1/14 American Religious History

1. RELS 191 - Religion in America
Introduction to the Course
and to
Religious Studies

2. I. What is Religion?

3. Difficulty of Definition
 What to include?
 What to exclude?
 Who decides?
 Origins (etymology) of “Religion”
 Religio - respect (for the gods)
 Religare - to bind, to connect
 Relegere - to re-read, read again
 Albanese: Substantive, Functional, and Formal
definitions

4. Definitions of Religion
 Emile Durkheim (Sociologist):
“A religion is a unified system of beliefs and
practices relative to sacred things, that is to say,
things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and
practices which unite into one single community
called a church, all those who adhere to them.”
Religion is an institution (group).

5. Definitions of Religion
 Clifford Geertz (Anthropologist):
“…religion is: (1) a system of symbols which acts to
(2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting
moods and motivations in men [sic] by (3)
formulating conceptions of a general order and (4)
clothing these conceptions with such an air of
factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem
uniquely realistic.”
Religion is a symbolic cultural system.

6. Definitions of Religion
 Karl Marx (philosopher):
“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed
creature, the heart of a heartless world, as it
is the spirit of spiritless conditions. It is the
opium of the people.”
Religion is false consciousness, mystification,
wishful thinking.

7. Definitions of Religion
 Paul Tillich (theologian):
“Religion is the aspect of depth in the totality of the
human spirit…the religious aspect points to that
which is ultimate, infinite, unconditional in man’s
[sic] spiritual life. Religion, in the largest and
most basic sense of the word, is ultimate concern.”
Religion is depth dimension of human experience.

8. Definitions of Religion
 Frederick Streng (Historian of Religion):
“Religion is a means to ultimate
transformation.”
Ultimacy and effective power; practice.

9. Religion as Means to Ultimate
Transformation (Soteriology)
 Problem (state of sin, ignorance, etc)
 Ideal state or goal (grace, heaven,
enlightenment, balance, etc)
 Means or way to achieve goal
(meditation, piety, devotional practices, acceptance of
Jesus, etc)

10. Why Study Religion?
 To gain information, compare, understand
 To examine religion in a cultural context
 To broaden one’s own perspective
 To gain a new religious or experiential self
awareness
 Scale of inter-religious understanding
 From Religious hatred to Religious engagement.
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 Pluralism, Multi-culturalism, Post-pluralism

11. How to Study Religion?
(Problems, Hurdles, Difficulties)
 Objectivity and subjectivity
 Emic (insider) and etic (outsider) approaches
 Primary data and texts vs. secondary
 Purpose or goal of study?
 Description
 Explanation
 Interpretation
 Evaluation
 Difference between culture and religion

12. Theories of Religion
1. Animistic Theories
2. Nature-Worship Theory
3. Original Monotheism Theory
4. Magic Theory
5. Human Needs Theory

13. What does a “theory” do?
 Bart Simpson: knowing of…
 Theoria: (Gr.) to see, what is seen, seeing
 In science:
 Organizes data
 Explains events mechanistically
 Allows us to predict and control
 Tells us where to look, what questions to ask.
 In Religious Studies…? Bias? Ethnocentrism?

14. Animistic Theory
 Edward Tylor (1832-1917)
 “Primitive” peoples develop sense of spirit or
other-world or soul from experiences of death and
dreams
 “mana” is supernatural power experienced
emotionally
 Ancestor worship and polytheism
 Animism - spirits could be helpful or harmmful

15. Nature-Worship Theory
 Max Müller (1823-1900)
 Humans develop religions from observing
the forces of nature - not just death and
dreams.
 Religion as personification of natural forces
 Gods/goddesses tend to correspond to nature
 Indo-European religions all seem to originate
from myths about the sun.

16. Original Monotheism
 Wilhelm Schmidt (1868-1954)
 Earliest religions not animistic or naturalistic, but
based on one High God.
 Transcends time and world
 Moral law-giver, returns at end of time.
 Too difficult to sustain by “primitives”-corrupted
into polytheism
 Advanced religions (I.e. Abrahamic) recovered
true monotheism.

17. Religious Evolutionary Theory
 James Frazer (1854-1941)
 Religion is attempt to control nature.
 Evolutionary scheme:
 Magic
 Religion
 Science

18. Human Needs Theories
 Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) - religion as
superlative human quality (most powerful, most
loving, best of…); projection of human ideals onto
distant heaven and therefore source of humanity’s
disrespect for itself.
 Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) - religion as
projection of parental care; Future of an Illusion;
unnecessary coping mechanism for guilt and life
problems.
 Karl Marx (1818-1883) - religion as “opium of the
masses”; ideology of upper classes that oppresses
lower classes.

19.  Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) - religion as
society’s image of itself; functionalism;
means by which societies regulate
individualism/collectivism.
 Max Weber (1864-1920) - religion as source
of innovation; The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism; priestly religion vs.
prophetic religion.
 Paul Tillich (1886-1965) - religion as
“ultimate concern”; overly broad definition
of religion.

20. Conclusion/Summary of Theories
of Religion
 Theory of Original Monotheism has had most
cultural influence in the West; appeals to people of
faith - especially conservatives.
 Theory of Religion as Human Needs is
perspective of Religious Studies and of this class -
more objective, scholarly, less biased in favor of a
single religious/cultural tradition; less
ethnocentric.
 Need for self-awareness, self-criticism necessary
for good scholarship.

21. Ways to think about religion in
America.
 Church History
 Lived Religion
 Revitalization Movements
 Ecological Metaphor (Porterfield)

22. Church History
 Theological perspective
 Written by theologians or ministers
 Ex: H. Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in
America (1937)
 Concerned with Christian Church, theology, how
Church teachings influence society, culture, etc.
 Who is a Christian and who is not, Church,
church, sect, cult, denomination, etc.

23. Lived Religion
 Religion “on the ground” - particular times and
places.
 Religious life of individuals and communities that
is sometimes in conflict with the institutional
structures of which those communities are a part.
 “Popular” religion
 Conflict and Consensus
 Religion vs. spirituality?
 Matters of definition
 The question of power
 Power over another
 Power that works through culture and cultural systems
to keep them alive; to influence individuals.

24. Revitalization Movements
 A deliberate, organized, conscious effort by
members of a society to construct a more
satisfying culture
 Change of “mazeways” for a culture
 Mazeway is the mental image a person has about a
culture (Anthony Wallace applied this concept to explain the Iroquois
revitalization movement brought about by the Seneca prophet, Handsome Lake.)

25. Stages of Revitalization
Movements
 Prophet - has a dream or vision for a new
mazeway
 The people are in a defective mazeway
 Disciples - small group around the prophet
elaborate the vision, codify it, explain it to others
 Communities - groups that live in the new
mazeway
 Whole society adopts the mazeway (or not)

26. Ecological Metaphor
 Amanda Porterfield, Introduction
 Key Themes:
 Religious Freedom
 Individual Experience
 Family Life
 Social Reform
 New Species survive, thrive, or die out

27. Summary and Critical Questions
 Religious Studies is Interdisciplinary
 Respect and Objectivity are difficult goals.
 Many Religions in America (Pluralism)
 E Pluribus Unum? Consensus or Conflict? History
of Religion(s) in America?
 Or many separate independent stories?
 Does religion bind us together as Americans or
separate us?
 Secularization? Church and State?