For egalitarian theorists of religious freedom (as I call them), there is nothing special about religion as such. Theologians adopt a more content-based approach: they study the texts and dogma which capture our fundamental dependence on a greater order of things. According to William Cavanaughs provocative thesis, the fact that Christianity is construed as a religion, whereas nationalism is not, ensures that the Christians public and lethal loyalty belongs to the nation-state. Sociology of religion, on the other hand, studies religious beliefs, practices, and organizations using the theories and methods of the discipline of sociology. Let me get back to the starting point of our inquiry: Is religion a valid category of scholarly research? 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. foster a respectful awareness of the significance of the beliefs and practices for the faith member. Much of the interesting work done in anthropology, sociology, and religious studies departments, for example, draws on both the first and the second approach). Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was the founder of psychoanalysis, which generally claims that our behaviors are largely controlled by our unconscious mind which contains our repressed sexual and violent desires. study of religion, attempt to understand the various aspects of religion, especially through the use of other intellectual disciplines. Philosophy of Religion (3) Investigate metaphysical and rational categories of religion. While for Marx religion isa creation of capitalism, for Weber it is the other way roundcapitalism is largely due to religion, more specifically, the Calvinist religion. Office hours: MW 3-4, TTh 1-2:30. and by appointment. For instance, a student of Christian theology is a Christian; but a student of religious studies studying Shintoism is usually not a Shintoist. Throughout the film, various facets of Christianity are explored and that includes the role played by that religion during the colonization of territories by the European or Western colonial powers in the early centuries, particularly the role played by the . Disclaimer: This is an example of a student written essay.Click here for sample essays written by our professional writers. Thus, when William James describes religion as. Which of these four approaches do you take in your everyday life, and why? First, the secular state defines what religion is; religion is privatized as a faith whose object is the supernatural, and differentiates it from the natural and the rational which are the jurisdiction of the state. Each perspective uniquely conceptualizes society, social . 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. Chapter 1 in the Free resources to assist you with your university studies! R.R. For example different opinions regarding the Trinity between Roman Catholics and Jehovah Witnesses. Phenomenology or Religion (3) Study of consciousness and experiences. 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. describing how religion is experienced by practitioners. O . Yet the strategy of disaggregating religion has a further, more portentous implication for normative political theory. Your email address will not be published. Other researchers of religion, such as Cornelius Petrus Tiele (1830-1902), preferred the term ' comparative religion '. 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. Even this cursory summary of this first approach is, I hope, sufficient to convey the force and depth of the critique of religion. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. We will discuss religious studies as an . The Practical and ritual dimensions (BBC.Religion). In light of these considerations, our approach in examining the different world religions in the subsequent chapters mainly falls under religious studies. So with Aurobindo is clear the goal is more directly mystical ,to became one with the divine . 3 Phenomenological. 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 only appropriate scholarly stance towards this object is one that is critical and skeptical. Aside from being exploited, the workers were also dehumanized or alienated in the workplace. First, as religion is not a thing but a term of art, it is perfectly legitimateas suggested abovethat different dimensions of it are appropriated in different disciplines and areas of life. 2. Copyright 2019 - 2022 Elcomblus Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The works of both Sri Aurobindo and Ninian Smart shows two drastic and completely different approaches to 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. 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. (Peter Connolly,pp1-2Approche to the Study of Religion,Biddles L.T.D.) Although there is still no agreement on this issue, the frontier between traditional religions and modern political ideologies remains a promising topic of study. In the last quarter of the 20th century, four approaches to cultural studies drew growing attention. 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 . St. Augustine used this theory to resolve the philosophical question, If everything comes from God, where does evil come from? According to him, evil exists in the world but it does not come from God, for what only comes from God is good. From the belief in human souls grew the belief in other spirits, like those that inhabit nature and those venerated as gods. Secularism and freedom of religion, in liberal thought, are connected to moral values such as individual autonomy, moral self-determination, freedom of conscience as well as more political ideals such as non-theocratic constitutional democracy, separation of church and state, and non-establishment of the dominant religion. 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 . 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. The word anthropology means science of human beings or humanity. This is an important critique, which draws on what I have called the first (critical) and the second (anthropological) approach to religion. (Peter Connolly,pp1-2Approche to the Study of Religion,Biddles L.T.D.) The second ground for skepticism is that religion has served to define the western idea of the secular, and remains deeply entangled with it. 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. Continuum International publishing group .2006. Religion-making involved singling out certain social activities and cultural practices as religious and de-politicizing them (see Hinduism in India). b.) 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. ( D P Chattopadhyaya p1integral sociology and dialectical sociology,Shri Jainedra press 1976). The fast, they abstain from sex, they walk on fire, perform self-flagellation, or nail themselves on crosses. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. TTh 2:40-4:00. Freud viewed religion negatively. Author 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 . Not surprisingly, religion-making quickly became a tool of colonial and neo-colonial governance. 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. 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. So how would Aurobindo address questions upon doctrine say within the New Testament? 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. As we examine the different disciplinal approaches to the study of religion, we shall briefly touch on some of the external theories of religion. 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. This article examines three anthropological theories explaining how religion has evolved and continues to evolve. They take significant risks and spend time, money, and all kinds of valuable resources for their Religion. 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). Sociologists today employ three primary theoretical perspectives: the symbolic interactionist perspective, the functionalist perspective, and the conflict perspective. 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 notion that such a study is the objective and comparative study of religion. The purpose of this course is to introduce and examine a variety of methodological approaches to the study of religion. 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. 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. by Cristina Echeverri-Pineda and Mateo Villamizar-Chaparro. William James (1842-1910) focused on the psychological process that occurs in a religious conversion, when a nonreligious person becomes religious (Merkur 2005, 172). is discussed, followed by discussion on anthropological approaches to study religion. Box No. 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. Most of the major thinkers recognized in this area are also those recognized in the sociology of religion like Durkheim and Weber. Is Sri Aurobindo truly internal when we have the community of Auroville and a culture around him? So the starting point of the disaggregation strategy is to accept that, as religion is indeed not a thing but a term of art (it has different meanings in different contexts), different dimensions of it will be appropriated in different ways in different disciplines. To some extent the emphasis on neutral description arises in modern times as a reaction to committed accounts of religion, which were for long the norm and which still exist among those who treat religion from a theological point of view. For critics, this is visible in three different ways. There are two main reasons for this suspicion. 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 . 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. APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF RELIGION 109 like, the students were asked to read Marx, Freud, Durkheim. 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. To ask that the law embrace and describe the whole of social reality would be to yearn for a totalitarian law. Human biomonitoring (HBM) approaches can provide inter alia information on the chemicals that are in our body at one point in time. Is it possible to understand a faith without holding it? the myths of a religion. The etymological meaning of the word theologybased on its Greek origin, namely theo, which means God, and logos which means discourse or study,is study of God. Theology, however, is not just limited to the study of the nature ofGod, for it also studies in a systematic way the main doctrines of a particular religion. The difficulty of the distinction consists chiefly in a denial that God, as the object of the response, is a religious being (i.e., God is transcendent, not religious in the sense of being a part of the human product), and the question about revelation as a religious fact thus needs to be answered. Scholars do generally agree that the pursuit of objectivity is desirable, provided this stance does not involve the sacrifice of a sense of the inner aspect of religion. The only appropriate scholarly stance towards this object is one that is critical and skeptical to Marx..., perform self-flagellation, or nail themselves on crosses is to introduce and examine a of. 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