The purpose of this course is to introduce and examine a variety of methodological approaches to the study of religion. Understanding Religious Pluralism in India. Moreover, in the absence of a tight definition there will always be a number of disputed cases. He illustrate the introduction of Phenomenology saying, a lot of opinions have been written about not only the physical interchange of races but;, also ethnical and cultural, and especially upon values, so what take place when religions and their tradition convene? Sociologists study religion as both a belief system and a social institution. describing how religion is experienced by practitioners. O . Copyright 2019 - 2022 Elcomblus Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Historiography then becomes the science that studies the conceptions and production of historical interpretations of human civilization. Like most abstract concepts, the concept of religion is a construction projected onto the world, but one consequence of this large-scale projection may well be that our world has genuinely come to exhibit it. 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. Second, however, we may ask whether the normative analogy used by egalitarian theorists of religious freedom is the right one. But because they wanted to know who would eventually be saved and enter heaven, they thought that financial success was one good indicator. To him, sacred meant extraordinarysomething that inspired wonder and that seemed connected to the concept of "the divine.". 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. 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! 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. The disaggregating approach helps us answer this critique. 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. On a related note, the historical achievements of liberal secular states might be obscured if secularism is only perceived as a tool of colonial and imperial domination. Learn about sociologists . Kujenga Amani facilitates the exchange of ideas about diverse aspects of peacebuilding in Africa. 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. Animism consists of the belief in immortal souls, gods, and other spiritual beings. 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. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. 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. During his time, Marx observed that the capitalists, in their pursuit of profits, eventually exploited the workers. If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! Omissions? Study for free with our range of university lectures! The anthropological objection, baldly stated, claims that it is just not correct or helpful to say that religion only functions as a term associated with western imperialist and neo-colonialist projects. Human biomonitoring (HBM) approaches can provide inter alia information on the chemicals that are in our body at one point in time. Although I cannot make the full case here, I sketch a preliminary defense of the third approach, in the context of recent debates in political theory. Aside from being exploited, the workers were also dehumanized or alienated in the workplace. It may perhaps intensify your religious experience. An alternative approach is to select central themes of inquiry and to investigate how the religions engage with each theme. For instance, Christian theologians explain the doctrines of Christianity, and their works constitute Christian theology. The study of the religious notions of primitive people arose within the context of evolutionary theory. 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. For putting the word "academic" in the phrase, "The Academic Study of Religion," indicates that . The specific question which political and legal philosophers (should) ask themselves is this. 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. 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). foster a respectful awareness of the significance of the beliefs and practices for the faith member. Here religion involves subjectivity in the sense of individual experience. (Note that no assumption is made about the actual disciplinary location of scholars. The stage from man to super being is the next which depends from the approach of the achievement on the evolution on earth. by Cristina Echeverri-Pineda and Mateo Villamizar-Chaparro. First, the practice of religion involves inner experiences and sentiments, such as feelings of God guiding the life of the devotee. The concept exhibits a complex continuum of resemblances and differences. In sum, the anthropological objection urges us to take both ordinary language and ordinary experience seriously. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Much of the interesting work done in anthropology, sociology, and religious studies departments, for example, draws on both the first and the second approach). 3.Theology requires its learners to have some degree of faith whereas religious studies does not . This can often lead to conflicts, including those that arise on religious grounds. They argue, for example, that exemptions from general laws can be justified on the ground of conscience; and that what the state should not establish are conceptions of the good. Rowny Professor of Comparative Religions, University of California, Santa Barbara. The study of religion may thus come to have a reflexive effect on religion itself, such as the manner in which modern Christian theology has been profoundly affected by the whole question of the historicity of the New Testament. Psychology of religion is the application of the different psychological theories and methods to explain religious phenomena, which include the belief in God, religious experiences and behaviors, and spirituality. 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. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) defines religion as "a unified system of beliefs and Ninian Smarts approach to religion is described in his academic literature as a completely new way to the thinking of religion. Program design strategies. These studies suggest the significance of religion in health communication and in our . These two neighboring countries have different legal systems and, of course, their own unique characteristics. It can use either separately or in any combination the methods of history, sociology, Another illustration of religious beliefs is the creation stories we find in different religions. Like Muslim reformists' approach of reform, which attempted to reconstruct Islamic religious thought in the light of modern science and knowledge, Christian neo-orthodoxy insisted that Christianity itself needs continually to be rethought and that theology must engage seriously with the . The Christian theologian, for example, may see a particular historical process as providential. Here I focus on two objectionswhich, for ease of presentation, I call the anthropological and the normative objection. 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. 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. These (and others) are all legitimate uses of the concept of religion. This means, among others, that the philosophy of religion justifies claims by the strength and coherence of arguments. 2 Psychological. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. To ask that the law embrace and describe the whole of social reality would be to yearn for a totalitarian law. J.F. Manifestations of the sacred. Barths distinction attempts to draw a line between the transcendent, as it reveals itself to humans, and religion, as a human product involved in the response to revelation. Religion is also studied within cultural geography, which studies how cultural processes spread. The Comparative Study of Religions World Religions: A Voyage of Discovery, Fourth Edition, considers one religion at a time, chapter by chapter. 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. No consensus among scholars concerning the best way to study religion has developed, however. The apologetic approaches to the study of religion is pro-religion in that it defends religion and attempts to prove that religion is true, right, or good. It has emerged as the single most important means of communication for those interested in critical approaches to the study of religion. Instead of organizing the course around different theories of religion, the course is arranged in terms of broad methods according to which religion might be theorized. I do not think it is, although I cannot make the full case here. Personal experience is crucial to any understanding of religion .On this particular account Aurobindo discovers the relation or union, he favours, what he identifies as spiritual psychology and integral methods, but for both he confirms that the objective is to be understood and interpreted in terms of subjective. Sociology is one such approach that this essay will be looking at through its founding fathers Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and Karl Marx. 1 This study, however, takes a relatively straightforward approach to religious diversity. Author of, Robert Segal, Chair in Religious Studies, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland. Still another difference is that while theology limits itself to its own internal theory of religion (its own account for its origins and functions), religious studies considers external theories of religion (accounts of the origins and functions of religion by other academic disciplines). The realities of the modern world significantly contribute to communication between representatives of different cultures. , Max Weber and Karl Marx website in this browser for the faith.... Historical process as providential this browser for the faith member, and other spiritual beings purpose of course. 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