religion
_________was a radical feminist theologian and philosopher in the 20th century. She believed that female liberation and empowerment will be realized only when women stop worshipping and putting their faith in a male‐savior (God‐Jesus).
Mary Daly
Augustinian Definition of Religion
Manichean philosophical influence on Augustinian theology and Western Christianity
. He was French philosopher and historian associated with the structuralist and poststructuralist movements.
Michel Foucault
What happens when one religious illusion collapses? (Freud. 54)
Nothing is left, but despair
hermeneutics
a critical method that is used to interpret and understand the meaning of the history of religion, theology and sacred scriptures
libation
a drink poured out as an offering to a deity/ is a ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a god or spirit, or in memory of those who have passed on. (wine, oil, ghee, milk)
feminist/womanist theology
a field of study in which women's experiences in history and society are used to interpret and engage religion
anti‐empire theories
a focus on how issues related to classism and economic injustice are the products of imperial systems and powers
postcolonialism
a product of postmodernism. This project speaks against both archaic and contemporary forms and practices of human exploitation and oppression such as slavery, imperialism, and capitalism as they relate to colonialism.
religious belief s
can be explained through the study of how the human mind works
postmodernism
celebrates individual agency and pushes society to move beyond any traditional ideas/values that do not promote forward thinking and human progress
True or False: Belief is not synonymous with faith. While belief encourages abstract understanding and knowledge about the existence of the divine, faith propels religious adherents to be active in the world. Faith, in essence, is an 'embodied epistemology
false
True or False: Despite the amazing contribution that feminist scholars have made to the study of religion in the West, feminist academic theological projects have been limited to Christianity.
false
True or False: For practitioners of indigenous religious traditions such as Haitian Vodou, having belief and faith in the divine is essential for their religious rituals and practices. In other words, they do not need to be active in the world to express their faith in the supreme being.
false
True or False: Freud does not believe that childhood experiences are a formative stage for religious beliefs/convictions. According to him, some people long for religion because it is a natural phenomenon that is connected to the function of the human mind.
false
True or False: Mircea Eliade, Ninian Smart, and Wilfred Cantwell Smith are 19th century anthropologists of religion who contended that the term religion was a modern invention. Therefore, they suggested that we replace it with the term 'faith' and 'cumulative tradition
false
according to the contemporary approach to then study of religion, comparing christianity with other world religions enables scholars to understand the truth about religion
false
the history of the academic study of religion in the west has been examined by prominent scholars from different and diverse religious and cultural background
false
religion is a product of culture (Malory nye). therefore, it is a social phenomenon that can be easily defined and understood by religious people.
false. because that religion is not a phenomenon that only those who practice it can understand
true religion
given to humankind by God for the purpose of salvation
augustines of hippo
guy who found western Christianity
Holocaust
the genocide of Jews in World War II.
Totemism
the idea that a human's soul has a spiritual connection to an animal, plant, and other physical objects (Freud, 23)
reductionism
the philosophical belief that every complex idea, thought, issue, condition, or phenomenon can be analyzed and explained through the simplest from of procedure
According to Pascal Boyer
- Religious practitioners believe in gods and the ancestors because they are convinced that the gods and ancestors are in interested in what they do. - Religious beliefs can be explained through the study of how the human mind works (Pascal Boyer, Religion Explained, 2) - There are no set views about where the human soul goes after death in most cultures (Boyer, 8). - In fact, most dead people become ghosts and ancestors
Gods in African Religions
- The Sky God in Ashanti (Southern Ghana): Nyame dua - Temple and worship dedicated to the Supreme Being
western christianity
- The church is the protective vehicle of religion and the Jesus movement - Only the church could offer salvation - No salvation outside the church - Salvation is an exclusive event - A emphasis on the fall of humankind - Emphasis on the dualism: good and evil - Pessimistic view on humanity
Erzuli Freda: A Vodou Goddess
- The goddess of purity, perfection, passion, and love - Vodou does not idealize her as the goddess of fertility - Symbolizes sublime luxury - Erzulie's presence assuages anxiety with the calmness and coolness - The matchmaker and breaker of human (romantic) relationships - She bridges the gap in the cosmic crossroads where the world of men and the world of divinity meet
the freudian answer :
- impersonal forces and destinies to be overcome with a higher principle. - man's longing for his father and comfort in the world as the basis for religious belief and hope - childhood experience as a formative stage for religious conviction and spiritual longing - an illusion based on a motivation to reach a futuristic unobtainable goal
eastern christianity
- using greek classics to interpret and understanding the Jesus movement . - universal view of salvation - a more optimistic view on humanity and human kind
religious belief as an illusion
- wishful fulfillment detached from reality - people use religion to explain why things happen in the world - An illusion based on a motivation to reach a futuristic unobtainable goal
animism
the belief in spirits dwelling in nature, including trees, mountains and rocks
____________ was Ugandan African scholar who has contributed to the field of literature and the study of African traditional religions.
