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PAR 145 Chapter 1 Study Guide Understanding World Religions in Global…
PAR 145 Chapter 1 Study Guide Understanding World Religions in Global Perspective
I. Why Study World Religions?
Max Müller (1825-1900): Indologist, a founding father of the academic study of religion; said, "the person who knows only one religion understands none"
Figure 1.1
Map 1.1
What do we need to know about the past to understand the role of religion in the world we live in today?
Introduction
Immigration Act of 1965: signed by LBJ, abolishing the immigration system set up in 1924 and modified in 1952 (heavily favored Europe)
globalization: in terms of world religions, the idea that all the world's religions have members in almost every country or society; and that technology affords access to all key religious sites, practices, and teachers
II. Our Task
premodern
modern: began with the rise of modern science after 1500 and declined after WWII
postmodern
III. Understanding Religious Experience and Its Formative Elements
Key Elements
The Experience of Sacredness
Myth or Symbolic Story (typically embodied in sacred writing or scripture and expressed in a system of beliefs
Ritual
Community
Morality
Religious Leaders/Experts
religion: the sense of being tied or bound be sacred obligations to powers believed to govern our destiny
A. The Sacred
Rudolf Otto (1869-1937): a pioneer in the comparative study of religions; the presence of both fascination and dread is a sure sign that one is in the presence of the sacred
B. Myth, Scripture, and Beliefs
myth: symbolic story about the origins and destiny of human beings and their world; from the Greek mythos
ultimate reality: that which has the highest value and meaning to a group
sympathetic imagination: empathy; necessary to understand the religious languages and messages of different times and places
via analogia: a way of explaining spiritual reality by using analogies from particular finite qualities and characteristics
via negativa: a way of explaining spiritual reality by negating all finite qualities and characteristics
transcendent: beyond all finite things
C. Ritual
ritual: actions that link the individual and the community to each other, through the sacred
divine: highest spiritual reality; representative of the gods
orthopraxy: practice of "right actions" as prescribed y sacred traditions
orthodoxy: acceptance of "right beliefs" based on sacred texts as explained by religious authorities
D. Community and Morality
morality: right action
"Right" is often defined by "rite"
IV. The Great Religious Stories of the World
Four Sacred Story Types
Harmony
Liberation
Nature
History
Figure 1.2
A. Myths of Nature
B. China and the Myths of Harmony
C. India and the Myths of Liberation
D. The Middle East and the Myths of History
E. Religious Diversity and Historical Change
colonialism: the political, social, cultural, and economic domination of one society by another
The Three Groups of each Religious Tradition
fundamentalist: one who rejects aspects of modernity and wants to return to the perceived foundational purity of an ancestral sacred social/political order, or way of life
modernist: seek an accommodation of their religious tradition to the insights of science and the social and political realities of modern life
postmodernist: while rejecting the dominance of science and Western modernity, seek a new situation that affirms the role of religion in public life in a way that embraces religious and cultural diversity; open to change in their religious tradition in this regard
V. Historical Overview: From Premodern to Postmodern
Crisis of Urbanization
Humans began to think of themselves as individuals
law v. morality
Can life really have any meaning if it is just filled with injustice and ends in a meaningless death?
premodern: civilization in which there is no separation between a dominant religion and society
modern: civilization that separates its citizens' lives into public and private spheres, restricting religion to private life
postmodern: society typified by accepting public diversity in both religious beliefs and social practices
secular: sociologically used to mean "nonreligious"
Map 1.2
metanarrative: grand cosmic and/or historical story accepted by majority of a society as expressing its beliefs about its origins, destiny, and sacred identity
VI. The Modern/Postmodern Transition: Colonialism, Socialism, and the End of Modernity
nationalism: belief in the nation as a sacred entity
Karl Marx (1818-1883): German socialist; class theory of society
Primitive communism (tribal societies), in which all were equal
Rise of complex urban civilizations, which led to societies ruled by bureaucracies and pitted privileged classes against the masses
Communistic, all would once again be equal, for all complex, class-defined institutions would wither away, and people would live together in spontaneous harmony
VII. Postmodern Trends in a Postcolonial World
VIII. Conclusion: We Are All Heretics in Our Postmodern Situation
heretic: from the ancient Greek term for "one who chooses," used to communicate the postmodern idea that everyone has no choice but to choose one's beliefs since there is no longer a single center of "taken-for-granted commonly shared truth" in society