Paul L. Heck
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691164823
- eISBN:
- 9781400866427
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691164823.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter analyzes the concept of religious knowledge. Knowledge informs us about the reality of existence, providing guidance for decision making. In Islam, such knowledge, based in scripture ...
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This chapter analyzes the concept of religious knowledge. Knowledge informs us about the reality of existence, providing guidance for decision making. In Islam, such knowledge, based in scripture (Qur'an and sunna), exists to generate a moral order pleasing to God. Loss of such knowledge is a sign of the end times, ignorance being the cause of moral disarray. Knowledge is thus not simply a source of prestige for scholars but truth from God to guide society to prosperity in both this world and the next. Embodied in a corpus of laws known as shari'a, this knowledge is overseen by religious scholars with jurisprudential expertise to apply God's will with wisdom to life's situations. The chapter discusses the scope of religious knowledge, the religious value of secular reality, the political demands of religious knowledge, politics of religious diversity, religious knowledge and the modern state, and religious knowledge as guidance for society.Less
This chapter analyzes the concept of religious knowledge. Knowledge informs us about the reality of existence, providing guidance for decision making. In Islam, such knowledge, based in scripture (Qur'an and sunna), exists to generate a moral order pleasing to God. Loss of such knowledge is a sign of the end times, ignorance being the cause of moral disarray. Knowledge is thus not simply a source of prestige for scholars but truth from God to guide society to prosperity in both this world and the next. Embodied in a corpus of laws known as shari'a, this knowledge is overseen by religious scholars with jurisprudential expertise to apply God's will with wisdom to life's situations. The chapter discusses the scope of religious knowledge, the religious value of secular reality, the political demands of religious knowledge, politics of religious diversity, religious knowledge and the modern state, and religious knowledge as guidance for society.
C. Stephen Evans
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198263975
- eISBN:
- 9780191600579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019826397X.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
A variation on the epistemological objection to special acts of God (miracles) investigated in the previous chapter is the claim that such acts cannot be recognized by anyone who is committed to ...
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A variation on the epistemological objection to special acts of God (miracles) investigated in the previous chapter is the claim that such acts cannot be recognized by anyone who is committed to critical, historical investigation. This kind of argument, which rests on the nature of historical knowledge and critical historical method, is considered in this chapter. If the incarnational narrative necessarily includes such divine actions, then the argument claims that we cannot have historical knowledge of it. The different sections of the chapter are: rationalism about religious knowledge; can the rationalist conception of religious knowledge be defended?; Hans Frei and the character of the biblical narrative; the assumptions of the ‘critical historian’; Troeltsch’s principles of correlation and analogy; and the sociology of knowledge and appeals to authority.Less
A variation on the epistemological objection to special acts of God (miracles) investigated in the previous chapter is the claim that such acts cannot be recognized by anyone who is committed to critical, historical investigation. This kind of argument, which rests on the nature of historical knowledge and critical historical method, is considered in this chapter. If the incarnational narrative necessarily includes such divine actions, then the argument claims that we cannot have historical knowledge of it. The different sections of the chapter are: rationalism about religious knowledge; can the rationalist conception of religious knowledge be defended?; Hans Frei and the character of the biblical narrative; the assumptions of the ‘critical historian’; Troeltsch’s principles of correlation and analogy; and the sociology of knowledge and appeals to authority.
James Pereiro
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199230297
- eISBN:
- 9780191710650
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199230297.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This book is a study of a fundamental and neglected aspect of the Oxford Movement. The term ethos appears often in the writings of the Oxford men, especially in their correspondence, and the concept ...
