6 midterm (Psychological and Phenomenological Approaches)

Question 1

what is the Anthropology of religion

Answer 1

studies humankind in its religious aspects, especially in terms of culture or development.

Question 2

what is Anthropology of religion preoccupied with

Answer 2

It is preoccupied with a cultural system, its symbolic meanings qua rites and beliefs

Question 3

what is the Sociology of religion

Answer 3

studies the dynamics of religious groups, understanding the influence of religious groups on religious individuals and collective religious behavior

Question 4

what is our theme in tracking the development from Stage 1 to Stage 2 study of religion

Answer 4

From transcendence to immanence

Question 5

what is From transcendence to immanence

Answer 5

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)

Question 6

what has been a central focus in this development

Answer 6

Issues of modernization and secularity

Question 7

Issues of modernization and secularity have been a central focus in this development. It has guided social scientists in what

Answer 7

their interest in religion

Question 8

The academic concern with religion is a preoccupation with what

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

what does Psychology of religion focus on

Answer 9

focuses on the religious individual, her/his experiences and perceptions of religious phenomena

Question 10

what is included in stage 2

Answer 10

social science and history

Question 11

what is included in stage 3

Answer 11

phenomenology

Question 12

In preparation for the move to Stage 3, we look to what

Answer 12

a methodological distinction

Question 13

In preparation for the move to Stage 3, we look to a methodological distinction that led from what

Answer 13

the material- historical emphasis to one of religious meaning qua religious in phenomenology: the distinction between ‘explanation’ and ‘description’

Question 14

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

Answer 14

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’.

Question 15

philosophy of religion is considered what in stage 3

Answer 15

explanatory

Question 16

phenomenology od religion is considered what in stage 3

Answer 16

descriptive

Question 17

However, psychology of religion includes what

Answer 17

both explanatory and descriptive

Question 18

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)

Answer 18

the three principal psychologists outlined in R&H. Phenomenology practices a distinct manner of ‘description’

Question 19

what is included in explanation

Answer 19

Depth-psychological approaches

objective approaces

Question 20

who is involved with Depth-psychological approaches

Answer 20

Sigmund Freud (psychoanalysis)
C.G. Jung (analytical psychology)

Question 21

what is objective approaches

Answer 21

“Cognitive and related ‘hard science’ approaches” (R&H, pp. 99-101)

Question 22

what is included in description

Answer 22

humanistic

Question 23

who is included in humanistic

Answer 23

William James (Serial method)

Question 24

what is included in humanistic

Answer 24

Phenomenologists of religion

Question 25

what does description do

Answer 25

combines emphasis on human experience and religious insight

Question 26

what does explanation so

Answer 26

assumption: religion is other than it appears to be

Question 27

how does description organize data

Answer 27

organizes data related to experience and their religious meanings (symbols)

Question 28

how does explanation organize data

Answer 28

organizes data that elucidates religious expressions according to a material bias

Question 29

what are the classical sources of description

Answer 29

St. Augustine F. Schleiermacher S. Kierkegaar

Question 30

what are the classical sources of explanation

Answer 30

Ancient Greece and rome 18th C philosophers (hume and Rousseau) L. Feuerbach

Question 31

how is religion portrayed in description

Answer 31

sympathetically (from within)

Question 32

How is religion portrayed in explanation

Answer 32

critically (from without) search for bilabial and psychological causes

Question 33

what does description tend to do

Answer 33

Classical sources tend to essentialism religion ="Feeling ","Intuition ","Imagination"

Question 34

what does explanation tend to do

Answer 34

Classical and contemporary sources tend to reductionism: religion = nothing but a desire to satisfy certain biological drives

Question 35

What approach does Sigmund Freud use

Answer 35

Philosophical approach[classical]

Question 36

What did freud focus on

Answer 36

Ontogeny

Question 37

what is Ontogeny

Answer 37

Ontogeny refers to a focus in psychology concerned with the development of the individual (e.g., the Oedipus complex)

Question 38

according to freud, I religion illusory or delusory

Answer 38

illusory

Question 39

according to freud Religion is illusory (not delusory) wish fulfillment grounded in what

Answer 39

the Oedipus complex

Question 40

what is the Oedipus complex

Answer 40

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)

Question 41

according to freud, how does religion come into one's life

Answer 41

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”.

