Religion and Theology

1.  Define and discuss, as thoroughly as you can, TWO of the following methods for the study of religion  Sociological, Ethical, Theological, Gender Studies.  Be CERTAIN to cite various examples from the various readings in your answer.

In the sociological perspective, religion is expressed not in theological, but in social reality (Durkheim, 1912).  Religion plays a part in an individuals identity with the community.  It provides protection and comfort to its members, and in return, its members follow its forms of worship and other practices of their faith.  However, when members of a particular religion begin to assert different views on worship, or when members impose the superiority of their religion against others, problems arise.  Dominant religious societies emerge in a church-sect distinction against lesser groups.  This causes tensions between the groups, of which the outcome is persecution and discrimination, or worse, schism.  Examples of this are state-sponsored religions e.g. The Church of England as opposed to the Quakers and The Great Schism between Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church (Cunningham  Kelsay 90).

In ethics, religion is generally viewed as interrelated or interconnected to morality.  Issues arise as to whether religion is the basis for the formation of moral values, whether the definition between the two are clear-cut that religious can be distinguished from non-religious, and as to which of the two takes priority in case of conflict (Cunningham  Kelsay 117).Religion and morality are used together in different ways by opposing parties as a tool of reasoning in justifying actions engaged in and judgments made (Ibid).  

2.  Discuss why religious communities address good and evil, providing THREE possible responses that religious communities or persons might offer regarding the tension between the existence of evil and existence of a good and just God.

Religious communities address good and evil because there are practical justifications.  Practical justification is the question of reasons for action (Cunningham  Kelsay 117).  Hinduism justify the employment of the caste system in that people reap the consequences of their actions (Ibid 120).  Islam justify waging wars to on the basis of duty to force submission (al-Islam) to the will of Allah and to try and expand the territory of Islam as a way of pushing back the intrusion of heedlessness into human society (Ibid).  Prayer among Christians is justified in that is a way to give a great benefactor (God) that which is owed (Ibid 127).

3.  Discuss how prayer, worship, and mysticism express religious commitment and activity.  Be CERTAIN to cite examples from the readings in your answer.

Scholars describe action as being the characteristic feature of religious life (Cunningham  Kelsay 14).   Early practices of Hinduism focus on sacrifices and rites.  Later variations place emphasis on ascetical training and mental discipline to overcome the desires, opposition, and limitations of individual selfhood (Encyclopedia of Religion 6343).  In Chan Buddhism or Zen, disciples undergo a rigorous process of mental concentration, where disciples pursue the higher sense and shed the patterns of oppositional consciousness present in desire, fear, prejudice, or even objective conceptualization, in order achieve the final state of enlightenment itself (Ibid 6345).
 
4.  Discuss what ritual is, and how it affects the way that religious communities understand space, time, and the stages of personal development.

A ritual is a ceremonial act or a repeated stylized gesture used for specific occasions (Cunningham  Kelsay 71).  Rituals, from the most intimate (family members bowing their heads to say grace before meals) to the most elaborate (funerals or weddings), are markers that intrude into the daily round of life to signal the relationship of persons to, and their awareness of, the place of the most sacred in their lives (Ibid 82).  In the Christian purview, time is the field in which God acts or, we may say, time is a vehicle of sacred reality (Ibid 47), although other religions take on a cyclical view, which focuses on repetition.  Members of a religion perform rites to affirm that there is continuity between past and present, or the origins of their community, (Ibid 73).  Some of these rites are profoundly social in their implications (Ibid 75).  Religions provide rituals andor theological rationales to celebrate the stages of a persons development such as the rite of passage, birth, initiation to adulthood, marriage, and mourning or death.  Rituals are also performed in sacred space, either for commemoration or for worship, and the meaning attached to such places vary.