Final Flashcards
What is Religion?
Religion > Religio (Latin)
(1) Religio > Relega[e]re > Re-tracing the Customs of our ancestors (Cicero)
(2) Religio > Religare > Re-linking or re-binding the relationship between humanity and God (Lactantius)
Religion and Theology
The academic study of religion is “an anthropological enterprise”
The study of religion is not confessional
The study of religion does not make “normative judgments”
The study of religion originated as the comparative religion
The study of religion recognizes “religious” beliefs, behaviors, and institutions as observable, historical events and phenomena
Religions include…
Practices (Rituals) Beliefs (Faith) (usually about a deity) Texts (Scriptures) Sacred Places (Pilgrimage) Ethics (behavior) Social Groups (communities)
The Comparative Method
Identify both Similarity and Difference(s)
Requires a “point” of comparison (in relation to what?)
(1) respect for all religious facts as “phenomena”
(2) synthesizing facts through the analysis of patterns
(3) religious expressions understood in their historical/cultural contexts
The Problem of Primitivism
The fallacy of an evolutionary development of religion
Animism
The belief in spirits & the idea that there is a non-physical, invisible, or transcendent realm of “spirits” or “gods” that parallels, sometimes intersects, influences this world and can be accessed
Shamanism
The term “shaman” originally referred to ritual specialists among Siberian hunting tribes
Appropriated by Western intellectuals, cultural anthropologists, and scholars of religion as a cross-cultural “type” of “primitive” religious specialist
“Shamans” are said to communicate with spirits, prophesize, heal, find lost objects, manifest non-ordinary powers, and travel to the spirit world
An “outsider” term of categorization (not used by tribal practitioners)
Mysticism
A cross-cultural category in the study of religion
Generally refers to individuals who (are thought or claimed to) have had direct experience of the divine, union with God, or transcendent Reality
Sacrifice
Sacrifice as ancient Religio (ancestral customs)
Sacrifice (sacrificium) = “to make sacred” (by offering)
Sacrifice as Reciprocity (gift-giving)
Sacrifice as Sacred Meals (shared with [the] god(s))
Sacrifice as economic institution benefiting a priestly class of elites
Sacrificial (Biblical) “Burnt Offerings”:
Unblemished male first-born animals, incense, grain, wine, oil
Sacrifice for Prayer, Thanksgiving, Purification, and Atonement
Martyrdom as self-sacrifice
Insiders and Outsiders
Emic = insider/descriptive term(s) Etic = outsider/analytical term(s)
Indigenous Religion[s]
Defined by location, kinship, and language
Location: a place where people “belong”
Kinship refers to family, community relations, as well as the role(s) of ancestor spirits
Indigenous Rites
Rites of Birth, Puberty, Courtship, Marriage, Death, and Mourning
- Boys’ Puberty Ceremony: ritual death and rebirth as a man with sacred knowledge and acquiring a “guardian spirit”
-Girls’ Puberty Ceremony: preparation for roles as wives, mothers through ritual seclusion and purification
Seasonal Rituals
-Summer and Winter Solstice
-Harvest Celebration
-Annual Mourning [of the dead])
The Eagle Rite
-a sequence of rituals in which an eagle was ceremonially sacrificed and its feathers used to make a ceremonial skirt worn by shamans
Catholicism
Papacy Catholic Sacraments Penance and “Indulgences” Bible + Apocrypha Scripture and Tradition Papal Infallibility (1860) The Immaculate Conception of Mary The Assumption of Mary The Cult of the Saints
Protestantism
No Papacy Baptism and Eucharist Criticism of “Indulgences” Bible (- Apocrypha) Sola Scriptura Biblical Inerrancy (1978) No Mary cult No Assumption of Mary No Cult of the Saints
Tongva
Indigenous Ethno-religious Animism Shamanistic Ritualistic Land as “mother” Hunting/Gathering No “original sin” No Devil/Hell
What is “Evangelicalism?”
