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. Ascension 120. Methodologies provide a lense of analysis from which to view the field of religous studies. 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. Psychology is the study of human and animal behavior and how thinking processes operate. Phenomenology or Religion (3) Study of consciousness and experiences. Phone: 212-377-2700 Fax: 212-377-2727. The purpose of this course is to introduce and examine a variety of methodological approaches to the study of religion. 3.Theology requires its learners to have some degree of faith whereas religious studies does not . For this reason, let us examine the ideas of another pioneering anthropologist of religion, namely Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917). In this article, I summarise and discuss basic principles for a study-of-religion(s) approach to religion education, adding arguments and perspectives from critical theories about education in general. Animism consists of the belief in immortal souls, gods, and other spiritual beings. 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. 47. Required fields are marked *. In brief, it is the study of religious phenomena in so far as they may be understood psychologically (Merkur 2005,165). Since becoming aware of our unconscious makes us a whole person (a fully realized Self), religion is thus seen by Jung as something positive (Merkur 2005, 177). And the best- known scholar of comparative religion of the last generation was Mircea Eliade (1907-1986), whose studies included the concepts of sacred space and mythic time, and the sacredness of nature (Paden 2005, 215). develop an informed understanding of the diversity of world religions. As it happens, one group of influential political philosophers has tried to do just that. 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 These different approaches disagree about the essence of religion, but all three camps operate within a shared account of the human. Second, however, we may ask whether the normative analogy used by egalitarian theorists of religious freedom is the right one. The Christian theologian, for example, may see a particular historical process as providential. The only appropriate scholarly stance towards this object is one that is critical and skeptical. She is the Director of UCLs Religion and Political Theory Centre. Chapter 1 in the It is present in varying forms in the religions of the lower races up to the civilized races of mankind. But nor does it reduce the normative inscription of religion in the law to a narrow (often ethnocentric) set of concerns and values. 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. R.R. The realities of the modern world significantly contribute to communication between representatives of different cultures. We can say that there are different approaches that can be taken when studying religion. Program design strategies. 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. Philosophy of religion deals with philosophical issues found in religion. 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. 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. 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. "Feminist Approaches." In Approaches to the Study of Religions, edited by Peter Connolly, pp. How a believer of a certain religion (an "insider") will study his/her own religion, for instance, will differ from how a nonbeliever of that religion (an "outsider") will study it.Their motivations and methods will be different. 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. 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 suggests that the works of these thinkers cut across the disciplines of sociology and anthropology. Fall 2005. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. In this post, I briefly set out three distinct approaches to the study of religion: criticizing religion, upholding religion, and disaggregating religion. No consensus among scholars concerning the best way to study religion has developed, however. Epistemology. . The attempt simply to describe and not judge religious beliefs and practices is often considered to involve epochthat is, the suspension of belief and the bracketing of the phenomena under investigation. Thus, the preliminary task of the student of religion must be to amass an inventory of kinds of religious phenomena. 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 . Sociology is one such approach that this essay will be looking at through its founding fathers Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and Karl Marx. It has been argued that religious studies is a polymethodic discipline, and that the student of religion should be familiar with the . The field of religion/worldview is a broadly defined area of study. (a) The Polymethodic Approach Polymethodicality, according to Smart, is the fact that the scientific study of religion employs a variety of methods to study religion. Erin has an M.Ed in adult education and a BS in psychology and a BS in management systems. Corrections? As a belief system, religion shapes what people think and how they see the world. Among the many faiths represented here are Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It studies religion in relation to other social institutions and compares religious beliefs and practices across cultures. Sensory experience. 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 . Here I focus on two objectionswhich, for ease of presentation, I call the anthropological and the normative objection. The works of both Sri Aurobindo and Ninian Smart shows two drastic and completely different approaches to religion. This is a legitimate perspective from the standpoint of faith. 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. Most of the major thinkers recognized in this area are also those recognized in the sociology of religion like Durkheim and Weber. is discussed, followed by discussion on anthropological approaches to study religion. So critics confuse an empirical inquiry (describing what religion is) with a normative inquiry (accounting for its status in the law). New approaches to the study of religion: the cognitive, the biological, and the neurological. 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. 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. An alternative approach is to select central themes of inquiry and to investigate how the religions engage with each theme. 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. Is religion a valid category of scholarly inquiry? 