RELIGST 2WW3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Neurasthenia, Reiki

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELIGST 2WW3
• Professor: christoperemms

Document Summary

Theories and disease types and healers (1) what is healing a central concern for most religions. It raises questions about human existence - is unsettling, interrupts normal routines and assumptions about the self and the world one operates in: shifts the way you think about how you fit into the world. Serious illness can push people to see things with new lens, reconsider meaning of life etc. Because we"ll find elements of these in various other cultures and times. Theories of disease causation and implicit theologies. Common types of healers in traditional cultures. Animism and personalistic causation: the whole world is alive. Animals visible beings, invisible beings, plants etc These things often attribute soils/essence: personal causation. Since the world is alive, and every most things have a soul and personality. When events occurs someone is causing it to happen, and often for personal reasons. Events impacted by individuals interactions with others (causing offence, being rude etc)