EUGENE CHEN
PHIL-112-01Intro to Western Religions
Religious Studies Approaches
All religion has to do with fundamental human issues and concerns such as: Who are we? Why are we here? Why is the world created? What is the meaning of life and how is it fulfilling? Indeed, there are many aspect that does not necessarily have be looked at in a religious way. But religion is one of the dimensions, a way to explore the human practice and culture around the world.
There are two general approaches for the study of religion:
1. One is to analyze and study religions as an outsider which involves observing, describing , evaluating, organizing, and interpreting the religious data from the outside perspective. Researchers use methods and disciplines of the others social sciences to develope theories that explain the religious practices and the functions they fulfill in people’s lives.
2. Another one takes the looking of particular religion. That is they take close attention to what the people themselves say about the meaning and purpose of their religious practices. They attempt to prevent explaining them in terms of cause or function. Scholar adopt this approach tend to focus on meaning, value, and expectation express by the people themselves.
There are scholars stand on both sides arguing the means for studying religion. However, both approaches are important and can contribute to our overall understanding for religions, giving us a clear picture from the inside and outside.
The Essay on Spiritual Consciousness in Santmat and Other Religions a Comparative Study
“There is a pupil of the eye inside the pupil which itself is inside the pupil of the eye, some rare Sadhu has seen it. There is a lotus of four petals in Trikuti which is the region of Om, reveals great Saint Kabir Sahab. Param Guru Huzur Sahabji Maharaj, fifth Revered leader of Radha soami faith and founder of Dayalbagh also explains; “The greatest discovery that has ever been made or that shall ...
The main goal for religious study is understanding religions. Though we might have our own religious traditions and believes, we should try to put ourselves at the position of an outsider to look at different religions in an objective manners. It is important that we consciously giving deep respect to the religious traditions of others. In this way, we might understand different religions better in on their stand.
Understanding religions does arise from comparison. And so it is always a good idea to also look at several religious traditions in an outside point of view. The good thing about comparison is that we get to see the basic structures of religions more easily. The commons values they share, geographical relation, basic ethics and so on.
The goal for religious study is not to produce a synthesis of answers from all these totally different and unique religions. In this course, we looking at the common human questions and the responses found on the following three area: sacred story, worlds of meaning, and ritual practices and the good life.
What’s Sacred? People understood the sacred to be experienced in numerous forms and powers. Whichever people turn, in both nature and society, we encounter power.
The Sacred is often personified into either one god, the monotheism, or many shares the power, the polytheism.
Usually, the ideal good life is presented in the sacred history, either the gods did in mythological age or examples provided by the ancestors. And the law of morality or ideal moral standard are always set gods or, another ideal exemplar of ancestors.
As we live in the world that everybody interact easily across the globe, we should have the sense that people from different religion need to work together and prevent the possible conflict raise by the religious values differences, and make it a better world for everyone.
The Essay on Dying With Religion Religious Person
A Riv Dying With Religion Wars occur for many reasons. There may be one main reason or a few specific reasons as to why war was declared in the first place. One thing that never changes in war is the fact that there will always be two sides fighting against each other for what they believe in. Death is also acquainted with war and soldiers in war tend to think about life and death every moment ...
