1.5.Civil Religions Civil

8/11/2019 1.5.Civil Religions Civil

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Civilizations and world

religions2. Lecture.

The formal and sociological theory of thereligions and civilizations


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What is religion?

In the prespective of evolutionary theory

1. Religion is a cultural universalit couldbe found in every known present and past (afterits material mementos known) societies. Concerning sociologists (Durkheim, Murdock, Lvi-

Strauss, Donald Brown, etc.) a cultural universal isan element, pattern, trait, or institution that is

common to all human cultures worldwide.


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Concept of religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, andworldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity tospirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions havenarratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that areintended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life

or the universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religiouslaws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmosand human nature, (Wikipedia, Religion).

Religion always implies a certain idea or conception oftranscendence. Religion, as a cultural system, contains rites,

rituals, festivals, which express in a peculiar manner theparticular conception of transcendence of the religion inquestion. Religion implies the normsof both collectiveandindividual praxisof living through the transcendence.

In the sociological context of religion, a religious personin the

first instanceis a member of a religious community or society.


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Further definitions of religion

The word religionis sometimes used interchangeably withfaith orbelief system, but religion differs from private belief in that it has apublic aspect, (Wikipedia, Religion). That is to say: in sociologicalrespect religion is not exclusively about personal or individualfaith, but it implies also institutions,prescriptionsand normsof how

topracticeyour belief in a religious community, systematic orderofreligious doctrinesand texts, which are kept sacred, and consideredto have a peculiar relationship with transcendence.

Anthropologists John Monoghan and Peter Just: It seemsapparent that one thing religion or belief helps us do is deal with

problems of human life that are significant, persistent, andintolerable. One important way in which religious beliefsaccomplish this is by providing a set of ideas about how and whythe world is put together that allows people to accommodateanxieties and deal with misfortune


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Religion, culture, society

The development of religion has taken different forms indifferent cultures, (Source: Wikipedia).

The development of religion describes the stages in theevolution of any particular religious system from the perspectiveof social sciences. It includes such considerations as theevolutionary origins of religions and the evolutionary psychologyof religions; the history of religions, including Prehistoric andPaleolithic religion; and the development of new religions and

world religions. (Source: Wikipedia). The particular form of a concrete religion depends strongly on

the particular sociological, historical and also geographical andother circumstances of the religion in question. The historicaldevelopment of a religion is strongly determined by thesefactors, and also by more important events of the particularsociety, and by events of intercultural communication.


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Social and cultural functions of religion

Some religions place an emphasis on belief, while others emphasizepractice. Some religions focus on the subjective experience of thereligious individual, while others consider the activities of the religiouscommunity to be most important. Some religions claim to be universal,believing their laws and cosmology to be binding for everyone, while

others are intended to be practiced only by a closely defined orlocalized group. In many places religion has been associated withpublic institutions such as education, hospitals, the family,government, and political hierarchies, (Source: Wikipedia).

These particular functions, as mentioned above, chiefly determinedand grounded by the particular development and evolution of the

concrete society. Religion as such has aprovable evolutionary function: it increases

the sociological cohesionof a society, it means a source of culturalidentity, by virtue of which it improves the chances of survivalforthe particular society. It is an advantage in regard of group-selection.


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Current issues concerning religions

Understanding the relationship between religion and societyhelps you a lot to conceive social trends and tendencies today.

Spread of religious tolerance in contemporary western societies. Example No.1. During the presidential campaign (1961) of John

Fitzgerald Kennedy there was a definite reluctance about hisbeing a catholic in the protestant-dominated USA. But now(2012) a few has any aversion about the fact, that the republicanpresidential candidate Mitt Romney is a committed Mormon.

Example No.2. A few days ago the Al-Kaida propagandist,extremist Islam leader, Abu Katada was set free in Londonthough he continuously makes preaches against the tolerant

Western World and England in particular. Human rightsprotectors told that one has the right to follow the extremist

ways of a religion too. What do you think about this question?


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The guideline of the course:

Religious studies

During the course we will try to analyze anddiscuss several current and relevant issuesconcerning the relationship of religion and

modern society. But the main theoretical discipline we will keep

in view is religious studiesin general andcomparative religionsin particular.


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Theology and comparative religions

Religious studiesis the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors,and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, andexplains religion, emphasizing systematic, historicallybased, and cross-cultural perspectives.

While theology attempts to understand the nature andintentions of supernatural forces (such as deities),religious studies tries to study religious behavior andbelief from outside any particular religious viewpoint.Religious studies draws upon multiple disciplines andtheir methodologies including anthropology, sociology,psychology, philosophy, and history of religions.


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Methodological atheism

Methodological atheismis a key-concept to understand thedifference between religious studies and theology.

The concept was introduced by the contemporary sociologist ofreligions, Peter Ludwig Berger (1929-).

The term refers to a necessarily methodological operation.Working as a scientist, the researcher must bracket her/hisreligious beliefs, she or he must abstract from her/his religiouscommitment.

Whereas the sociology of religion broadly differs from theologyin assuming the invalidity of the supernatural, theorists tend toacknowledge socio-cultural reificationof religious practise. Thatmeans: religious ideas do have a sort of sociological effectivity.