Trans-denominational Protestant Christian movement(s) intent on “sharing the Gospel”
Based on the Greek word for “Gospel” (“good news”)
Major Characteristics:
(1) Born again: conversion experience
(2) Biblicism: high regard for biblical authority, inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility
(3) Cross-centered: focus on the substitutionary atoning death of Jesus “for our sins”
(4) Activism: missionary outreach
The Rise of Fundamentalism
Protestant movement in reaction to “liberal” theology, biblical (“higher”) criticism, and scientific (Darwinian) naturalism (atheism)
The Fundamentals
(1) the infallibility of scripture;
(2) the virgin birth of Jesus;
(3) atonement theology;
(4) the bodily resurrection of Jesus;
(5) the historicity of the miracles of Jesus
the deity (divinity) of Jesus;
the Second Coming
Pentecostalism: Historical Origins
The Azusa Street Revival
1900: Charles Fox Parham begins “speaking in tongues”
1906-1915: William J. Seymour begins meetings;
testimonials of healing miracles and “speaking in tongues”
1906 - Seymour arrives in Los Angeles to preach at her church & soon relocate to a private home on North Bonnie Brae Street, and then move to 312 Azusa Street in downtown LA
People of all races and genders assume roles as leaders
Meetings are frequent & spontaneous
Miracles are reported (miracles, “tongues”)
Pentecostalism Beliefs and Practices
A revival movement within Protestant Christianity
“Born again” (receiving the grace of God)
Being adopted into the family of God
Initiating the process of sanctification (a Spirit-filled life)
Direct personal experience of God through baptism w/HS
Speaking in tongues as evidence of being “received” HS
Encountering the Other
Religious Domination - invalidation of an other religion (as false, inferior, and/or superstitious) and imposition of “true” religion
Religious Isolation - segregation of religious groups in mutual isolation
Religious Toleration - secular acknowledgement of religious diversity, often described as a “melting pot” which strives to diminish cultural distinctions
Religious Perennialism - religious affirmation of all religious traditions as similar paths to the same “goal” (but too often denies difference)
Religious Pluralism - social and religious equality across and between traditions
Politics of the Spirit
A USC/UCSB-led report on religion in LA following the Rodney King trial/uprising (April, 1992)
Studied efforts toward achieving “peaceful co-existence” and “multiethnic justice”
Combating inner city powerlessness and racism
“A theological coming-together of religious communities around liberationist themes”
Promotes the use of media to “counteract the fragmentation of the city”
Regional inter-cultural coalitions
Religion as resource for civic harmony
What/Who is a Jew?
The Patriarch Judah
The Land of Judah = Judea
The Ancestral Customs (Religio) of Judea = Judaism
A Judean: one who practices the religion of Judea
Judean > Jew > “(The) Jews”
A Jew = an Ethnos = A People
The People of Judea = Ethnographic definition
Haskalah: The Jewish Enlightenment
An intellectual movement in Europe (1770s)
To preserve collective Jewish identity and regenerate its cultural and ethical foundations
To reform education, culture, and political life through integration (not assimilation)
To promote nationalism, the revived use of Hebrew as a literary language, free thought
Positive evaluation of secular education; changes in language, manners, and dress; relaxed religious observance
Prioritized the rational in religion
Haskalah: The Effects
Secular Judaism
Jewish emancipation
Struggle for equal rights in European society
The challenge(s) of assimilation/integration
Jewish political movements (Socialism/Marxism)
Jewish Nationalism (Zionism)
Denominations
Three Branches of Judaism
Orthodox
-Jews who rejected Reform, but still saw value in embracing some aspects of Haskalah, developed Modern Orthodox Judaism (and so sought to preserve and perpetuate rabbinical tradition)
-Orthodox Jews who opposed Haskalah became Haredi Jews (more isolationist, less secular, ambivalent about the state of Israel) (“Ultra-Orthodox” Judaism)
Conservative
-Reform Jews thought the movement went too far created Conservative Judaism
Reform
-Jews who embraced Haskalah developed Reform Judaism (seeing the Torah’s halakhic rules as non-binding in the modern context)
Orthodox Judaism
A conservative reaction to Reform Judaism
Meticulous observance of Jewish laws and customs
Mandates a single path (deviation is transgression)
Judaism invented by Abraham
Orthodox Judaism is Judaism
Torah is binding
Kabbalah is part of Orthodox Judaism (and rejects the “trendy” non-Jewish form)
Torah is divinely inspired
The Jews are the “Chosen People” (they chose the Torah)
Orthodox Judaism
A conservative reaction to Reform Judaism
Meticulous observance of Jewish laws and customs
Mandates a single path (deviation is transgression)
Judaism invented by Abraham
Orthodox Judaism is Judaism
Torah is binding
Torah is divinely inspired
The Jews are the “Chosen People” (they chose the Torah)
Orthodox
Torah is binding
Torah written by Moses
Supernatural revelation
Only men rabbis
Reform
Torah is not binding
Torah written by many human authors
Revelation as myth
Women can be rabbis
Jewish Law (Halakhah) (“The Way one walks”)
Torah Commandments (Mitzvot)
Rabbinical Law (Mishnah and Talmud)
Customary observances
Teffilin
Jewish male practice commanded in Torah
The passages include the Shema
Black leather boxes bound to the bicep facing the heart and to the forehead between the eyes (of Jewish males) that contain passages from books of Moses
Worn during prayer in the a.m.
