Disclaimer: This is an example of a student written essay.Click here for sample essays written by our professional writers. As to the first sense, one of the challenges to the student of religion is the problem of evoking its inner, individual side, which is not observable in any straightforward way. The interrelations of the various disciplines in relation to religion as an area of . (Peter Connolly,pp1-2Approche to the Study of Religion,Biddles L.T.D.) A criticism of his approach is that it is far to scientific and while starting from the experiential and emotional he soon slips back into trying to seek common themes within all religions. The realities of the modern world significantly contribute to communication between representatives of different cultures. In this regard, Marx described religion as the opium of the masses.. The modern sovereign state is grounded in a distinctive political theology that mobilizes the structural categories of metaphysics and theology to bolster and consolidate the higher identity of secular citizenship. Phenomenology or Religion (3) Study of consciousness and experiences. Mysticism. Approaches to Religious/Worldview Studies 1 Sociological. People often do truly unique things for their faith. ( D P Chattopadhyaya p1integral sociology and dialectical sociology,Shri Jainedra press 1976). Thus, the bracketing means forgetting about beliefs of ones own that might endorse or conflict with what is being investigated. Fall 2005. 2. But the historical process itself has to be investigated scientificallythat is, by considering the evidence, using the techniques of historical enquiry and other scientific methods. Even this cursory summary of this first approach is, I hope, sufficient to convey the force and depth of the critique of religion. The worry here is the hard-won liberal right to religious freedom will not elicit much respect if the existence of religion itself is radically questioned. Philosophy of religion tries to settle issues in religion solely by means of the human power of reasoning. This includes such traditional points of departure as history, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, and sociology, but also the natural sciences, and such other approaches as feminist theory, discourse . This distinction depends to some extent upon taking a projectionist view of religion as a human product. Egalitarian theorists of religious freedom, from this perspective, are right to seek to identify the normative grounds on which certain beliefs and practices call for state protection (or state restraint, in the case of non-establishment). The gods play a merely subsidiary role, for example, in most phases of Theravada (Way of the Elders) Buddhism. Even a commonly accepted definition of religion has proved difficult to establish, though not for lack of trying. Nationalist elites, in turn, fought to deny the label of religion to national traditions (see Shintoism in Japan and Confucianism in China). 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). For critics, this is visible in three different ways. The normative objection is slightly different. The works of both Sri Aurobindo and Ninian Smart shows two drastic and completely different approaches to religion. Box No. The second ground for skepticism is that religion has served to define the western idea of the secular, and remains deeply entangled with it. 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. 3.Theology requires its learners to have some degree of faith whereas religious studies does not . 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. 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. Sociologists study religion as both a belief system and a social institution. (Note that no assumption is made about the actual disciplinary location of scholars. 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 . 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. a creation of capitalism, for Weber it is the other way roundcapitalism is largely due to religion, more specifically, the Calvinist religion. Sociology is one such approach that this essay will be looking at through its founding fathers Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and Karl Marx. The law does not describe and regulate the full experience of marriage: the fact that, in law, marriage is a contract does not mean that marriage is, or should be experienced as, a contract. The stage from man to super being is the next which depends from the approach of the achievement on the evolution on earth. It may perhaps intensify your religious experience. The phenomenology of religion is an approach to the study of religion that emphasizes: a.) Morgan, Sue. She is the Director of UCLs Religion and Political Theory Centre. This approach is known as comparative religion. Can we truly compare two totally different views religion one very internal the other very visual? Given this, we, however, also use other approaches especially comparative religion and philosophy of religionwhich we will discuss next. 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. 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. The other sense of the subjectivity of religion is properly a matter for theology and the philosophy of religion. APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF RELIGION 109 like, the students were asked to read Marx, Freud, Durkheim. As it happens, one group of influential political philosophers has tried to do just that. We also have Confucian, Taoist, and Shinto philosophies; instead of Confucian, Taoist, and Shinto theologies. 