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Various Religious symbols

Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.

While theology attempts to understand the nature of transcendent or supernatural forces (such as deities), religious studies tries to study religious behavior and belief from outside any particular religious viewpoint. Religious studies draws upon multiple disciplines and their methodologies including anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and history of religion.

Religious studies originated in the nineteenth century, when scholarly and historical analysis of the Bible had flourished, and Hindu and Buddhist texts were first being translated into European languages. Early influential scholars included Friedrich Max Müller, in England, and Cornelius P. Tiele, in the Netherlands. Today religious studies is practiced by scholars worldwide. In its early years, it was known as Comparative Religion or the Science of Religion and, in the USA, there are those who today also know the field as the History of religion (associated with methodological traditions traced to the University of Chicago in general, and in particular Mircea Eliade, from the late 1950s through to the late 1980s). The field is known as Religionswissenschaft in Germany and Sciences des religions in the French-speaking world.

The term "religion" originated from the Latin noun "religio", that was nominalized from one of three verbs: "relegere" (to turn to constantly/observe conscientiously); "religare" (to bind oneself [back]); and "reeligere" (to choose again). Because of these three different meanings, an etymological analysis alone does not resolve the ambiguity of defining religion, since each verb points to a different understanding of what religion is. During the Medieval Period, the term "religious" was used as a noun to describe someone who had joined a monastic order (a "religious"). Despite this change in meaning, it is important to note the term "religion" is primarily a Christian term. Judaism and Hinduism, for example, do not include this term in their vocabulary.

Theology

Western philosophy of religion, as the basic ancestor of modern religious studies, is differentiated from theology and the many Eastern philosophical traditions by generally being written from a third party perspective. The scholar need not be a believer. Theology stands in contrast to the philosophy of religion and religious studies in that, generally, the scholar is first and foremost a believer employing both logic and scripture as evidence. Theology according to this understanding fits with the definition which Anselm of Canterbury gave to it in the 11th century, credo ut intelligam, or faith seeking understanding (literally, "I believe so that I may understand"). The theologian then has the task of making intelligible, or clarifying, the religious commitments to which he or she subscribes. The scholar of religious studies has no such allegiances.

Intellectual foundation and background

Before religious studies became a field in its own right, flourishing in the United States in the late 1960s, several key intellectual figures explored religion from a variety of perspectives. One of these figures was the famous pragmatist William James. His 1902 Gifford lectures and book The Varieties of Religious Experience examined religion from a psychological-philosophical perspective and is still influential today. His essay The Will to Believe defends the rationality of faith.

Max Weber studied religion from an economic perspective in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-5), his most famous work. As a major figure in sociology, he has no doubt influenced later sociologists of religion. Émile Durkheim also holds continuing influence as one of the fathers of sociology. He explored Protestant and Catholic attitudes and doctrines regarding suicide in his work Suicide. In 1912 he published his most memorable work on religion, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life.

Harvard's Benjamin M. Friedman, an Economics professor there, authored that explored moral and ideological interfaces of economics with ethics, political theory, religious belief and practice, religious sociology, and historical outcomes of religion (including some religions' suicidal tendences to destroy themselves by 'talking themselves out of a place in history' through their (possibly misguided) policies advocated:

• Economic Stabilization Policy: Methods in Optimization, American Elsevier (1975)
• Monetary Policy in the United States: Design and Implementation, Association of Reserve City Bankers (1981)
• Day of Reckoning: The Consequences of American Economic Policy under Reagan and After, Random House (1988)
• Implications of Increasing Corporate Indebtedness for Monetary Policy, Group of Thirty (New York, NY) (1990)
• Does Debt Management Matter?, with Jonas Agell and Mats Persson, Oxford University Press (New York, NY) (1992)
• The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, Knopf (2005)
• Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, Knopf (2021)

Harvard Divinity School

Some thought that anyone's studying at the Harvard Divinity School meant preparation for serviced with the ordained clergy, but the empirical view of matriculated students in an academic divinity school is that 'persons in process' from many moral, religious, academic, intellectual, spiritual, economic, and political backgrounds were brought for the curricular service of Faculty members (some of whom held endowed Chairs) and instructors in academic, practical, and other subjects.

