)Of course the phenomenological approach employed by Smart can be interpreted as an attempt of taking into consideration the individual experience of religion a at the same time trying to separate from it. Given this, we, however, also use other approaches especially comparative religion and philosophy of religionwhich we will discuss next. Phenomenology or Religion (3) Study of consciousness and experiences. Tylor cited the association of morality with animism which was little represented in the lower races but became an integral part of the religions ofthe civilized races. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. Barths distinction attempts to draw a line between the transcendent, as it reveals itself to humans, and religion, as a human product involved in the response to revelation. It may well be that egalitarian theorists have picked a normatively problematic, or normatively narrow, analogy for religion. In other words it is a fair and full study of all religions" (Whaling, 2006, "Theory and methods in religious studies: Contemporary approaches to the . Peter Connolly. TTh 2:40-4:00. 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. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UKEssays.com. Its object is not personal, although is a necessary condition of the yoga. Introduces students to the study of religion, world religious traditions and ethics through an exploration of death and dying. It is present in varying forms in the religions of the lower races up to the civilized races of mankind. The reflexive effect of the study of religion on religion itself may in practice make it more difficult for the student of religion to adopt the detachment required by bracketing. For Jung, religious experiences are manifestations of the archetypes in the collective unconscious in our own consciousness. For example, a religious (or spiritual) approach to cancer treatment can be more effective than a secular approach (Croucher & Harris, 2012), religious attendance promotes healthier living, and people with HIV/AIDS often turn to religion for comfort as well. These questions within Smarts Classifactory account would help to define a religion. One contribution of St. Augustine was his theory that evil is the absence of good (which he adopted from the view of the Greek philosopher Plotinus on the nature of light and darkness). 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. Religion may be defined as "any set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices pertaining to supernatural power, whether that power be forces, gods, spirits, ghosts, or demons" (C. R. Ember, Ember, and Peregrine 2019, 500). The Immanent Frame publishes interdisciplinary perspectives on religion, secularism, and the public sphere. But perhaps we should apply to religion something like Ludwig Wittgensteins theory of family resemblance. As stated earlier, French sociologist mile Durkheim (1858-1917) defined religion as a "unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things" (1915). Here religion involves subjectivity in the sense of individual experience. Required fields are marked *. This is an important critique, which draws on what I have called the first (critical) and the second (anthropological) approach to religion. The field of religion/worldview is a broadly defined area of study. From simple essay plans, through to full dissertations, you can guarantee we have a service perfectly matched to your needs. This can often lead to conflicts, including those that arise on religious grounds. This article examines three anthropological theories explaining how religion has evolved and continues to evolve. 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. study of religion, attempt to understand the various aspects of religion, especially through the use of other intellectual disciplines. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Normative inquiries primarily concern the truth of religious claims, the acceptability of religious values, and other such normative aspects; descriptive inquiries, which are only indirectly involved with the normative elements of religion, are primarily concerned with the history, structure, and other observable elements of religion. Copyright 2019 - 2022 Elcomblus Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. These theologians, through their works, systematically explain the main doctrines of their own respective religions. Which concept of religionif anydo we need in the law of the liberal democratic state? (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. In his own words: Man is on a transitorily passage . Even this cursory summary of this first approach is, I hope, sufficient to convey the force and depth of the critique of religion. Religion-making involved singling out certain social activities and cultural practices as religious and de-politicizing them (see Hinduism in India). A&C Black, Jan 1, 1999 - Social Science - 286 pages. According to a number of scholars (often influenced by Foucauldian or post-colonial thought), the category of religion is deeply implicated in the history and practice of western statism and imperialism. The method used was to compare the subjective experience with the intent of shaping the arrangement of religion itself from within the structure. But objections have been brought against all these attempts, either because the rich variety of religions makes it easy to find counterexamples or because the element cited as central is in some religions peripheral. The interrelations of the various disciplines in relation to religion as an area of . 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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). We can confirm that the method of study that Smart used in his approach comprehend both external and internal analysis of religion, characterized by phenomenological perspectives. APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF RELIGION 109 like, the students were asked to read Marx, Freud, Durkheim. In brief, it is the study of religious phenomena in so far as they may be understood psychologically (Merkur 2005,165). Psychology is the study of human and animal behavior and how thinking processes operate. The implications of the first approach have been resisted in many quarters. 