What is Religion?Methodological Approaches to the Study of

Religion

HistoricalReligions “evolve”

Animism: Nature is alive

Naturism: Nature Worship

Polytheism

Monotheism

Metaphysics

Discreditedhttp://sguforums.com/index.php?topic=21846.15

Theorists

Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917)

Herbert Spencer (1896-1909)

http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/richard.robbins/Belief/anthropology_and_religion-iimages.htm

Psychological

God is a projection of human needs

Wish-fulfillment

We created God in our image, not the reverse

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.artchive.com/artchive/m/michelangelo/creation.jpg&imgrefurl=http://artchive.com/artchive/M/michelangelo/creation.jpg.html&usg=__7I_aRH0KHztB_GaTHRmL5YDkKuo=&h=657&w=1152&sz=200&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=EEZCne1Khno46M:&tbnh=120&tbnw=210&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcreation%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1204%26bih%3D665%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=125&vpy=135&dur=4748&hovh=169&hovw=297&tx=164&ty=84&ei=fO8lTaiFL8T68AaYy9XZDQ&oei=fO8lTaiFL8T68AaYy9XZDQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

Theorists

Sigmund Freud

Karl Marx

Carl Jung

William James

http://www.nndb.com/people/736/000029649/ http://www.enchantedmind.com/html/creativity/inspiration/creative_power_myth.html

http://www.nndb.com/people/569/000087308/

William JamesFounding theorist

Drew important distinctions:

Institutional and personal religion

Healthy-minded and sick-minded religiousness

Healthy-minded individuals tend to focus on the positive and the good, ignoring or de-emphasizing the evil

Hypothesis of pragmatism: if it works, people do it

http://toilet-shoppingmall.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/sites/pew.htm

FreudReligion is Pathological

Religion exists because of human psychological needs and processes

Fear of death, loneliness, meaninglessness

Oedipal Complex

“God” arises from individual experiences with primary caregivers

Oedipal Development leads to image of God as Father

http://www.paredes.us/edipo.html

Carl JungAgnostic: Impossible to know whether God exists

Theory: Collective Unconscious is source of “archetypes”

Collective Unconscious: an inherited awareness of human experience

Source of dreams

Archetypes are basic images that are universal in that they recur regardless of culture

Religion arises from the irruption of these images into consciousness

Also the source of artistic creativity

http://semantink.com/wordpress/tag/collective-unconscious/

Contemporary Theorists

Allen Bergin

Robert Emmons

Kenneth Pargament

James Hillman

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/faculty/Emmons/

http://thinkinginamarrowbone.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/allen-bergin-encounters/

http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/44/23/33.1.full

http://www.jungatlanta.com/DecodingHillman.html

Psychology of Religion

Sociological ApproachExamines the role/purpose/ function of religion in society

Examines the relationship between religion and all aspects of society (interconnected and mutually reinforcing)

How does religion function?

Provides language for identifying and understanding relationship between religion and society (Denomination, Sect, Cult)

http://www.whyguides.com/why-is-sociology-important.html

SociologicalTheorist: Emile Durkheim

Religion arises from collective (social) needs and processes (vs. individual)

Thus religion “functions;” every aspect of it serves a purpose

Every culture “produces” religion

Thus to study religion is to study society

http://www.phillwebb.net/topics/society/durkheim/durkheim.htm

Marx

Religion is pathological

“the Sign of the oppressed creature, the opiate of the people”

Spirituality may arise from psychological processes, but RELIGION is created and used by the elite to control the masses

Economic and political influence religion, which alters culture

http://www.independentamerican.org/2008/08/04/government-schools-“the-opiate-of-the-people”/

http://www.green-blog.org/2010/02/19/karl-marx-and-the-metabolic-rift-theory/

Contemporary Theorists

Peter Berger

Robert N. Bellah

Thomas Luckmann

Rodney Stark

Robert Wuthnow

Christian Smith

Bryan R. Wilson

Catherine Albanese

Sociological

http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&biw=732&bih=690&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=sociological+theor&aq=f&aqi=g2&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Phenomenological

Accepts that religion is real

Focuses on accurately describing religious experience

Emphasis on adherent’s language/perspective

Assumes that religion is comprised of different components

Assumes that comparing religious components across diverse religious traditions helps us gain deeper understanding

http://www.murray-gordon-consulting.com/Reality_and_Fantasy_in_Online_Groups.htm

PhenomenologicalTheorist: Micea Eliade

Theory of Hierophanies (manifestations of the sacred)

Distinct from Theophanies (manifestations of God)

Religion exists because of the interplay between the sacred and the profane

Theory of “Eternal Return”

Myths and rituals not only commemorate hierophanies, but also enable adherents to re-enact/ participate in them

http://www.alternativaonline.ca/Mircea%20Eliade_the%20sacred%20journey.html

Structuralism

Universal Brain Structure

Human culture the product of universal cognitive developmental processes and stages

Context and experience creates diverse details, but underlying patterns that create, shape, and sustain religion are universal

Patterns emerge through close observation and comparison

Claude Levi-Strauss

The “savage mind” is structurally identical to the “civilized mind”

Myths present a paradox: Specific features of mythic narrative are diverse and seemingly arbitrary, yet overall myths are remarkably similar across different cultures

Proposed: Universal Laws (of cognition) arising from human brain structure must govern mythical thought

http://geopolicraticus.wordpress.com/category/strictly-theoretical/page/2/

Myth

“Mythical thought always progresses from the awareness of oppositions toward their resolution”

Structurally, myths consist of Elements that:

Oppose/contradict each other

Mediate/resolve those oppositions

If myths, as examples of the most fantastic/ arbitrary products of religion, are developed according to universal cognitive laws, then ALL areas of human thought are governed by universal laws

http://www.fitnesscafe.in/web/

Analysis of Trickster myths

Trickster= mediator

Contradictory and unpredictable personality

Raven or coyote

Mediates between polar opposites-- Life and Death

Agriculture/Hunting

Herbivore/Predators

Ravens and Coyotes eat carrion-- neither predator nor herbivore

Mediation of Opposites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Levi-strauss1.jpg

Concluding Remarks

Post-modernism has challenged all these approaches

Each has validity

Each is limited

Most productive to employ multiple methods

http://orrinwoodward.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/1/4/3446241.html