TheoriesJOURNAL: Dimensions of religion: How do

you think it happened?

Ancient theories: Herodotus (5th C BCE) Cicero (3rd C BCE)

Judaism and Christianity: so different?Explorers and MissionariesReformationEnlightenmentDeism (Natural Religion)RomanticismMax Muller 1823-1900

Why?

A scientific endeavor:It was possible to find the root impulse

or cause of religion everywhere Inquiry, search far back in time to discover

the earliest religious ideas and practices of the human race, trace it onward and upward to the present.

Model of the Natural SciencesArchaeology, history, language, mythology

and ethnology (Tylor) and anthropology

Religious Studies

Myths/storiesRitualsDoctrinesEthicsCommunityEmotion/Experience (The Sacred)

Essential components (Substantive definition)

Myth and Ritual School

Primitive Culture 1871British, self educated,

agnostic religious skeptic

Born Quaker Parents died when he

was a young man. TuberculosisTraveled to Central

America Became a reader and

professor at Oxford.

E.B. Tylor 1832-1917

Intellectual IndividualismSimilarities are not coincidental but a result

of the uniformity  of the human mind  Give me your reaction to this.

Social evolution (The Ascent of Man)Variations are evidence of a difference in

degree or a change in the level of development

Doctrine of Survivals Ideas no longer credible that linger from an

earlier more primitive time in societyAssociation of Ideas: Magic, Religion

Myths originate from the process of logically associating ideas.

Key Ideas

Ethnography: scientific analysis of an individual society, culture or racial group in all of its many component parts.

Animism: Belief in living personal powers behind all things

Pantheism: God is synonymous with the universe

Panentheism: God contains the universe

Religion: Belief in Spiritual Beings

Vocabulary

Are religion and culture originally rooted in myth or in ritual? Belief or in practice? Society or the Individual?

Max Muller (1823-1900)Myth was poetic statements about the

worldLater cultures misunderstood them as

meaningful and symbolic language

Myths are: Philosophical attempts to explain and understand the world

Studied as an interesting product of the human mind

Religion (and myth) originated in the experience of seeing the dead in dreams.

Then: explained in beliefs and myths of spirits and souls.

Emphasized an evolutionary view of human social development (survivals)

E.B. Tylor: Summary

Offer explanations for the world around us. Experience followed by belief, myth and ritual.

Chicken or the egg?Myth is a remnant (survival) of ritual

activityRitual is the original source of most of

the expressive forms of cultural lifeRitual is unlikely to change

Sir James Frazer 1854-1941

Builds on Tylor, but sees Ritual as the building block of religion

Psychoanalysis School

Rooted in the myth and ritual schoolUnconscious forces shaping social

behavior including ritual. (Smith)“real” purposes of ritual were different

at times even from what the participants thought.

Austria, Jewish but a natural atheist

Lived in Vienna Studied ideas like

ambivalence, repression, neurosis, unconscious.

Developed the field of psychoanalysis.

Totem and Taboo 1913, Future of an Illusion 1927 and Moses and Monotheism, 1938

Sigmund Freud 1856-1939

Totem and Taboo Intellectual Evolution Psychic Ambivalence

Future of an IllusionBelief Illusion vs. delusionReligion is…..

Key Ideas

Reductionist: Reducing a complex system to a single idea

Psychoanalysis: Science of the mindIllusion: belief in something we want to

be trueDelusion: belief in something we know

to be falseNeurosis: illness of the mind related to

the subconscious

Vocabulary

Buried levels of meaning: repression, the unconscious and psychoanalysis

Religious observances (rituals) are the acting out of obsessive neurotic impulses

Taboos bring about ritual since it attempts to appease repressed desires.

Religion is individualistic

Sigmund Freud Summary

Religion serves to provide humans with emotional coddling

Sociological School

FranceJewish FatherAgnosticFather of

“Sociology” The Elementary

Forms of the Religious Life” (1912)

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917

The nature of society is the most suitable and promising subject of systematic investigation

All social facts should be investigated by purely objective scientific methods

Belief is a form of social practiceSacred as a living, social realityElementary Forms:

Key Ideas

Animism: the belief in a supernatural power that organizes and animates the material universe OR the attribute of soul given to inanimate objects

Naturalism: doctrine that all religious truth is derived from a study of natural processes and not from revelation.

Totemism: a system of belief in which each human is thought to have a spiritual connection or a kinship with another physical being or object

Vocabulary

Priority to the social dimensionA way of organizing groups of individuals. Distinction between sacred & profane is at

the root of all religionBelief: expresses the nature of sacred thingsRitual: rules of conduct governing how

people should act in the presence of the sacred

Religion arose in activities that cemented the bonds of community

Emile Durkheim Summary

Serves the function of ensuring the priority of communal identification and provide social bonding.

