Approaches to the Study of Religion in America
“Approaches to the study of Religion in America”
W.E.B. DuBois – Sociologist and critic/ African American/ Church vs. Religion. Wrote Souls of Black Folk in 1903.
Church – is an organization that practices the creed of beliefs, worship practices, financial goals, and ethic goals. Saw them as human institutions. NEEDED PEOPLE
Religion – Theory/ Larger category of the ultimate concerns of humanity, moral questions of right and wrong, recognizing the dangers of exclusion and perhaps eradication. How religious beliefs and structures expand beyond the boundaries of the religious institutions.
Religion is the Latin word for “religio” which means to combine/bind.
Wilfred Cantwell Smith – Theorist that distinguishes how to be religious without the assistance of a special term.
Johnathan Z Smith – Theorist who is called to be the student and historian of religion, whom said we must be self-conscience of our definition of religion and where it comes from.
Emile Durkheim – Sociologist – Wrote “Elementary forms of religious life” in 1912. Said we must identify the most indigenous traditional religion. Also said that religion is an imminently social thing, it is comprised of beliefs and practices which unite people into one single moral community.
Max Weber – Sociologist – Wrote “Sociology of Religion” in 1922. Said that religious thoughts and behaviors are connected to other social and economic forces.
Sigmund Freud – (1856 – 1936) – Wrote “The Future of Illusion” in 1927. He said we are all children and irrational. Obsessional Universal Neurosis.
William James – Wrote “Varieties of Religious Experiences” in 1902. Founder of Pragmatism. Said religion is the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men and women in their solitude in connection to what they think is divine.
SOCIOLOGY – Group experiences
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) – The elementary forms of religious life (1912)
“Religion is an eminently social thing comprised of beliefs and practices which unite people into one single moral community”
Max Weber (1864-1920) – The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904)
The Sociology of Religion (1912)
Psychology – Personal Experiences
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) – The Future of an illusion (1927)
Religion is “the universal obsessional neurosis of humanity”
William James (1842-1910) – The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)
Religion = “ the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves in relation to whatever they may consider the divine”
American Citizen, psychologist at Harvard, premiere psychologist before Sigmund Freud.
Anthropology
Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) – Religion as a Cultural System (1973)
- A system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, persuasive, and lost lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.
Symbols
- Illustration
- Visual
- Audio
- Words
- Taste
Studying Religion in America
- Studying religion in America is important because it is a melting pot made up of many different diversities and mythologies.
When does the history of religion in American begin?
Why does it matter when and where the history of religion in America begins? Europe, Africa, and Native Americas before convergence
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835
Divine Providence
Origin Story
Democracy
Context
- Second Great Awakening
- Evangelical Protestantism
- Protestant Moral Establishment
Providentialist – saw god playing an active role in humanity
Spread of democracy is a gift from god, and Europe failed at this
Believes the Puritans/ Pilgrims are the builders of the United States
“They came with the national characteristics already completely formed”
Tocqueville did recognize the great evils with the 2 evils he encountered, the Indian Americans and African Americans.
He was one of the first people to comment on religion in America for an audience in Europe