Religious Studies 101

Beliefs and Believers

Fall 2004

BELIEFS AND BELIEVERS TELECLASS

MAJOR COURSE OBJECTIVES:

• exploring religion and religions in an open-minded, unbiased, non-threatening fashion

• developing worldview analysis skills

• learning to appreciate religious diversity

• learning to deal with difference

A Short History of Beliefs and Believers

• 1987 = “religious studies” is BORING!

• 1988 = Religious Contours of Illinois Slideshow on religious diversity in IL

• 1990 = 1st edition of the Beliefs and Believers teleclass is completed

• 1992 = PBS licenses Beliefs and Believers for national distribution; colleges around the nation begin to use the course

A Short History of Beliefs and Believers

• 1997 - more than 22,000 students around the nation have taken Beliefs & Believers

• 1998 - the 2nd edition is produced, including trips half way around the world

• 2000 - CD-ROM version of the course is adopted by the NAVY COLLEGE PROGRAM for AFLOAT COLLEGE EDUCATION (NCPACE)

• 2003 – Web-based first taught at WIU

RELIGION

WHY??!!

Pop Quiz

Religion is best described as:

• Revelation from a Supreme Being

• Whatever you care about most

• Rules for living a righteous life

• All of the above

• None of the above

• Trick question??????

People are “religious” in many ways

• Some worship one God who is creator, sustainer, savior

• Others worship many gods or reject the idea of God

• Some focus on rules for a peaceful life on earth

• Others look to peace in an afterlife

Major Challenge?
IGNORANCE!

• Ignorance is not stupidity

• People are ignorant about something because:

l They are afraid to learn

l They don’t have access to information

l They have access to false information

l They are not allowed to learn

l They are too lazy to learn

Thoughts on Religion

• “Religion” has been the major determinant of human behavior since the dawn of consciousness

• “Religion” is fundamentally about:

l identity = self-esteem

l relationship = empowerment

l “religions” answer identity-forming and relationship-guiding questions

Impact on Society

· Religion provides a sense of belonging; “a part” to “apart”

· Religion provides social cohesion

· Religion defines and supports shared values and collective behavior; informs legal systems

· Religion provides a sense of destiny; promise for the future

Impact on the Individual

· Religion defines identity and guides relationships

· Religion provides a sense of meaning and purpose in life

· Religion relieves anxiety and depression (or adds to it!)

· Religion provides hope for the future

Common Misconceptions

• Religion is a person’s own business; it has no impact on society in general.

• Religion is identified with the Christianity taught in Sunday Schools.

• Religion only happens at a certain time, on a certain day, in unusually shaped buildings that occupy prime real estate in the towns and cities of the world.

• Religion and politics are separate institutions

Real Religion

• Real religion happens somewhere between religious belief (idealism) and human behavior (practical experience).

• Real religion is a blend of theology and culture.

• Real religion is filtered through the joy and suffering of real people who belong to life just as much as you and I do.

Real Religion

• Real religion “works” in the day-to-day experience of people as a combination of:

l Values, morals, traditions, customs, mores

l Social constructions regarding belief & behavior

l Sacred texts (biblical theology in America)

l Common sense experience

l Emotive symbols, myths & rituals

Key Observation

BELIEFS

+

BELIEVERS

=

BEHAVIOR

What is “Religious Studies?”

The obvious answers:

• The “study of religion and religions”

• Learning about religions other than your own

• Exploring the powerful interaction between religion and society

• Appreciating the sameness and differences in the common human quest to find meaning and purpose in life

What is “Religious Studies?”

Not so obvious:

• Religious Studies as Human Studies “…it’s about all of us!”

• Changing the world by changing the way we “see” the world

• Learning to ask the “right” questions so you find the “real” answers

• “I just found out there’s no such thing as the real world; just a lie you got to rise above.” – John Mayer, Spring 2002

RELIGION AND SPIRTUALITY

Spirituality:

• an extraordinary awareness of the beauty, wonder, and “wholeness” of life

• a quality of being, like mind & body, that we must nourish

• the spark that causes us to question and seek meaning and purpose in life

• direct experience of the Sacred; empowers religion and religions

RELIGION AND SPIRTUALITY

Religion:

• the institutional expression of spiritual insight

• the organized pursuit of spiritual transformation within a meaning-matrix

• The “label” we put on the various spiritual paths = Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and so forth

• 6 dimensions = experience, myth, ritual, doctrine, ethics & social

Religious Studies

• The academic study of religion is as broad as the study of people, their philosophy, art, literature, and history.

• To study religion is to explore the ways people in various cultures and times have expressed their deepest convictions about life.

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Characteristics

• Descriptive (Phenomenolgical)

• Multidisciplinary

l Women’s Studies

l African American Studies

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

• Polymethodic

• multicultural, comparative

• worldview analysis (open-ended)

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

• Methodology = to observe, describe, compare, and contrast cultural phenomena especially as it pertains to religions and religious movements.

APPROACHES TO RELIGION

• Historical/cultural

• Social/practical

• Philosophical/theological

• Personal

SIX DIMENSIONS OF WORLDVIEWS

• Experiential (experience)

• Mythic (myth)

• Ritual

SIX DIMENSIONS OF WORLDVIEWS

• Doctrinal (doctrine = belief)

• Ethical (ethics = behavior)

• Social (impact of religious beliefs on society)

Common Human Experience

• All human beings in all cultures and in all eras of human history have pondered the same existential questions:

l Who am I?

l Where did “all this” come from?

l What is the meaning & purpose of life?

l How should human beings live?

l What is the “good life?”

l How do I find happiness?

l I know that I will die. What happens, then?

