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Religion and Healing I

Religion and Healing I. April 13, 2005. Religion. Set of beliefs, customs, symbols and rituals that deal with the supernatural and its relationship to humans Human universal All are syncretic. Conceptualizations of God. Monotheism (God, Allah, Yaweh, Ra) Polytheism (Hinduism)

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Religion and Healing I

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  1. Religion and Healing I April 13, 2005

  2. Religion • Set of beliefs, customs, symbols and rituals that deal with the supernatural and its relationship to humans • Human universal • All are syncretic

  3. Conceptualizations of God • Monotheism (God, Allah, Yaweh, Ra) • Polytheism (Hinduism) • Communal, Shamanistic • Pantheistic (Greeks, Zeus et al) • Animistic (Shinto; Native American)

  4. How does religion function in society? • Political Power • Governance/Adjudication • Social organization/cohesion • Rights of Passage • Community Events • Gender • Identity

  5. Witchcraft, Magic, Sorcery • Magic: action, often ritualized, that calls on the supernatural to achieve a goal • Witchcraft: using magic to cause harm • Sorcery: use of magic objects to cause harm • Witchdoctor: uses power to undo spells and restore order

  6. That is like so random • Random-ness is a product of enlightenment thinking-reason • “Without a governing design, method, or purpose; unsystematic” • Witchcraft is a common way to explain the unexplainable

  7. Proximate & Ultimate Causality • Azande Granary • Proximate: termites damaged supports, gravity caused it to fall (scientific explanation) • Ultimate: witchcraft (why then? Why there?)

  8. How does witchcraft function? • Expresses social tensions • Social control mechanism • Contrasts modernist discourse, i.e. randomness (randomness is also a statement of faith) • Functional explanation doesn’t tell us about belief

  9. Traditional Social Science • Focus on symbolic, structural and social features of religion • “Explain away” issues of belief • Reason creates “hierarchy of truth” • Creates a difference between belief and knowledge

  10. “Radical Objectivity” • Recognize that disbelief is itself a form of belief • Randomness is a statement of faith • Science is a worldview, analogous to religion • Seek to understand, but not judge

  11. Vernacular Religion • Not theory, doctrine or dogma, but religion as it is lived and experienced • Guiding Questions: • What is the source of power? • How is it accessed?

  12. Direct Engagement • No distance/mediation between self and supernatural • Testimony • Extend conversion to everyday life • Speaking in tongues • Charismatic, evangelical protestants

  13. Sacramental Engagement • Individuals or artifacts mediate between mortals and the divine; accessing God through a mediator • Catholicism (Priests, sacraments) • Fire talkers

  14. Magical Engagement • Manipulate words and objects to alter fate • Fate can be affected by human action • Root work • Vodou

  15. Ritual • “Social Cement” experience fortified by collective, symbolic representations • Collective representations are sacred because they are the basis of group life • Rituals symbolically separate the sacred from the profane

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