religion' does not easily translate into other languages
o In some cultures, no obvious word can be translated into 'religion'
EA


FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Ch.5: Belief
January 10, 2017
5:29 PM
Concept of belief defines Christianity
However, centrality of belief within Christianity is not universal
Protestant Reformation
o Establish prominence of individual faith (or belief) over corruption of Catholic Church
o True religion was a matter of what one thought and believed in
S.
C



A
Concept of Belief
Problems with "Belief"
Applying Christian concept to other religions - assuming that belief is the general nature of religion
No words in certain languages that can be directly translated into 'belief'
Practice of religiosity in non-Christian contexts may emphasize behaviors other than belief
Belief and Reductionism



TE



Object of beliefs are nothing more than human constructions that can be reduced to human basics
o Assumptions of religion have no reality in themselves
Humankind unconsciously creates God/the gods in their own image
Humans make up images of gods for human purposes

Understanding human actions (including religious beliefs) with reference to scientific study of the
human brain
Stewart Guthrie
o We are naturally predisposed to attribute natural phenomena with human characteristics
(helpful to us)
 e.g. seeing human faces in clouds
o Therefore mechanisms of human brain also produces religious beliefs
SY
N

O
Cognitive Approaches to Belief
Non-Reductionist Views on Religion

Hick
Religion is primarily about experience of, and belief in a transcendent reality ('the Real')
 All religious beliefs are expressions of the Real
 The 'sacred' may solely be a human projection
o Personae: a deity, or deities
o Impersonae: a more abstract force
Eliade
o 'Real' entity or state towards which humans are inclined
 Element of human nature
o Experienced by humans through particular manifestations
o The 'sacred' exists in itself
EA
o

Belief and the Absence of 'Religion'
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com

An important concept used by Europeans to determine presence of religion was the concept of
belief
o Absence of belief = primitive

Richard Gombrich
o 2 different types of belief
o Cognitive: what people say about their beliefs and practices
o Affective: what people actually do
Malcolm Ruel
o Weak vs strong meaning for belief
 Weak - expectation for oneself (e.g. she believes the train will come on time)
 Strong - more definite assertion (e.g. I believe in God)
o Problem that idea of belief is being used as an explanation in itself; more than a definition
 Using concept of belief to describe and categorize others = assumption that "belief is
fundamentally an interior state, a psychological condition"
TE
Belief, Doctrine, and Common-Sense
S.
C

A
Classifications of Belief

Leach

Difference between religious belief and non-religious common sense
 Idea of 'virgin birth' as one of the bases of Christian belief
 Malinowski - Kiriwinans (native Australian group) believed humans were incarnations
of spirits that enter women when they bathe in the sea
o Common sense for humans to know that conception cannot occur without heterosexual
intercourse
Assumption of universal common sense, while religious views are more culture-bound and so vary
Religious beliefs cannot be separated from religious practices
Bell, Bourdieu and Habitus
o Ritual is the acting out of beliefs - this view encourages us to view 'ritual' as a thing in itself
o Bourdieu's concept of habitus - cultural context in which people live and practice their lives
EA
SY


N
Belief and Practice
O
o
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Ch.6: Ritual
January 17, 2017
5:29 PM
Emphasis on practice of religion, the things people do
What is Ritual?
o Animated persons enact formative gestures in the face of receptivity during crucial times in
founded places (Grimes)
o Human experience and perception in forms which are complicated by the imagination,
making reality more complex and unnatural than more mundane instrumental spheres of
human experience assume (Hughes-Freeland)
o Various culturally specific strategies for setting some activities off from others, for creating
and privileging a qualitative distinction between the 'sacred' and the 'profane', and for
ascribing such distinctions to realities thought to transcend the powers of human actors
(Bell)
o The performance of more or less invariant sequences of formal acts and utterances not
entirely encoded by the performers (Rappaport)
o Formal behaviour prescribed for occasions not given over to technological routine that have
reference to beliefs in mystical (or non-empirical) beings or powers (Turner)
Ritualization/ritualising: way in which people doing rituals are making certain things happen


Latent meaningfulness - search for meanings particularly in actions which appear meaningless
(either to observers or those performing the actions)
Instrumental vs. expressive actions
o Instrumental: acts performed primarily for their practical value - to achieve some goal
o Expressive: performed for more than obvious goal, done to express certain ideas or to act
out in symbolic form ideas or wishes
N

O
Rituals and Meaning
TE
S.
C


A
Ritual and Ritualising
SY
Rituals and Symbolism

EA

Symbols: things that represent more than their physical properties
o Culturally determined
o Can have multiple meanings
Jung's theory of the 'archetype'
o Based on assumption that there are some fundamental symbols with meanings and
associations shared by all humans
o Little evidence
Ritual and Communication

Through performance of ritual activity, those involved may come to understand some
idea/concept/viewpoint
o Communicate through subtle ways
o Demonstrating the ideals of social life
o e.g. through rituals such as marriages, funerals, or Thanksgiving and Christmas in Western
culture
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com

Bloch - ritual is a special type of language
o More formal and rigid; no words, so harder to contradict
Rituals and Performance

A

Ritual action: performative, involves people doing things (consciously or unthinkingly), doing
activities in a particular way
Performance may involve special types of behaviour
o Assume a certain attitude
o Speak a certain way
o Do certain actions
Personal element of performance means no 2 ritual performances are the same
S.
C