. Okot p'Bitek
He was French anthropologist and ethnologist; his work contributed to the field of anthropology of religion as well as the theory of structuralism and structural anthropology
Claude Lévi‐Strauss
She is an Indian feminist theorist who uses the term subaltern to talk about the marginalization of colonized people, especially women
Gayatri Spivak
Odomankoma
God of Mercy and Abundance
Dualism
Good vs. Evil/God vs. Satan/ Heaven vs. Hell
_________ is French philosopher and father of the deconstruction philosophical project
Jacques Derrida
The Practice of Religion
Religion is about standing alone on your own feet, being yourself, and accepting your own individual existence
The Categorization of Vodou Spirits or Lwa
The Vodou spirits are categorized into two rites: the Rada and Petwo
true religion means
The human person's being totally submitted to the will of the (Christian) God
is belief just an abstract religious declaration?
according to David Morgan, belief is what happens when a human person is in touch with all his/her senses: touching, seeing, smelling
liminality
being between two states, conditions, or regions. the word also has a religious undertone, especially in relation to rituals. liminality means someone's being at the threshold of completing a ritual. this term could also be used to define the social situation and status of a group of people who live on the margins of society
monotheism
belief in one supreme god
the councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon
doctrines around the personhood of Jesus and the trinity in 4th and 5th centuries c.e Nicaea: focused on the trinity question - whether Jesus was equal to god the father and the holy spirit chalcedon: concerned with the christological question. Chalcedon dealt with and established the christological and divine status of Jesus in the greco - roman
Filioque
double procession of the Spirit from the Father (God) and the Son (Jesus)
1. True or False: Belief is a difficult theological concept to define, given that every religious culture has its own approach to the relevance of belief to people's everyday routines. Despite this, all religious people would agree that it is a perception that can only be used to explain matters of faith.
false
Even though Augustine believed that true religion can only be revealed by God through Christ, his theology promotes religious pluralism as well as the idea of salvation being a universal inclusive event.
false
True or False: Because Judaism and Christianity share many theological commonalities, it makes sense that both of them would associate the term love with the definition of belief.
false
religion
is a socio - cultural phenomenon that is difficult to define
nyame
is the god of the akan people of ashanteland. the sky god in Ashanti (souther Ghana) : nyamedua
anthropology of religion
is the study of humanity in relation to religion.
embodied epistemology
knowledge that is inherent in the human person
religion according to Malory nye
religion is a loose and ambiguous term that is not definable
totems
sacred objects or animals. the person believing in a supernatural being or sensing that certain objects or entities
animatism
seeing the world in terms of magical, impersonal forces
max weber
that it was religion that produced social groups
Emile Durkheim
that social groups produced religion
polytheism
the belief in more than one god or goddess
True or False: According to Gregory Alles, world events such as the Holocaust and Cold War have compelled many religious people to reconsider their definitions of "Truth." These events have also expanded the scope of the study of religion in the West. Religious plurality, as a result, has become one of the ethical compasses for the study of religion in places such as the United States.
true
True or False: According to post-modern thinkers such as Michel Foucault, academic discourse about religion has traditionally been narrowly centered on men. For them, religion is a human activity which has been used to condone political dominance cultural hegemony, social oppression, and economic exploitation.
true
True or False: Belief is what happens when a human person is in touch with all his/her senses: touching, seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, and emotion.
true
True or False: Today the field of the study of religion has been expanded so widely that scholars of religion are now using other non-theological data sources such as radio, television, the internet, and even comic books.
true
although there is not a linear history of religion, if we perceive it in terms of progression it would be accurate to maintain that the existence and history of religion can be traced back to then prehistoric society and primitive culture.
true
even though many religious people would disapprove of the use of social scientific methods to study religion, these approaches enable humans to comprehend the association of religion with the human situation, its impact on the human psyche, and its function in society
true
poststructuralism
used by American academics to refer to the writings of continental philosophers and critical theorists in the mid to late 20th century