RELS 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Monism, Hermeneutics, Chosen People
21 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Originally used to speak about christian beliefs, larger context within. Academic study of religion developed mostly due to christians studying other religions (i. e judaism and islam, developing as they colonized/discovered new territory) Often not all perspectives were gained, therefore development of world religions sometimes came o]to be without all the information. Features we assume apply to all religions: organized institutions. Central institution i. e catholic church, office of dalai lama. Works for islam as there is a particular set of beliefs. However this cannot be applied to hinduism as there is no single belief system: revealed knowledge canonized in sacred text. Sacred: torah in judaism, bible in christianity, vedas in. Need to accept own limitations when studying religion. Inability to unify all world religions under specific criteria is not an obstacle, but more of a reminder to be thorough in research. Academic study of religion began in various places, but was catalyzed by colonialism.