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This book is a study of a fundamental and neglected aspect of the Oxford Movement. The term ethos appears often in the writings of the Oxford men, especially in their correspondence, and the concept makes its presence felt in every aspect of the Tractarians' intellectual life and religious or social activity. The present study fills a gap in the research about the Oxford Movement and it revises commonly held assumptions about it; the scholarly overlook of the topic has prevented a proper understanding of significant aspects of the intellectual and social history of the Movement. Ethos, for the Oxford men, was more than just a general ‘tone of peculiar gentleness and grace’. It represented a complex theory of religious knowledge which deeply influenced the genesis and development of the Movement. The Tractarians were conscious from the first of how far their ethos distinguished them from the High Church party, with whom they shared much common doctrinal ground. Recent historiography's overstressing of the High Church dimension of the Oxford Movement has tended to obscure Tractarian intellectual originality and the motivation behind many of their actions. The Oxford men were radical religious reformers inspired by an uncompromising principle which urged them forward towards the full restoration of early Christian doctrinal orthodoxy and the recovery of the Catholic ethos. They considered that this Catholic ethos, long lost in the Church of England, was the only ground where a real revival could take root and grow up. The book studies the pre-Tractarian formation of the concept of ethos, and its later development; it explores the intellectual and practical consequences of the notion for the religious and social revival the Oxford Movement tried to promote; it also offers a study of the formation of Newman's theory of doctrinal development and of the defining and definitive role ethos played in its conception.Less
This book is a study of a fundamental and neglected aspect of the Oxford Movement. The term ethos appears often in the writings of the Oxford men, especially in their correspondence, and the concept makes its presence felt in every aspect of the Tractarians' intellectual life and religious or social activity. The present study fills a gap in the research about the Oxford Movement and it revises commonly held assumptions about it; the scholarly overlook of the topic has prevented a proper understanding of significant aspects of the intellectual and social history of the Movement. Ethos, for the Oxford men, was more than just a general ‘tone of peculiar gentleness and grace’. It represented a complex theory of religious knowledge which deeply influenced the genesis and development of the Movement. The Tractarians were conscious from the first of how far their ethos distinguished them from the High Church party, with whom they shared much common doctrinal ground. Recent historiography's overstressing of the High Church dimension of the Oxford Movement has tended to obscure Tractarian intellectual originality and the motivation behind many of their actions. The Oxford men were radical religious reformers inspired by an uncompromising principle which urged them forward towards the full restoration of early Christian doctrinal orthodoxy and the recovery of the Catholic ethos. They considered that this Catholic ethos, long lost in the Church of England, was the only ground where a real revival could take root and grow up. The book studies the pre-Tractarian formation of the concept of ethos, and its later development; it explores the intellectual and practical consequences of the notion for the religious and social revival the Oxford Movement tried to promote; it also offers a study of the formation of Newman's theory of doctrinal development and of the defining and definitive role ethos played in its conception.
James Pereiro
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199230297
- eISBN:
- 9780191710650
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199230297.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This Introduction outlines the purpose of the book, namely to study a very important but neglected aspect of the Oxford Movement. The student of the Oxford Movement is very familiar with the concept ...
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This Introduction outlines the purpose of the book, namely to study a very important but neglected aspect of the Oxford Movement. The student of the Oxford Movement is very familiar with the concept of ethos. The book's contention is that in the language of the Tractarians, ethos is a concept rich in consequences, involving a complex theory of religious knowledge which deeply influenced the genesis and development of the Oxford Movement. The Introduction talks about the genesis of the book and outlines the chapters in turn.Less
This Introduction outlines the purpose of the book, namely to study a very important but neglected aspect of the Oxford Movement. The student of the Oxford Movement is very familiar with the concept of ethos. The book's contention is that in the language of the Tractarians, ethos is a concept rich in consequences, involving a complex theory of religious knowledge which deeply influenced the genesis and development of the Oxford Movement. The Introduction talks about the genesis of the book and outlines the chapters in turn.
Christian Smith
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195371796
- eISBN:
- 9780199870899
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195371796.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter lays out a typology of emerging adult religious approaches into which most American emerging adults seem to fit. It identifies a limited number of religious types — defined by their ...
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This chapter lays out a typology of emerging adult religious approaches into which most American emerging adults seem to fit. It identifies a limited number of religious types — defined by their religious commitment, knowledge, consistency, and interests — that describe well certain key underlying commonalities shared by different religious sets of emerging adults today. The religious and cultural themes described in Chapters 2 and 5 explain, in part, the features of these types. The typology itself helps to illuminate the multidimensional complexity of religious life among contemporary emerging adults.Less
This chapter lays out a typology of emerging adult religious approaches into which most American emerging adults seem to fit. It identifies a limited number of religious types — defined by their religious commitment, knowledge, consistency, and interests — that describe well certain key underlying commonalities shared by different religious sets of emerging adults today. The religious and cultural themes described in Chapters 2 and 5 explain, in part, the features of these types. The typology itself helps to illuminate the multidimensional complexity of religious life among contemporary emerging adults.
