rlg final Flashcards
Secular
Secular things are not religious. Anything not affiliated with a church or faith can be called secular
Secularization
When something changes from being closely connected to or controlled by religion to being nonreligious
Secularization Thesis:
The idea that as societies modernize and advance technologically, religious
beliefs, practices, and institutions will decline in importance
Religious Education
- Subjective exercise
- strengthen adherence to religion, faith, or understanding
- Defines what makes a good follower of a specific faith
- Identifies differences from non-followers
- Islam Course by Muslim Scholar
- Focuses on helping Muslims be better practitioners
- Aims to distinguish Muslims from non-Muslims
- Islam Course by Muslim Scholar
Religious Studies in University
- Value-free orientation
- Examines all aspects of a religion
- Includes all sects, classes, groups, practices, texts, and historical aspects
- Strives for neutrality, positioning outside faith traditions
Neutrality and Objectivity in Religious Studies
- Ideals, but challenging to achieve.
- Scholars acknowledge personal biases and limitations
Rodriguez and Harding’s Perspective
- Absolute neutrality may limit experiences in studying religion
- Advocates for exploring different worldviews
- Draws parallels with experiencing fantasy worlds in literature or movies
Understanding Others
- Anthropologists engage in religious life to comprehend various traditions
- Stepping outside personal limitations enhances understanding of others’ perspectives
Theology Overview
- Focuses on intellectual reflections on the nature of the divine (e.g., god, gods)
- Theologians are practitioners/adherents of a faith tradition
- Reflections align with the belief system of the respective religion
Comparison with Religious Studies
- Contrasts with religious education within faith traditions
- Religious Studies scholars engage in studying theology as an academic interest
- Aim is to understand diverse perspectives rather than adhering to specific beliefs
Thematic Categories
- Belief
- Religious texts/words (scripture)
- Religious actions (rituals)
Sacred
elements of a religion that are “special” in a religion or set apart, are holy
Profane
opposite of the sacred; not special, set apart, holy
Why the new interest in religion as an
object of study in the 19th century
- Challenges to the Judeo-Christian worldview through increasing diversity of knowledge and research
- archeology, paleontology, anthropology, geology, science, evolutionary theory
- Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species
- Colonialism expanded scholars’ access to diverse ways of living in other parts of the world outside of Europe
- New knowledge about various religious traditions became available to scholars
First Phase: Religious Studies in the late
1800s to 1945
- “scientific” endeavour
- quest to find the origins of religion among humans from an evolutionary perspective
- Founded by Max Muller, led by European scholars, seen as a “scientific endeavor”, many scholars looking for the ‘origins’ of religion, connected to European colonialism
Second Phase: Religious Studies Post-1945
- North American scholarship in this field develops rapidly
- Inherits norms of the discipline from Europe
- Increased diversification of data
- Greatest concentration of scholars can be found in the US
- Religion is considered in inter-disciplinary field rather than a single discipline
- Led by American scholars, spreads to many universities globally, recognized as a “field of study” rather than a single discipline, science of religion approach falls away, greater diversification of data and methodologies
“Science” of Religion?
Falls out of fashion mid 20th century for several reasons:
- It’s limitations
- Cultural Relativism
- Interdisciplinary Approaches
- Religious Pluralism
Third Phase: Religious Studies in the
Late 20th Century/Early 21st Century
- Comparative study of religions gained prominence for a global perspective
- Emphasis on studying lived religion, focusing on everyday faith practices
- Late 20th century: emergence of critical and postmodern perspectives
- Deconstruction of traditional categories and challenging prevailing narratives
- Race and class– how inequality built into scholarship itself as well as social institutions
- Feminist and gender studies brought attention to power dynamics in religious traditions
- Increased focus on religion in social and political contexts, examining impact on human rights, globalization, and conflict
- Scholars critically examined reciprocal influence between religion and societal forces
- Critiques grow of older perspectives, theories; growth of research with new questions, increasing diversification of
scholars and perspectives