Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion

Entries Tagged as 'Definitions of Religion'

Dolphins, Chimps & Japanese Religions

September 3rd, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications of Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Magic and Religion

After recently watching “The Cove” and a Mad Men episode titled “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” — a clever allusion to Ruth Benedict’s justly famous cultural study of Japan, I decided it was time to bone up on Japanese religions.  Japan is a multi-faceted nation and getting your head around its history, culture and people [...]

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Phylogeny of Religions

September 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications of Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct

Sooner or later any serious student or historian of religion will encounter Jonathan Z. Smith, he of the infamous quip — “there is no data for religion.  Religion is solely the creation of the scholar’s study.”  A curious statement indeed coming from one of the most prominent historians of religion, whose entire career and oeuvre [...]

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“Islam Is Not a Religion”

September 1st, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age Religions, Civil Religion, Definitions of Religion

So says J.R. Dieckmann, an electrician and writer who runs a website that I will neither name nor link.  He did, however, post this startling proclamation over here, one of the many bizarre and paranoid websites that are making so much fearful noise in American politics.
Decoding Dieckmann’s assertion is easy — what he means is [...]

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African Witchcraft & American Religion

August 31st, 2010 · 1 Comment · Classifications of Religion, Definitions of Religion, Ritual and Religion

Over at Live Science, Benjamin Radford stereotypically reports — with no irony and little thought — that “Belief in Witchcraft Widespread in Africa” is prevalent:
A new Gallup poll found that belief in magic is widespread throughout sub-Saharan Africa, with over half of respondents saying they personally believe in witchcraft. Studies in 18 countries show belief [...]

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Anthropology of Religion Courses

August 25th, 2010 · No Comments · Definitions of Religion

For undergraduates who are taking an Anthropology of Religion course, I have decided to create two categories in the blog that may be of assistance to you.  In creating these categories, I am assuming that your professor treats religion as both a biological and cultural phenomena.
If s/he instead follows the traditional “butterfly collecting” approach — [...]

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Literacy & Books: Shaping Religious Experience

August 21st, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age Religions, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions

Over at The Atlantic, Heather Horn interviews Andrew Pettegree, who has just written a history of the book titled The Book in the Renaissance.  After pondering the (bright) future of books, they discuss the profound ways in which vernacular books and a literate public forever changed religious experience:
But one mustn’t ignore that the mainstay of [...]

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Theology of Religions v. History of Religions

August 18th, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age Religions, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, Evolution and Selection, Neolithic Religions, Shamans and Shamanism

Over at HuffPo Religion, a well meaning Matthew Anderson suggests that all American junior-senior high school students should be required to take a minimum of two classes on world religions so as to be exposed to something other than their parents’ religion.  He supposes that these courses would foster tolerance and lead to a more [...]

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Archaeology of Ritual & Viking Religion

August 13th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Classifications of Religion, Definitions of Religion, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Magic and Religion, Pagans and Polytheism, Ritual and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

Archaeologists working in Europe have it good, really good.  Depending on one’s interests, you can research just about anything.  Paleoanthropologists can work on hominid evolution (i.e., Homo heidelbergensis, H. antecessor, H. neanderthalensis), while their colleagues can study a host of fascinating subjects, including the Upper Paleolithic transition, mesolithic hunter-gatherers, incipient agriculturalists, and the usual smattering [...]

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Morality without God, Buddhism as Religion, and Christian Empire

August 7th, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age Religions, Classifications of Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Morality and Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Power and Religion

Incredibly, there are three articles over at HuffPo Religion that I have recently bookmarked for brief discussion here.  There are of course about ten others which reflect the liberal, progressive, ecumenical, and mystical view of religion adhered to by a tiny minority of people, and which will be of interest mostly to the highly educated [...]

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Is “Quantum Consciousness” the Essence of “Spirituality”?

August 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications of Religion, Cognition and Religion, Definitions of Religion, Methodology of Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

In “Quantum Consciousness: The Way to Reconcile Science and Spirituality,” Kingsley Dennis elegantly discusses what has proven to the most intractable issue in neuroscience: consciousness.  Because fluctuations and altered states of consciousness are so often linked to the supernatural-religious, I have examined it in many posts, including Consciousness and the Supernatural, which provides a brief [...]

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