The curriculum was quite broad; one of Maynard's Wheaton College colleagues commented that she had heard that it would be possible to slip through from orientation to graduation without ever opening a Bible. Indeed, that seems to have been true because one could study:

• Counseling (and 'pastoral arts' or 'applied theology') through what was called 'Department of the Church'
• Nonwestern religions
• Other Abrahamic religions (Islam, Judaism, etc.)
• Social sciences (anthropology, economics, psychology, sociology)
• 1 Anthropology (Religious studies develops a 'traditionally consistent' 'moral anthropology')
• 2 Communication studies (Communication is a 'heart' of what religious messaging does.)
• 3 Economics (How can moderns understand modernity and themselves in modernity without sophistication?)
• 4 Education (Religious duties to teach ought to be measurable, and the faith institutions accountable.)
• 5 Geography (Geography of religions is about the spatial diffusion of religious movements)
• 6 History (History of religions is a field of historical study which is constantly searching for a 'distributed center' and a methodology; every denomination and congregation also wants a 'history' - real or invented for it by seeming 'experts')
  • 6.1 History of religions
• 7 Law (Combined programs with the Harvard Law School prepare both advocates and opportunists
  • 7.1 Canon Law
  • 7.2 Comparative Legal Systems
• 8 Linguistics (The National Science Foundation awarded full scholarships to doctoral candidates in linguistics, and language studies is foundational to Scriptural studies; linguistic theory is foundational in 'theory of mind' that is foundational in more 'humanistic' interpretations of theology's tasks and interests, if we're locating the study in human awareness, which is hardly 'theological'; theology is concerned with a 'traditionally consistent' 'moral anthropology' in discussing sin and guilt in hamartiology or ethics, etc.).
• 9 Political science (How does one navigate through modernity's complexity without sophistication?)
  • 9.1 Public administration (Navigating through denominational complexity and modern institutions)
• 10 Psychology (How can moderns understand modernity and themselves in modernity without sophistication?)
• 11 Sociology (How can congregations navigate through modernity's complexity without sophistication?)
• 12 Ethics
  • Ethical theory (important for some academic students of religion; others were interested in political office)
  • Medical ethics (important for hospital counseling)
  • Social ethics (Some folks only want a secularize message, sometimes only justifying 'social critics')

Much of the Faculty as Harvard Divinity School held a postliberal worldview, while some of the Faculty of Wheaton College, such as Robert E. Webber, migrated from hyperfundamentalist to paleo-orthodoxy. After all, Webber was married to Joanne Lindsell Webber, daughter of "unreconstructed fundamentalist" theologian Harold Lindsell, and together they have four children, John, Alexandra, Stefany, and Jeremy.

Divinity Hall

Divinity Hall, when Maynard was there, was a site much psychological and phenomelogical exploration and historical study. That Divinity Hall (where he lived for several of his HDS years) and the Biology Labs (where he worked for several years while a graduate student at Harvard) have been 'architecturally framed together' is curious in light of his long-standing ____ with life and the manifold of persons of many life forms.

• Harvard Vivarium and Divinity Hall in modern 21st century Quadrangle

Interconnectedness of All Things

'Ecological' beliefs in the 'interconnectedness of all things' is prevalent in some quarters, and it may be increasing among ecologically-sophisticated or ecologically-oriented persons and communities/populations

Scriptural Studies

See also: history of religion, timeline of religion, and history of writing

The word 'Scriptures' is used in an array of religious traditions and faiths.

Religious texts, also known as scripture, scriptures, holy writ, or holy books, are the texts which various religious traditions consider to be sacred, or central to their religious tradition. Many religions and spiritual movements believe that their sacred texts are divinely or supernaturally revealed or inspired.