Ritual and Society
What individuals do as rituals links them to cultural values and practices of a wider group
Durkheim
o Religion brings people together and makes them feel part of a larger cohesive whole
Rituals and Repetition

SY

O

Edmund Leach
o Repetition is a function of the way in which rituals are communicative
o The more something is 'said' in the ritual, the more chance it will get through to the
participants
Claude Levi-Strauss
o Meaning of ritual is transmitted through relations between symbols and ideas in the ritual
o Frequent repetition of symbols also means a repetition of structural relationships between
symbols
Freud - psychoanalytic theory
o Ritual is a collective neurosis - unhealthy state of mind
o People find comfort in ritualistic/neurotic behaviour, from pressures of the world
Harvey Whitehouse
o Relationship between repetitiveness of ritual and cognitive psychological approaches to
ways the brain structures experiences as memories
o Rituals must take a form that people can remember, and people must be motivated to pass
on these beliefs and rituals
 Imagistic mode: high intensity ritual (e.g. traumatic or violent initiation rituals) which
trigger high levels of memory retention
 Doctrinal mode: routine and mundane actions with regular repetition
N

TE


EA
Rituals and Transformation

Arnold van Gennep
o Ritual actions transform people's concepts of time, space and society
o 3 stages
 Separation: between participant and the world in which they normally live; detached
from usual role and obligations
 Liminality: may last a long time or be very short; participant crosses a threshold which
marks boundary between the world they leave behind and the social world the ritual
is preparing them for
FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com

Incorporation: participant reincorporated into their old world, with new role to take
on; demonstrates inward and outward transformation
Rituals and Power
o
o
If something is labelled as a ritual, we assume it will become symbolic and transformative,
etc.
All ritual actions are about expressing power, about making people subordinate, or
challenging such subordinacy
Process of setting behaviour off as ritualized - is itself a way of expressing power relations
EA
SY
N
O
TE
o
A
Bell
S.
C

FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Ch.7: Texts
February 7, 2017
1:11 PM

In many contemporary cultures, not only written texts convey meaning, but also other media such
as film
Textual forms of the Bible
o Bible exists in many ways
 Private reading of the book
 Public performances e.g. church services
 Biblical stories through films, TV shows and popular literature
S.
C

A
What is a Text?
Text, Context, and the World
Emphasis on texts is a product of Protestant Christian traditions
Derrida
o 'there is nothing outside the text'/'there is no outside-of-text'
 Literary reductionism - everything is textual, and there is nothing that exists beyond
texts
o Words we use are key to experiencing the world
o Human experience is mediated through language
 Words do not have fixed meanings
 Shift in subtle ways through juxtapositions of words when spoken or written
O
TE


Context and Uses of Texts
Understanding a religious text requires having an idea of context
o Where it comes from, who wrote it, how it is meant to be read
o e.g. a text might be special and only used during special times
 Book itself must be understood in terms of the way it is used and practiced
 How it is read, what is done with it
SY
N

Reading and Translating Texts


EA

Importance of context
Many readers of the Bible consider the English version the 'original' version, as though Jesus and
Gospel writers used the English language
Issues and challenges of translation
o e.g. non-Arabic readers of the Quran will never directly render the actual meaning of the
words from another language
 Words spoken and transcribed in Arabic, impossible to translate without losing
context
A full understanding of the meaning of a religious text starts with an understanding of its meaning
within the source of language
o Translations are useful as long as we are aware that we read it as a translation, and whose
translation we are using
o Different translators may have different ideas and understanding

FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Authorship


A

When reading a book, the reader could be
o Aware of authorial voice
o Or interacting with the book itself and not necessarily the author
Multiple Gospel writers of the Bible vs single author for Quran (direct word of god, text in which
Allah speaks to the world)
o Muslim perspective - author of the Quran is Allah
Rushdie
o Attribution of authorship (who created a text) is not necessarily neutral
 Can be highly political
 Authority comes from authorship
Barthes
o 'birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author'
o Texts have fixed meanings; there can be an authoritative reading to be made of a text
o Whether or not we agree or disagree with a text does not depend on the author
N

Texts decipher the meanings of texts, which help to frame our decoding of texts
e.g. feminist readings of the Bible
o Goodness of Christianity vs. misogyny, patriarchy, violence by men against women
o Author's original intentions are not necessarily the sae as those of a reader in a different
time and culture
o Roles of author becomes part of the analysis
o Focus on the possible range of interpretations that can be made from a text
e.g. Quran
o Single author; role of Muslim interpretation and commentary is to discover as deeply as
possible what the text is saying
o Text is perfection and beyond humanity; work of interpretation is very much a human
endeavor
 Interpreters not considered sacred
O


TE
Texts, Interpretation, and Commentary
S.
C

SY
Readers and Readings
Reader-response theory (Iser): based on interaction between text and reader
o Focus on the reader
o How the relationship between the two is mediated
o A text will have both guidance for the reader and gaps within narration (blanks) in which the
reader can create meaning and interpret
o Importance of how the text is produced
 e.g. books, films, etc.
Reading is influenced by political relations
o Debates on how religious texts should be read
o Issues of gender
Combining textual studies with more socially-based or ethnographic studies
EA



FIND MORE AT EasyNotes.ca
find more resources at oneclass.com