Symbolizes binding the arm, behavior, and intellect to scripture, tradition, and God
The Structure of Religious Experience(according to William James)
The “healthy-minded” tend to ignore the evil in the world and focus on the positive and optimistic
(2) The “sick-souled” are unable to ignore evil and suffering and tends toward the pessimistic
The “Divided Self”: the experience of inner struggle that shifts the “center” of one’s self, and produces the experience of a sense of “higher control,” release from anxiety, and deep intuitive feelings that all is well
The structure of “religious experience” is a two-part sequence of repairing the self, and restoring divided being to wholeness
Mystical Experience
Mystical states of consciousness are marked by four characteristics: “ineffability” (beyond words) “noetic quality” (direct knowing) “transiency” (fleeting) “passivity” (unsolicited)
Muhammad and Islam
Islam = the peace that comes to the one who surrenders to the will of God
Qur’an = “Recitation” (revelations received by Muhammad
Hadith = the (secondary) oral teachings of Muhammad
The Five Pillars
Shahada = profession of faith (“there is no god but God and Muhammad is the Prophet/Messenger”) Salah = Prayer (5x a day) Sawm = Fasting Haj = Pilgrimage (Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem) Zakat = Charity Jihad = “Struggle” (Greater Jihad/Lesser Jihad)
The People of the Book“Abrahamic Similarities”
Monotheism Abrahamic lineage(s) Apocalypticism Angels and Demons Heaven and Hell End-Time Judgment Covenants Prophets Sacred texts
Sufi(sm)
Islamic Mysticism
Predominantly Sunni Muslims
Observant of Islamic law (sharia)
Striving for “perfection” of worship: “to worship Allah as if you see Him” (hadith)
Ascetic practices intensifying devotion (and loyalty to Muhammad)
Organized as Sufi “orders” (tariqa)
Popularly known as “whirling dervishes” (meditation and transcendence)
Remembrance of God
Sanathana Dharma The Eternal Religion
Brahman (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva)
God as Creator, Preserver, Destroyer
The Atma (“soul”)
Karma and Reincarnation Yoga: The Art and Science of Union Jnana (“knowledge”) Bhakti (“devotion”) Karma (“action”) Ahimsa: Nonviolence/Non-Injury Moksha: Enlightenment and Liberation
Avatar: the incarnation(s) of Vishnu (Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu)
The Way of the Buddha
Siddharta Gautama, a sixth century BCE Hindu prince who renounced his family to seek Enlightenment
“The Middle Way” between asceticism and the worldly life of pleasure
Rejected the caste system, the authority of the Vedas, the sacrificial rites of the Brahmins, and promoted equality
Bodhisattva: a Mahayana tradition affirming the re-birth of beings who help others reach Enlightenment
The Four Noble Truths
(1) Dukkha, the unsatisfying impermanence of things (“suffering”)
(2) samsara: the cycle of (re)birth and death caused by attachment/craving after temporary impermanence, which produces karma;
(3) nirvana: the goal of liberation from the cycle of birth and death by extinguishing attachments and cravings;
(4) Eightfold Path as liberation (moksha)
Refuge in the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha
The Eightfold Path
Right View: the existence of an afterlife; the existence of the Path
Right Intention: commitment to renounce attachments for the Path
Right Speech: no lying, rude speech
Right Action: killing, stealing,
Right Livelihood: not causing suffering or harm
Right Effort: guarding against sensual thoughts
Right Mindfulness: awareness
Right Concentration: correct meditation and concentration leading to samadhi (absorption
The Way of the Jain
“Jainism”: from “ji” (“to conquer”)(Neo-)Hinduisms in Los Angeles
Moksha:
liberation as elimination of all negative karma accrued from past lives
Ahimsa:
avoiding injury, harm, or violence to any living being (in thought, speech, or action)
Karma:
the belief that every action (cause) produces an effect and the mechanism that influences the quality of one’s present life
Reincarnation:
the belief that one’s soul is reborn into new physical bodies
(Neo-)Hinduisms in Los Angeles
The Vedanta Society
Self-Realization Fellowship
International Society of Krishna Consciousness
Amma
East meets West
Western fascination with the “Mystic East”
India: home of ancient wisdom and philosophy
Indian gurus claim to be “sent” to the West to teach non-Asians about yoga
Neo-Hindu movements are largely comprised of non-Asians and strive to combine and reconcile science, Christianity, and Hindu teachings
Krishna meets Christ
Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi (1946) was “sent” to the US by his guru to offer the teachings of kriya yoga to the West
Establishes his headquarters in LA (1925)
“To reveal the … oneness of original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ and original Yoga as taught by Krishna . . . these principles of truth are the common scientific foundation of all true religions”
To “point” to the “highway of daily, scientific, devotional meditation on God”
To “unite science and religion through realization of the unity of their underlying principles”
To “advocate cultural and spiritual understanding between East and West
ISKCON
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Founded by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada - 1967
