Comparative Religion

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Comparative Religion

• Introduction to Religious Traditions of the World
• Fall 2008 Dr. Glen Avantaggio

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What is religion?

• Three different questions
• Etymology What does the word mean?
• Content What are the aspects of religion?
• Explanation Why are there religions?

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What does religion mean?

• One etymology religare (L.) to tie back, to tie
  again.
• Connecting to greater, unseen reality

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What is the content of religion ?

• What is religion made of?
• Religions complex and varied
• Elements
• Founders and Leaders
• Beliefs and Practices
• Rituals
• Symbols and myths
• Sacred story and texts
• Cultural characteristics

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Ways of Being Religious

• Religion is diverse in many ways
• between religions
• within religions
• by culture
• by individual

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Why Does Religion Exist?

• Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872)
• Philosopher
• Projection of human qualities
• Power, wisdom, love projected onto imagined deity
• God becomes greater, humans become less

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Why Does Religion Exist?

• Sigmund Freud (1856 -1938)
• Psychoanalyst
• Religion is mental illness
• God like parent we fear and love
• An illusion arising from insecurity
• universal obsessional neurosis

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Why Does Religion Exist?

• Karl Marx ( 1818-1883)
• Historian
• Religion serves those in power
• instrument of oppression
• illusory happiness
• the opiate of the people

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Why Does Religion Exist?

• Carl Jung (1875 -1961)
• Psychologist
• Expression of the potential in people
• Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious
• Paths of individuation

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Why Does Religion Exist?

• Emile Durkheim ( 1858 -1917)
• Sociologist
• Creates social harmony
• Teaches love, compassion, justice
• Evokes altruistic behavior
• Social glue

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Where do religious ideas come from?

• Oral Tradition
• Revered Texts
• Reason
• Personal Experience
• Mystical experience and traditions

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What is mysticism?

• Rudolph Otto (1869 -1937)
• Spontaneous experience of being grasped by
  reality
• An experience of the numinous which is
  ineffable, i.e. indescribable
• Contradictory feelings of awe, and attraction
• The essential basis of religion

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What is mysticism?

• Joachim Wach (1898 -1955)
• 1. Experience of unseen reality
• 2. Involves persons whole being
• 3. Shattering and intense experience
• 4. Motivates a person to action

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Patterns in Religious Experience

• Sacred and Profane
• Pattern explored by Mircea Eliade (1907 -1986)
• Sacred Realm extraordinary, highest values,
  source of world
• Profane Realm worldly, everyday experience
• Immanent and Transcendent
• Immanent divine present in world
• Transcendent divine beyond world

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Ways of being religious

• Theism
• Sacred reality as a personal being, God.
• God as friend, parent, ruler, lover
• Belief in incarnation
• Monotheism
• Polytheism
• Nontheism

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Ways of being not religious

• Atheism God does not exist
• Agnosticism Gods existence in uncertain
• Uninterested

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Absolutist and Liberal Interpretations

• Orthodox - strictly adhere to past practice and
  belief
• correct view
• Define themselves in resistance to change
• Heterodox
• other view
• Heretics are labeled by the orthodox
• Heretics are often punished

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Absolutist and Liberal Interpretations

• Religious Liberals
• Accept some change
• Understand religions as cultural and historical
• Fundamentalism
• A movement within Protestant Christianity
• Also, a general term for strong adherence to
  tradition
• Some fundamentalists are willing to use violence

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Interpretation of tradition

• Fundamentalism
• Forms of religious nationalism
• Rejections of secular values
• Defensive reaction to modernity
• Textual literalism

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Historical-Critical Study of Scriptures

• Develops from Hermeneutics
• Interpretation necessary
• What is the best interpretation?

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Historical-Critical Study of Scriptures

• Basic Questions
• Most original text?
• History of text ?
• Authors?
• Intentions of authors?

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Historical-Critical Study of Scriptures

• Historical Aspects
• Archeology?
• Cultural setting?
• Oral and written sources?
• Political environment?

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Historical-Critical Study of Scriptures

• Other areas of research
• Intended audience?
• Contemporary language usage?
• Literary form?
• Universal, archetypal message?