Central Texas Colloquium on Religion 2016 Abstracts (original) (raw)
Editors' Introduction, Fieldwork in Religion, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2019
Fieldwork in Religion, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2019
The second issue of Fieldwork in Religion for 2019 contains five research articles that are all highly contemporary in both subject matter and approaches. The authors have engaged with emergent fieldwork contexts including fan conven- tions and the psychedelics subculture, the social media phenomenon of Twitter, and insights from the French Marxist group Situationist International (SI) in the exploration of the sacred in twenty-first-century urban environments.
Religion Abstracts 4th Annual International Symposion on Religion
Why we are in Need of Negative Theology - The Destructive Role of Religion Proves Martha Nussbaum Wrong, 2019
„Religion creates culture, religion schools people in social skills such as empathy“ stated Martha Nussbaum in her famous study of 2003, „Upheavals of Thought“. The contrary seems to be true, with a quick glance at what religious wars today, even at the threshould of our home, create in terms of violence, hatred and barbarism, oftenly starting with a discussion about words and discriminating „infidels―. In order to complete the somewhat fragmentary picture of what religion may or may not create in regard of culture Nussbaum paints, I would like to point out the hidden history of negative theology. Negative theology was a philosophical idea not exclusively claimed by certain schools, but a lineage commonly shared by those thinkers whose respect for the source of being was unrestricted by religious dogma. Starting with Plotin, Proklus and Dionysos Areopagita, then challenging mystics of the medieval age such as Meister Eckhart and Nicholas of Cusa, negative theology proved to be a philosophical „way without a way― to describe the source of being above all confessional discussions. God, in their opinion, is neither good nor bad, neither white nor black, neither male nor female, the One is above all attributions, even the best, because attributions describe a being partially, which is not compatible with source which is one-and-all. Therefore, the „metaphysics of the One― states that all religion basically means the same in different conventions of terminology, thus, that every war about words is useless, that culture is created not in the worship of a being superior, but in the worship of the divine source within mankind itself – a true humanist view. In my opinion, we as a global society today with more and more open borders are in massive need of negative theology in order to cope with the potential of violence which is hidden within religion itself. If we intend to end religious wars, we must adopt the philosophical insights of the negative theologians and humanists of the past, and we must adopt them quickly, as there is few time left.
Religious Studies 701 Issues in the Study of Religions McMaster University, Term I 2007
This departmental seminar is required of all incoming students and offers a forum for the discussion of issues central to the field of Religious Studies. This year, there will be two sections, one taught by myself and the other by Dr Anders Runesson. Since Religious Studies might best be considered a field rather than a discipline, its theories, methods and issues can be extremely diverse. In the seminar we will consider the following questions from a variety of perspectives: What do we think we are studying when we study religions? Why do we think this is a worthwhile endeavour? How do we study religions?
SOC 225 Religion and Non Religion - Gerardo Marti - Spring 2018
Course Description & Student Outcomes: Religion exists in a social context, and always is shaped by and shapes its social context. Furthermore, religion itself is always (at least in part) a socially constituted reality-that is, its content and structure are always formed, at least partially, out of the "stuff" of the socio-cultural world (language, symbols, groups, norms, interactions, resources, organizations, etc.). The sociology of religion pursues an understanding of both the "social-ness'" of religion itself and the mutually influencing interactions between religion and its social environment. We will analyze religious beliefs, practices, and organizations from a sociological perspective, with a primary focus on religion in contemporary American society. Specifically, this course is designed to: 1. Cultivate in students an understanding of the distinctively sociological approach to studying religion. There are many approaches to studying religion-historical, psychological, theological, sociological, anthropological, etc. Since in this class we take a distinctively sociological approach, our most basic goal is to develop an understanding of and appreciation for the kinds of questions sociologists ask and the kind of explanations they offer when they analyze religion. 2. Familiarize students with some of the major issues, problems, and findings in the sociology of religion. Students will have the opportunity to learn some of the theoretical and substantive content of the sociology of religion, to deepen their sociological knowledge of such things as religious conversion, shifting church attendance rates, religiously inspired political activism, the emergence of new religions, and secularization. 3. Introduce students to basic skills of field research. Sociology is an empirical discipline that constructs theories and draws conclusions based on evidence that can be observed. Students in this class will go beyond merely reading about religion, to actually doing simple participant-observation through field trips at local religious groups, involving first-hand observation, analysis, and brief written reports. 4. Improve cognitive & communication skills. Finally, this course aims generally, through its exercises and requirements, to enhance students' abilities to read, analyze, discuss, and write skillfully.
Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, Volume 33
2023
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual "Brill" typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface.
2021
Religion Reexamined is a concise introduction to world religions. It is designed to facilitate a comparative study of religions. It is divided into eight chapters that thoroughly examine the foundations of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Secularism. Following Clifford Geertz, it treats each religion as a cultural system composed of three parts: ethos (character), ethics (way of life), and ethnos (social entity). Using Stephen Prothero’s approach, it identifies each religions’ problem, solutions to the problem, techniques for moving from problem to solution, and exemplars who chart the path from problem to solution. It includes critical reviews of religion by psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and philosophers from Aristotle to Karen Armstrong.