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. The term fundamentalism can be used in very different religious contexts and texts to describe the devotion and strict loyalty to a set of principles or ideas. "Feminist Approaches." In Approaches to the Study of Religions, edited by Peter Connolly, pp. At this juncture, let us x-ray some of the approaches in studying religion scientifically. Three famous psychologists who examined and analyzed religious phenomena psychologically were William James, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Jung. So critics confuse an empirical inquiry (describing what religion is) with a normative inquiry (accounting for its status in the law). Approaches to the Study of Religions. Depending on the researcher's perspective, it is approached in various and often quite different ways. "The notion that such a study is the objective and comparative study of religion. (Scott London ,the future of religion an Interview with Ninian Smart June 1999 issue ofThe Witnessmagazine. ) 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. So neutrality, for liberals such as Rawls and Ronald Dworkin, is generalized non-establishment. Egalitarian theorists of religious freedom offer a compelling response to the critical religion school. Religion-making involved singling out certain social activities and cultural practices as religious and de-politicizing them (see Hinduism in India). Study of at least two religious traditions using three different academic approaches: Religion Menu. He regarded the belief in God as a childish and neurotic illusion which rational and realistic persons ought to abandon. It all depends on the person you are and the personal period of life you are going through. What may be the way forward in the teaching and definition of religion is to accept the singularity of each religion and each individuals faith and seek ways in which they can be accommodated within a safe international environment that moves away from empirical definitions. Sociologists use a variety of methods to analyze culture. c.) the truth or falsity of religion. It looks at the percentage of each country's population that belongs to eight major religious groups, as of 2010. The Essay Writing ExpertsUK Essay Experts. 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. Items is a space for engagement with insights from the work of the Council and the social sciences. For Jung, religious experiences are manifestations of the archetypes in the collective unconscious in our own consciousness. Talal Asad and Saba Mahmood have shown, for instance, that liberal secularism requires individual beliefnot communal observance, rituals or embodied pietyto be taken as the essence of religiosity. Secularism, on this view, transfers the individuals holy loyalties away from the church and towards the nation-state. These questions within Smarts Classifactory account would help to define a religion. The Comparative Study of Religions World Religions: A Voyage of Discovery, Fourth Edition, considers one religion at a time, chapter by chapter. For instance, Christian theologians explain the doctrines of Christianity, and their works constitute Christian theology. 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. The most influential premodern work in comparative religion is the book The Golden Bough (1890) by James G. Frazer (1854-1941). Ninian Smarts approach to religion is described in his academic literature as a completely new way to the thinking of religion. In the above definition Marx has stressed few points about religion which require special emphasis. Overall, 36% of Americans now say they attend religious services at least once a week, down from 39% in 2007. 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. The dominant sense in which the contemporary study of religion is understood is the descriptive sense. It has emerged as the single most important means of communication for those interested in critical approaches to the study of religion. For instance, a student of Christian theology is a Christian; but a student of religious studies studying Shintoism is usually not a Shintoist. is discussed, followed by discussion on anthropological approaches to study religion. Religion should be disaggregated into a number of different values which relate to the law of the liberal state in different ways. . They take significant risks and spend time, money, and all kinds of valuable resources for their Religion. It does this by examining the dynamics of the constituent parts of societies such as institutions, communities, populations, and gender, racial, or age groups (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2013). Two famous and highly influential Christian theologians who also engaged in philosophy of religion were St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. Briefly, the arguments from causation and motion claim that the series of causes and effects, and movements in the world, must begin with God being the first cause and mover; the argument from design claims that the intricate design of the world cannot be attributed to mere chance but only to God as the divine intelligence; the argument from necessity claims that there must be a God who is a necessary being (one who has always been existing) to explain how contingent beings (those that presently exist but previously did not) have come to exist; and the argument from degrees of perfection claims that there must be a God whose perfection serves as the standard for determining the degrees of qualities that we attribute to things (like that they are good or better). Famous and highly influential Christian theologians explain the doctrines of Christianity, and Carl Jung Smarts approach to study. 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