German philosopher Founded Communism. Class struggle is the

primary mover of history,

Religion is a social construct developed to keep the masses in check

Opium of the People, the heart of a heartless world

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Materialism : Social institution dependent upon the material and economic realties

All religions operate this way, beliefs are irrelevant

Suffering: Economic FreedomReligious suffering is, at one and the same

time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering

Liberation TheologyAdvocated the abolition of religion

Key Ideas

Religion is irrational and a delusionReligion negates all that is dignified in a human

being by rendering them servile and more amenable to accepting the status quo.

Religion is hypocritical. Although it might profess valuable principles, it sides with the oppressors.

Religion does give hope, but it is a false hope

Karl Marx Summary

Religion is the opiate of the masses, providing an escape to the suffering of reailty. It is meant to create illusory fantasies for the poor.

German,HumanistWell educated, a

cerebral childhood.

Asexual marriage, prone to anxiety attacks after death of fathem

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Max Weber (1864-1920)

Non-reductionistInterweaving of economics and societyProsperity Gospel:

Wealth and success are a sign of electionInner-worldly asceticism

Practice frugality in the worldReligious LeadersVariable ethics

Theodicy and SoteriologyGenerates variety

Key Ideas

Ideal Types: Opposite of generalization. Includes purposeful exaggeration

Theodicy: Defense of God (Why he allows bad things to occur)

Soteriology: Study of teachings on salvation

Vocabulary

Strong anti-reductionist approach. Religion isn’t “just..”

Religion developed through an influence of social institutions on the ordering of society, especially economics

Ethics is a variable to be confronted at all times and in all places when studying religion, especially in its two problematic circumstances, Theodicy and Soteriology.

Religious trends are more an indication of cultural and historical changes than evolutionary progression

Max Weber

Religion is a patterning of social relationships around a belief in supernatural powers, creating ethical considerations .

Phenomenology School

Places myth before ritualRejects Myth and Ritual school as

reductionistReligious experience is real and irreducibleExploration of the components of religion

as “sacred” or “holy” Origins weren’t as important

The history of a religion (or ritual or myth) doesn’t tell us what a religious experience ultimately is

Didn’t use an evolutionary frameworkMust look at underlying patterns Comparative in nature

Romania Studied and taught in

Western Europe, Ended in the University of

Chicago History of Religions. Humanistic approach:

Religion must always be explained on its own terms.

The Sacred and the Profane, 1907-1986,

Mircea Eliade 1907-1986

Autonomy of religion. Combination of History and

PhenomenologyAxis Mundi: Religion is a total response

of orientation towards Ultimate RealityReligion is that which is wholly otherPatterns in Comparative Religion:

Symbols, myths, modalitiesMyth of the Eternal return

Nostalgia and the terror of history

Key Ideas

Hierophany: The appearance of the Sacred in the Profane

Phenomenology: study and analysis of things through observation

Axis Mundi: a sacred centerImago Mundi: representation of the

cosmos on earthTheophany: Appearance of God in a

symbol

Vocabulary

Minimize importance of ritualMyth is the language of the sacred…

where we can experience hierophanyBring back myth and symbol

More stable and unlikely to change Tells a sacred story about the actions of gods Explains how things came about Rituals are reenactments of this. Allows participant to

identify the present with the past Ritual is dependent on myth Acknowledges that often you cannot separate one from

the other

Mircea Eliade Summary

Religion helps people make sense of the world through symbols and myths; to provide contact with the sacred, reenactment, history.

Is the function of religion to: to offer “scientific” explanations or bind a community together or to provide humans with emotional stability

(coddling?) or to connect to the Other (The Sacred/Holy)?

How (and why) did it all start?

After having completed the course, reflect back on the essentialist, functionalist and contemporary theories of the origin of religion, Which theory(ies) best explain and support your understanding and interpretation of the purpose and function of religious experience and sacred traditions? Give evidence (examples) to support your argument.

Argument paper that defends a theory and definition of religion using sacred traditions to support your claims

4 page essay

Signature Assignment

Unit 1: Theories Essentialist and Functionalist

Unit 2: Appearance of the Sacred: Hierophany

Persons, objects, spaceUnit 3: Language of the Sacred

Myths, stories, scripture, visual, musicUnit 4: Sacred Time/Traditions

Rites of passage, holidaysUnit 5: Sacred Journey

Pilgrimage

Review: