January 20th

Definitions of Religion

Religion as "world making"

1) Clifford Geertz, "Religion as a cultural system" (anthropology)

• -a system of symbols
• -which establishes powerful and long lasting moods and motivations formulating conceptions of a general order of existence
• clothing those conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (religion is seen as pure reality)
• the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic¶

2) Peter Berger, The sacred Canopy (social constructivism)

• human beings find themselves in a disordered universe, we cannot live in a world that is not ordered or meaningful
• so humans create civilization etc. to have order, meaning (nomos)
• culture that gives us meaning is a construction that can fall apart at anytime, so we have to do things to keep that order there
• people instinctively know there is really chaos, so we try to make things more stable--to anchor meaning
• religion is the most effective way to anchor meaning of lives and culture--religion is about what is factually real beyond all question to those who believe it.
• religion is a notion of divine order created by humans and projected onto the world in order to anchor life

3) Religion as a transformational model--a way of understanding that a person or a group moves from an understanding of a main essential problem confronting humanity to a goal

1) conception of the human condition which sees it marked by some kind of shortcoming

2) what is the resolution to this problem?

3) ways and means by which to move toward the goal

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Lived Religion, Lived Practice = What does religion do, not what does it mean = world making and the processes of remaking, reshaping and maintaining a religion—what do people do to make, remake, shape, reshape and maintain their systems of belief.

1) Catherine Bell-Ritual Practice, Ritualization.

1 ) that ritual is part of a historical process, one that reinterprets and transforms old patterns

2 ) ritual is a central arena for cultural mediation

3 ) there is a concern for what rituals do, not just what they mean

4 ) there is a concern for how people embody ritual schemes (we are the stories we tell)

5 ) the category of ritual ( ritual as universal in all places and all times) is discarded so that the logic and strategies of cultural practices can be observed.

2) Jonathan Z. Smith-Sacred Places, sacred objects

1 ) There is nothing that is inherently sacred or profane--these are situational categories not substantive ones.

2) The sacred is a category of emplacement, a map or label, an indice of difference.

3) David J. Hall & Robert Orsi-Lived Religion

1 ) What do real people do and how do they view their religious practices given their circumstances?

2 ) A focus on the everyday, on everyday life.

3 ) An acknowledgement of change and transformations in practices, attitudes and beliefs

4 ) A recognition of tensions and choices in how people decide to act.

5 ) An acknowledgement of religion as a process.