Brannon D. Ingram
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520297999
- eISBN:
- 9780520970137
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520297999.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
The first chapter situates the emergence of the Deoband movement within the aftermath of Indians’ failed uprising against the British in 1857. The chapter shows how the decline of first Mughal and ...
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The first chapter situates the emergence of the Deoband movement within the aftermath of Indians’ failed uprising against the British in 1857. The chapter shows how the decline of first Mughal and then British patronage for Islamic learning, as well as the post-1857 British policy of noninterference in religious matters, opened up a space for Deobandi scholars to reconceive the seminary (madrasa) as a purely religious institution rather than one engaged in the production of civil servants, to reimagine the `ulama as stewards of public morality rather than professionals in the service of the state, and to reframe the knowledge they purveyed as religious knowledge distinct from the secular knowledge promoted by the British. It also shows how Islamic law functioned, in the absence of courts or judges, as a discourse for which mass-printed texts on Islamic belief and practice and the publishing of Islamic legal opinions (traditionally issued to judges but now issued directly to lay Muslims) were key.Less
The first chapter situates the emergence of the Deoband movement within the aftermath of Indians’ failed uprising against the British in 1857. The chapter shows how the decline of first Mughal and then British patronage for Islamic learning, as well as the post-1857 British policy of noninterference in religious matters, opened up a space for Deobandi scholars to reconceive the seminary (madrasa) as a purely religious institution rather than one engaged in the production of civil servants, to reimagine the `ulama as stewards of public morality rather than professionals in the service of the state, and to reframe the knowledge they purveyed as religious knowledge distinct from the secular knowledge promoted by the British. It also shows how Islamic law functioned, in the absence of courts or judges, as a discourse for which mass-printed texts on Islamic belief and practice and the publishing of Islamic legal opinions (traditionally issued to judges but now issued directly to lay Muslims) were key.
Chris Hann and Hermann Goltz
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520260559
- eISBN:
- 9780520945920
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520260559.003.0006
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Religion
This chapter examines how religious knowledge is produced and transmitted in the context of Orthodox monastic lives in contemporary Romania. It considers the use, by novices and those who train them, ...
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This chapter examines how religious knowledge is produced and transmitted in the context of Orthodox monastic lives in contemporary Romania. It considers the use, by novices and those who train them, of notions of mysticism and charisma, in both discourse and practice, with particular reference to the use of texts. Cliché characterizations of Orthodoxy commonly emphasize a contemplative and mystical outlook. Such representations are not limited to Western observers. Orthodox theologians themselves speak of mysticism as the faith's central defining characteristic.Less
This chapter examines how religious knowledge is produced and transmitted in the context of Orthodox monastic lives in contemporary Romania. It considers the use, by novices and those who train them, of notions of mysticism and charisma, in both discourse and practice, with particular reference to the use of texts. Cliché characterizations of Orthodoxy commonly emphasize a contemplative and mystical outlook. Such representations are not limited to Western observers. Orthodox theologians themselves speak of mysticism as the faith's central defining characteristic.
Ramon Sarro
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748635153
- eISBN:
- 9780748653003
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748635153.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, African Studies
This book offers an in-depth analysis of an iconoclastic religious movement initiated by a Muslim preacher among coastal Baga farmers in the French colonial period. With an ethnographic approach that ...
