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2667:5 [2015/03/30 19:52] – [Analysis and interpretation] Ryan Schram (admin) | 2667:5 [2021/06/29 02:27] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1 | ||
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~~DECKJS~~ | ~~DECKJS~~ | ||
- | # The Weber Thesis | + | # Can you learn to hear God? # |
- | ## The Weber Thesis | + | ## Can you learn to hear God? ## |
Ryan Schram | Ryan Schram | ||
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ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au | ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au | ||
- | April 2, 2015 | + | April 6, 2016 |
Available at http:// | Available at http:// | ||
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### Readings ### | ### 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:// | ||
- | Robbins, J. 1998. “Becoming Sinners: Christianity and Desire among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea.” Ethnology 37 (4): 299–316. doi: | ||
### Recommended readings ### | ### Recommended readings ### | ||
- | Robbins, Joel. 2001. “God Is Nothing but Talk: Modernity, Language, and Prayer | + | 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 | ||
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+ | ## What do the Twelve Tribes' | ||
+ | |||
+ | What do the neighbors of Peppercorn Farm in Picton think about the Twelve Tribes? | ||
+ | |||
+ | Hint: They don't think " | ||
+ | |||
+ | ## 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 | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{ : | ||
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+ | ## The limits of social science ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | Social scientific approaches to religion can only look at concrete, observable, empirical facts about people' | ||
+ | |||
+ | 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' | ||
+ | |||
+ | In other words, we are looking at religion as culture. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ## William James ## | ||
- | 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. | + | * James is a philosopher interested in the nature of human |
+ | | ||
+ | | ||
+ | were active at about the same time. | ||
+ | * James is also a leading figure within the intellectual movement | ||
+ | | ||
+ | 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? | ||
+ | ## What is happening in this religious event? ## | ||
- | ### Other media ### | + | A clip from the *The Divine Horsemen: Living Gods of Haiti*, a film by Maya Deren et al. |
- | DuBois, Bastien. 2013. "Cargo Cult" (Trailer). | + | https://youtu.be/2YIO_dxyJio? |
- | ## A persisting question ## | + | The beginning of ritual welcoming and honoring a *lwa* named Papa Legba. Pay attention to the man wearing a handkerchief around his head. |
- | 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? | + | ## A sidebar on research questions ## |
- | ## Individualism | + | 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. |
- | 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. | + | What questions do you want to ask about this topic? |
- | 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. | + | Write some down now. |
- | 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. | + | ## Asking questions ## |
- | ## The rationality of salvation ## | + | Aristotle had some advice for his students about asking questions: |
- | The Weber thesis | + | > 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 |
- | Protestant Christianity spurred | + | |
- | capitalist production. This is presented in his famous book //The | + | |
- | Protestant Ethic and the Spirit | + | |
- | ## The Protestant Ethic ## | ||
- | Calvin teaches that salvation is for the elect. There' | + | Take a minute |
- | can do to earn salvation. | + | |
- | What you do with your life has nothing to do with your relationship to | + | ## The three types of questions ## |
- | God. | + | |
- | If you were successful, it was a **sign** that you were in the | + | Aristotle says there are three types of questions. Let's come up with examples of each kind. |
- | elect. Wealth is not valuable for its own sake. | + | |
- | A person should follow one's " | + | * Type I: Factual questions |
+ | * Type II: Belief questions | ||
+ | * Type III: Research questions, or *why* questions | ||
- | The **means** of earning a living (a calling) are separate from the **ends** | + | ## Do I know what rhetorical |
- | (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 ## | + | A question someone might want to ask is this: |
- | Protestant reformers condemned | + | > How does Vodou possession help people |
- | worldliness: | + | |
- | Because their philosophy was based on a new way of thinking of the | + | Another one could be: |
- | 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, | + | > How does Vodou help people adapt to the modernization |
- | Also, this new kind of ' | + | Are these questions " |
- | 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. | ||
- | ## Analysis and interpretation | + | ## There are many varieties of religious experience |
- | *Erklaren*: Analysis. Identifying which facts belong | + | * 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 | ||
+ | put into words. | ||
- | *Verstehen*: | + | ## God is real ## |
- | 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. | + | " |
+ | ## 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" | ||
+ | > 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 ' | ||
- | ## Pentecostalism ## | + | ## How Pentecostalism |
- | ### Origins ### | + | * The receipt of Pentecost, or a baptism of the Spirit. |
+ | * Very loose organization, | ||
+ | minister. | ||
+ | * Many small churches, often completely independent, | ||
+ | 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 ## | ## References ## | ||
- | Robbins, Joel. 2004. “The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.” Annual Review of Anthropology 33 (1): 117–43. doi: | ||
+ | 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. | ||
2667/5.1427770375.txt.gz · Last modified: 2015/03/30 19:52 by Ryan Schram (admin)