SOC250Y1 Lecture : Lecture notes february 9
Document Summary
Notes on the social genesis of hell and heaven. Feuerbach: heaven is the key to the deepest mysteries of religion . Marxist critiques: promise of heaven in the sky sanctions hell (exploitation, oppression) on the earth . To offer consolation for suffering, with the promise of amends pr justice in the life to come. Afterlife beliefs are regulative for worldly existence: endure poverty, oppression, injustice, inequality, presecution, ascetic renunciation . Earth is a different place, when i lies between a heaven and a hell . Chinese proverb: heaven and hell within the heart . Major differences between popular views -> theological or philosophical. [all these breakthroughs were concerned with human meaning, purpose, destiny] Salvific beliefs introduce tensions with the world , as the world-to-come or the transcendence of this world (as illusionary) gains privacy. The traditional polytheisms were basically world-accommodating, or affirming, and the blessings or progeny, wealth, health, victory and conquest, pleasures, etc.