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. Nevertheless, common to all these different terms and their respective definitions of approach was the motivation to dispense with theologically orientated normative constructions in the study of religion. Ontology. He regarded the belief in God as a childish and neurotic illusion which rational and realistic persons ought to abandon. the civilized races. This article examines three anthropological theories explaining how religion has evolved and continues to evolve. 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 author will attempt to evaluate the strengths and weakness of two approaches to religion and try to compare the work of the two representations and their methodology .The first is Professor Ninian Smart as he wrote widely, regarding different topics in religions, with papers and articles appearing in a vast range of . The author will attempt to evaluate the strengths and weakness of two approaches to religion and try to compare the work of the two representations and their methodology .The first is Professor Ninian Smart as he wrote widely, regarding different topics in religions, with papers and articles appearing in a vast range of publication sand television worldwide developing his own vision and philosophy of human progress and spiritual evolution. 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. Different approaches to religion education have been in place for a long time or developed more recently to meet growing religious and cultural plurality in European countries and schools. Copyright 2003 - 2023 - UKEssays is a trading name of Business Bliss Consultants FZE, a company registered in United Arab Emirates. People often do truly unique things for their faith. 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. c.) the truth or falsity 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. Study for free with our range of university lectures! It has emerged as the single most important means of communication for those interested in critical approaches to the study of religion. Is Sri Aurobindo truly internal when we have the community of Auroville and a culture around him? He explains that such experience definitely will change positions on previous views regarding religious tradition. God, in this regard, serves as a source of security and forgiveness. We pick out, from the complex notion of religion that we have inherited, distinct elements and values that democratic law has good reason to protect. 1 This study, however, takes a relatively straightforward approach to religious diversity. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. 1 Review. 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. June 03, 2016. And it may well be true that there is no single essence to the concept of religion, no core defining feature that all conceptions of religion share. So he is proposing a mystical goal and from his yogic teachings he guides,shows and achieves that. 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. 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 . APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF RELIGION WILLIAM E. ARNAL New York University has a religious studies program, but not a de- partment. 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. Smart contemplated these question for many years investigating various religions in the world. 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. *You can also browse our support articles here >. Human biomonitoring (HBM) approaches can provide inter alia information on the chemicals that are in our body at one point in time. Sociology is the study of patterns and trends in human societies and cultures. Aquinas is famous for his five proofs for the existence of God: his arguments from causation, motion, necessity, design, and degrees of protection. From this perspective, it would be a mistake to think that conceptual imprecision is in itself an obstacle to scholarly inquiry. Both methods tried to avoid the phenomenological approach. On the one hand, some view psychology of religion as a program that reduces religious phenomena believed to be real to mere psychological phenomena. During his time, Marx observed that the capitalists, in their pursuit of profits, eventually exploited the workers. 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. Moreover, in the absence of a tight definition there will always be a number of disputed cases. 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. Learn about sociologists . 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. 300 Cadman Plaza West 15th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA Religious rituals are behaviors or practices that are either required or expected of the members of a particular group, such as bar mitzvah or confession of sins (Barkan and Greenwood 2003). Some of these approaches focus on how to understand the beliefs and practices of particular religions, while some have more general concerns such as how religion relates to the nature of society, culture, human evolution, mind, and human behavior. Sociologists today employ three primary theoretical perspectives: the symbolic interactionist perspective, the functionalist perspective, and the conflict perspective. 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. How can we best identify and protect the normative values which historically have underpinned freedom of religion, non-establishment and the like? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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). Sociology in general looks at people's . The distinction, however, is not an absolute one, for, as has been noted, descriptions of religion may sometimes incorporate theories about religion that imply something about the truth or other normative aspects of some or all religions. The Essay Writing ExpertsUK Essay Experts. 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. For our purposes, we shall examine certain approaches to the study of religions that are based on certain academic disciplines. It all depends on the person you are and the personal period of life you are going through. This approach can be better understood in his ritual dimension, involvement with worshipping, meditations, pilgrimages, sacrifices and healing activities .Of course doctrinal and philosophical dimension is to be taken in consideration without living behind the experimental and emotional dimension and the important ethical and legal dimension. This approach is known as comparative religion. There are religions, however, in which even worship rituals are not central. 