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This book offers an in-depth analysis of an iconoclastic religious movement initiated by a Muslim preacher among coastal Baga farmers in the French colonial period. With an ethnographic approach that listens as carefully to those who suffered iconoclastic violence as to those who wanted to ‘get rid of custom’, it discusses the extent to which iconoclasm produces a rupture of religious knowledge and identity, and analyses its relevance in the making of modern nations and citizens. The book covers many topics such as the anthropology of religion, iconoclasm, the history and anthropology of West Africa, and the politics of heritage.Less
This book offers an in-depth analysis of an iconoclastic religious movement initiated by a Muslim preacher among coastal Baga farmers in the French colonial period. With an ethnographic approach that listens as carefully to those who suffered iconoclastic violence as to those who wanted to ‘get rid of custom’, it discusses the extent to which iconoclasm produces a rupture of religious knowledge and identity, and analyses its relevance in the making of modern nations and citizens. The book covers many topics such as the anthropology of religion, iconoclasm, the history and anthropology of West Africa, and the politics of heritage.
Jr. Henry E. Kyburg
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195062533
- eISBN:
- 9780199853038
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195062533.003.0017
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
It has been manifested over the past few centuries that science provides superbly powerful tools and methods for modifying the natural world. Many people would agree that it has also offered ...
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It has been manifested over the past few centuries that science provides superbly powerful tools and methods for modifying the natural world. Many people would agree that it has also offered explanation and understanding. But it is still unclear that these tools and methodology can propel us to solve all of the cognitive dilemmas that exist. It has been assumed, for example, that scientific knowledge and religious knowledge are so different that they cannot even clash with one another. But the recent arguments about creation and evolution show that perhaps they can come into conflict after all.Less
It has been manifested over the past few centuries that science provides superbly powerful tools and methods for modifying the natural world. Many people would agree that it has also offered explanation and understanding. But it is still unclear that these tools and methodology can propel us to solve all of the cognitive dilemmas that exist. It has been assumed, for example, that scientific knowledge and religious knowledge are so different that they cannot even clash with one another. But the recent arguments about creation and evolution show that perhaps they can come into conflict after all.
Kharisma Nugroho, Fred Carden, and Hans Antlov (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781447348078
- eISBN:
- 9781447348115
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447348078.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Building on the argument that local knowledge is political, this chapter investigates how knowledge plays a key role not just in policy formulation but also in implementation. Local knowledge is ...
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Building on the argument that local knowledge is political, this chapter investigates how knowledge plays a key role not just in policy formulation but also in implementation. Local knowledge is generated by citizens in everyday conversations and forums, often articulated in civil society and popular participation, including religious knowledge. We argue for local knowledge as a prerequisite for the democratisation of policy making and the improvement of public policies. To improve the use of local knowledge in public policy making, communities and partners need to work with local knowledge through its political dimensions.Less
Building on the argument that local knowledge is political, this chapter investigates how knowledge plays a key role not just in policy formulation but also in implementation. Local knowledge is generated by citizens in everyday conversations and forums, often articulated in civil society and popular participation, including religious knowledge. We argue for local knowledge as a prerequisite for the democratisation of policy making and the improvement of public policies. To improve the use of local knowledge in public policy making, communities and partners need to work with local knowledge through its political dimensions.
John Walbridge
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195137996
- eISBN:
- 9780199849055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195137996.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter focuses not on Baqir al-Sadr as scholar of fiqh and usul al-fiqh, but on Baqir al-Sadr the philosopher. Khomeini was also a philosopher, yet Khomeini's influence in this domain has not ...
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This chapter focuses not on Baqir al-Sadr as scholar of fiqh and usul al-fiqh, but on Baqir al-Sadr the philosopher. Khomeini was also a philosopher, yet Khomeini's influence in this domain has not been felt. Rather, his legalistic and political ideas have survived him. The philosophical ideas of Baqir al-Sadr, on the other hand, have spread beyond the Shiʿism into Sunni communities throughout the world. Baqir al-Sadr engaged Western philosophical ideas, not to discredit them but to challenge them when he saw fit and to incorporate them into his own system when appropriate. Baqir al-Sadr's goals are ultimately religious. He wished to show that religious knowledge was not the antithesis of scientific knowledge, but that the two are actually in the same category, thereby addressing issues of paramount concern to Muslim intellectuals.Less
This chapter focuses not on Baqir al-Sadr as scholar of fiqh and usul al-fiqh, but on Baqir al-Sadr the philosopher. Khomeini was also a philosopher, yet Khomeini's influence in this domain has not been felt. Rather, his legalistic and political ideas have survived him. The philosophical ideas of Baqir al-Sadr, on the other hand, have spread beyond the Shiʿism into Sunni communities throughout the world. Baqir al-Sadr engaged Western philosophical ideas, not to discredit them but to challenge them when he saw fit and to incorporate them into his own system when appropriate. Baqir al-Sadr's goals are ultimately religious. He wished to show that religious knowledge was not the antithesis of scientific knowledge, but that the two are actually in the same category, thereby addressing issues of paramount concern to Muslim intellectuals.
