These different reasons might lead to different approaches to the study of religion. 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. 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. On the other hand, comparative religion refers to a branch of religious studies that is concerned with the systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices of two or more particular religions. 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. How would a strategy of disaggregating religion help here? 3.Theology requires its learners to have some degree of faith whereas religious studies does not . What Wittgenstein said about the concept of game also applies to the concept of religion: the fact that we cannot identify a single feature that all religions exhibit does not mean that the concept of religion is meaningless. Religion is both a fascinating and an essential subject of study. To a great extent, the meanings now attached to the terms religion and religions have tended to promote the study of religion in order to understand the world in which we live rather than as part of a desire for personal religious self-fulfillment. Contact. Durkheim argued that "religion happens . Historiography then becomes the science that studies the conceptions and production of historical interpretations of human civilization. Summary: 1.Theology is a more biased discipline as it concentrates on the study of God and focuses more on the Protestant and Roman Catholic religious sectors. This idea led Calvinists to engage in activities that would increase their wealth, paving the way for the development of capitalism. By criticizing religion, I mean not the critique of the beliefs or practices of self-described religious individuals or groups but rather the critique of the concept of religion as a scholarly category. The term phenomenology refers first to the attempt to describe religious phenomena in a way that brings out the beliefs and attitudes of the adherents of the religion under investigation but without either endorsing or rejecting the beliefs and attitudes. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. 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 . Fall 2005. 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. Such distinctions, however, only serve to shore up the arbitrary power that the state has to demarcate the sphere of its own sovereignty. 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 . Sullivan demonstrates that religion is too complex, too comprehensive, and too multi-faceted to be adequately captured by the law of the liberal state. Can we categorize all religions within Ninian Smart definitions? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. For this reason, let us examine the ideas of another pioneering anthropologist of religion, namely Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917). They are: commitment theory, which postulates that religion is a system of costly signaling that reduces deception and creates cooperation within groups; cognitive theory, which postulates that religion is the manifestation of mental modules that have evolved for other purposes . From the belief in human souls grew the belief in other spirits, like those that inhabit nature and those venerated as gods. Another illustration of religious beliefs is the creation stories we find in different religions. 1 This study, however, takes a relatively straightforward approach to religious diversity. I do not think it is, although I cannot make the full case here. Looking for a flexible role? The implications of the first approach have been resisted in many quarters. Sociology in general looks at people's . 2. 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. Approaches to ReligionSpring 2010REL 111. Copyright 2003 - 2023 - UKEssays is a trading name of Business Bliss Consultants FZE, a company registered in United Arab Emirates. study of religion, attempt to understand the various aspects of religion, especially through the use of other intellectual disciplines. Religion is also studied within cultural geography, which studies how cultural processes spread. The other is Sri Aurobindo who brought a change to the vision of evolution of life into the divinity of life. Transcribed image text: To address the following questions, consider the four approaches to religion described in the introduction to this module exclusivism, inclusivism, pluralism and empathetic interest in other people. This tradition goes back in modern times to the seminal work of the German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach (180472), who proposed that God was the extension of human aspirations, and it is found in the work of the philosopher Karl Marx, the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, and others. So he is proposing a mystical goal and from his yogic teachings he guides,shows and achieves that. Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. The academic study of religion is an inherently interdisciplinary field, incorporating textual studies of the world's sacred texts, language studies, art, history, philosophy, anthropology, politics, economics, sociology, psychology, comparative literature and literary studies, cultural studies, gender and ethnic studies, legal studies, and . Both methods tried to avoid the phenomenological approach. the myths of a religion. 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. The method used was to compare the subjective experience with the intent of shaping the arrangement of religion itself from within the structure. The gods play a merely subsidiary role, for example, in most phases of Theravada (Way of the Elders) Buddhism. They suggest that, even though historically the liberal state may have defined itself in relation to a problematic construal of religion, it has since broadened the scope of its moral concern, and is therefore less vulnerable to charges of ethnocentrism. Methodologies provide a lense of analysis from which to view the field of religous studies. For instance, Christian theologians explain the doctrines of Christianity, and their works constitute Christian theology. Understanding Religious Pluralism in India. Particularly, this study used an interdisciplinary approach, that is, a combination of religious and social approaches. He is not final. Approaches to the Study of Religions. Thus, the preliminary task of the student of religion must be to amass an inventory of kinds of religious phenomena. There are many different approaches to finding truth. 