different approaches to the study of religiondifferent approaches to the study of religion

Religion may also be thought to be subjective because the criteria by which its truth is decided are obscure and hard to come by, so there is no obvious objective test, the way in which there is for a large range of empirical claims in the physical world. Related to Freuds concept, the personal unconscious mind contains all our personal experiences that we are not aware of (because we have suppressed them); whilethe collective unconscious mind contains universal experiences of mankind and the archetypes (the basic universal images that recur in various forms in different cultures) which we have inherited from our ancestors. The SSRC is an independent, international, nonprofit organization. Another illustration of religious beliefs is the creation stories we find in different religions. It is present in varying forms in the religions of the lower races up to the civilized races of mankind. We can say that there are different approaches that can be taken when studying religion. First, as religion is not a thing but a term of art, it is perfectly legitimateas suggested abovethat different dimensions of it are appropriated in different disciplines and areas of life. Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. Approaches to ReligionSpring 2010REL 111. (James L.Cox,p.159.A guide to the Phenomenology of religion .key figure ,formative influence and subsequent debate. Thus, the preliminary task of the student of religion must be to amass an inventory of kinds of religious phenomena. Aquinas is famous for his five proofs for the existence of God: his arguments from causation, motion, necessity, design, and degrees of protection. Free resources to assist you with your university studies! The Comparative Study of Religions World Religions: A Voyage of Discovery, Fourth Edition, considers one religion at a time, chapter by chapter. Like most abstract concepts, the concept of religion is a construction projected onto the world, but one consequence of this large-scale projection may well be that our world has genuinely come to exhibit it. Religion can be said to be subjective in at least two senses. In this post, I briefly set out three distinct approaches to the study of religion: criticizing religion, upholding religion, and disaggregating religion. a creation of capitalism, for Weber it is the other way roundcapitalism is largely due to religion, more specifically, the Calvinist religion. II. There are two main reasons for this suspicion. These different reasons might lead to different approaches to the study of religion. Epistemology. In this lesson, we will discuss the difference between the scientific and the religious approach and will look at some examples of each. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives. In considering a religion, however, the scholar is concerned not only with individual responses but also with communal ones. As stated earlier, French sociologist mile Durkheim (1858-1917) defined religion as a "unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things" (1915). Understanding Religious Pluralism in India. The disaggregated approach does not claim that it captures the fullness of the lived, anthropological reality of religion. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Instead, I shall merely sketch an alternative strategy. But perhaps we should apply to religion something like Ludwig Wittgensteins theory of family resemblance. Geographers study religions and their development based on the role that geography intersects with other important social components within a human geographic approach. First, different disciplines will have different answers to the question of what the concept of religion is for; and as a result they will work with different conceptions of religion. We will discuss religious studies as an . Like Muslim reformists' approach of reform, which attempted to reconstruct Islamic religious thought in the light of modern science and knowledge, Christian neo-orthodoxy insisted that Christianity itself needs continually to be rethought and that theology must engage seriously with the . The book is a vast collection of rituals, myths, and religions organized by patterns and themes, which made extensive use of sources from primitive and folk cultures (Paden 2005, 213). Introduces students to the study of religion, world religious traditions and ethics through an exploration of death and dying. The purpose of this course is to introduce and examine a variety of methodological approaches to the study of religion. Religion and 'The Study of Religions' has many approaches which try to investigate the core of what religion is and what it means to the people who practice it. For our purposes, we shall examine certain approaches to the study of religions that are based on certain academic disciplines. Second, however, we may ask whether the normative analogy used by egalitarian theorists of religious freedom is the right one. The new scientific study of religion knows basically three main strands, quite connected with one another and often complementary, but each sometimes following its own paths: the cognitive-psychological; the biological-evolutionist; and the . He also introduced a broad program and methodology of comparing religions, which included principles like gaining knowledge of others through their own writings, grouping religions according to their regional, linguistic contexts, and avoiding the common distortion of comparing the positive aspects of one religion with the negative aspects of another (Paden 2005, 212-213). Both methods tried to avoid the phenomenological approach. 427-5290. adlerj@kenyon.edu. Corrections? The Hijab Controversy in Political Philosophy (Oxford University Press 2008). Describe a friend, acquaintance, or relative whose approach to religion is different than yours. Some of these theories may be controversial, or questionable, for some people; nonetheless, knowing them broadens our understanding of the meaning and nature of religion. The specific question which political and legal philosophers (should) ask themselves is this. Third, the secular separation between a privatized, individualized sphere of religion and a public, social, rational sphere of politics has obscured the way in which the state, the nation, and the law operate as the modern sacred. 