Chris Hann and Hermann Goltz
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520260559
- eISBN:
- 9780520945920
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520260559.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Religion
This chapter explores the making and unmaking of a monastic community in post-Soviet Ukraine. The postsocialist revival of religion occurred within a ferment of unrest that saw the splintering and ...
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This chapter explores the making and unmaking of a monastic community in post-Soviet Ukraine. The postsocialist revival of religion occurred within a ferment of unrest that saw the splintering and emergence of many religious communities. This process of religious restructuring has often been attributed to sociopolitical transformations, the emergence of competitive markets of religion, and the rise of nationalism. There has been little systematic inquiry into the transformations each religious tradition underwent in terms of content and modalities of expression, and little engagement with the anthropological literature addressing processes of cultural transmission. The chapter approaches the religious tradition of western Ukraine, a local variant of Eastern Christianity as a living tradition, a “cosmology in the making.” The account is based on a search for correlations between the social organization, forms of religious transmission, and variation in religious knowledge in this tradition.Less
This chapter explores the making and unmaking of a monastic community in post-Soviet Ukraine. The postsocialist revival of religion occurred within a ferment of unrest that saw the splintering and emergence of many religious communities. This process of religious restructuring has often been attributed to sociopolitical transformations, the emergence of competitive markets of religion, and the rise of nationalism. There has been little systematic inquiry into the transformations each religious tradition underwent in terms of content and modalities of expression, and little engagement with the anthropological literature addressing processes of cultural transmission. The chapter approaches the religious tradition of western Ukraine, a local variant of Eastern Christianity as a living tradition, a “cosmology in the making.” The account is based on a search for correlations between the social organization, forms of religious transmission, and variation in religious knowledge in this tradition.
Mike Farquhar
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748696857
- eISBN:
- 9781474412247
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748696857.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter offers an analysis of how the Islamic University of Medina (IUM) was from its very inception meant to function as a Saudi state-backed Salafi missionary project with global reach. The ...
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This chapter offers an analysis of how the Islamic University of Medina (IUM) was from its very inception meant to function as a Saudi state-backed Salafi missionary project with global reach. The goal was for students to return to their home countries or to travel on elsewhere after graduation for du'a, or as missionaries, to promote spiritual commitment and “correct” religious knowledge and practice. As the university president and future Grand Mufti Abd al Aziz bin Baz wrote in a prospectus published in 1971, emphasising the sacred geography of Medina and suggesting a parallel between this Saudi-backed project and the Prophet's own mission, the university was to operate as a source of modern Islamic propagation from the source of the first Islamic propagation.Less
This chapter offers an analysis of how the Islamic University of Medina (IUM) was from its very inception meant to function as a Saudi state-backed Salafi missionary project with global reach. The goal was for students to return to their home countries or to travel on elsewhere after graduation for du'a, or as missionaries, to promote spiritual commitment and “correct” religious knowledge and practice. As the university president and future Grand Mufti Abd al Aziz bin Baz wrote in a prospectus published in 1971, emphasising the sacred geography of Medina and suggesting a parallel between this Saudi-backed project and the Prophet's own mission, the university was to operate as a source of modern Islamic propagation from the source of the first Islamic propagation.
Kyle Scott
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198796732
- eISBN:
- 9780191837968
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198796732.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
In religious epistemology there is a significant amount of focus on religious knowledge, but much less attention has been paid to religious understanding. This is unfortunate. It is unfortunate not ...
