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 ~~DECKJS~~
-# The Weber Thesis #
+# Can you learn to hear God? #
-## The Weber Thesis ##
+## Can you learn to hear God? ##
 Ryan Schram
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 ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
-April 2, 2015
+April 6, 2016
 Available at http://anthro.rschram.org/2667/5
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 ### Readings ###
-Haynes, Naomi. 2012. “Pentecostalism and the Morality of Money: Prosperity, Inequality, and Religious Sociality on the Zambian Copperbelt.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 18 (1): 123–39. doi:10.1111/j.1467–9655.2011.01734.x.
+Luhrmann, Tanya M. 2004. “Metakinesis: How God Becomes Intimate in Contemporary U.S. Christianity.” American Anthropologist 106 (3): 518–28. doi:10.1525/aa.2004.106.3.518.
+Deren, Maya, Cherel Ito, and Teiji Ito. ca. 1947–1954. Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. Documentary. http://youtu.be/2YIO_dxyJio?t=1m27s.
-Robbins, J. 1998. “Becoming Sinners: Christianity and Desire among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea.” Ethnology 37 (4): 299–316. doi:10.2307/3773784.
 ### Recommended readings ###
-Robbins, Joel. 2001. “God Is Nothing but Talk: Modernity, Language, and Prayer in a Papua New Guinea Society.” American Anthropologist, New Series, 103 (4): 901–12.
+James, William. 1984. William James, The Essential Writings. Bruce Wilshire, ed. Albany: SUNY Press.
+James, William. 1994 [1902]. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. New York: Modern Library.
+Luhrmann, T. M., Howard Nusbaum, and Ronald Thisted. 2010. “The Absorption Hypothesis: Learning to Hear God in Evangelical Christianity.” American Anthropologist 112 (1): 66–78. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1433.2009.01197.x.
+## What do the Twelve Tribes' neighbors think about them?
+What do the neighbors of Peppercorn Farm in Picton think about the Twelve Tribes?
+Hint: They don't think "nothing."
+## Is there any truth to religion and religious belief? ##
+a) A potentially explosive issue. It almost sounds as though this is
+asking which religion is right.
+b) More generally though I want to ask are there any grounds on which
+one can believe in something unseen and unproven.
+c) We've ducked the issue.
+## A velvet rope
+{{ :2667:1222487.jpg |Still from "Lost Our Lisa." The Simpsons (1998).}}
+## The limits of social science ##
+Social scientific approaches to religion can only look at concrete, observable, empirical facts about people's behavior.
+This means that social scientific explanations are always on the outside looking in.
+It also means that social scientific explanations assume that, being from an outsider's position, they possess a unique claim to being true. The **observed** has beliefs, rituals, etc. The **observers** don't.
+In other words, we are looking at religion as culture.
+## William James ##
+ * James is a philosopher interested in the nature of human
+   experience. As such, he is (more or less) to psychology what
+   Durkheim is to anthropology. It is interesting to note that they
+   were active at about the same time.
+ * James is also a leading figure within the intellectual movement
+   called Pragmatism. Pragmatism is an argument that every idea needs
+   to be proven by evidence, and that real knowledge comes directly
+   from evidence, facts and the sense.
+ * What do you suppose Pragmatists thought about religion?
-Cannell, Fenella. 2005. “The Christianity of Anthropology*.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 11 (2): 335–56. doi:10.1111/j.1467–9655.2005.00239.x.
+## What is happening in this religious event? ##
+A clip from the *The Divine Horsemen: Living Gods of Haiti*, a film by Maya Deren et al.
-### Other media ###
+https://youtu.be/2YIO_dxyJio?t=6m59s
-DuBois, Bastien. 2013. "Cargo Cult" (Trailer). https://vimeo.com/62094392.
+The beginning of ritual welcoming and honoring a *lwa* named Papa Legba. Pay attention to the man wearing a handkerchief around his head.
-## A persisting question ##
+## A sidebar on research questions ##
-We understand that Durkheim and Weber complement each other, but we are still stuck with a nagging question. Aren't some religions more appropriately understood from the point of view of an individual? What, in general, is the relationship between the individual side of religious belief and practice and the social or collective side?
+Many people including Deren have conducted research on the topic of Vodou possession in rural Haiti and the people who practice Vodou rites of possession.
-## Individualism and society ##
+What questions do you want to ask about this topic?
-I want to take as given that some societies exhibit individualism as a chief value. Relationships and groups are ideally based on choice. People create their own paths in life.
+Write some down now.
-By contrast other societies exhibit a different orientation. Societies based on all-encompassing social institutions such as kinship structure and hereditary leadership, for instance, tend to place obligations to the group over individual choice.
+## Asking questions ##
-This does not mean that some societies are more free or have looser structures, or that other societies are more oppressive. Each type of society is based on different values. None are necessarily more or less oppressive.
