The Study of Religion

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 change. First, the early scientific movement accepted belief in

a creator-god, but it rejected belief in miracles and demanded scientific proof for beliefs. The

emerging scientific movement thus forced people to revise some of their traditional religious

beliefs. Second, because of the growth of historical studies, academic experts began to question

the literal truth of some statements and stories presented in the scriptures. (For example, did the

story of Noah and the Ark actually happen, or was it meant mainly to be a teaching parable

whose real purpose was moral?) Third, because of the growth of trade and travel, even faraway

cultures were becoming known. Their religions proved to be not only colorful but also wise. The

morality taught by Buddhism, the sense of duty found in Confucianism, the love of nature taught

in Shinto—all these seemed admirable. But what did this mean for other religions? In the

nineteenth and twentieth centuries this question intensified, as more information became

available through history, anthropology, and sociology. Scriptures and ritual texts were

translated, and anthropologists began to have direct experience of even small and rare religions.

In the university world, the study of religions was at first fragmented. The great questions of

religion were studied in philosophy departments. Other aspects of religion could be found in

departments of history, psychology, anthropology, and art. But there was as yet no department of

religious studies that unified these interests.

The fragmented academic approach changed in the twentieth century, as departments of religious

studies were formed and became a regular part of academic life. At first it was uncertain if these

departments of religion would survive. But the popularity of some courses in religion—

particularly those in world religions, death and dying, and the psychology of religion—

demonstrated the worth of having separate, permanent departments of religious studies.

The study of religion has further expanded, and in the twenty-first century we are able to

examine religions from additional and sometimes unexpected points of view. For example, one

of the most provocative new perspectives is neurology. Are religious beliefs and practices a part

of our genetic makeup, or are they merely manufactured by cultures and learned by people? Is a

religious experience the intrusion of a sacred being on individual consciousness, or is it the

activity of a particular chemical in the brain? Similar questions may be asked about morality. Are

moral demands a part of our physical constitution, or are they simply rules taught by society? As

academic disciplines expand and additional disciplines emerge, new aspects of religion will be

discovered.

Recent Theories

Recent thinking about religion has been influenced by the field studies of anthropologists and

other behavioral scientists. Archeology has also contributed much to newer thinking.

At one time it was thought that religions were best traced to a “great founder,” such as Moses,

the Buddha, Jesus, or Muhammad. This is no longer the common approach. Rather, sociologists

have pointed out how religions seem to emerge from whole tribes and peoples. One of the first

thinkers to speak of this was the French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917). 16

He noted

how religions reinforce the values of groups, and his approach was empirical, based on research.

His approach has been continued by later French thinkers, such as Claude Levi-Strauss.

Claude Levi-Strauss (1908–2009) did fieldwork in Brazil, where he studied the mythology of

tribal groups. There he began to see great similarities in the myths of indigenous peoples. This

led him to see large structural similarities between kinship patterns, languages, and social

relations. He theorized that structures in the human mind formed these similarities. His thought,

called structuralism, has influenced the study of religion, particularly regarding taboos, marriage,

and laws about food purity.

A countermovement, called post-structuralism, soon emerged. It emphasized the individuality of

each experience and argued that belief in grand structures may keep investigators from

appreciating that individuality. Michel Foucault (1926–1984) is thought of as its primary

exponent. His work especially focused on those marginalized by society—prisoners, medical

patients, and the insane.

Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) began with a structuralist approach, but he moved away from

grand theories in order to focus on language, meaning, and interpretation. He is known for going

behind the ordinary interpretation of texts to discover new cultural meanings. This method is

known as deconstruction. In the area of religion, it can be quite effective. For example,

traditional religious texts can be looked at from many new points of view; one can look at

scriptural passages to investigate, say, underlying attitudes toward the treatment of women,

slaves, indigenous people, children, and the old. Deconstructive principles can also be used to

investigate religious art, architecture, and music.

Increasingly, religious investigation relies on anthropologists who have lived with native peoples

and learned their languages. One researcher of this type was E. E. Evans-Pritchard (1902–1973),

who lived among the Azande and Nuer people in Africa. Another esteemed anthropologist was

Clifford Geertz (1926–2006), who lived in Indonesia and Morocco and wrote about practices

there. Geertz championed what he called thick description—a description not only of rituals and

religious objects, but also of their meaning for the practitioners.

The so-called phenomenological approach to religious studies has been very popular. This

approach emphasizes direct experiential research to gather data. It seeks to understand religious

acts and objects from the consciousness of the believers, and it tries to avoid projecting the

researcher’s beliefs and expectations into the data. Specialists of this type have sometimes

focused on one religion. Contemporary examples are Wendy Doniger (O’Flaherty, b. 1940) and

Diana Eck (b. 1945). Both of them have specialized in Hinduism, but their writings and other

work have incorporated other world religions.

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