Based on the teachings of Chaitanya (1486-1534) who taught the Hare Krishna mantra as the simplest and fastest means to spiritual liberation in the Kali Yuga
Bhakti Yoga:
devotional worship of Krishna as avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu
A universal means of direct experiential union with God
Bhakti as one of the three paths to God
Bhakti as a relatively dualist philosophy of union
New Religious Movements
recent groups with clear boundaries of insider/insider, organized around a charismatic central figure
Neo-Paganism
(20th century movements that look back to an earlier, pre-Christian “pagan” past now being rediscovered and revived as Wiccan/Druidic/shamanic rites and practices that intersect with magic
New Age Spirituality
(diverse beliefs and practices, looking forward to a new age and a coming era), with “spirituality” as individualistic, non-institutionalized approach to divine
Esotericism —> New Age
Modern Esotericism (from Greek esoteros, i.e., “inner/hidden”)
(1) Cosmic Correspondences “As above, so below” (2) Living Nature Animism, pantheism, panentheism, Gaia (3) Intermediary Entities An emanationist “Hierarchy” (4) Experiential Transmutation Techniques designed to transform the world and the self
NRMs - not “cults”
Cult > cultus (Latin, originally referred to the “care” of a deity residing in a temple)
In the 1960s/70s becomes a negative, pejorative term to denigrate NRMs in the US
Fears of brainwashing and mind-control
The term “cult” can justify aggressive and violent responses from authorities
NRMS as religions that (1) appeal to a transcendent source of authority; (2) w/ a set of beliefs & doctrines; (3) practices & rituals; & form (4) a collective organization
The Church of ScientologyHistorical Origins
L. Ron Hubbard publishes Dianetics (a “new science of the mind”) as a self-help therapy in Astounding Science Fiction (1950)
Negative experiences are stored in the reactive mind as “engrams” and cause physical-psychological problems
These “engrams” can be removed by an “auditor”who guides an individual into reliving these experiences and “clears” them from the reactive mind
Scientology Church-History
After the failure and bankruptcy of the Dianetics movement (1952), Hubbard declares the birth of a new “religion”
Hubbard introduces the concept of the “thetan” (the immortal spiritual self) and the belief in past lives and reincarnation (and on other planets!)
The Operating Thetan (OT): the true spiritual nature of humanity
OT level III: 75,000,000 years ago, a Galactic Confederacy of 76 planets ruled by a dictator named Xenu brought billions of people to Earth and sought to destroy them, but the “thetans” of these people survived and now adhere to us (!): we have “extra-body thetans” in our souls/bodies
The “Powers” of the Clear
Telepathy Clairvoyance Healing “Remote Viewing” Astral Travel
Neo-Gnosticism
A modern attempt to reconstruct “Gnosticism” - as an “early” and “alternative” Christianity by borrowing from and imitating Catholic rituals
Ancient Gnosticism rejected the incarnation and atoning death of Jesus & taught that salvation came through gnosis (knowledge), especially the “knowledge” that the biblical god Yahweh is not the true God
Ancient and Neo-Gnostics may believe in a docetic Jesus - a Jesus that only appears to be human, suffer, and die)
Modern Neo-Gnostics tend to reject traditional religious authority and hold “heretical” ideas condemned by the Church
Goddess-Worship
Neo-Paganism
The earth as female “Goddess” (Gaia)
Personification of Earth as Mother
Animation of Nature
The female body as authority - the “divine female principle”
Goddess-worship as pre-patriarchy (“the “root of all religions”) and egalitarian
Earth-abuse related to environmental collapse, domestic abuse, animal abuse, and religious violence
Indirect relationships to Wicca, “Witchcraft,” Magic, Paganism, Druids
Carlos Castenda: Re-Enter the Shaman
Carlos Casteneda, UCLA student, Ph.D., Anthropology, 1973
The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, based on “fieldwork” with a Yaqui sorcerer or brujo named Don Juan Matus from Sonora, Mexico (1960-65)
Major influence on countercultural 1960s/New Age movement
Major influence on validating the legitimacy of Indigenous spirituality for non-Natives
Fascination with shamanism, peyote, hallucinogens, and occult powers,
Inspired a “genre” of books dedicated to profiling Native shamans
The popularity of pan-Indian spirituality ultimately led to its commodification, cultural appropriation, and exploitation
The Jesus People/Movement
Evangelical Christian phenomenon (late 60s)
Originating within & reacting to counterculture
Called “Jesus freaks” by non-Christian hippies
“Restorationist”: returning to early Christian origins through simple living, communes, and affirming the “gifts of the (Holy) Spirit”
Evangelicalism and youth culture working together
Influenced publicly and politically-engaged Evangelical Christianity in the 1980s
Jesus-People
Countercultural Born-Again/Baptismal Transformations Sociological repair Charismatic experiences Apocalyptic Literalist, Premillennial, Dispensationalist Restorationist-Communal Ideals “Come As You Are” (to Christ) Adoption of Pop(ular) Culture
Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy (1944)
“The metaphysic which recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality; the ethic that places man’s final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being.”