Religion & Life

1. People ask profound life questions about about identity, meaning, purpose, love, hope, death, etc.

2. Rites of Passage in life are part of human existence = birth, death, adulthood, marriage, love, tragedy, change, etc.

3. Rites of Passage generate profound life questions; cause people to question the meaning and purpose of life.

Religion & Rites of Passage

Religions provide answers to profound life questions that arise during rites of passage = life situations common to all human beings.

Human religious activity, then, is common to all human beings in all cultures and in all times.

Common Human Experience

• Religion is about the ongoing quest for answers, for “wholeness,” for peace and security, for justice, equality, and fairness.

• The “world religions” – Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc. – all emerge in a relatively short (2500 yrs.) period of time.

• Earlier peoples had different answers; what will future answers and religious systems be like?

Worldviews & Religion

Everyone has a worldview:

• A worldview = your identity, or sense of self + your relationship with the world around you + your interpretation of life’s circumstances + your behavior!

• Worldview = what a person really values; what they really seek in life

• You know a person’s worldview by their behavior; all else is “window dressing”

Types of Worldviews

• Self-centered worldviews: concerns are limited to the need of the individual

• Secular worldviews: concerns expand to include causes, ideologies, political structures, etc.

• Religious worldviews: concerns expand to include the transcendent

Self-centered Worldviews

• “Affluenza” – The person who dies with the most toys wins the game of life!

• “Never enough-ism” – not enough security, things, recognition, attention, etc.

• “I, Me, Mine-ism” – I’m the center of the universe; get out of my way!

Socially Constructed Worldviews

• Hip-Hop culture

• Sports Fan (atic) culture

• Country Music culture

• NASCAR culture

• Professional Wrestling

• Fashion world

• Media/Web culture

• The “Weather Channel” ??????

Secular (non-religious) Worldviews

• Feminism

• Environmentalism

• Capitalism

• Communism

• “cultural Christianity”

• Patriotism

• multiculturalism

The point is…..

• For good or ill, all human beings have a worldview.

• It is a “way of thinking” about the world that, at some level, provides structure, meaning, a sense of purpose (or lack thereof), guidance, or some level of belief that it’s worthwhile to “get up in the morning.”

The Matrix

• A worldview functions like “a matrix” for meaning and purpose in life.

• The movie “provokes” us to ask fundamental “religious” questions:

l Who are we?

l What is the meaning & purpose of life?

l Choice v. control; good v. evil

l Hope v. despair; reality v. unreality

The Matrix from a Christian Perspective

• Satan creates the matrix

• Neo is the Messiah, “the One who will save humanity.”

• Morpheus is John the Baptist

• Trinity is the Holy Spirit

• Evil must be overcome in a final, apocalyptic battle (Matrix Reloaded)

The Matrix from a Buddhist Perspective

• The chief problem facing humanity is not sin or evil; it is ignorance of true reality

• The oracle is the Buddha

• Humans need to “wake up!”

• Desire keeps us locked in ignorance

• Neo must become “enlightened.”

The “religious impulse”

• The human “intuition” that there “has to be something more” to all of this.

• The search for wholeness, unity, completeness, peace, fulfillment

• Doing all of this in relationship to the transcendent

• Transcendent = God, a higher reality or consciousness, a “better way of being”

THE DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL DIMENSIONS

• DOCTRINE = BELIEF

• ETHICS = BEHAVIOR

BELIEF

+ BELIEVER

= BEHAVIOR

THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE SIX DIMENSIONS

MYTH

EXPERIENCE DOCTRINE

RITUAL

Inward Turning Impact

on Religion

THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE SIX DIMENSIONS

ETHICS

DOCTRINE

SOCIAL

Outward Turning Impact

on Society

ETHICS

• Definition: Religious ethics is that aspect of religion concerned with proper patterns of action in the situation and circumstances of the human cycle and social relations.

• Ethics: key to values/behavior relationship in any worldview

• Provides the link between beliefs and right action (behavior)

Thoughts on religion...

• For “religion” to work, it must be spiritually authentic and socially relevant.

• For “religion” to work, a human being must see themselves as included, empowered, enlightened, spiritually-moved, and inspired to love.

• Otherwise “religion” becomes the most dangerous power on earth.

Thoughts on religion…

• When “religious answers” to profound life questions are institutionalized in a given culture, the religion will express the very best in that culture but also can be infected by the worst concepts and practices, all in the name of God.

• Example: the oppression of women in the name of God or the Divine

Thoughts on religion…

• What is common in human experience finds its way into religion.

• Religion, then, takes common human experiences and adds a unique and powerful interpretation of what it means to be human.

• Religion can be familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time.

Religion and Violence

• “Religion” is the ideal way a people conceive of the world; it is the way the world SHOULD BE.

• “Politics,” as power, is the natural human inclination to see the ideals of their worldview realized in daily life.

• All of human history is about the dynamic relationship between religion and power.

Religion & Violence

• Power – spirituality = religious violence

• 5 “symptoms” of real or potential violence in any religion are:

l Absolute & exclusive truth claims

l Blind obedience to a charismatic leader

l Establishing the “ideal” time for violent activity

l A God-ordained end justifies any means

l Declaring Holy War against perceived enemies