Religious Studies

Religious Studies is a popular and important element in cultures world-wide, and in the Western traditions it was a part of Philosophy (specifically Metaphysics) along with Science, but that was a long, long time ago, during Antiquity, and particularly the Middle Ages. While both Philosophy and Science have seen incredible specialization, along with major upheavals and paradigm shifts, especially since the Renaissance, Religious Studies, a vast collection of different inquiries and areas, has remained focused on only one most important over-arching topic, which of course is the presumed existence and nature of a Supreme Being.^[1] Because of the tremendous progress in the philosophical and scientific understanding of Reality over the last many centuries, we can no longer view Religious Studies as part of either Philosophy or Science.

What can be included in Religious Studies are the areas of Agnosticism, Apostasy, Creationism, Exegesis, Heresy, Hierology, Intelligent Design, Mythology, Neurotheology, Propitiation, Scholasticism, Theogony, and others which make up the main overlapping inquiries of “Theology”, “Philosophy of Religion”, and “Comparative Religion”. For some people, these may simply be three different names for essentially the same pursuit, but there is more to it than that.

Theology

In use as early as Plato's Republic^[2], the term is compounded from two Greek words, theos (the divine) and logos (rational utterance). Theology has been defined as reasoned discourse about Supreme Being(s), or more generally about Religion or Spirituality. Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument to help understand, explain, test, critique, defend, or promote any of a myriad of religious topics. Theology helps a theologian understand more truly their own religious tradition, understand other traditions, defend them, facilitate reform of a particular tradition, and assist in the propagation of a tradition.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

While the word “Theology” has Classical Greek origins, it was given new and deeper senses when it was taken up in both Greek and Latin forms by Christian thinkers and authors. It is the subsequent history of the term in Christian contexts, particularly in the Latin West, which lies behind the contemporary usage as listed above, but the term can now be used to speak of reasoned discourse within and about a variety of different religious traditions.^{[9][10][11][12]} It must be noted, though, aspects of the process by which the discipline of Theology emerged in Christianity, as well as the process by which the term was extended to other religions, are highly controversial topics.

Philosophy of Religion

The study of the meaning and justification of fundamental religious claims, particularly about the nature and existence of Supreme Beings, which arose within Philosophy departments is known as the “Philosophy of Religion”. Because colleges and universities typically have separate departments of Philosophy and Religion, the Philosophy of Religion is essentially Theology in the Philosophy Department. While there could be a bit more of a slant toward Agnosticism among philosophers of Religion, or certainly Ecumenism, the focus is still on the investigation of what Theology or Religion mean. This “Natural Theology” really came into its own during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, and is still a specialization today, though rare by comparison to areas like the Philosophy of Science or the Philosophy of Logic.

To a philosopher of Religion it is clear why considerations of Supreme Beings or The Divine have been regarded as metaphysical. For Aristotle, The Divine was the First Cause, the Unmoved Mover.^[13] According to most conceptions of Supreme Beings, any notion of The Divine is a Category of Being which is different from the rest of the Universe. That is, Supreme Beings are conceived as not having a body, and the Mind of The Divine is not typically regarded as anything like our Human Mind. Thus, for Theologians and philosophers of Religion, the very notion of The Divine cannot be reduced to Human concepts of Mind or Body, but is an Entity in a Category all its own. However, that is Ancient and Scholastic thinking, and today notions of Supreme Beings or The Divine are more properly seen as simply “Spiritual” or “Faith-Based” studies without any evidence to back them up - and this is decidedly not Philosophy.

Comparative Religion

A less contentious area of study, Comparative Religion simply looks at different cultures and traditions, comparing and contrasting them for deeper insight. It is a popular college course, and one can easily study Comparative Religion and be an Atheist, for example, because Comparative Religion is more Anthropology or Art History than it is Worship or Doctrine. The generic term, “Supreme Being”, can include a number of widely different controversial senses and traditions, so many that trying to list them here along with their cultural and religious contexts would be incomplete and exclusive. Some cultures believe there is only one Supreme Being, and often that all other interpretations of Supreme Beings are deeply wrong. Others believe in many different Supreme Beings and various types of them. Some see these Beings as simply a part of the World or Universe itself, and not as literally Supreme or Divine.

Comparing religions perhaps makes it clear that Religion in general is a part of our various diverse cultures, and that people hold their views very close to their emotions. In the complete absence of hard Evidence, especially in the face of the Scientific Revolution, religions are rooted in a deep personal or individual “Faith” or Belief which is impossible to dislodge or even influence. Immanuel Kant and others since have argued that Faith and Belief in some form of Supreme Being is for many people simply a way their Brain is wired, and this relates to the Ancient uses of Ontology and Teleology in Metaphysics which are no longer used in Philosophy. This is so powerful for some that mere Belief has led directly to national and global wars and endless conflicts for millennia, all over one culture's conception, or one leader's conception, of a Supreme Being versus another. This is a sad but true commentary on what is meant to be “Divine”, but despite this, the upshot is that studying different religions is a part of our shared Humanity and a rewarding experience everyone should respect.

Editorial Note

While Theology, Philosophy of Religion, and Comparative Religion must necessarily be minimized in terms of Philosophy and Science, Religious Studies cannot be minimized in terms of learning about the rich diversity of our Human History. Each are part of a vast collection of possibly endless explorations for students of the Humanities, Culture, Travel, Religion, and related areas. To do it justice, Religious Studies cannot be adequately covered in detail without cultural distortions on this GetWiki website, which does not aim to be a compendium of every single topic imaginable. There are many great resources via Google for much deeper exploration of Theology, Philosophy of Religion, and Comparative Religion than can be provided here...

References

1. “Supreme Being” is a generic term meant to encapsulate a wide diversity of names for any “Divinity” or “God(s)” in a given culture..
2. Plato, Republic, Book II, Chapter 18.
3. See, e.g., Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004).
4. See, e.g., Michael S. Kogan, 'Toward a Jewish Theology of Christianity' in The Journal of Ecumenical Studies 32.1 (Winter 1995), 89-106; available online at www.icjs.org/scholars/kogan.html.
5. See, e.g., David Burrell, Freedom and Creation in Three Traditions (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994).
6. See, e.g., John Shelby Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die (New York: Harper Collins, 2001).
7. See, e.g., Duncan Dormor et al (eds), Anglicanism, the Answer to Modernity (London: Continuum, 2003).
8. See, e.g., Timothy Gorringe, Crime, Changing Society and the Churches Series (London:SPCK, 2004).
9. See, for example, Contemporary Jewish Theology: A Reader, ed Elliott Dorff and Louis Newman (Oxford: OUP, 1998).
10. See Ignaz Goldziher's Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law (Princeton University Press, 1981).
11. See Roger Jackson and John J. Makransky's Buddhist Theology: Critical Reflections by Contemporary Buddhist Scholars (London: Curzon, 2000).
12. See Jose Pereira, Hindu Theology (New Delhi: Sundeep Prakashan, 1991).
13. Aristotle, Metaphysics, Collection.