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In religious epistemology there is a significant amount of focus on religious knowledge, but much less attention has been paid to religious understanding. This is unfortunate. It is unfortunate not just because religious understanding is an interesting topic but also because religious understanding is more epistemically valuable than religious knowledge. This chapter presents two reasons for thinking this is the case. The first is that the connection between understanding and action gives us reason to think this, and the second is that understanding plays a more important role in a religious context. Following this, the chapter argues that we ought to reconsider skeptical arguments against religious belief because although they may undermine knowledge, they may not undermine understanding—the chapter offers an example of a skeptical argument where focusing on understanding rather than knowledge provides us with a straightforward response.Less
In religious epistemology there is a significant amount of focus on religious knowledge, but much less attention has been paid to religious understanding. This is unfortunate. It is unfortunate not just because religious understanding is an interesting topic but also because religious understanding is more epistemically valuable than religious knowledge. This chapter presents two reasons for thinking this is the case. The first is that the connection between understanding and action gives us reason to think this, and the second is that understanding plays a more important role in a religious context. Following this, the chapter argues that we ought to reconsider skeptical arguments against religious belief because although they may undermine knowledge, they may not undermine understanding—the chapter offers an example of a skeptical argument where focusing on understanding rather than knowledge provides us with a straightforward response.
Steve Bruce
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198854111
- eISBN:
- 9780191888465
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198854111.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The final chapter considers whether the decline of religion in Britain is likely to be reversed. It demonstrates the absence of a shared stock of religious knowledge and the current poor public ...
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The final chapter considers whether the decline of religion in Britain is likely to be reversed. It demonstrates the absence of a shared stock of religious knowledge and the current poor public reputation of religion. It considers what we know about the dynamics of religious conversion and makes the point that personal influence often relies on pre-existing social bonds and on social similarity between believers and potential converts. The key problem for British religion is that ‘being religious’ is no longer a common and widespread characteristic but is confined to a few relatively introverted minority populations. The odds on the religiously indifferent associating with committed believers are very small. Hence the chances of any religious revival occurring now, when it failed to occur in the previous century (when religion was far more popular), seem equally slight.Less
The final chapter considers whether the decline of religion in Britain is likely to be reversed. It demonstrates the absence of a shared stock of religious knowledge and the current poor public reputation of religion. It considers what we know about the dynamics of religious conversion and makes the point that personal influence often relies on pre-existing social bonds and on social similarity between believers and potential converts. The key problem for British religion is that ‘being religious’ is no longer a common and widespread characteristic but is confined to a few relatively introverted minority populations. The odds on the religiously indifferent associating with committed believers are very small. Hence the chances of any religious revival occurring now, when it failed to occur in the previous century (when religion was far more popular), seem equally slight.
Risto Uro
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199661176
- eISBN:
- 9780191793455
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199661176.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies, Religious Studies
Chapter Six highlights the role of ritual in generating and conveying religious knowledge. This perspective is unfolded in the context of three kinds of knowledge related to ritual: embodied, common ...
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Chapter Six highlights the role of ritual in generating and conveying religious knowledge. This perspective is unfolded in the context of three kinds of knowledge related to ritual: embodied, common (shared), and extended knowledge. The chapter explores how these three approaches to ritual knowledge shed light on early Christian baptismal practices. In particular, it draws on the branch of cognitive science dubbed ‘embodied’ or ‘extended’ (‘situated’) cognition. Researchers promoting embodied cognition argue that cognition is fundamentally grounded in bodily actions and in the body interacting with the environment. The chapter develops a hypothesis as to how early Christian baptismal practices accommodated implicit knowledge about power relations. It also shows how extensive symbolic technologies and systems of knowledge grew up around early Christian baptism, including the catechumenate (baptismal teaching), credal formulae and creeds, and stories and pictorial representations, as well as physical structures and architecture.Less
Chapter Six highlights the role of ritual in generating and conveying religious knowledge. This perspective is unfolded in the context of three kinds of knowledge related to ritual: embodied, common (shared), and extended knowledge. The chapter explores how these three approaches to ritual knowledge shed light on early Christian baptismal practices. In particular, it draws on the branch of cognitive science dubbed ‘embodied’ or ‘extended’ (‘situated’) cognition. Researchers promoting embodied cognition argue that cognition is fundamentally grounded in bodily actions and in the body interacting with the environment. The chapter develops a hypothesis as to how early Christian baptismal practices accommodated implicit knowledge about power relations. It also shows how extensive symbolic technologies and systems of knowledge grew up around early Christian baptism, including the catechumenate (baptismal teaching), credal formulae and creeds, and stories and pictorial representations, as well as physical structures and architecture.
