Journal of Seven Heavens

Journal of Seven Heavens

A Religious Way of Studying Religion

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Arvind Sharma
Khalil Qanbari
Member faculty university Religions and Dinamination
Abstract
In the study of religion, in addition to the ways such as theology and sociology of religion, there is a religious way of studying religion. This way is characterized by two features: first, it is mainly concerned with the insider or believer's perspective; and second, it does not take the nature of religion into consideration. In explaining the religious way of studying religion, Sharma takes two steps: negative and positive. In the first step, he elaborates on the distinction between the religious way and the confessional and reductionist ways. In the second step, on the one hand, he shows that just as there is an artistic way of studying art, there is a religious way of studying religion; and on the other hand, based on the phenomenological meaning of religion, he emphasizes that the possibility of a religious way in the study of religion need not mean that religion itself is religious. And then, he proceeds to argue that religion, as the subject of the religious way, can be identified as operating at four levels: at the level of the individual believer, at the level of a religious tradition, at the level of the religious traditions as a whole, and at the most generic level.
Keywords
Insider
a religious way
reductionist and confessional
Phenomenology
Allen, Douglas (1987),"Phenomenology of Religion," in Mircea Eliade, editor in chief, The Encyclopedia a f Religion, New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, Vol. 11.
Blecker, C. J. (1963), The Sacred Bridge, Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Carman, B. (1965), "The Theology of a Phenomenologist: An Introduction to the heology of Gerardus van der Leeuw," in The Harvard Divinity Bulletin 29:3 (April).
Coburn, Thomas B. (1984), Devī-Mābātmya: The Crystallization of the Goddess Tra­dition, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Eliade, Mircea (1959), "Methodological Remarks on the Study of Religious Symbol­ism," in Mircea Eliade and Joseph M. Kitagawa, eds., The History of Religions: Essaysin Methodology, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
__________ (1961), The Sacred and. the Profane, trans. Willard T. Trask, New York: Harper Brothers.
__________ (1969), The Quest, Chi­cago: ChicagoUniversity Press.
Kitagawa,Joseph M. (1968), Introduction. To Joachim Wach, Understanding and Believing, New Yorkand Evanston: Harper & Row.
Kristensen, W. Brede (1960), The Meaning o f Religion: Lectures in the Phenomenology of Religion, trans. John B. Carman, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Lessa, William A. and Evon Z.Vogt, (eds.,) (1962) Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach Evanston, Ill. & Elmsford, N.Y.: Row, Peterson & Co.
Morgan, D. H. j. (1970), "Sociology of Religion," in S. G. F. Brandon, ed., A llictiorr­ar1y of Comparative Religion, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons and Macmillan Publishing Company.
Paden, William E. (1992), Interpreting the Sacred: Waysoh Viewing Religion, Boston: Beacon Press.
Pals, Daniel L. (1986), "Reductionism and Belief: An Appraisal of Recent Attacks on the Doctrine of Irreducible Religion," journal of Religion 66:1.
__________ (1987), "Is Religion a Sui Generis Phenomenon?, "Journal of the American Academy of Religion 55:2. 264.
Preus, J. Samuel (1957), Explaining Religion,New Haven and London: YaleUniversity Press.
Proudfoot, Wayne (1985), Religious Experience, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ryba, Thomas (1988), The Essence of Phenomenology and Its Meaning for the Scien­tific Study of Religion, New York: Peter Lang.
Segal, Robert A. (1992), Explaining and Interpreting Religion: Essays on the Issue, New York: Peter Lang.
Sharpe, Eric J. (1986), Comparative Religion: A History (second edition), London: Duckworth.
Smith, Wilfred Cantwell (1959), "Comparative Religion: Whither - and Why? ", in: Mircea Eliade and Joseph M. Kitagawa, eds., The History of Religions: Essays in Methodology, Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.
__________ (1962), The Meaning and End of Religion, New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Taylor, Paul (1993), "Why the Rich Live Longer, Healthier," in: The. Globe and Mail, Oct. 16.
Waardenburg, Jacques (1991), "The Problem of Representing Religions and Religion," in Hans G. Kippenberg and Brigitte Luchesi, eds., Religionswissenschaft and Kulturkritik, (Marburg: Diagonal Verlag.
__________ ed., (1973), Classical Approaches to the Study o f Religion, The Hague: Mouton Publishers, Vol. 1.
Wulff, David (1985), "Psychological Approaches," in Frank Whaling, ed., Contens­porary Approaches to the Study of Religion, Berlin, New York, Amsterdam: Mouton Publishers, Vol. II.
Yinger, J. Milton (1970), The Scientific Study of Religion, New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.

  • Receive Date 02 September 2009
  • Revise Date 02 December 2009
  • Accept Date 31 January 2010