300 Cadman Plaza West 15th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA If it is not possible, then cross-religious comparisons would mostly break down, for normally it is not possible to be inside more than one religion. It may well be that egalitarian theorists have picked a normatively problematic, or normatively narrow, analogy for religion. Briefly, the arguments from causation and motion claim that the series of causes and effects, and movements in the world, must begin with God being the first cause and mover; the argument from design claims that the intricate design of the world cannot be attributed to mere chance but only to God as the divine intelligence; the argument from necessity claims that there must be a God who is a necessary being (one who has always been existing) to explain how contingent beings (those that presently exist but previously did not) have come to exist; and the argument from degrees of perfection claims that there must be a God whose perfection serves as the standard for determining the degrees of qualities that we attribute to things (like that they are good or better). Sociology of religion, on the other hand, studies religious beliefs, practices, and organizations using the theories and methods of the discipline of sociology. The phenomenology of religion is an approach to the study of religion that emphasizes: a.) For example different opinions regarding the Trinity between Roman Catholics and Jehovah Witnesses. Omissions? The final approach to world religions is exclusivism. The stage from man to super being is the next which depends from the approach of the achievement on the evolution on earth. In light of these considerations, our approach in examining the different world religions in the subsequent chapters mainly falls under religious studies. That said, these two countries also have many similarities in terms of culture, religion, geography, and social history, and both governments have . R.R. Lesson Transcript. APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF RELIGION 109 like, the students were asked to read Marx, Freud, Durkheim. Still another difference is that while theology limits itself to its own internal theory of religion (its own account for its origins and functions), religious studies considers external theories of religion (accounts of the origins and functions of religion by other academic disciplines). The study of religion can roughly be divided between descriptive and historical inquiries on the one hand and normative inquiries on the other. If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! Second, secular modernity is itself rooted in a distinctive Protestant anthropology, the ethos of which neatly maps onto a modern liberal subjectivity that encourages the individual to cultivate the autonomy and discipline required to relate to her beliefs and ends in the right way. Contact. For critics, this is visible in three different ways. As noted, there is a specific pedagogical Sociologists study religion as both a belief system and a social institution. In the literature, lived religion is treated variously as a term, a concept, an approach, and a field of studyor all of these. (Ninian Smart,pp10-12,Dimension of the sacred an anatomy of the worlds beliefs ,Harper Collins Publisher 1196) We see from Smarts classifactory account, Smarts perspective in sustaining a phenomenological perception to the methodology of approach to the study, is far different from the approach that Sri Aurobindo use. The study of multiple religious traditions in order to prove the existence or non-existence of God The scholarly examination and comparison of the beliefs, rituals, customs, and traditions of two or more religions Philosophy of Religion (3) Investigate metaphysical and rational categories of religion. She has published extensively in the areas of republicanism and toleration, theories of law and the state, and global justice. The most influential proponent of comparative religion in the nineteenth century was Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900). Some of the contributions of William James were his distinction between institutional religion and personal religion, his analysis of religious experiences as mystical experiences, and his pragmatic approach to the value of religionthat the truth and value of a religious belief for an individual depend on the beneficial effects of the belief on the life of the individual. Your email address will not be published. "Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation", in Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion, Michael Banton (ed. T here are many ways of studying religions. Two famous and highly influential Christian theologians who also engaged in philosophy of religion were St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. In the above definition Marx has stressed few points about religion which require special emphasis. The findings that focus on the scientific study of religion, including the SSSR and the SSR units within the AAR, are especially highlighted, as are contrasts between sociological and psychological approaches in the academic study of religion. Method & Theory in the Study of Religion publishes articles, notes, book reviews and letters which explicitly address the problems of methodology and theory in the academic study of religion. So how would Aurobindo address questions upon doctrine say within the New Testament? The term fundamentalism can be used in very different religious contexts and texts to describe the devotion and strict loyalty to a set of principles or ideas. Ascension 120. Personal experience is crucial to any understanding of religion .On this particular account Aurobindo discovers the relation or union, he favours, what he identifies as spiritual psychology and integral methods, but for both he confirms that the objective is to be understood and interpreted in terms of subjective. Given this, we, however, also use other approaches especially comparative religion and philosophy of religionwhich we will discuss next. O . It has emerged as the single most important means of communication for those interested in