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. 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. Continuum International publishing group .2006. 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. Bonferroni correction compensates for multiple . 4 Ecumenical/Inclusivism. In this post, I briefly set out three distinct approaches to the study of religion: criticizing religion, upholding religion, and disaggregating religion. On the contrary, religion, as it is studied in the secular state university, is both a category and an aspect of human behavior that must be subjected to the same types of scrutiny as any other category of human behavior that one may study. 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. Consider an analogy with marriage. Study for free with our range of university lectures! 3.7 Robert Marrett and Animatism. We've received widespread press coverage since 2003, Your UKEssays purchase is secure and we're rated 4.4/5 on reviews.co.uk. Download file to see previous pages. Aurobindo offers no guidance upon other religions as his account is purely personal. "Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation", in Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion, Michael Banton (ed. Critics have pointed out thatby analogizing religion with individual conscience or conceptions of the goodliberalism reveals its Protestant, individualistic bias, and is unable to capture the fullness of the religious experience. It can be seen to designate: a) religion as practised in particular locations or by particular people; b) a specific modality of religious practice; c) the fundamental nature of all religion. It does this by examining the dynamics of the constituent parts of societies such as institutions, communities, populations, and gender, racial, or age groups (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2013). We're here to answer any questions you have about our services. In this . An internal theory of religion is a particular religions account of its own origins and functions (e.g., Christianitys own 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. 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. 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. In this post, I briefly set out three distinct approaches to the study of religion: criticizing religion, upholding religion, and disaggregating religion. There are many ways of studying religions. The most influential proponent of comparative religion in the nineteenth century was Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900). Sociology studies human societies, their interactions, and the processes that preserve and change them. The field of religion/worldview is a broadly defined area of study. But it is necessary to be clear about what objectivity and subjectivity in religion mean. For egalitarian theorists of religious freedom (as I call them), there is nothing special about religion as such. 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. Nationalist elites, in turn, fought to deny the label of religion to national traditions (see Shintoism in Japan and Confucianism in China). It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives. 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. This approach teaches that there is only one true religion and only one way of salvation. Mysticism. Given this, we, however, also use other approaches especially comparative religion and philosophy of religionwhich we will discuss next. 2 Psychological. This approach is known as comparative religion. The SSRC is an independent, international, nonprofit organization. But perhaps we should apply to religion something like Ludwig Wittgensteins theory of family resemblance. It r mzell2302 mzell2302 Not surprisingly, religion-making quickly became a tool of colonial and neo-colonial governance. 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. Muller, an authority of Sanskrit (the classical religious language of India), urged that the study of religion should not be limited to the religions of the Mediterranean (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) and that the great religions of the East should also be seriously studied. If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Social Science Research Council It fosters innovative research, nurtures new generations of social scientists, deepens how inquiry is practiced within and across disciplines, and mobilizes necessary knowledge on important public issues. This suggests that the works of these thinkers cut across the disciplines of sociology and anthropology. 427-5290. adlerj@kenyon.edu. 5 Evangelical Christian. If your specific country is not listed, please select the UK version of the site, as this is best suited to international visitors. 300 Cadman Plaza West 15th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA The essence of religion and the context of religious beliefs, practices, and institutions, Neutrality and subjectivity in the study of religion, Theories of the Renaissance and Reformation, Historical, archaeological, and literary studies, Anthropological approaches to the study of religion, Theories concerning the origins of religion, Functional and structural studies of religion, The concerns of the philosophy of religion, Modern existentialist and phenomenological studies, Relationship between Western and non-Western philosophy in regard to religion, The relationship of Western Christianity to other religions, Modern origin and development of the history and phenomenology of religion, https://www.britannica.com/topic/study-of-religion. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. 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. Religion-making involved singling out certain social activities and cultural practices as religious and de-politicizing them (see Hinduism in India). Religious studies, also known as the study of religion, is an academic field devoted to research into religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. Belief in other spirits, like those that inhabit nature and those as... Of religious freedom ( as I call them ), there is only true... 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different approaches to the study of religion