Question 42

how does freud explain social organization and religion and its ethical restrictions

Answer 42

through phylogeny

Question 43

what does freud say about the phylogeny

Answer 43

OedipusComplex(thedesiretoeliminatethefatherandwishtopossess the mother) restates at an individual level what anthropologists were saying occurred at a social level in primeval times: a fateful patricide! – 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.

Question 44

what is Phylogeny

Answer 44

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

Question 45

give an overview of Phylogeny

Answer 45

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

Question 46

Problems with Freud include what

Answer 46

his Victorian interpretations of human sexuality, his grand theorizing about religion and civilization, his explanatory reductionism, and his overly exuberant appreciation of science

Question 47

historical significante of freud is what

Answer 47

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

Question 48

what approach did Carl G. Jung take

Answer 48

Psychological Approaches

Question 49

Jung took issue with who

Answer 49

Freud

Question 50

Jung took issue with Freud, augmenting what

Answer 50

Freud’s personal unconscious with the collective unconscious: a deeper layer of the unconscious

Question 51

what is the collective unconscious

Answer 51

The collective unconscious is the repository of “archetypes”

Question 52

what are archetypes

Answer 52

The archetypes encapsulate certain forms of experience (the shadow, the animus/anima, the self, etc.).

Question 53

what did jung say about religions

Answer 53

contain a wealth of symbolic ideas and images that correspond with archetypes in the collective unconscious

Question 54

what did jung say about the collective unconscious

Answer 54

The collective unconscious provides clues, via these universally experienced archetypes, to negotiate complexes and personal anxieties

Question 55

what did jung say about dreams

Answer 55

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.”

Question 56

what does jung say individuation (the process) is

Answer 56

the psychological tensions in life, both positive and negative

Question 57

what is the definition of individualization according to jung

Answer 57

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)

Question 58

freud and jung represent what kind of approaches to the study of religion

Answer 58

explanitory approaches

Question 59

what is the difference between freud and jung

Answer 59

Freud emphasizes the repressive (“negative”) function of religion Jung emphasizes the individuating or self-realizing (“positive”) potential of religion

Question 60

how are both freud and jung explanatory

Answer 60

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

Question 61

is willian james explanitory or descriptive

Answer 61

William James, our next figure, is also explanatory in emphasis, but he manages to be descriptive in his “positive” assessment of religion

Question 62

what was james interested in

Answer 62

the pathology of religious states, i.e., the physiological, observable symptoms of religious experiences that correlate with psychological processes

Question 63

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

Answer 63

religious visions = epileptic seizures

Question 64

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

Answer 64

religious self-loathing/melancholy=auto-intoxication by some organ

Question 65

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

Answer 65

religious ecstasy=delirium

Question 66

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

Answer 66

demonic possession=hysteria

Question 67

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

Answer 67

faith healing = auto suggestion; etc.

Question 68

James refers to this kind of emphasis as what

Answer 68

existential (for us: explanatory)

Question 69

what is meant by james' "exisential"

Answer 69

an interest in the constitution, origin, and history of a psychological phenomenon.

Question 70

what did jame think about the explanation approach/what was his explanatory approach

Answer 70

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

Question 71

what did james think about the descriptive approach/what was his descriptive approach

Answer 71

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.”

Question 72

James is famous for his description of what

Answer 72

four core elements of religious experience

Question 73

James is famous for his description of four core elements of religious experience (i.e., mysticism) what are they

Answer 73

Ineffability Noetic quality Transiency Passivity

Question 74

what is mysticism

Answer 74

mystic consciousness is what he emphasized really, | like having a mystical experience

Question 75

what is Ineffability

Answer 75

defies expression; must be experienced directly aka cannot be explained

Question 76

what is noetic quality

Answer 76

transcendent/revelational/ authoritative knowledge only you can really understand it

Question 77

what is transiency

Answer 77

short-lived

Question 78

what is passivity

Answer 78

loss of sense of self, agency; being grasped by a superior power ("God") or state of being (true Self/no self/etc)

Question 79

who has authority of methodological directives (mystic experiences for example) according to james

Answer 79

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

Question 80

James further evaluates religious experiences in terms of understanding the significance of religious experiences: what does he conclude

Answer 80

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)