DECK B: Religion Reduced

Heightened Morality

• Religion reduced to moral living.

• Suggests “to be religious = to be moral.”

• Weakness: morality exists outside religion; religion may ask for more (e.g., martyrdom).

Immanuel Kant (Religion and Morality)

• Religion is grounded in morality.

• Categorical imperative = universal moral law.

• Religion ensures justice beyond life (God, immortality, freedom as postulates).

• “Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone.”

Iris Murdoch (Morality and Mysticism)

• Morality as love and attention to “the Good.”

• Religion = contemplation of transcendent Good.

• Inspired by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

Socio-cultural Reality

• Religion as a social phenomenon.

• Shapes identity, unifies groups, sets norms.

Clifford Geertz (Religion as Symbols)

• Religion = system of symbols shaping moods & motivations.

• Creates long-lasting dispositions by giving meaning.

• Key phrase: “moods and motivations.”

Emile Durkheim (Religion as Society)

• Religion = distinction between sacred and profane.

• Collective representation of society’s values.

• “God is society writ large.”

• Religion unifies but also excludes outsiders.

Personal Piety

• Religion reduced to individual devotion or feeling.

• E.g., prayer life, mystical experiences, worship.

• Strength: captures personal experience. Weakness: ignores communal/institutional side.

Julian Huxley (Sacred Feeling)

• Religion = experience of sacredness, awe, reverence.

• Even secular humanism has “religious” feelings.

Friedrich Schleiermacher (Absolute Dependence)

• Religion grounded in feeling of dependence on absolute power.

• Not morality, not doctrine, but feeling.

• Religion as a “sense and taste for the infinite.”

Religion Beyond Morality

• Religion can demand more than morality.

• Example: martyrdom, voluntary suffering for faith.

• Case study: Fr. Maximilian Kolbe (Auschwitz), sacrificed his life for another.

Ethical Dilemmas (Examples

• Case of mother/child tubal pregnancy: save mother or child?

• Illustrates moral reasoning beyond religious rule.

• Religion adds another dimension (sacredness of life, self-sacrifice).