critical approaches to the study of religion. A participatory observation, deep interviews and documentations were employed to collect the data of this study. Sullivan demonstrates that religion is too complex, too comprehensive, and too multi-faceted to be adequately captured by the law of the liberal state. From the belief in human souls grew the belief in other spirits, like those that inhabit nature and those venerated as gods. The second ground for skepticism is that religion has served to define the western idea of the secular, and remains deeply entangled with it. Christian neo-orthodoxy can be placed as a middle position between traditional orthodoxy and liberalism. Continuum International publishing group .2006. These studies suggest the significance of religion in health communication and in our . (Peter Connolly,pp1-2Approche to the Study of Religion,Biddles L.T.D.) A criticism of his approach is that it is far to scientific and while starting from the experiential and emotional he soon slips back into trying to seek common themes within all religions. The Essay Writing ExpertsUK Essay Experts. Secularism and freedom of religion, in liberal thought, are connected to moral values such as individual autonomy, moral self-determination, freedom of conscience as well as more political ideals such as non-theocratic constitutional democracy, separation of church and state, and non-establishment of the dominant religion. (Scott London ,the future of religion an Interview with Ninian Smart June 1999 issue ofThe Witnessmagazine. ) Ontology. It also depends heavily on the motives the researcher brings to his or her investigation of religious or worldview issues. During his time, Marx observed that the capitalists, in their pursuit of profits, eventually exploited the workers. Will the globalization lead to a kind of universal religion, as prediction might lead, or it will be turned in a lively variety of many different beliefs? Even if an inventory of kinds of belief and practice could be gathered so as to provide a typical profile of what counts as religion, some scholars would maintain that the differences between religions are more significant than their similarities. The disaggregating approach helps us answer this critique. Conflict sometimes arises because the committed point of view is likely to begin from a more conservative stance, accepting at face value the scriptural accounts of events, whereas the secular historian may be more skeptical, especially of records of miraculous events. Religion-making involved singling out certain social activities and cultural practices as religious and de-politicizing them (see Hinduism in India). 3.7 Robert Marrett and Animatism. (Michael T.Mclaughlin,p96, Editrice Ponteficia Universita` Grecoriana Roma 2003)In many occasions he confirmed that he does not intend to promote any old religion or to find a new one and he strongly oppose religious particolarism. Most approaches come up with what are called theories of religion, referring to accounts or explanations of the origins and functions of religion. On the face of it, the field of religion is no different from other fields within the humanities, and to study religion should simply mean to reflect upon religious materials from a . Sociology studies human societies, their interactions, and the processes that preserve and change them. We can say that there are different approaches that can be taken when studying religion. But what the capitalists gave back to the workers as payment for their labor were merely their subsistence wages that were just enough for the workers to survive. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Social Science Research Council Instead of organizing the course around different theories of religion, the course is arranged in terms of broad methods according to which religion might be theorized. What may be the way forward in the teaching and definition of religion is to accept the singularity of each religion and each individuals faith and seek ways in which they can be accommodated within a safe international environment that moves away from empirical definitions. The only appropriate scholarly stance towards this object is one that is critical and skeptical. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Religion should be disaggregated into a number of different values which relate to the law of the liberal state in different ways. (Stephen H.Phillips.p79,Aurobindo`s Philosophyof Brahman,E.J.Brill Leiden 1986), The strength of Smart can be seen that he does not wish to strip religion or faith down to one or two elements say belief in The Virgin Birth and the dogma of out with the church there is no salvation but his classificatory account makes it clear that it has many elements and strands. We may conclude saying that maybe religions will never combine in to one global faith ,but we do think that the society is moving towards a global ideology that have a space for religion and identify the contributions of the diverse ethnicity and traditions and bring a new way in helping us to work together for the support of human values and spirituality. So critics confuse an empirical inquiry (describing what religion is) with a normative inquiry (accounting for its status in the law). Evolutionary Approaches. How would a strategy of disaggregating religion help here? Rituals, practices and texts focused on death provide the basis for comparative study of Asian and Western religious approaches to the meaning and mystery of death as it confronts individuals and communities. Most of the major thinkers recognized in this area are also those recognized in the sociology of religion like Durkheim and Weber. A standard line of criticism against this egalitarian strategy has been to argue that it rests on a contested understanding of religion. He illustrate the introduction of Phenomenology saying, a lot of opinions have been written about not only the physical interchange of races but;, also ethnical and cultural, and especially upon values, so what take place when religions and their tradition convene? Violence against Women in Politics in Brazil: An Instrument of Power and Anti-Egalitarian Obstruction, District Selection and Racial Identity: Voting Preferences in the Colombian Congress Black