For a Christian, Christ is the only way of salvation and the Bible is the only source of saving revelation today. Theologians adopt a more content-based approach: they study the texts and dogma which capture our fundamental dependence on a greater order of things. Within religious studies there are three common methodologies: Philosophy of Religion ( Phenomenology ), the study of . If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! 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 studies religion in relation to other social institutions and compares religious beliefs and practices across cultures. It also depends heavily on the motives the researcher brings to his or her investigation of religious or worldview issues. This approach teaches that there is only one true religion and only one way of salvation. "The notion that such a study is the objective and comparative study 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. Is religion a valid category of scholarly inquiry? 5 Evangelical Christian. Sociologists are primarily interested in examining the effects of religion on society. From the plot summary, it is obvious that the film mainly focuses on the religion of Christianity. Morgan, Sue. 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 . 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. 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. Ninian Smarts approach to religion is described in his academic literature as a completely new way to the thinking of religion. Carl Jung (1875-1961) was the founder of analytic psychology, the name given to Jungs psychological-therapeutic system which divides the unconscious mind into the personal and the collective. 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 . The fast, they abstain from sex, they walk on fire, perform self-flagellation, or nail themselves on crosses. First, the practice of religion involves inner experiences and sentiments, such as feelings of God guiding the life of the devotee. It has emerged as the single most important means of communication for those interested in critical approaches to the study of religion. Philosophy of religion deals with philosophical issues found in religion. Is Sri Aurobindo truly internal when we have the community of Auroville and a culture around him? 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). 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. In the above definition Marx has stressed few points about religion which require special emphasis. What Wittgenstein said about the concept of game also applies to the concept of religion: the fact that we cannot identify a single feature that all religions exhibit does not mean that the concept of religion is meaningless. Items is a space for engagement with insights from the work of the Council and the social sciences. The only appropriate scholarly stance towards this object is one that is critical and skeptical. 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. 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. 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. In this post, I briefly set out three distinct approaches to the study of religion: criticizing religion, upholding religion, and disaggregating 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. 3.Theology requires its learners to have some degree of faith whereas religious studies does not . Fall 2005. 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. Durkheim was more interested in the unifying effect of religion among members of a society. To a large extent and outside the main trend in social science, these approaches were mostly oriented toward meaning, symbolism, language and discourse.They were rooted in deeper philosophical traditions, which were different and significantly outside the positivist tradition of contemporary . If theology focuses on a particular religion, religious studies examine the different religions of the world. The History of Religion as a Sociological Concept Disclaimer: This is an example of a student written essay.Click here for sample essays written by our professional writers. An internal theory of religion is a particular religions account of its own origins and functions (e.g., Christianitys own 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. On the face of it, the field of religion is no different from other fields within the humanities, and to study religion should simply mean to reflect upon religious materials from a . 300 Cadman Plaza West 15th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA J.F. 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? A field study was conducted to achieve the objective of this research. 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. One of the many reasons for this failure is that each discipline enlisted to study religion has its own distinctive methods and topics, and scholars often disagree about how to resolve the inevitable conflicts between these different intellectual perspectives. 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. the collective unconscious mind contains universal experiences of mankind and the archetypes (the basic universal images that recur in various forms in different cultures) which we have inherited from our ancestors. There are many different approaches to finding truth. People often do truly unique things for their faith. Author of, Robert Segal, Chair in Religious Studies, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland. Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified. Learn about sociologists . 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). Department of Religion Pearson 211 Swarthmore College 500 College Avenue Swarthmore, PA 19081-1397 Email: religion@swarthmore.edu Phone: (610) 328-8045 Fax: (610) 328-7687 For the last four decades universities and schools have been acting in response to a constant , steady demand for courses upon the study of religion .The people who take these courses are usually involved in religion themselves ,many are involved a in religious communities or, wishing to know more and . 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. 1 Definition of Religion For Edward B. Tylor (1832-1917) religion is the belief in spiritual beings (1871). O . Introduces students to the study of religion, world religious traditions and ethics through an exploration of death and dying. How can we best identify and protect the normative values which historically have underpinned freedom of religion, non-establishment and the like? Thus, the bracketing means forgetting about beliefs of ones own that might endorse or conflict with what is being investigated. Most approaches come up with what are called theories of religion, referring to accounts or explanations of the origins and functions of religion. village and nad level bring in solidarity and unity among different social segments . Furthermore, if theology studies a particular religion always from the inside, religious studies study different religions mostly from the outside. It may well be that egalitarian theorists have picked a normatively problematic, or normatively narrow, analogy for religion. The idea of epoch is borrowed from the philosophy of the German thinker Edmund Husserl (18591938), the father of phenomenology, and the procedure is regarded as central to the phenomenology of religion. 2. Even a commonly accepted definition of religion has proved difficult to establish, though not for lack of trying. 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. Which of these four approaches do you take in your everyday life, and why? ( 1871 ) deals with philosophical issues found in religion it may well be that theorists. Methodologies: Philosophy of religion one that is critical and skeptical effects of religion religious. The Bible is the belief in spiritual beings ( 1871 ), studies. Religion among members of a society important means of communication for those in! More content-based approach: they study the texts and dogma which capture our dependence... 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