Mette M. High
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501707544
- eISBN:
- 9781501708121
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501707544.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
Mongolia over the last decade has seen a substantial and ongoing gold rush. The wide-spread mining of gold looks at first glance to be a blessing for a desperately poor and largely pastoralist ...
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Mongolia over the last decade has seen a substantial and ongoing gold rush. The wide-spread mining of gold looks at first glance to be a blessing for a desperately poor and largely pastoralist country. Volatility and uncertainty as well as political and economic turmoil led many people to join the hopeful search for gold. This activity poses an intense moral problem; in the “land of dust,” disturbing the ground and extracting the precious metal is widely believed to have calamitous consequences. With gold retaining strong ties to the landscape and its many spirit beings, the fortune of the precious metal is inseparable from the fears that surround mining. This book considers the results of several years of fieldwork in Mongolia, time spent with the “ninjas,” as the miners are known locally, as well as the people who disapprove of their illegal activities and warn of the retribution that the land and its inhabitants may suffer as a result. As such, the book is a well-structured read on the Mongolian gold rush and the spirit forces that underpin it. It provides a uniquely up-close and personal view onto gold mining and its international circuitry, based on a sensitive study of Mongolian sociality, miners, religious knowledge and practice, and ways of envisioning and experiencing what counts as “value” in the Mongolian gold rush today.Less
Mongolia over the last decade has seen a substantial and ongoing gold rush. The wide-spread mining of gold looks at first glance to be a blessing for a desperately poor and largely pastoralist country. Volatility and uncertainty as well as political and economic turmoil led many people to join the hopeful search for gold. This activity poses an intense moral problem; in the “land of dust,” disturbing the ground and extracting the precious metal is widely believed to have calamitous consequences. With gold retaining strong ties to the landscape and its many spirit beings, the fortune of the precious metal is inseparable from the fears that surround mining. This book considers the results of several years of fieldwork in Mongolia, time spent with the “ninjas,” as the miners are known locally, as well as the people who disapprove of their illegal activities and warn of the retribution that the land and its inhabitants may suffer as a result. As such, the book is a well-structured read on the Mongolian gold rush and the spirit forces that underpin it. It provides a uniquely up-close and personal view onto gold mining and its international circuitry, based on a sensitive study of Mongolian sociality, miners, religious knowledge and practice, and ways of envisioning and experiencing what counts as “value” in the Mongolian gold rush today.
Joseph Bergin
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300150988
- eISBN:
- 9780300161069
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300150988.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter considers some of the major ways in which the French church met the challenge of educating its members. Although the discussion falls under headings such as preaching, missions, ...
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This chapter considers some of the major ways in which the French church met the challenge of educating its members. Although the discussion falls under headings such as preaching, missions, catechism, and schooling, it should be realized that these terms disguise a good deal of overlap and mutual interaction. For example, preaching was itself reshaped in part by developments such as missions and catechism, while missions themselves increasingly involved both preaching and catechism. Schooling may be regarded as the ultimate extension of all of these endeavors, even if the history of schooling in our period has other dimensions not necessarily connected to religious priorities. It is also worth adding that some older methods of communicating religious knowledge were squeezed out by developments of our period.Less
This chapter considers some of the major ways in which the French church met the challenge of educating its members. Although the discussion falls under headings such as preaching, missions, catechism, and schooling, it should be realized that these terms disguise a good deal of overlap and mutual interaction. For example, preaching was itself reshaped in part by developments such as missions and catechism, while missions themselves increasingly involved both preaching and catechism. Schooling may be regarded as the ultimate extension of all of these endeavors, even if the history of schooling in our period has other dimensions not necessarily connected to religious priorities. It is also worth adding that some older methods of communicating religious knowledge were squeezed out by developments of our period.
