RLGA02H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: General Idea, Monism, Immanence
Document Summary
According to andrew griel, there is no scholarly consensus on what is religion and how we proceed to define it. This does not mean it is impossible to define it, it"s just difficult too. What does it mean by looking at religion through different lenses? (a good metaphor) Different disciplines: depending on your discipline you might see what religion is differently anthropologist, sociologist, philosopher. These different lenses are getting away from this idea that religion may be an object like a chair or table in the world that we are observing. It is important to make a distinguish what things we say are religious and what aren"t. As scholars, we are making a judgement call. Main point: lenses/perspectives means that we are in the realm of interpretation. So, when we are looking at what religion is, it"s not just an object like a table, our interpretations are decisions we make are creating/embarking what we see.