History of Religious Texts

The oldest known religious texts are Pyramid texts of Ancient Egypt that date to 2400-2300 BCE. The earliest form of the Phoenician alphabet found to date is the inscription on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram of Byblos. ( The Sumerian Temple Hymns ). The Epic of Gilgamesh from Sumer, with origins as early as 2150-2000 BCE, is also one of the earliest literary works that includes various mythological figures. The Rigveda of Hinduism is proposed to have been composed between 1700–1100 BCE making it possibly the world's oldest religious text still in use. The oldest portions of the Zoroastrian Avesta are believed to have been transmitted orally for centuries before they found written form, and although widely differing dates for Gathic Avestan (the language of the oldest texts) have been proposed, scholarly consensus floats at around 1000 BCE.

Views

Attitudes to sacred texts differ. Some religions make written texts widely and freely available, while others hold that sacred secrets must remain hidden from all but the loyal and the initiate. Most religions promulgate policies defining the limits of the sacred texts and controlling or forbidding changes and additions. Some religions view their sacred texts as the "Word of God", often contending that the texts are inspired by God and as such not open to alteration. Translations of texts may receive official blessing, but an original sacred language often has de facto, absolute or exclusive paramountcy. Some religions make texts available free or in subsidized form; others require payment and the strict observance of copyright.

References to scriptures profit from standardisation: the Guru Granth Sahib (of Sikhism) always appears with standardised page numbering while many other religions (including the Abrahamic religions and their offshoots) favour chapter and verse pointers.

Other Terms

Terms like "Holy Writ", "Holy Scripture", or "Sacred Scripture" are often used by adherents to describe the canonical works of their religion to denote the text's importance, its status as divine revelation, or, as in the case of many Christian groups, its complete inerrancy. Christianity is not alone in using this terminology to revere its sacred book; Islam holds the Qur'an in similar esteem, as does Hinduism the Vedas and Bhagavad Gita and Buddhism the sutras.

Hierographology

Hierographology (Ancient Greek: ἱερός, hieros, "sacred" or "holy", + γραφή, graphe, "writing", + λόγος, logos, "word" or "reason") (archaically also 'hierology') is the study of sacred texts.

Increasingly, sacred texts of many cultures are studied within academic contexts, primarily to increase understanding of other cultures, whether ancient or contemporary. Sometimes this involves the extension of the principles of higher criticism to the texts of many faiths. It may also involve a comparative study of religious texts.

Social Sciences

Pure

• Sister Marie Augusta Neal, PhD, Chair, Sociology Department, Emmanuel College (Massachusetts)

(1921-2004) Sister of Notre Dame de Namur; Ph.D., Harvard University, 1963; Professor Emerita and longtime Chair of the Sociology Department at Emmanuel College, Boston. President, Association for the Sociology of Religion, 1972; Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1982-1983.

Sister Marie Augusta is the author of eight books, 31 chapters in collected volumes, and 33 articles, with frequent contributions to the refereed journals in the social science of religion. She is the recipient of several honorary degrees as well as the Isaac Hecker Social Justice Award from the Paulist Center in Boston (1977), the Distinguished Teaching Award from the American Sociological Association (1986), and the Ecumenical Award from Xavier University in Cincinnati (1988) She has given guest lectures in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand and has been a visiting professor at several colleges and universities, including the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard Divinity School.

There are four main components to the work that Sister Marie Augusta has been doing during the past 35 years: (1) survey research on change in the Roman Catholic Church, conducted first with diocesan priests and later with members of women's religious orders; (2) analysis of Catholic social teaching as expressed in the encyclical letters of the popes for the past hundred years; (3) experimentation with a dialogical teaching style adapted from the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, wherein social issues are discussed by means of critical analysis from the point of view of oppressed peoples; (4) a passion for social justice, with a current emphasis on human rights. In this context, Sister Marie Augusta also has written articles and papers on women's issues, has conducted research on schools in South Africa, and has done a critical analysis of sociobiology. She has served on the Boston Archdiocesan Commission on Human Rights, on the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women in Massachusetts, on the Board of Advisors to the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, on the Board of the Women's Theological Center, on the Educational Policies Commission of the Boston Theological Institute, and on the Advisory Committee of the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union. The range of her interests may be seen in a sampling of her publications: Values and Interests in Social Change (Prentice Hall 1965), The South African Catholic Education Study (Catholic Education Council of Durban 1971), The Just Demands of the Poor (Paulist Press 1987), From Nuns to Sisters: An Expanding Vocation (Twenty-Third Publications 1990).

