RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Characteristics

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

 

APPROACHES TO RELIGION
  • Social/practical
  • Philosophical/theological
  • Personal

SIX DIMENSIONS OF WORLDVIEWS

SIX DIMENSIONS OF WORLDVIEWS

KEY CLASS THEME

BELIEFS

+

BELIEVERS

=

BEHAVIOR

 

WHAT IS RELIGION?

Religion

equals

identity

and

relationship

WHAT IS RELIGION?

Religion deals with answers to identity-forming questions:

 

Selfhood - "Who and I?"

Meaning - "Why and I?"

Purpose - "What do I do?"

WHAT IS RELIGION?

Religion is relationship-guiding or defining;

How do we relate to the Other?

  • God
  • nature
  • other human beings
  • deaths, suffering, change
  • rites of passage

PERVASIVENESS OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

1. Boundary questions = question about identity, meaning, purpose, etc.

2. Rites of Passage = birth, death, adulthood, marriage, love, tragedy, etc. generate boundary questions.

3. All people ask boundary questions at least during rites of passage.

PERVASIVENESS OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

 

Religions provide answers to boundary questions experienced during rites of passage = the pervasiveness of religion.

That which is most common to all human beings in all cultures in all times is fundamental in human religious activity.

RELIGIOUS STYLES

1. BELIEF STYLE

 

2. COMMUNAL STYLE

 

3. SEEKER STYLE

SEEKER STYLE OF RELIGION

1. Ojai Foundation = seeker style not connected to an established religious organization

2. Cornerstone Christian Music and Art Festival = seeker style within a major world religion, Christianity

3. Full Moon Harvest Festival = seeker style giving birth to a new religious movement

THE RELIGION PROCESS

Key themes:

 

  • pervasiveness of religion/spirituality in human experience

 

  • the spiritual/religious impulse in human kind

THE RELIGION PROCESS

FIVE STAGES:

1. Self-consciousness

2. Boundary questions

3. Rites of Passage

4. Spiritual dimension

5. Development of World Religions

 

THE RELIGION PROCESS

 

1. Self-consciousness = presents a dilemma

 

  • a part = desire for unity, oneness, wholeness, belonging
  • apart = individuality, sense of separate existence

THE RELIGION PROCESS

2. Boundary questions

THE RELIGION PROCESS

3. Rites of Passage

  • birth
  • adulthood
  • grouping (family, marriage, mating, etc.)
  • love/tragedy
  • suffering/change
  • death

THE RELIGION PROCESS

4. Spiritual dimension

  • emotional needs
  • psychological needs
  • intellectual needs
  • physical needs

 

THE RELIGION PROCESS

5. Development of World Religions - religions develop to answer boundary questions and met spiritual needs.

  • Hinduism Islam
  • Judaism East Asian religions
  • Buddhism Primal religions
  • Christianity Alternative religions

 

THE RELIGION PROCESS

 

  • Extraordinary religion = spiritual search practiced outside an identifiable, established religious organization (seeker style).

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

Difficulties determining what is is:

 

1. Definitional Problems

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

2. Different types:

Numinous experience =

an encounter with the Divine/God; awe-inspiring; terrifying yet attractive; separation between the Divine and human identities; example = Moses encounters God in a "burning bush."

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

Different types:

2. Mystical experience = loss of personal identity; merging with the totality of Being (God, Mind, Consciousness, etc.)

  • nature mysticism
  • monist mysticism
  • theist mysticism

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

3. Cultural context problems: different context = different description of event

  • conceptual = ideas in general culture
  • practical = day-to-day living experiences
  • discursive = language
  • institutional = social structures

context "colors" religious experience

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

4. Description problems:

  • discrepancy between actual experience and interpretation of that experience; is the description of the religious experience "colored" by interpretations drawn from a particular religious training, such as Christianity, Buddhism, or Islam?

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

 

Religion colors or shades the "pure white light" of spiritual experience

A STILL SMALL VOICE

1. Nature Mysticism = oneness with nature; God is everywhere and in everything;

example = primal religions

2. Monist Mysticism = oneness with Mind or Consciousness; example = Buddhism

3. Theist Mysticism = oneness with God;

example = Christian mysticism

A STILL SMALL VOICE

1. Religion and Politics = quest for unity needs moral/ethical basis; the human search for wholeness.

2. Ancient ancestors ponder boundary questions.

3. Religion and Science: both seek answers to profound life questions.

SOME KEY "ANSWERS" IN HINDUISM

Identity

 

  • Brahman: the ultimate ground being; God; existence, consciousness, bliss; the One Mind, all-in-all.

SOME KEY "ANSWERS" IN HINDUISM

Identity

 

SOME KEY "ANSWERS" IN HINDUISM

Relationship

 

Karma:

the cosmic law of cause and effect; deeds in this life affect human events, for good or evil, in this life and future lives.

SOME KEY "ANSWERS" IN HINDUISM

Relationship

 

  • Reincarnation:

rebirth of an individual soul in subsequent life forms; governed by the law of karma.

SOME KEY "ANSWERS" IN HINDUISM

Relationship

 

  • Moksha:

liberation from the karmic cycle of death and rebirth through Yoga.

SOME KEY "ANSWERS" IN HINDUISM

Relationship

 

  • Dharma:

the external order of the cosmos or the obligations and duties of this life; following your dharma, selflessly, "burns up" karma and leads to Moksha, or liberation.

SOME SACRED TEXTS IN HINDUSIM

 

  • Upanishads

 

  • Bhagavad-Gita

 

  • Mahabarata