6 midterm (Psychological and Phenomenological Approaches) Flashcards
what is the Anthropology of religion
studies humankind in its religious aspects, especially in terms of culture or development.
what is Anthropology of religion preoccupied with
It is preoccupied with a cultural system, its symbolic meanings qua rites and beliefs
what is the Sociology of religion
studies the dynamics of religious groups, understanding the influence of religious groups on religious individuals and collective religious behavior
what is our theme in tracking the development from Stage 1 to Stage 2 study of religion
From transcendence to immanence
what is From transcendence to immanence
Shift from the spiritual truth and meaning of religious beliefs and practices (philosophy and theology) to the material truth and meaning of these beliefs and practices in and for society (anthropology and sociology)
what has been a central focus in this development
Issues of modernization and secularity
Issues of modernization and secularity have been a central focus in this development. It has guided social scientists in what
their interest in religion
The academic concern with religion is a preoccupation with what
a social- cultural reality to understand our present. It is a preoccupation with structures of meaning that influence us, whether it’s religion in relation to technology, the economy, politics, or whatever. Religion isn’t going anywhere, which is a fact that continues to stimulate social-scientific interest.
what does Psychology of religion focus on
focuses on the religious individual, her/his experiences and perceptions of religious phenomena
what is included in stage 2
social science and history
what is included in stage 3
phenomenology
In preparation for the move to Stage 3, we look to what
a methodological distinction
In preparation for the move to Stage 3, we look to a methodological distinction that led from what
the material- historical emphasis to one of religious meaning qua religious in phenomenology: the distinction between ‘explanation’ and ‘description’
In preparation for the move to Stage 3, we look to a methodological distinction that led from the material- historical emphasis to one of religious meaning qua religious in phenomenology: the distinction between ‘explanation’ and ‘description’.
R&H use this distinction to do what
R&H use this distinction to identify the respective approaches of psychology of religion and phenomenology of religion, the former being ‘explanatory’, the latter being ‘descriptive’. However, psychology of religion includes both. We use these distinctions to identify the three principal psychologists outlined in R&H. Phenomenology practices a distinct manner of ‘description’.
philosophy of religion is considered what in stage 3
explanatory
phenomenology od religion is considered what in stage 3
descriptive
However, psychology of religion includes what
both explanatory and descriptive
H use this distinction to identify the respective approaches of psychology of religion and phenomenology of religion, the former being ‘explanatory’, the latter being ‘descriptive’. However, psychology of religion includes both. We use these distinctions to identify what (stage 3)
the three principal psychologists outlined in R&H. Phenomenology practices a distinct manner of ‘description’
what is included in explanation
Depth-psychological approaches
objective approaces
who is involved with Depth-psychological approaches
Sigmund Freud (psychoanalysis) C.G. Jung (analytical psychology)
what is objective approaches
“Cognitive and related ‘hard science’ approaches” (R&H, pp. 99-101)
what is included in description
humanistic
who is included in humanistic
William James (Serial method)
what is included in humanistic
Phenomenologists of religion
what does description do
combines emphasis on human experience and religious insight
what does explanation so
assumption: religion is other than it appears to be
how does description organize data
organizes data related to experience and their religious meanings (symbols)
how does explanation organize data
organizes data that elucidates religious expressions according to a material bias
what are the classical sources of description
St. Augustine
F. Schleiermacher
S. Kierkegaar
what are the classical sources of explanation
Ancient Greece and rome
18th C philosophers (hume and Rousseau)
L. Feuerbach
how is religion portrayed in description
sympathetically (from within)
How is religion portrayed in explanation
critically (from without) search for bilabial and psychological causes
what does description tend to do
Classical sources tend to essentialism religion =”Feeling “,”Intuition “,”Imagination”
what does explanation tend to do
Classical and contemporary sources tend to reductionism: religion = nothing but a desire to satisfy certain biological drives
What approach does Sigmund Freud use
Philosophical approach[classical]
What did freud focus on
Ontogeny
what is Ontogeny
Ontogeny refers to a focus in psychology concerned with the development of the individual (e.g., the Oedipus complex)
according to freud, I religion illusory or delusory
illusory
according to freud Religion is illusory (not delusory) wish fulfillment grounded in what
the Oedipus complex
what is the Oedipus complex
a crucial pattern of object relations when a child experiences sexual desire toward a parent of the opposite sex and jealousy and rage toward all rivals, especially the parent of the same sex
(father is the main parent talked about)
according to freud, how does religion come into one’s life
As a child negotiates feelings of rage toward the parent of the opposite sex as indispensable, he or she longs for their protection and comes to reverence the rival that initially inspired rage. This reverence and “longing for the father comes to constitute the root of every religion”.