The Perennial Problem
Different religions conceptualized as different paths up the same mountain or different spokes on a single wheel
A “universal” essence to all religions
Problems:
Over-simplifies complex religious data
Undermines exclusive truth-claims
Affirms Western/Christian assumptions of what religion is (universal, faith-centered, literary)
Affirms vague concepts of what is common
New Age
New Religious Movements Alternative Healing Methods Mind-Body studies ESP, Near-Death Experiences, Telekinesis Past-Life Regression Therapy Channeling Ancient Lost Civilizations Crystals & Astrology UFOs and Conspiracy Theories Neo-Shamanism Neo-Paganism Goddess-Worship
Why is the New Age attractive?
New “Scriptures” “Revelations” of secret traditions “Suppressed” wisdom/groups New communities with similar beliefs Challenges traditional religious beliefs “Corrects” errors Insights from Eastern religions Non-exclusive and eclectic Provides alternatives to lost traditional religious authority
New Thought
In 1838, Phineas P. Quimby conducts experiments with people in a trance who then allegedly healed themselves of various disorders, and concludes that Beliefs cure . . . . and cause illness
Thought creates reality positive thoughts create positive reality
“Spiritual, But Not Religious”
The “Unchurched” (those unaffiliated with traditional religious groups)
Secular Humanists (15%) Ambiguously Religious (10%) “Spiritual, but not Religious” (21%)
The New Thought philosophy:
The power of the living soul
Mind over matter
Human ignorance over human sin
Jesus as the (non-unique) Teacher
Mind-control can provide health &
abundance
Metaphysical self-helpSpirituality
lifestyles and practices based on the idea that:
The visible world is part of a spiritual universe;
relationship with this unseen world is our highest goal and purpose.
Characteristics
Dissatisfaction with “organized” religion
Interest in personal religious experience
Curiosity & intellectual freedom
Pursues spiritual issues outside the context of a formal religious organization or institution
Secular thought & spiritual impulses
Personal and spiritual development
Life as a “spiritual journey”
Exploring the pantheistic “universe”
“Religion” as a fluid relationship to the divine
College-educated, white-collar, liberal
Religious Objections
Biblical authority Unique divinity of Jesus Original Sin as Rebellion Eclectic and superficial Cafeteria-style religion Narcissistic self-obsession Individualistic Disregard for the tragedy of life Rejection biblical “evil” Magical thinking
Critical Responses to Religious Objections
Many religious people are narcissistic and invested in their own salvation and appeal to God for their own personal interests Many religious people are not (necessarily) seekers who have investigated “truth” and may be more superficial than the SBNR Many religious people affirm middle-class American culture (as a compromise) Many religious people maintain unrealistic approaches to solving life’s problems with magical thinking
Critical Responses to Religious Objections
Many religious people are narcissistic and invested in their own salvation and appeal to God for their own personal interests
Many religious people are not (necessarily) seekers who have investigated “truth” and may be more superficial than the SBNR
Many religious people affirm middle-class American culture (as a compromise)
Many religious people maintain unrealistic approaches to solving life’s problems with magical thinking
“Mature Religious Faith”
Gordon Allport, prof. of personality theory at Yale
differentiation: (affirming the role of reason & choice)
dynamism: (ability to modify)
comprehensive integration (not “compartmentalizing” faith & life)
heurism: (knowledge derived from empirica experience
Relativity
no final revelations; revelations are ongoing
Post-Religious
engages the religious past only “to move beyond it”
Eclectic
blending yoga, science, psychology, and the natural world into a visionary u-topia of a New Agd
Human Potential
affirming the idea of the “divine human” and individual experience of the divine
Kabbalah
is part of Orthodox Judaism (and rejects the “trendy” non-Jewish form)
