RS 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Pietism, Hope Not Hate
Document Summary
When it comes to religion: everyone has an opinion about religion without real knowledge of religion. We can get through life without knowing astrophysics but everyone expects you to have and opinion on religion. Ex: speaking about rituals in a wedding ceremony. Ex: how politics affect religion and vice versa. American gives about religion begins with two assumptions: religion is the same everywhere (worldwide homogeneity, religion is an emotional matter by definition. We must look at the assumptions in order to hope to understand religion because our ideas of religion are all culture-centric: heavily influenced by our government, rely on tradition without criticization of it. France: french revolution on inters: fervor protest against government & catholic church. Protesters criticizing religion b/c it promoted dogma and they thought dogma was bad b/c people should think for themselves. In hinduism the main point is ritual, not dogma. Two factors that led america to think that religion is emotional: protestant pietism.