Sister Marie Augusta's intellectual perspectives have blended elements that some might consider disparate: the structural-functionalism of her mentor, Talcott Parsons; Marxian sociology; quantitative analysis; and the strong religious foundation that has consistently inspired her views on social justice. She has accomplished this synthesis in a credible manner by means of a rigorous research methodology that is grounded in classical and contemporary social theory and the critical use of a wide range of written sources. As a result, her commitment to thorough, painstaking scholarship is evident throughout her published work.

—Madeleine R. Cousineau

Reference

M. A. Neal, Themes of a Lifetime (Boston: Emmanuel College, 1995).

Applied

• Applied theology or Practical theology - practical arts of preaching and counseling

This is a list of counseling topics.

Therapeutic Modalities

Academic advising Art therapist/Dance therapy/Drama therapy/Music therapy Biblical counseling Brief therapy Career counseling Christian counseling Co-counseling Connectionism Counseling psychology Consultant Credit counseling Crisis hotline Disciplinary counseling E-mail counseling Ecological counseling Emotional therapy Existential counselling Exit counseling Genetic counseling Grief counseling Grief therapy Intervention Lay community counsellor Licensed Professional Counselor

Marriage counseling Mental health counselor Narrative therapy Navy Counselor Online counseling Pastoral counseling Person-centered therapy Postvention Pre-conception counseling Pregnancy options counseling Professional practice of behavior analysis Psychiatrist Psychiatric and mental health nursing Psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner Re-evaluation Counseling Rehabilitation counseling Relationship counseling Relationship education School counselor Social work Solution focused brief therapy Suicide intervention Telephone counseling

Coaching Mentoring Intersections

• Career coaching
• Co-coaching
• Coaching
• Dating coaching
• Empowerment
• Leadership
• Life coaching
• Mentoring
• Mentorship
• Personal coaching
• Systemic coaching

Common Areas

Conflict resolution Conflict resolution research Creative problem solving Dialogue Dispute resolution Emotional conflict Experiential education Family therapy Health psychology Human Potential Movement Interpersonal communication Intrapersonal communication Mediation

Multitheoretical psychotherapy Nonverbal communication Nonviolent communication Problem solving Reconciliation Relationship education Responsibility assumption Self-help Social psychology (psychology) Social psychology (sociology) Social work Stress management Transtheoretical Model

See also

• Outline of psychology
• Outline of sociology
  • Subfields of sociology
• Outline of self
• Outline of communication
• List of psychotherapies

Comparative Worldviews

A comprehensive world view (or worldview) is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the entirety of the individual or society's knowledge and point of view. A world view can include natural philosophy; fundamental, existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values, emotions, and ethics. The term is a calque of the German word Weltanschauung [ˈvɛlt.ʔanˌʃaʊ.ʊŋ] ^ⓘ, composed of Welt ('world') and Anschauung ('view' or 'outlook'). It is a concept fundamental to German philosophy and epistemology and refers to a wide world perception. Additionally, it refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs forming a global description through which an individual, group or culture watches and interprets the world and interacts with it.

See also

• Attitude polarization
• Belief
• Belief networks
• Christian worldview
• Cognitive bias
• Contemplation
• Cultural identity
• Eschatology
• Extrospection
• Ideology
• Life stance
• Mental model
• Metaknowledge
• Metanarrative
• Metaphysics
• Mindset
• Ontology
• Organizing principle
• Paradigm
• Perspective
• Philosophy
• Psycholinguistics
• Reality
• Reality tunnel
• Received view
• Religion
• Scientific modeling
• Scientism
• Social justice
• Social reality
• Socially constructed reality
• Subjective logic
• Truth
• Umwelt