different approaches to the study of religion

A more promising method would seem to be that of exhibiting aspects of religion that are typical of religions, though not necessarily universal, such as the occurrence of the rituals of worship. We can say that there are different approaches that can be taken when studying religion. 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. Certain attempts at a functionalist definition of religion, such as that of the German American theologian Paul Tillich (18861965), who defined religion in terms of human beings ultimate concern, would leave the way open to count these ideologies as proper objects of the study of religion (Tillich himself called them quasi-religions). Approaches to the Study of Religions. Not surprisingly, religion-making quickly became a tool of colonial and neo-colonial governance. 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. This article examines three anthropological theories explaining how religion has evolved and continues to evolve. Required fields are marked *. 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. As we examine the different disciplinal approaches to the study of religion, we shall briefly touch on some of the external theories of religion. by Cristina Echeverri-Pineda and Mateo Villamizar-Chaparro. The people who take these courses are usually involved in religion themselves ,many are involved a in religious communities or, wishing to know more and learn regarding the religious beliefs of others. Another illustration of religious beliefs is the creation stories we find in different religions. In this regard, Marx described religion as the opium of the masses.. 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. We've received widespread press coverage since 2003, Your UKEssays purchase is secure and we're rated 4.4/5 on reviews.co.uk. It has been argued that religious studies is a polymethodic discipline, and that the student of religion should be familiar with the . The Christian theologian, for example, may see a particular historical process as providential. We will discuss religious studies as an . 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 . It has emerged as the single most important means of communication for those interested in critical approaches to the study of religion. Psychology of religion involves the application of psychological methods and interpretive frameworks to religious institutions, as well as to individuals of all religious or noreligious persuasions. 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. 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. 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. 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. Box No. After studying the indigenous Australians, Durkheim claimed that the totems (sacred objects used as emblems or symbols of a group of people, family, clan, or tribe) that the aborigines worship represented their own conceptions of a unified group or society. (Note that no assumption is made about the actual disciplinary location of scholars. 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. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. )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. 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. 427-5290. adlerj@kenyon.edu. This course introduces students to the variety of academic approaches to the study of religion and to the procedures and sources used in writing academic papers in religious studies. For other religions, the systematic study of their doctrines is usually referred to as philosophy instead of theology. One obvious reason is that the term theology implies a belief in one God but other religions may not subscribe either to the belief in God or gods or to the belief that there is only one God. The field of religion/worldview is a broadly defined area of study. As stated earlier, French sociologist mile Durkheim (1858-1917) defined religion as a "unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things" (1915). So neutrality, for liberals such as Rawls and Ronald Dworkin, is generalized non-establishment. Egalitarian theorists of religious freedom offer a compelling response to the critical religion school. This approach is known as comparative religion. A comprehensive overview of the history and context of feminist approaches to the study of religions, including a helpful discussion of the relationship of these approaches to feminist theology. 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. 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? As it happens, one group of influential political philosophers has tried to do just that. June 03, 2016. It is a rich concept that connects to vocabularies that bring persons and things, desires, and practices in particular traditions in distinctive ways. The point has been made with particular acuity by legal scholar Winnifred Fallers Sullivan in her book The Impossibility of Religious Freedom. Anthropologists, for example, legitimately study a key dimension of human experiencethe religious experiencein its diversity and unruliness. Historiography then becomes the science that studies the conceptions and production of historical interpretations of human civilization. Sociology in general looks at people's . In particular, a student of theology intends to deepen his/her understanding of a particular religion, while a student of religious studies intends to understand the different religions of the world. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Religion should be disaggregated into a number of different values which relate to the law of the liberal state in different ways. 2 The closer a country comes to having equal shares of the . Religious beliefs, in particular, are only one sub-set of a larger class, which political philosophers, following John Rawls, call conceptions of the good. On this view, a liberal state protects, not only freedom of religion, but more generally freedom of conscience; it disestablishes, not only dominant religion, but also any controversial conception of the good. We're here to answer any questions you have about our services. These (and others) are all legitimate uses of the concept of religion. 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. A participatory observation, deep interviews and documentations were employed to collect the data of this study. The stage from man to super being is the next which depends from the approach of the achievement on the evolution on earth. Depending on the researcher's perspective, it is approached in various and often quite different ways. Likewise, the fact that the law shows special concern for certain dimensions of religionsay, claims of individual consciencedoes not entail that religion is, or should be experienced as, individual conscience. Peter Connolly. 3.7 Robert Marrett and Animatism. In brief, it is the study of religious phenomena in so far as they may be understood psychologically (Merkur 2005,165). Ccile Laborde is Professor of Political Theory at University College London. 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). Copyright 2003 - 2023 - UKEssays is a trading name of Business Bliss Consultants FZE, a company registered in United Arab Emirates. 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. Kujenga Amani facilitates the exchange of ideas about diverse aspects of peacebuilding in Africa. Geographers study religions and their development based on the role that geography intersects with other important social components within a human geographic approach. a complex continuum of resemblances and differences, Hindutva and the shared scripts of the global right, Normalizing nationalism through social media in transnational Jain communities. 2. Sociology is one such approach that this essay will be looking at through its founding fathers Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and Karl Marx. This involves identifying a plurality of normative analogies for religion. As a social institution, religion is a pattern of social action organized around the beliefs and practices that people develop to answer questions about the meaning of existence. William James (1842-1910) focused on the psychological process that occurs in a religious conversion, when a nonreligious person becomes religious (Merkur 2005, 172). No plagiarism, guaranteed! Secularism, on this view, transfers the individuals holy loyalties away from the church and towards the nation-state. 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. These different reasons might lead to different approaches to the study of religion. 5 Evangelical Christian. Methodologies in religious studies are the interpretive models on which the analysis of religious phenomena and resources are discussed. An alternative approach is to select central themes of inquiry and to investigate how the religions engage with each theme. 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