District, Improving Evidence and Relevance at the Same Time, RFP | SSRC Religion, Spirituality, and Democratic Renewal Fellowship, Understanding and undoing the far right: India and beyond, The Overlooked Spoilers Beclouding Nigerias 2023 Elections, A Goal-Means Analysis of Security in Political Parties Manifestos for Nigerias 2023 Presidential Election. The word anthropology means science of human beings or humanity. If your specific country is not listed, please select the UK version of the site, as this is best suited to international visitors. The study of religion may thus come to have a reflexive effect on religion itself, such as the manner in which modern Christian theology has been profoundly affected by the whole question of the historicity of the New Testament. One of the significant sociological findings of Max Weber was the significant contribution of that the Calvinist religious ideas had on the development of the economic system of capitalism. The journal is a very significant endeavor since, until we launched it, there was no journal in the study of religion that has focused exclusively on developing a critical approach. Although I cannot make the full case here, I sketch a preliminary defense of the third approach, in the context of recent debates in political theory. But because they wanted to know who would eventually be saved and enter heaven, they thought that financial success was one good indicator. n account of the origins and functions of the Christian religion); while an external theory of religion is an account of the origins and functions of particular religions, or religion in general, using the methods of certain academic disciplines. For egalitarian theorists of religious freedom (as I call them), there is nothing special about religion as such. 4 Ecumenical/Inclusivism. It all depends on the person you are and the personal period of life you are going through. St. Augustine used this theory to resolve the philosophical question, If everything comes from God, where does evil come from? According to him, evil exists in the world but it does not come from God, for what only comes from God is good. Much of the interesting work done in anthropology, sociology, and religious studies departments, for example, draws on both the first and the second approach). Aurobindo did not just stick to an immanental experience of a divine being but that there must be transcendence within the individuals life which is seen in Auroville with a lived approach to ones faith rather like that which is common within Charismatic and Evangelical Churches. Here I focus on two objectionswhich, for ease of presentation, I call the anthropological and the normative objection. He is not final. Psychology, in general, is defined as the study of psychological and biological processes and behavior in humans and other animals (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2013). It r mzell2302 mzell2302 Although I cannot make the full case here, I sketch a preliminary defense of the third approach, in the . But because they wanted to know who would eventually be saved and enter heaven, they thought that financial success was one good indicator. Religion is a concept created by modern scholars and superimposed on a variety of different phenomena for a variety of motives. It may well be, for example, that, in their exclusive focus on the claims of individual conscience, egalitarian theorists have neglected the normative importance of other dimensions of lived religion, such as the centrality of traditional collective rituals to the moral lives of believers. Items is a space for engagement with insights from the work of the Council and the social sciences. Aurobindo offers no guidance upon other religions as his account is purely personal. This idea led Calvinists to engage in activities that would increase their wealth, paving the way for the development of capitalism. These questions within Smarts Classifactory account would help to define a religion. All work is written to order. In the Australian context, the interdisciplinary pedagogy that defines global studies is gaining wider acceptance as a coherent and necessary approach to the study of global change. The belief in the soul as something separate from the body though residing in the body resulted from dealing with certain biological questions such as those concerning the difference between a living body and a dead one; the causes of waking, sleep, trance, disease, and death; and the origin of dreams and visions involving human images. Carl Jung (1875-1961) was the founder of analytic psychology, the name given to Jungs psychological-therapeutic system which divides the unconscious mind into the personal and the collective. J.F. Global studies is a fresh and dynamic discipline area that promises to reinvigorate undergraduate and postgraduate education in the social sciences and humanities. Attempts have been made to find a distinctive ingredient in all religions, such as the numinous, or spiritual, experience, the contrast between the sacred and the profane, and the belief in one or more gods. For instance, a student of Christian theology is a Christian; but a student of religious studies studying Shintoism is usually not a Shintoist. Thus, the matter of coming to understand the inner side of a religion involves a dialectic between participant observation and dialogical (interpersonal) relationship with the adherents of the other faith. It studies religion in relation to other social institutions and compares religious beliefs and practices across cultures. The apologetic approaches to the study of religion is pro-religion in that it defends religion and attempts to prove that religion is true, right, or good. Durkheim further claimed that more complex societies had more complex religious systems, but they were all same in that they had religions as ways of unifying their societies. By studying different religious . The growth of various disciplines in the 19th century, notably psychology and sociology, stimulated a more analytic approach to religions, while at the same time theology became more sophisticated and, in a sense, scientific as it began to be affected by and thus to make use of historical and other methods.
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