RELS. 205Review of the course so far

Preparing for DoomsdayYour first test or whichever comes first

http://www.ucalgary.ca/~hexham/Read ahead

Remember to read the Smart and Welbourn papersKeep checking – new questions will be added

The Study of Religion“Snub-nosed are the Imortals, and black,” say the Ethiopians“No” the Thracians answer, “red-haired with eyes of grey.”

If oxen, or lions or horses had hands like men, they too …Would shape in their own image, each face and form divine …

Xenophanes (570-480 B.C.)

Religious Studies as a response to social change

Ninian Smart(1927-2001)

Founded the first Department of Religious Studies in Britain in 1967at the University of Lancaster in response to new immigrants from India

“He who knows one, knows none”

Friedrich Max Müller(1823-1900)

Christianity 2.1 billion

Buddhism 374,000,000

Chinese religions 394,000,000

Christianity 2.1 billion

Islam 1.2 billion

Sikhs 23,000,000

Jews 14,000,000Mormons 10,000,000

African 100,000,000

World Religions 2005

Hinduism 9.000,000

The Christian Vision of Religious Studies

What is Christianity?

Christianity is a system of inter-related beliefs.

James Orr(1844-1913)

(1893)

The Christian System

Redemption

Creation

Fall

God’s instructions to humans

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553)Adam and Eve in Paradise (1530)

Genesis 2-3

Understanding Historic Christianity

EARLY

CHURCH

Coptic, Syriac, Indian, and other smaller traditions

Eastern Orthodoxy – Greek, Russian, etc.

Roman Catholicism

Protestantism

Charismatic Movement

Nestorians etc.

African and other Christian Movements

Anselm (1033-1109)

  Archbishop of Canterbury

Thomas Aquinas (1224/27-1274)

How do we know?Natural Revelation

“For all that may be known of God lies plain before their eyes … knowing God they did not worship Him as God …” Romans 1.19-21

Thomas Aquinas(1224/27-1274)

The Five Ways of St. Thomas Aquinas

Cosmological 1 - causationCosmological 2 - motionTeleologicalMoralAesthetic

An Exposition of the Creed

John Pearson (1613-1686)

Anglican clergyman and theologian. He was successively Master of Jesus College and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was the Lady Margaret professor of divinity at Cambridge University. In 1672 he became the Bishop of Chester.

An Exposition of the Creed (1659)

William Paley(1743‑1805)

Paley’s watch

Examine the watch

The European Enlightenment

Catherine the Great(1729-1796)

Sophia Augusta Frederikaof Anhalt-Zerbst

Frederick the GreatFriedrich der Grosse

(1712-1786)

Voltaire1694-1778

David Hume(1711-1776)

David Hume 1711-1776

World like a Ship

Friedrich Schleiermacher(1768-1834)

Casper David Friedrich (1774-1840)

Romanticism and Sacral Sentiments

Revelation in Buddhism

Enlightenment comes from within

The Idea of the Holy (1923)

1923

Western Views of Time I

1780-1830

Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)The Oath of the Horatio -1784

The Roman Ideal

Hadrian 73 -138 AD

The Influence of Rome II

The Basilica, TrierApprox. 300

European roots

Rome

Greece

Egypt

Technological Progress over the centuries

1780-1830

The earlymodernworld

Little or no innovation

400-1775Birth of Modern technologye.g. chemical and electrical machines.

The real “Dark Ages”:Post-Roman, Medieval,Renaissance, Reformationand pre-modern world.

Modernworld

Time Reconsidered

Past Future

1780-1830

The “Dark Ages”

The “Dark Ages”

Tom Paine

Thomas Aquinas

Mainz Dom

Socrates (470-399 BC)

Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Religious Institutions

Church Sect Denomination Cult Revitalization Movement

The Church

Theologically “Church” is used to designate the community of believers.

Max Weber (1846-1920)

Friedrich Schleiermacher(1768-1834)

Key WorksSpeeches on Religion to its Cultural Despisers(1799)

The Christian Faith (1821)

Casper David Friedrich (1774-1840)

Romanticism and Sacral Sentiments

The Idea of the Holy (1923)

1923

What do we mean by "myth"?

“It’s a myth. Santa does not exist.”

Myth and MystificationMircea Eliade

(1907-1986)

Myth in Anthropology

Bronislaw Malinowski, (1884-1942). "Myth in Primitive Psychology," in Magic, Science and Religion, (1954:96-111).

Myth defined:A story with culturally formative power that functions to direct the life and thought of individuals, groups or societies.