RELG 3600 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Bedtime Prayers, Oxford Classical Dictionary, Dharma
7 May 2018
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Class 1: January 22, 2018
Holy Terror Chapter 1
• a religion is (i) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and
long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general
order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that
(5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic
o Criticisms: There are, however, things one intuitively wants to call “religion”—
Catholicism and Islam, for instance—that are oriented less toward “belief” and
the status of the individual believer, and more to embodied practice, discipline,
and community (Geertz)
o Granted, this makes language imperfect, elusive, and considerably more
complex than common sense would have it (2)
▪ Any definition that privileges one aspect, dimension, or component of the
religious necessarily fails, for in so doing it normalizes some specific
traditions (or tendencies therein), while simultaneously dismissing or
stigmatizing others. (5)
• Jahiliyyah was not just a matter of ignorance, but a more active state of rebellion against
God’s sovereignty on earth. (3)
• In America such things seemed left to the whims of fashion and secular moral standards
(“good taste”). Religion—such as it was—had been confined to a limited time, place, and
role (Sunday mornings, bedtime prayers, Easter and Christmas), with little capacity to
shape and stabilize other aspects of human activity or invest them with transcendent
meaning. (4)
o As Qutb put it in the same essay, “No one builds as many churches as the
Americans do.... Notwithstanding all this, there is no one as removed from feeling
the spirituality, respect, and sacredness of religion than the Americans.”
• The documents found with the 9/11 attackers suggest that, at a minimum, these were
provided to the leaders of each team, who used them to prepare for—and understand—
their deeds of September (8)
Holy Terror Chapter 4
Holy Terror Chapter 5
Collab Questions:
• Religious scholar Karen Armstrong writes:
o The words in other languages that we translate as “religion” invariably refer to
something vaguer, larger and more inclusive. The Arabic word din signifies an
entire way of life, and the Sanskrit dharma covers law, politics, and social
institutions as well as piety. The Hebrew Bible has no abstract concept of
“religion”; and the Talmudic rabbis would have found it impossible to define faith
in a single word or formula, because the Talmud was expressly designed to bring
the whole of human life into the ambit of the sacred. The Oxford Classical
Dictionary firmly states: “No word in either Greek or Latin corresponds to the
English ‘religion’ or ‘religious’.
o How does this quote relate to our discussion of maximalist versus minimalist
interpretations of religion in the U.S. and other parts of the world?
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Document Summary
In america such things seemed left to the whims of fashion and secular moral standards ( good taste ). Collab questions: religious scholar karen armstrong writes, the words in other languages that we translate as religion invariably refer to something vaguer, larger and more inclusive. The arabic word din signifies an entire way of life, and the sanskrit dharma covers law, politics, and social institutions as well as piety. The hebrew bible has no abstract concept of. Religion ; and the talmudic rabbis would have found it impossible to define faith in a single word or formula, because the talmud was expressly designed to bring the whole of human life into the ambit of the sacred. Dictionary firmly states: no word in either greek or latin corresponds to the. In arabic, among other languages, religion is defined in maximalist terms which encompass the entire way of life .
