Ch. 1 Beginning Your Study of World Religions

Preunderstanding

• State of one’s understanding of reality with which one makes sense of one’s new experiences

• Changes as one’s knowledge, beliefs, and convictions are altered over time

Religion

• Pattern of beliefs and practices

  • Monotheism: Belief in one God

  • Polytheism: Belief in many Gods

• Expresses and enacts what is sacred and/or ultimate about life

• Formed by a community of like-mided people

Secularism

• Rejects religion for:

  • Perceived evils of extremism

  • Inappropriateness of religious training for children

  • Better view on life offered by science

• Has reduced religious beliefs and practice and has led to widespread religious illiteracy

  • People often combine aspects of secular life with religious life

Secularization hypothesis

Suggests that science and education will spell the end of religion in modern world

• Has been discredited because religion:

  • Has a visible role in global and cultural conflicts

  • Has become a main marker of human identity

Study of Religion

• Offers training in both academic and everyday skills by helping one:

  • Link religious thought and practice to everyday life and understand conflicts within and between nations

  • Appreciate religious language and values

  • Analyze and understand important texts both critically and empathetically

  • Develop cultural intelligence

Dimensions of Religion

• Cognitive: Religion is a matter of knowledge, of thinking things through

• Ethical: Standards for personal moral conduct with an emphasis on social morality

• Ritual: Symbolic action in worship or other religious ceremonies

• Institutional: The organizational structure and activity of the religious community

• Aesthetic: Beauty that appeals to the mind and emtions

• Emotional: The feelings and moods in religion, including awe, fear, hope, and love

Theology

Study of a religion, based on a religious commitment to that religion, in order to promote it

Religious studies

• Aims to understand religious traditions objectively

• Students are not asked to make religious commitments

History

• Main method in the study of religion

  • Studies the process of a religion’s beginnings, growth, diversity, and decline

• Approaches to studying religion

  • Historical-critical method: Uses methods such as archaeology and studying texts in their original languages

  • History of religions school: Studies religion as a social and cultural phenomenon

Psychology

• Has interest in religion because of:

  • Religion’s role in shaping human behavior

  • How religions understand the human self

• Concerned with research in conversion, mysticism, and meditation

Sigmund Freud

• Religion is a neurotic condition for which therapy is needed when it persist into adulthood

• Belief in God stems from an adult’s need for a father figure

Carl Jung

• Conceptions of the divine related to an ancient archetypal pattern that resides in the subconscious of all human minds

William James

• Primary focus of the psychology of religion should be on the religion experience of individuals, not institutions

Andrew Newberg

• Brain scans of subjects who meditate and pray show physical and emtional benefits over time

Sociology

• Aims at explaining religion’s role in society

• Current debates centered on:

  • Pace of secularization and civil religion (dominant religion of a nation or culture that typically involves some religious conviction about that nation or culture)

  • Cohesiveness of religions and practices in the face of globalization, multiculturalism, and pluralism

• Emile Durkheim’s view

  • Religion creates group identity and reinforces moral values of a society

Cultural Anthrology

• Uncovers underlying values of cultures

  • Studies broad cultural dynamics

• Places special focus on the shaman

  • Shaman: Religious specialist who acts as a medium between visible and spiritual worlds

• Victor Turner’s theory

  • Ritual creates the social breaks and thresholds of new kinds of life

Life-cycle rituals

ceremony to mark an important point in life such as birth, becoming an adult, weddings, and funerals

Women’s Studies

• Scholars argue that most religions stem from patriarchy (male-domination of society)

  • Explains the nearly worldwide subordination of women to men

  • Primary religious duty of women is to obey their husbands and raise their children

Feminism

movement for women’s equality

Biology

• Scientists seek to explain religion in genetic terms

  • Dean Hamer’s book, The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into Our Genes

    • Claims that religion is made possible by a genetic adaptation

  • Generally accepted hypothesis

    • Some early humans became capable of transcending themselves, which was passed on by natural selection

Ritual

is a symbolic action in worship, meditation, or other religious activities

Pilgrimage

travel to a special destination to increase one’s devotion and/or improve one’s religious status

myths

stories that relate the basic truths of a religion

new religion movements (NRMs)

religious groups that have arisen since the 19th century and now have sufficient size to merit study.

ex: L. Ron Hubbard of the Scientology movement

Laity

Main body of people who practice a religion

atheism

conviction that there is no God

new atheists

group of current atheists who have made sharp public attacks on religion

agnostics

those who do not know if a God or gods exist

Pluralism

recognition of religious differences and dealing with the constructivelt