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Origins of Religious Studies

Religious studies originated in the nineteenth century,when scholarly and historical analysis of the Bible hadflourished, and Hindu and Buddhist texts were firstbeing translated into European languages.

Early influential scholars included Friedrich Max Mller(German philologist and orientalist), in England, andComelius P. Tiele (theologian), in the Netherlands.

Religious studies also owes a lot to the historical-

philological analyses of Bible (David Strau, The lifeof Jesus), and classical-philological investigationsconcerning the origins of Greek mythology, (Johann

Jakob Bachofen, Walter F. Otto).


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Born of modern religious studies and

comparative religions. Eliade Today religious studies is practiced by scholars worldwide. In its early

years, it was known as Comparative Religions or the Science ofReligionand, in the USA, there are those who today also know thefield as the History of religion (associated with methodologicaltraditions traced to the University of Chicago in general, and in

particular Mircea Eliade, from the late 1950s through to the late1980s). (Source: Wikipedia). Eliade is maybe the most important figure in founding the basics of

modern religious studies and comparative religions. Eliade comparedin both synchronic and diachronic manner over several dozens ofdifferent religious forms in order to find the most essential features of

religion as such. He investigated primitive, small, tribal cults, modernand old sects, occultist and esoteric movements, major world-religionsand minor, local religions, as well as embranchments of these majorand minor religions, that is to say: heretic movements also.


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Most important subdisciplines of

religious studies

Science of Religionor Religious Studiesis an inter-disciplinary study of religious phenomena. It contains severalsubdisciplines, that could be pursued on their own right.

Literary approaches(religion in literature) are also valuable and

important sources to understand religious phenomena. Texts and documents of theologicaland historicalself-

understanding and self-interpretation of religious communitiesand people are also necessary sources.

Major subdisciplines are: 1. cultural anthropology of religion, 2.economics of religion, 3. sociology of religion, 4. psychology ofreligion, 6. geography of religion, 7. philology of religious texts,8. comparative religions, 9. philosphy of religions.


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Anthropology and cultural

anthropology of religion

Anthropology of religionis principally concernedwith the common basic needs of man that religionfulfills. Modern anthropology assumes that everyreligion is created by the human community that

worships it, a methodological approach that is calledtheprojection idea. (Cf. Stewart Eliott Guthrie, 2000:225, ff.).

Cultural anthropology of religion is principallyconcerned with the cultural aspects of religion. Ofprimary concern to the cultural anthropologist ofreligions are rituals, beliefs, religious art, and practicesof piety. Main figures: Fraser, Tylor, Claude Lvi-Strauss, Clifford Geertz.


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Economics of religion

Economics of religion researches the economic attitudesand behaviour of religious groups. It has been observed thatthere is a strong relationship between economics andreligion.

Max Weber(1864-1920) was the first who devoted closerinvestigations to the interrelation of religion and economics.One of his main concerns was the economic behaviour ofreligious people and religious communities.

Weber had the idea in mind that the protestant ethicsserved as an ideological engine to the evolvement andspread of modern Western capitalism, (The Protestant Ethicsand the Spirit of Capitalism, Economic Ethics of the WorldReligions)


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Psychology of religion

Thepsychology of religion is concerned with what psycho-logical principles are operative in religious communities andpractitioners. William James was one of the first academics tobridge the gap between the emerging science of psychology andthe study of religion. A few issues of concern to the psychologist

of religions are the psychological nature of religious conversion,the making of religious decisions, religion and happiness, and thepsychological factors in evaluating religious claims.

The founding fathers of modern psychological approaches ofreligion were Sigmund Freudand Carl GustavJung. Freud put

an emphasis on the instinctive, biological roots of religions, hehighlighted the role of drivesin religious behavior. Jungemphasized the cultural character of religions, he interpreted theorigin and functioning of religions with his conception ofcollective unconsciousness.


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The birth of comparative religions.

Mircea Eliade Comparative religionswas founded by Mircea Eliade. It

investigates on the onehand the particular history of a religion, andalso its cultural, historical, social, etc. embedment, and on the otherhandtries to fix the common and different features of religions.It is a central discipline for the whole of religious studies.

According to Eliade there were some basic structures inreligious experiencewhich could be found in every knownforms of religion.

Such structures are for example.: 1. the differentiation of sacredand profane; 2. the experience of Eternal Return (that

religious man during religious fests re-lives mythical events againand again), 3. Coincidentia oppositorum, the innerconnection of fundamental oppositions. Yahweh is both kindand wrathful; the God of the Christian mystics and theologians isterrible and gentle at once


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Neurological approaches

Neurological approaches: Recently there has been aninteresting meeting between neurology and religion,especially Buddhism. Also of interest has been the temporallobe, the "God center" of the brain. (Ramachandran, ch. 9)

Although not a widely accepted discipline within religiousstudies, neurological findings in regard to religiousexperience may very well become of more widespreadinterest to scholars of religion. Scientific investigators have

used a SPECT-scanner to analyze the brain activity of bothChristian contemplatives and Buddhist meditators, findingthem to be quite similar, (Source: Wikipedia).

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