Chapter 7 Final Flashcards
Magic
Ways in which a person can compel the supernatural to behave in certain ways.
Magician
A practitioner who specializes in controlling the supernatural through magic.
Sorcerer
A magician who specializes in antisocial, evil magic
Spell
The words that are spoken in a magic ritual.
Law of Sympathy:
Magic depends on the apparent association or agreement between things.
Law of Similarity
Things that are alike are the same
Law of Contagion
Things that were once in contact continue to be in contact after the physical connection is severed.
Homeopathic or imitative magic
Magic that is based on the Law of Similarity.
Contagious magic
Magic that is based on the Law of Contagion, utilizing things that were once in physical contact with an individual.
Image magic
A form of homeopathic magic in which an image represents a living person, which can be killed or injured through doing things to the image.
Increase rite
A type of ritual whose purpose is to aid the survival and reproduction of a totemic plant or animal.
Doctrine of signatures
Belief that physical structures found in nature, such as the shape of a
plant, are indicative (or signatures) of their potential use in healing.
Sorcery
Compelling the supernatural to behave in certain ways, usually with evil intent.
Neo-Paganism
A revival of pre-Christian religious practice.
Divination
Supernaturally based techniques for obtaining information about things unknown, including events that will occur in the future.
Inspirational divination:
A type of divination that involves a spiritual experience, such as a direct
contact with a supernatural being through an altered state of consciousness.
Noninspirational or artificial divination:
Forms of divination that are performed without the direct involvement of supernatural beings.
Natural or emotive divination
Inspirational divination.
Oracle
A specific device that is used for divination.
Fortuitous divination
Divination that simply occurs without any conscious effort.
Deliberate divination
Divination that someone sets out to do
Oneiromancy
Interpretation of dreams.
Presentiment
A feelings that a person may have.
Necromancy
: Divination through contact with ancestors or the dead
Omen
A fortuitous happening or condition that provides information.
Astrology
The belief that all of the stars, planets, as well as the sun and moon influence the destiny of people and that the sky can be used as a divination technique.
Dowsing
Method of divination whereby water and other underground resources are located by use of a forked stick.
Graphology
Divination through handwriting analysis.
Palmistry
Divination through the reading of the lines of the palm of the hand.
Phrenology
Divination through the study of the shape and structure of the head
Tasseography
Divination through the reading of tea leaves.
Possession
An altered state of consciousness that is interpreted as a deity taking control of a person’s body.
Prophecy
Divination through the communication of a prophet.
Medium
A practitioner who intentionally communicates with the supernatural to find information.
Ordeal
A trial by divination that is performed on the body of the accused person to determine guilt or innocence.
Ernest Troeltsch
- Church, sect, mysticism
* Accommodation and Resistance/Compromise
Troeltsch’s ‘church’
o Essentially conservative o Accommodated to secular society o Membership not exclusive o Objective, institutional character • Builds up institutional lives (priests, schools) • Related to education, politics and military o Born into it o Mediates the divine to members
Troeltsch’s ‘sect’
o Exclusive o Apart from society o Members aspire o Subordinate classes • Less layered, more democratic o Voluntary community • Not born into it, make a decision to go into it o Direct relationships with the divine
Troeltsch’s ‘mysticism’
o Not organized – but still had charismatic leadership (could be called a ‘cult’ now)
o Exists within other collectives
o Hostile to religious formalism
o Individual, spiritual, aesthetic, idealistic
o Uninterested in changing either the Church or the world
The denomination
o H. Richard Neibuhr
• Denomination: a particular kind of sacred community – HRN
Not having as much power, dimension or history as Weber’s church
o Not dominant in society HRN: Sect to Church
• What a sect moved too towards a routinization of charisma after a few generations
Shared space with other religions in society with minimal tension
o Upward social mobility
• Lacks the ability or the intentionality to dominate society
• Remembers its originality as a sect, but it has since mellowed down
o Social integration
o Routinzation of charisma, bureaucratization
• Clergy class, and those people are formally educated to be leaders of this particular sect
Becker, 1932: Four Types - Ecclesia
o The religious worldview in a homogenous society, people born into it, Durkheim’s ‘tribe’ on a larger scale. Formal organization, highly specialized, clergy, membership based on birth rather than socialization or conversion. Today we would refer to this phenomenon as Theocracy
• The state religion – may or may not be officially the state religion
What we CAN say is that if we have a nation state and a religion; the members of each (the nation state and the religion) are about the same
• So we can compare what was going on in Quebec before the silent revolution to the Medieval Church
Becker, 1932: Four Types - Denomination
o Characterized by social stratification, tend to be ethnically, culturally homogenous, also in terms of socioeconomic class
o Birth, socialization
o Degree of formal worship, standardization of ritual
o Tolerant, cooperate re: other religious
o Middle and upper SES
Becker, 1932: Four Types - Sect
o Characterized by charismatic leadership, breakaway from a single source
o Protest, resistance, opposition, refusal to compromise
o Informal liturgy, emotional
o Lay leadership, de-emphasis of organization
o Small-scale
o Conversion-based
o Lower socioeconomic strata
Becker, 1932: Four Types - Cult
o Also characterized by charismatic leadership, draws in followers from numerous sources
Yinger, 1946, 1969, 1970
• The established sect
o The sect may go a number of ways
• May not become a denomination
• May become a religion (i.e. Mormonism)
• May be more related to an ethical idea (i.e. gender roles or abolition)
• May be more related to an idea about salvation or a scriptural idea
• May have more to do with an idea of society
• Sub-types of sect
Becker & Yinger (COMBINED DEFINITIONS) - • Ecclesia
o Membership = society o Sense of religious monopoly o Close alliance with secular power o Formal organization o Officially designated with clergy o Birth and socialization
Becker & Yinger (COMBINED DEFINITIONS) • Denomination
o “class church” or “ethnic church” → more of a North American concept
o compromise, accommodation
o birth socialization
o degree of formal worship, standardization of ritual
• not as much as the ecclesia
o tolerant, cooperative (i.e. in regards to other religions)
o middle and upper SES (socioeconomic strata – class)
Becker & Yinger (COMBINED DEFINITIONS) - • Sect
o Protest, resistance o Opposition, refusal to compromise o Informal liturgy, emotional o Lay leadership o De-emphasis of organization o Small scale – generation or two o Conversion o Lower socioeconomic strata
