Approaching Religious Traditions

KEY POINTS

• insider / outsider problem: emic (participant) vs. etic (observer) perspectives in religion.

• how insiders unconsciously practice, unaware of their religious system’s structure

• how outsiders analyze and translate emic views into comparative frameworks.

• emic theology vs etic social-cognitive anaylsis of theodicy as examples of religionist vs. reductionist viewpoints.

• the way that colonalism, imperialism, and postcolonial theory affect how we understand religion

• the concepts of orientalism and decolonization in relation to the study of religion.

• the connection between race and religion.

Chapter 6: “Religion and the Insider/Outsider Problem”