+Aristotle had some advice for his students about asking questions:
-## The rationality of salvation ##
+> Not every problem, nor every thesis, should be examined, but only one which might puzzle one of those who need argument, not punishment or perception. For people who are puzzled to know whether one ought to honour the gods and love one’s parents or not need punishment, while those who are puzzled to know whether snow is white or not need perception. The subjects should not border too closely upon the sphere of demonstration, nor yet be too far removed from it; for the former cases admit of no doubt, while the latter involve difficulties too great for the art of the trainer. (Aristotle, Topics, Book I, Part 11)
-The Weber thesis is that the development of an ascetic form of
-Protestant Christianity spurred the development of market exchange and
-capitalist production. This is presented in his famous book //The
-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism// (1905).
-## The Protestant Ethic ##
+Take a minute to think about this passage and try to get down the main idea here in your own, more contemporary language.
-Calvin teaches that salvation is for the elect. There's nothing you
+## The three types of questions ##
-can do to earn salvation.
-What you do with your life has nothing to do with your relationship to
+Aristotle says there are three types of questions. Let's come up with examples of each kind.
-God.
-If you were successful, it was a **sign** that you were in the
+* Type I: Factual questions
-elect. Wealth is not valuable for its own sake.
+* Type II: Belief questions
+* Type III: Research questions, or *why* questions
-A person should follow one's "calling" as a duty to God.
+## Do I know what rhetorical means?? Do I know what rhetorical means!?? ##
-The **means** of earning a living (a calling) are separate from the **ends**
+A question someone might want to ask is this:
-(a living, wealth and success). Thus if one is wealthy, one can be
-deatched from this wealth and deal with objectively.
-## The disenchantment of the world ##
+> How does Vodou possession help people to resist cultural domination?
-Protestant reformers condemned people for being consumed with
+Another one could be:
-worldliness: being greedy and venal. Greed is bad.
-Because their philosophy was based on a new way of thinking of the
+> How does Vodou help people adapt to the modernization of Haiti?
-person as an individual, they actually paved the way for disembedding
-the economy from social relationships.
-More generally, Weber claims that the Protestant calling paved the way for greater institutional specialization, like the separation of society and economy, of politics and religion. People are no longer defined by what they do. Who they are in essence is distinct from their livelihood and their practical circumstances. So you can be rich and still be a good, moral person. You can order evictions, but still be a decent individual.
+Are these questions "research questions"?
-Also, this new kind of 'worldly asceticism' led to people splitting off supernatural forces from the material world. This is also called the disenchantment of the world. If you believe in God or angels, that's a personal matter. All other secular social institutions are now based on the assumption that there is no magic in the world.
-This is also generally speaking what Weber means by rationalization. He does not mean that religious thought is irrational, but that certain kinds of religious ethics have led to a more rational (formalized and specialized) organization of social life.
+## There are many varieties of religious experience ##
-## Analysis and interpretation ##
+* Healthy-mindedness: You feel as though part of you is good, and
+  through your own actions and behavior you can cultivate goodness in
+  yourself and the world.
+* The sick soul. You see the world as a war between Good and
+  Evil. Everyone, including yourself, need to be saved from inherent
+  evils.
+* Conversion. You feel incomplete and imperfect, and so feel like you
+  need to seek change.
+* Mysticism. You feel like you have an intuitive knowledge about the
+  world from experience. You have a wisdom which you feel, but cannot
+  put into words.
-*Erklaren*: Analysis. Identifying which facts belong to which ideal categories.
+## God is real ##
-*Verstehen*: Understanding. Putting the pieces back together to understand how something looks from the individual's point of view.
-Weber is never simply labeling or defining things. He also wants to draw out a more general story or interpretive understanding of society as a process.
+"God is real because he produces real effects" (1985 [1902]: 517).
+## The origins of Pentecostalism ##
-## Christianity across cultures ##
+The Asuza Street Revival, led by William Seymour, 1906-1909:
-Do Christian converts adopt a new culture when they convert to a foreign religion?
+> Men and women would shout, weep, dance, fall into trances, speak and
+> sing in tongues, and interpret their messages into English. In true
+> Quaker fashion, anyone who felt "moved by the Spirit" would preach
+> or sing. There was no robed choir, no hymnals, no order of services,
+> but there was an abundance of religious enthusiasm. (Synan 1997: 98)
-Is Christianity inherently individualistic because of its basis in 'faith'? Is this what Weber meant by rationalization.
-## Pentecostalism ##
+## How Pentecostalism differs from other holiness churches ##
-### Origins ###
+* The receipt of Pentecost, or a baptism of the Spirit.
+* Very loose organization, and very egalitarian. Anyone can preach or
+  minister.
+* Many small churches, often completely independent, communicating
+  through various media.
+* Use of mass media, including films, radio and television, from very
+  early on.
-### How it differs from other holiness churches ###
+## The global movement of Pentecostalism ##
-### The global movement ###
+* Spreads through grass-roots networks.
+* Paradoxically both world-making and world-breaking (Robbins 2004).
 ## References ##
-Robbins, Joel. 2004. “The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.” Annual Review of Anthropology 33 (1): 117–43. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.32.061002.093421.
+James, William. 1984. William James, The Essential Writings. Bruce Wilshire, ed. Albany: SUNY Press.
+James, William. 1985 [1902]. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
+Robbins, Joel. 2004. “The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.” Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 117–43.
+Synan, Vinson. 1997. The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic Movements in the Twentieth Century. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.