how does freud explain social organization and religion and its ethical restrictions
through phylogeny
what does freud say about the phylogeny
OedipusComplex(thedesiretoeliminatethefatherandwishtopossess the mother) restates at an individual level what anthropologists were saying occurred at a social level in primeval times: a fateful patricide!
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The father of the primal horde, a despot of epic proportions, seized all women for himself. Viewing his sons as dangerous rivals, he had some killed and others driven away. The sons banded together to overwhelm, kill, and devour their father. Although an enemy, their father had also become the sons’ ideal. After their patricide, the sons were unable to take over their heritage because they stood in each others’ way. On account of this failure and remorse they came to an agreement to band together in a clan which aimed to prevent the repetition of patricide and jointly aimed to forgo the possession of the woman on whose account they killed their father. As a result they took foreign women as wives (origin of exogamy) and commemorated their fearful deed in a festival which included a sacred meal, a practice from which sprang the sense of guilt. This for Freud explains simultaneously the social organization of religion and its ethical restrictions.
what is Phylogeny
refers to a focus in psychology concerned with the development of a civilization (e.g., Freud’s theory of the evolution of religion). It often recapitulates ontogeny
give an overview of Phylogeny
The future of an illusion: religion as wish fulfillment is an infantile manner of coping with nature’s overwhelming hardships. As in the Oedipus complex, humans come to recognize an omnipotent and omnibenevolent father figure who provides (1) shelter from life’s hardships and (2) a sense of purpose in an otherwise indifferent universe
• The future of such an illusion will become destitute on account of the increasing influence of the more excellent procedures of science and reason, which aid humankind in an honest quest toward maturity, i.e., from illusion to reality
Problems with Freud include what
his Victorian interpretations of human sexuality, his grand theorizing about religion and civilization, his explanatory reductionism, and his overly exuberant appreciation of science
historical significante of freud is what
Historical significance: the unconscious influence in daily human life: the individual unconscious, with its matrix of repressive thoughts and feelings, is more fundamental and powerful than conscious, rational deliberation
what approach did Carl G. Jung take
Psychological Approaches
Jung took issue with who
Freud
Jung took issue with Freud, augmenting what
Freud’s personal unconscious with the collective unconscious: a deeper layer of the unconscious
what is the collective unconscious
The collective unconscious is the repository of “archetypes”
what are archetypes
The archetypes encapsulate certain forms of experience (the shadow, the animus/anima, the self, etc.).
what did jung say about religions
contain a wealth of symbolic ideas and images that correspond with archetypes in the collective unconscious
what did jung say about the collective unconscious
The collective unconscious provides clues, via these universally experienced archetypes, to negotiate complexes and personal anxieties
what did jung say about dreams
Our dreams are a kind of crucible of the collective unconscious over which we have no control. For that reason we can pay heed to a deeper layer of consciousness that eludes our ego and what we repress. Paying attention to our dreams and their archetypes helps us to negotiate the psychological tensions in life, both positive and negative, a process Jung calls “individuation.”
