Intellectual questioning Religions make claims about truth, yet some of their views are not easy to reconcile. For example, doesn’t the theory of reincarnation of the soul, as found in Hinduism, conflict with the teaching of several other religions that a soul has only one lifetime on earth? And how can the notion of an […]
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The use of theory for the study of religion is not limited to the fields of linguistics and literature. In fact, increasing numbers of academic disciplines are studying religions as part of the human search for understanding. Thus a scholar in the field of art may see and interpret religions as forms of art. Specialists
Martin Luther King Jr. 17 Insight into religious traditions Each religion is interesting in its own right as a complex system of values, relationships, personalities, and human creativity. Insight into what religions share The study of religions requires sympathy and objectivity. While it is true that being a believer of a particular religion
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Key Critical Issues The research-based approach to the study of religions, though valuable, brings problems and questions. Are we genuinely listening to the voices of the practitioners, or are we only paying attention to the experiences of the observer? Can an outsider be truly objective, or is the outsider merely imposing the theories of other
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The Study of Religion Originally, religions were studied primarily within their own religious traditions. The goal of this approach was that faith and devotion would be illuminated by intellectual search. Although this approach continues in denominational schools, the study of religion began to take new form two centuries ago. There were several causes for the
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Linguistics and literary theory The study of linguistics has sometimes involved a search for patterns that may underlie all languages. But linguistics has occasionally also suggested general patterns and structures that may underlie something broader than language alone: human consciousness. This interest in underlying patterns has brought new attention to the possible structures behind religious
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Although the mystical orientation is more common in religions that stress the immanence of the sacred or that are nontheistic, it is an important but less prominent tendency in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well. Any one of these three orientations may be dominant in a religion, yet the other two orientations might also be
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Mystical orientation The mystical orientation seeks union with a reality greater than oneself, such as with God, the process of nature, the universe, or reality as a whole. There are often techniques (such as seated meditation) for lessening the sense of one’s individual identity to help the individual experience a greater unity. The mystical
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Prophetic orientation The prophetic orientation stresses that contact with the sacred is ensured by proper belief and by adherence to moral rules. This orientation also implies that a human being may be an important intermediary between the believer and the sacred; for example, a prophet may speak to believers on behalf of the sacred. Prophetic
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Sacramental orientation The sacramental orientation emphasizes carrying out rituals and ceremonies regularly and correctly as the path to salvation; in some religions, correct ritual is believed to influence the processes of nature. All religions have some degree of ritual, but the ceremonial tendency is predominant, for example, in most indigenous religions, in Roman Catholic and
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