Understanding religion Flashcards
Religions manifest which eight possible elements?
Belief system
Community
Central myths
Ritual
Ethics
Characteristic emotional experiences
Material expression
Sacredness
The belief that all is divine is called?
Pantheism
______ argues that the existence of God cannot be proven
Agnosticism
This anthropologist believed that religion was rooted in spirit worship
E.B Tylor
_______ theorized that belief in God or gods arises from the long-lasting impressions made on people by their childhood experiences
Sigmund Freud
________ argued that religions emerge when people experience that aspect of reality that is essentially mysterious
Rudolf Otto
______ believed that religion was a noble human response to the complexity and depth of reality
Carl Gustav Jung
Religions express truth_______.
Symbolically
In early religions, the most significant female deity was associated with_______ and has been known as Asherah, Aphrodite, and Freia
Fertility
What does the word religion mean?
The joining of our natural world to the sacred world
Monotheism
Belief in one God
Is god omnipotent? (Total control over the universe)
Yes
Pantheism
Belief that everything in the universe is divine
Atheism
Belief that there are no Gods
Who turned everything into a symbol and all literal meaning was lost?
Joseph Cambell
Nontheism
No position
Why does religion exist?
It serves human needs
How to deal with our mortality
Belonging to a group
Expression
To feel secure in the universe
Who was an art student turned doctor who viewed religion as fulfilling psychological needs, praised its positive influence, and wrote that religion brings “a new zest” to living, provides “an assurance of safety”, and leads to a “harmonious relation with the universe”?
William James
Who thought religion emerged because people felt poor, powerless, and alienated from their work? That it was a symptom of the poverty and inadequacy of modern society? He believed religion would dissolve when society improved.
Karl Marx
Animism
All elements of nature are filled with spirits
What are the patterns among religions?
- Views of the World and Life
- Focus of Beliefs and Practices
- Views of Male and Female
What are the common views of the world and life?
The world is sacred
The universe began by an intelligent Creator who guides the universe according to a cosmic plan
Nature is the realm of evil forces, others believe it is sacred
Time is linear
Human purpose
Words and scripture
Exclusiveness and inclusiveness
What are the common focus of beliefs and practices?
Sacramental orientation (Carrying out rituals)
Prophic orientation (Contact with the sacred is ensured by proper belief)
Mystical orientation (Union with God, nature, the universe, reality)
What are the common views of male and female?
Male imagery and control dominates
The sacred is considered male
What are the methods to approach the study of religion?
- Psychology
- Mythology
- Philosophy
- Theology
- Archeology
- Linguistics and literary theory
The early scientific movement….
Accepted belief in a creator-god, but it rejected belief in miracles. It demanded scientific proof for beliefs
Structuralism
Looks for universal structures that sees human activity as determined by these structures
Post-structuralism
Does not seek to find universal structures, focuses on observing the individual elements in cultural phenomena
Who discovered deconstruction?
Jaques Derrida
What is the phenomenological approach to religious studies?
Emphasizes direct experiential research to gather data. Tries to avoid projecting the researchers beliefs
Do religions oppose science?
No, but they rule over different domains. Science describes the physical world, while religion describes the invisable world of love and moral rules
To say that the study of religion is interdisciplinary means that
Religion scholars draw from many different academic disciplines to understand religion
The theological approach to religion
Takes an “insider’s” approach–a practitioner’s point of view
Has the study of religion changed over time?
Yes
True or false:
The sacred may also be referred to as:
the Ultimate
the Absolute
the Divine
True
Feminist thinkers:
view religion as historically patriarchal
often focus on studies that center on the religious lives of women
critique traditional assumptions about the role of women in religion
all of the above
All of the above
Which scholar argued that religion is an analytical category of our own design?
Sigmund Freud
The “family resemblance” definition of religion means that
Religions must share all of the same traits to be called a religion
Jacques Derrida:
was a counterpart of Sigmund Freud’s
thought that structures in the mind formed similarities across cultures
went beyond ordinary interpretation of texts to discover new cultural meanings
argued that you had to live in the culture that you were studying
went beyond ordinary interpretation of texts to discover new cultural meanings
The phenomenological approach to religion treats the sacred as
a universal fact
Sigmund Freud viewed religion as
a neurosis
Karl Marx argued that religion
Was an illusion
If someone argues that the existence of God cannot be proven, they may be said to be
Agnostic
Which of the following is a post-colonial thinker?
Edward Said
Emile Durkheim
Carl Jung
Sigmund Freud
Edward Said
Auguste Comte believed in?
Positivism (the idea that society is governed by knowable laws)
Who founded the secularization theory? (the idea that as societies become more advanced, religion would disappear
Auguste Comte
Who argued that religion is society. Religion is beliefs and practices associated with the sacred
Emile Durkheim
Who argued the religion is ideology? That “religion is he opiate of the people”, that religion functions to uphold a class system that oppresses the working poor
Karl Marx
Who viewed religion as a projection or illusion, a neurosis? If we dealt with our repressed desires and feelings of guilt we would no longer have use for religion
Sigmund Freud
Who believed religion is self actualization? The coming to terms with diverse elements found within ourselves. Dreams and myths are reminders for the need for self-actualization
Carl Jung
What is a feminist thinker?
Religion is patriarchal
Seek out female perspectives
Critique the role of women in religion
Study what women do in religion
Assert that women are equal to men
Interdisciplinary
The study of religion from a variety of disciplines or academic fields in order to learn more about the subject
What is the historical approach?
Religious texts are the primary source
Claimed to provide an objective view of religion through what the primary sources told them
Philosophical approach
Asks questions in relation to knowledge and belief, faith and reason, and ethics
Is there a God?
Psychological Approach
Emphasizes the individual experience, focusing on why and how the mind influences and is influenced by religion
Who took the psychological approach?
Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung
Sociological approach
Emphasizes religion in relation to society or groups.
Who took the sociological approach?
August Compte and Emile Durkheim
Anthropological Approach
The study of humans which began as racist and ethnocentric, now anthropologists emphasize the importance of culture over race
Who believes in the anthropological approach?
Russel T. McCutcheon
Theological approach
The sacred is real
Knowledge is gained through access to divine truth
It is normative rather than descriptive (it assumes the norm of the group based on a particular religious tradition)
Insiders approach
Phenomenological approach
This approach is not found in any given university but is an important interpretation
The sacred is a universal fact
Value-free comparison between religions- one is not favoured over the other