Maree Gruppetta
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847420411
- eISBN:
- 9781447303190
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847420411.003.0015
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sociology of Religion
This chapter reflects on the lived results of working within a disciplinary tradition that marginalises religious knowledge. It also discusses the ways researchers and practitioners can inadvertently ...
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This chapter reflects on the lived results of working within a disciplinary tradition that marginalises religious knowledge. It also discusses the ways researchers and practitioners can inadvertently offend those with specific faith identities. In researches involving faith communities, there are ethical guidelines that must be heeded. Only through heeding these ethical guidelines can dilemmas be avoided and resolved. However, not all of these issues can be addressed so easily. Issues which are categorised as ‘macro’ issues are formalised and standardised issues within the faith traditions. These include food requirements, dress code, and appropriate terminology. These types of issues can be easily addressed as they can be researched in advance. Micro issues or the ‘day-to-day’ practices of religiosity on the other hand are quite difficult to address as they vary dramatically within faith traditions and they are not well documented. The chapter also includes a number of examples of micro issues that were at the centre of incidents of inadvertent offence.Less
This chapter reflects on the lived results of working within a disciplinary tradition that marginalises religious knowledge. It also discusses the ways researchers and practitioners can inadvertently offend those with specific faith identities. In researches involving faith communities, there are ethical guidelines that must be heeded. Only through heeding these ethical guidelines can dilemmas be avoided and resolved. However, not all of these issues can be addressed so easily. Issues which are categorised as ‘macro’ issues are formalised and standardised issues within the faith traditions. These include food requirements, dress code, and appropriate terminology. These types of issues can be easily addressed as they can be researched in advance. Micro issues or the ‘day-to-day’ practices of religiosity on the other hand are quite difficult to address as they vary dramatically within faith traditions and they are not well documented. The chapter also includes a number of examples of micro issues that were at the centre of incidents of inadvertent offence.
James W. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- March 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190927387
- eISBN:
- 9780190927417
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190927387.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies, Philosophy of Religion
The modern tendency to separate theory and practice, reflection and contemplation, has done inestimable mischief to the life of religion in the modern world. Religion’s claims about God or the world ...
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The modern tendency to separate theory and practice, reflection and contemplation, has done inestimable mischief to the life of religion in the modern world. Religion’s claims about God or the world or the nature and destiny of the human spirit have been ripped from their context in religious practice and treated as discrete doctrinal abstractions to be justified or refuted in isolation from the living religious life that is their natural home. Many of the dilemmas faced by those who think seriously about religion today arise from or are intensified by this separation of theory and practice. Trends in contemporary psychology, especially an emphasis on embodiment and relationality, can help the thoughtful religious person of any tradition by returning theory to practice and thereby opening up new avenues of religious knowing and new ways of justifying the commitment to a religiously lived life. This text moves between psychology (especially neuropsychology) and various forms of religious thought in order to demonstrate the validity of living the religiously informed life. This book argues that it is meaningful and reasonable to speak of a “spiritual sense” by discussing ways we can “sense” or “perceive” the reality of God and what that might mean for the religiously concerned person and how it might be understood psychologically and neurologically.Less
The modern tendency to separate theory and practice, reflection and contemplation, has done inestimable mischief to the life of religion in the modern world. Religion’s claims about God or the world or the nature and destiny of the human spirit have been ripped from their context in religious practice and treated as discrete doctrinal abstractions to be justified or refuted in isolation from the living religious life that is their natural home. Many of the dilemmas faced by those who think seriously about religion today arise from or are intensified by this separation of theory and practice. Trends in contemporary psychology, especially an emphasis on embodiment and relationality, can help the thoughtful religious person of any tradition by returning theory to practice and thereby opening up new avenues of religious knowing and new ways of justifying the commitment to a religiously lived life. This text moves between psychology (especially neuropsychology) and various forms of religious thought in order to demonstrate the validity of living the religiously informed life. This book argues that it is meaningful and reasonable to speak of a “spiritual sense” by discussing ways we can “sense” or “perceive” the reality of God and what that might mean for the religiously concerned person and how it might be understood psychologically and neurologically.