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. The aims of the Diploma Programme world religions course are to enable students to: promote an inquiring, analytical and empathetic approach to the study of religion. For our purposes, we shall examine certain approaches to the study of religions that are based on certain academic disciplines. SSRC activities span more than 80 countries on 6 continents, Apply for research opportunities across the globe, Contributions fund research and scholarship worldwide. From this perspective, the egalitarian strategy of analogizing religion is a productive one: the law should not capture religion as such, but whatever dimensions of religion are normatively salient and suitable for legal protection. Second, however, we may ask whether the normative analogy used by egalitarian theorists of religious freedom is the right one. The normative objection is slightly different. Forte geertz symbols rituals and faith based behavior nov 8 14 ppt Besides their evolutionary assumption about religion, the followers of evolutionary theory show overwhelming Eurocentric biases. (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. Talal Asad and Saba Mahmood have shown, for instance, that liberal secularism requires individual beliefnot communal observance, rituals or embodied pietyto be taken as the essence of religiosity. For the last four decades universities and schools have been acting in response to a constant, steady demand for courses upon the study of religion. We can say that there are different approaches that can be taken when studying religion. This includes such traditional points of departure as history, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, and sociology, but also the natural sciences, and such other approaches as feminist theory, discourse . As a belief system, religion shapes what people think and how they see the world. The Christian theologian, for example, may see a particular historical process as providential. 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. It is a childish illusion for, as Freud remarked, religion originates in the helplessness and anxiety of childhood and early manhood (quoted in Merkur 2005,166). They argue, for example, that exemptions from general laws can be justified on the ground of conscience; and that what the state should not establish are conceptions of the good. Religious fundamentalism is the approach of those religious groups that look for the literal interpretation of original religious texts or books believing that teachings obtained from . It may well be true that the boundaries between religion and other cognate concepts such as tradition, culture, ideology, faith, reason, and so forth are porous and fuzzy. We also study religion in order to learn more about how different aspects of human lifepolitics, science, literature, art, law, economicshave been and continue to be shaped by changing religious notions of, for example, good and evil, images of the deity and the divine, salvation and punishment, etc. Omissions? 300 Cadman Plaza West 15th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA by Ccile Laborde February 5, 2014. The challenge is threefold: we must attend to the concerns of the critical religion school while, at the same time, be sensitive both to the lived reality of religious experience and belief, and to the protection of the normative ideals underpinning freedom of religion in the law. How can we best identify and protect the normative values which historically have underpinned freedom of religion, non-establishment and the like? In considering a religion, however, the scholar is concerned not only with individual responses but also with communal ones. But the historical process itself has to be investigated scientificallythat is, by considering the evidence, using the techniques of historical enquiry and other scientific methods. He is not final. The study of religion emerged as a formal discipline during the 19th century, when the methods and approaches of history, philology, literary criticism, psychology, anthropology, sociology, economics, and other fields were brought to bear on the task of determining the history, origins, and functions of religion. A criticism of Aurobindos view may be seen that it seeks to remain within religion itself, similar to that of Smart as they both emphasise the importance of the experience of religion, a personal contact with God or Gods, however within Marxism we can see a move away from this religious experience. Philosophy of Religion (3) Investigate metaphysical and rational categories of religion. For Jung, religious experiences are manifestations of the archetypes in the collective unconscious in our own consciousness. . Approaches to ReligionSpring 2010REL 111. William James (1842-1910) focused on the psychological process that occurs in a religious conversion, when a nonreligious person becomes religious (Merkur 2005, 172). Intellectual historians and students of political thought study religious traditions as coherent, inter-generational, scholarly bodies of thoughtthe Islamic or the Christian or the Confucian tradition, for example. Erin has an M.Ed in adult education and a BS in psychology and a BS in management systems. First of all we have to say that both, Smart and Aurobindo have not defined religion from objective point of view but rather to determine religion in terms of its own value. These different reasons might lead to different approaches to the study of religion. Program design strategies. 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? Lesson Transcript. We also have Confucian, Taoist, and Shinto philosophies; instead of Confucian, Taoist, and Shinto theologies. Consequently, the systematic study of the doctrines of Buddhism and Hinduism, for instance, are respectively called Buddhist philosophy and Hindu philosophy, and not Buddhist theology and Hindu theology. The second ground for skepticism is that religion has served to define the western idea of the secular, and remains deeply entangled with it. by Cristina Echeverri-Pineda and Mateo Villamizar-Chaparro.
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