Potier ch3

Question 0

Does Portier think the Puritan or enlightenment perspective is more dominant in American culture today?

Answer 0

Enlightenment- he sees our culture as being too individualistic

Question 1

Why do puritan and enlightenment traditions support separation of church and state?

Answer 1

Puritans experienced religious persecution in Europe and wanted to ensure that they would not experience the same persecution in america.
Enlightenment was a movement for political emancipation of individuals from various forms of traditional authority.

Question 2

Why does Portier think that enlightenment ideals lead to privatization, separation of religion from daily life, over emphasis on individual belief?

Answer 2

Enlightenment ideals view religion as being voluntary, not essential. Therefor they also see the public and communal dimensions of traditional religions as problematic and unnecessary.
Enlightenment was a movement for the political emancipation of individual from traditional authority.

Question 3

What are the five stages of encounter with the sacred which Portier describes?

Answer 3

1. Ordinary person in ordinary place and time
2. Sacred appears
3. Sacred evokes worship
4. Sacred involves a calling
5. Return to the ordinary

Question 4

What are the “analogical” and “dialectical” approaches to religion?

Answer 4

Dialectical is an approach to religious experience with emphasis on the difference between the sacred and the profane or god and creation.

Analogical is an approach to religious experience with emphasis on the continuity between the sacred and profane.

Question 5

Identify 3 aspects of modernity/enlightenment thought which Barron or Portier criticize.

Answer 5

Reason
Individualism
Anti-Traditionalism