REL -2300

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Beginning Your Study of World Religions

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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

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Preunderstanding of Religions: Questions to Be Considered

• Is one’s view of religion unprejudiced? • Can one encounter religion objectively

after suspending his or her beliefs? • Can one study other religions without

feeling threatened of one’s own religion? • Can one encounter practices that seem

unusual without getting too upset? • Can one be humble and provisional in

his or her conclusions?

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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-minded people

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Secularism - Life Without Religion

• Rejects religion for: • Perceived evils of extremism • Inappropriateness of religious training for

children • Better view on life offered by science

• Has reduced religious belief and practice and has led to widespread religious illiteracy • People often combine aspects of secular life

with religious life

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Secularism - Life Without Religion (continued)

• 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

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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

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Figure

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1.1 Dimensions of Religion LO 4

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Ways of Studying Religion

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

Theology

• Aims to understand religious traditions objectively • Students are not asked to make religious

commitments

Religious studies

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Map

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1.1 Distribution of World Religions Today

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Academic Disciplines That Contribute to the Study of Religion

History Psychology Sociology

Cultural anthropology

Women’s studies Biology

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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

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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

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Views of Psychologists on Religion

• Sigmund Freud • Religion is a neurotic condition for which

therapy is needed when it persists 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

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Views of Psychologists on Religion (continued)

• William James • Primary focus of the psychology of religion

should be on the religious experience of individuals, not institutions

• Andrew Newberg • Brain scans of subjects who meditate and

pray show physical and emotional benefits over time

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Sociology

• Aims at explaining religion’s role in society

• Current debates centered on: • Pace of secularization and civil religion • Cohesiveness of religions and practices in

the face of globalization, multiculturalism, and pluralism

• Émile Durkheim’s view • Religion creates group identity and

reinforces moral values of a society

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Cultural Anthropology

• 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

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Women’s Studies

• Scholars argue that most religions stem from patriarchy • Explains the nearly worldwide subordination

of women to men • Primary religious duty of women is to obey

their husbands and raise their children

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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

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Conclusions about Methods of Studying Religion

• Study of religions is multidisciplinary • Religious studies is a human, and not a

divine, way of knowing

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Issues in the Study of Religion

Religious tolerance

and atheism Violence Pluralism

Religion and ecological

crisis

New religious

movements

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SUMMARY

• Religion is a pattern of beliefs and practices that expresses what a community considers sacred and/or ultimate about life

• Study of religion offers a foundation for a successful career in fields such as psychology

• Religion can be divided into six dimensions and there are two ways to study religion

• Religious tolerance, violence, and pluralism are some issues in the study of religion