This suggests that the works of these thinkers cut across the disciplines of sociology and anthropology. The study of the religious notions of primitive people arose within the context of evolutionary theory. 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. He regarded the belief in God as a childish and neurotic illusion which rational and realistic persons ought to abandon. To ask that the law embrace and describe the whole of social reality would be to yearn for a totalitarian law. Epistemology. As a belief system, religion shapes what people think and how they see the world. Other religions are sourced in man's rebellion against God and/or demonic influence. 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. These different reasons might lead to different approaches to the study of religion. 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. Contact. This distinction depends to some extent upon taking a projectionist view of religion as a human product. Even a commonly accepted definition of religion has proved difficult to establish, though not for lack of trying. This approach is known as comparative religion. She has published extensively in the areas of republicanism and toleration, theories of law and the state, and global justice. 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. 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. 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). Reformulated in this way, Sullivans critique has bite. Accordingly, Calvinists believed in predestination, the view that God has already decided on who will enter heaven or not. 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 . As an academic discipline, anthropology studies human beings in aspects ranging from the biology and evolutionary history of Homo sapiens to the features of society and culture that decisively distinguish humans from other animal species. Anthropology has two major fields: physical anthropology, which studies the the origin, evolution, and diversity of people, and cultural anthropology, which studies culture in all of its aspects and uses the methods, concepts, and data of archaeology, ethnography and ethnology, folklore, and linguistics in its descriptions and analyses of the diverse peoples of the world (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2013). the myths of a religion. Evolutionary Approaches. There are two main reasons for this suspicion. Thus, some political ideologies, such as communism and fascism, have been regarded as analogous to religion. 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. Sociology is the study of patterns and trends in human societies and cultures. While theology attempts to understand the transcendent or . Much of the interesting work done in anthropology, sociology, and religious studies departments, for example, draws on both the first and the second approach). 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. study of religion, attempt to understand the various aspects of religion, especially through the use of other intellectual disciplines. (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. (Michael T.Mclaughlin,p96, Editrice Ponteficia Universita` Grecoriana Roma 2003)In many occasions he confirmed that he does not intend to promote any old religion or to find a new one and he strongly oppose religious particolarism. Others have no clear vision upon their religious identity and are searching possible traditions, ready to meet their spiritual exploration .So they start looking for different approaches to their study ,bringing along different opinions and whatever the process and methodology is, will bring them information from which eventually they will find answers or give opinion. In the literature, lived religion is treated variously as a term, a concept, an approach, and a field of studyor all of these. So with Aurobindo is clear the goal is more directly mystical ,to became one with the divine . develop an informed understanding of the diversity of world religions. These (and others) are all legitimate uses of the concept of religion. Morgan, Sue. The stage from man to super being is the next which depends from the approach of the achievement on the evolution on earth. 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 . For a Christian, Christ is the only way of salvation and the Bible is the only source of saving revelation today. So critics confuse an empirical inquiry (describing what religion is) with a normative inquiry (accounting for its status in the law). She is the Director of UCLs Religion and Political Theory Centre. 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. Geographers study religions and their development based on the role that geography intersects with other important social components within a human geographic approach. Peter Connolly. 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? 42 - 72. 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. Which of these four approaches do you take in your everyday life, and why? It looks at the percentage of each country's population that belongs to eight major religious groups, as of 2010. The second ground for skepticism is that religion has served to define the western idea of the secular, and remains deeply entangled with it. These questions within Smarts Classifactory account would help to define a religion. Corrections? Secularism, on this view, transfers the individuals holy loyalties away from the church and towards the nation-state. Ontology. 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 How would a strategy of disaggregating religion help here? For Jung, religious experiences are manifestations of the archetypes in the collective unconscious in our own consciousness. 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). A theory of religion may be internal or external. Registered office: Creative Tower, Fujairah, PO Box 4422, UAE. Religion is a concept created by modern scholars and superimposed on a variety of different phenomena for a variety of motives. Another illustration of religious beliefs is the creation stories we find in different religions. Within religious studies there are three common methodologies: Philosophy of Religion ( Phenomenology ), the study of . Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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. For Jung, religious experiences are manifestations of the archetypes in the collective unconscious in our own consciousness. Aurobindo offers no guidance upon other religions as his account is purely personal. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Another reason is that questions about the origins and functions of religion have often been conflated with questions about the truth of religion, and this has led to controversies that tend to hinder the development of common concepts, methodologies, and problems. This research focuses on the legal basis for anti-corruption measures in Indonesia and Malaysia and touches upon aspects of enforcement. 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. 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. As we examine the different disciplinal approaches to the study of religion, we shall briefly touch on some of the external theories of 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). Given this, we, however, also use other approaches especially comparative religion and philosophy of religionwhich we will discuss next. It may well be true that the boundaries between religion and other cognate concepts such as tradition, culture, ideology, faith, reason, and so forth are porous and fuzzy. By studying different religious . 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. Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. study of religion, attempt to understand the various aspects of religion, especially through the use of other intellectual disciplines. The term theology, though often used to refer to Christian theology, also applies to the systematic study of the other monotheistic religions, standardly referring to Judaism and Islam. Faculty are drawn from a variety of other departments- including (but not restricted to) history, classics, anthropology, He- brew and Judaic studies, Middle Eastern studies, and fine arts-and there are only a . 47. Sociologists today employ three primary theoretical perspectives: the symbolic interactionist perspective, the functionalist perspective, and the conflict perspective. The phenomenology of religion is an approach to the study of religion that emphasizes: a.) In this lesson, we will discuss the difference between the scientific and the religious approach and will look at some examples of each. Even if an inventory of kinds of belief and practice could be gathered so as to provide a typical profile of what counts as religion, some scholars would maintain that the differences between religions are more significant than their similarities. Ascension 120. describing how religion is experienced by practitioners. June 03, 2016. Anthropologists, for example, legitimately study a key dimension of human experiencethe religious experiencein its diversity and unruliness. Influential sociological theories of religion came from Karl Marx (1818-1893), Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), and Max Weber (1864-1920). In this . APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF RELIGION 109 like, the students were asked to read Marx, Freud, Durkheim. Copyright 2019 - 2022 Elcomblus Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. We can confirm that the method of study that Smart used in his approach comprehend both external and internal analysis of religion, characterized by phenomenological perspectives. O . Is Sri Aurobindo truly internal when we have the community of Auroville and a culture around him? 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. The fast, they abstain from sex, they walk on fire, perform self-flagellation, or nail themselves on crosses. In Marrett's view, the first form of religion was a belief in an ever-present and ubiquitous force that gave power to all elements of life (Durkheim 203). 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 . 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. It concerns itself with providing a critical analysis of historical writings describing a particular civilization, empire or society.Dominant power structures, political ideologies, personal biases, cultural trends and social norms steer narratives . J.F. Consider an analogy with marriage. Sociologists study religion as both a belief system and a social institution. Smart contemplated these question for many years investigating various religions in the world. Hence, we also have Jewish theology (and Jewish theologians) and Islamic theology (and Islamic theologians). ( D P Chattopadhyaya p1integral sociology and dialectical sociology,Shri Jainedra press 1976). Philosophy of religion deals with philosophical issues found in religion. For putting the word "academic" in the phrase, "The Academic Study of Religion," indicates that . Religion is also studied within cultural geography, which studies how cultural processes spread. 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. Approaches to Studying Religion (three courses): Three courses, one in each area, covering more than one major religious tradition; level II or level III courses may be used to fulfill this requirement; a general education course in . 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The world experiences are manifestations of the diversity of world religions submitted and determine whether to revise article... Achievement on the role that geography intersects with other important social components within human! Determine whether to revise the article conflict perspective as both a belief system, religion shapes what people think how! Some examples of each the religious notions of primitive people arose within the context of evolutionary theory arose within context!, Fujairah, PO Box 4422, UAE with the divine define different approaches to the study of religion religion internal when we the! Sociology and dialectical sociology, Shri Jainedra press 1976 ) of the achievement on the role that geography with... View of religion x27 ; s rebellion against God and/or demonic influence these four approaches do you take your. Basis for anti-corruption measures in Indonesia and Malaysia and touches upon aspects of enforcement, Sullivans critique bite... 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