what does jung say individuation (the process) is
the psychological tensions in life, both positive and negative
what is the definition of individualization according to jung
Individuation is “a coming together [integration] of the complementary conscious and unconscious aspects of the self” (Rodrigues & Harding, p. 89). Because religious symbols are both ancient and represent archetypes, they help in the process of individuation by providing interpretations of archetypes (the mandala and God, e.g., as archetypes of the Self, psychic wholeness)
freud and jung represent what kind of approaches to the study of religion
explanitory approaches
what is the difference between freud and jung
Freud emphasizes the repressive (“negative”) function of religion
Jung emphasizes the individuating or self-realizing (“positive”) potential of religion
how are both freud and jung explanatory
They’re explanatory in that both wish to explain the presence and/or value of religion in a person’s life exclusively in accordance with Freud’s and Jung’s individual psychologies
is willian james explanitory or descriptive
William James, our next figure, is also explanatory in emphasis, but he manages to be descriptive in his “positive” assessment of religion
what was james interested in
the pathology of religious states, i.e., the physiological, observable symptoms of religious experiences that correlate with psychological processes
James was interested in the pathology of religious states, i.e., the physiological, observable symptoms of religious experiences that correlate with psychological processes; how did he explain religious visions
religious visions = epileptic seizures
James was interested in the pathology of religious states, i.e., the physiological, observable symptoms of religious experiences that correlate with psychological processes how did he explain
religiousself-loathing/melancholy
religious self-loathing/melancholy=auto-intoxication by some organ
James was interested in the pathology of religious states, i.e., the physiological, observable symptoms of religious experiences that correlate with psychological processes how did he explain religious ecstasy
religious ecstasy=delirium
James was interested in the pathology of religious states, i.e., the physiological, observable symptoms of religious experiences that correlate with psychological processes how did he explain demonic possession
demonic possession=hysteria
James was interested in the pathology of religious states, i.e., the physiological, observable symptoms of religious experiences that correlate with psychological processes how did he explain faith healing
faith healing = auto suggestion; etc.
James refers to this kind of emphasis as what
existential (for us: explanatory)
what is meant by james’ “exisential”
an interest in the constitution, origin, and history of a psychological phenomenon.
what did jame think about the explanation approach/what was his explanatory approach
James didn’t see explanation of religion as impinging on the value of religious experience, which he describes as a “spiritual” judgment. Explanation must respect boundaries. Religion must be judged according to the benefits it provides individuals, not on the basis of its various pathologies
what did james think about the descriptive approach/what was his descriptive approach
James’s descriptive approach didn’t wish to convert religious categories into psychoanalytic ones. He proposed a way of serially describing mystical states, dividing them into simple types: “healthy- mindedness” and the “sick soul.”
James is famous for his description of what
four core elements of religious experience
James is famous for his description of four core elements of religious experience (i.e., mysticism)
what are they
Ineffability
Noetic quality
Transiency
Passivity
what is mysticism
mystic consciousness is what he emphasized really,
like having a mystical experience
what is Ineffability
defies expression; must be experienced directly
aka cannot be explained
what is noetic quality
transcendent/revelational/ authoritative knowledge
only you can really understand it
what is transiency
short-lived
what is passivity
loss of sense of self, agency; being grasped by a superior power (“God”) or state of being (true Self/no self/etc)
who has authority of methodological directives (mystic experiences for example) according to james
Methodological directives, which fall in line with the descriptive approach, concerning the truth or authority about such experiences
basically aka religion believers do not have the right to say that others should be having the same experiences as they did
James further evaluates religious experiences in terms of understanding the significance of religious experiences: what does he conclude
to consider their exaggerations and perversions, its equivalents and substitutes and nearest relatives elsewhere. “Not that we may thereby swamp the thing in the wholesale condemnation which we pass on its inferior congeners, but rather that we may by contrast ascertain the more precisely in what its merits consist, by learning at the same time to what particular dangers of corruption it may also be exposed” (James)
