RE207 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, Deism, Comparative Religion
Document Summary
Motive, material, method: academic study of anything requires asking why, what and how. What - material, what we consider factual. How - method, how we deal with information: study of religion. History of the study of religion can be broken into many parts. No one can cover the entire area. Study - uncommitted view of anything, cultivated by philosophers religion - right way to please and not offend the otherworldly: supernatural beings. Ancient world - viewed them in human terms. Power key to world, ability to control the power made one powerful. Proto-shaman - ruler and servant of spirits, controller of rituals, interpreter of laws and customs. Ability to establish and maintain contact with spirit-world functions of shaman have multiplied and diversified in many cultures - law and religion almost synonymous. Habits became customs and eventually into laws. Study was only concerned with family"s traditions, history, sacred places and rituals associated with them.