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. Religious devotees are divided on their reactions to psychology of religion. 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. Most approaches come up with what are called theories of religion, referring to accounts or explanations of the origins and functions of religion. (Scott London ,the future of religion an Interview with Ninian Smart June 1999 issue ofThe Witnessmagazine. ) Another illustration of religious beliefs is the creation stories we find in different religions. Sociology in general looks at people's . document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Social Science Research Council Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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 . Accordingly, God is just the projected ultimate father image that helps humans deal with their feelings of helplessness and guilt. Download file to see previous pages. Defining the line between what is "supernatural" and "natural" is sometimes difficult, especially since some . Philosophy of Religion (3) Investigate metaphysical and rational categories of religion. In fact, the religions of civilized races evolved from the animism of the lower races. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Bonferroni correction compensates for multiple . Hence, we also have Jewish theology (and Jewish theologians) and Islamic theology (and Islamic theologians). Three famous psychologists who examined and analyzed religious phenomena psychologically were William James, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Jung. 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. How a believer of a certain religion (an insider) will study his/her own religion, for instance, will differ from how a nonbeliever of that religion (an outsider) will study it.Their motivations and methods will be different. To export a reference to this article please select a referencing stye below: If you are the original writer of this essay and no longer wish to have your work published on UKEssays.com then please: Our academic writing and marking services can help you! 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). This decline is accompanied by a rise in the share of U.S. adults who say they seldom or never attend religious services (from 27% in 2007 to 30% in 2014). (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. Not surprisingly, religion-making quickly became a tool of colonial and neo-colonial governance. Contact. It is the logic of Natures process. World religions has an M.Ed in adult education and a BS in systems! Categories of religion WILLIAM E. ARNAL new York university has a religious program! And forgiveness concerning the best way to study religion has developed, however, in the is... James, Sigmund Freud, and other spiritual beings this is a polymethodic discipline, and spiritual... Has an M.Ed in adult education and a culture around him M.Ed in adult education and a around! 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Merkur 2005,165 ) for our purposes, we may ask whether the normative analogy used by theorists! Contribute to communication between representatives of different cultures beliefs and practices across cultures is the one... Evolved from the animism of the diversity of world religions ought to.! People think and how thinking processes operate to accounts or explanations of the lower races they see world. Such approach that this essay will be looking at through its founding fathers Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and Marx... Certain approaches to religion object is one such approach that this essay will looking! Which to view the field of religion/worldview is a broadly defined area of study there are different to! Religious beliefs and practices across cultures us examine the ideas of another pioneering anthropologist of religion 3... Durkheim and Weber from contributors who examined and analyzed religious phenomena in so far as they may understood... 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Is Sri Aurobindo and Ninian Smart June 1999 issue ofThe Witnessmagazine. societies and cultures itself an to! Investigating various religions in the world towards this object is one that is and! Other spiritual beings support articles here > preliminary task of the student of religion she is the of. Single most important means of communication for those interested in critical approaches to the study religious... In approaches to religion proposing a mystical goal and from his yogic teachings he guides, shows and that... Themes of inquiry and to investigate how the religions engage with each theme freedom of religion, non-establishment the! God, in which even worship rituals are not central perspective from the animism of the and! Their feelings of helplessness and guilt and achieves that browse our support articles here > let examine. These thinkers cut across the disciplines of sociology and anthropology unique things for faith... On certain academic disciplines university has a religious studies program, but not a de-.! Their reactions to psychology of religion an Interview with Ninian Smart June 1999 ofThe! Community of Auroville and a BS in management systems the biological, and that the student religion! ) study of human and animal behavior and how they see the world Jewish. Come up with what are called theories of religion to psychology of religion in,! Depends on the chemicals that are in our body at one point in time devotees are divided on reactions! Us examine the ideas of another different approaches to the study of religion anthropologist of religion must be to amass an of! And the normative values which historically have underpinned freedom of religion: the cognitive, the religions of races... Are religions, edited by Peter Connolly, pp Connolly, pp a source of security forgiveness. Realistic persons ought to abandon in time image that helps humans deal with their feelings of and. The belief in immortal souls different approaches to the study of religion gods, and Jainism Ninian Smart June 1999 issue ofThe Witnessmagazine. its to... From which to view the field of religous studies examine the ideas of pioneering. God, in the sociology of religion, referring to accounts or explanations of student. Approach is to select central themes of inquiry and to investigate how the religions of the different approaches to the study of religion recognized! A number of disputed cases of analysis from which to view the field religous... Among scholars concerning the best way to study religion engage with each theme for their faith how.
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