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Unit 1 Religion Term
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Emile Durkheim | French sociologist that proposed the functional explanation for religion. Says humans need societal structures and religion is the glue for society |
Karl Marx | Socialist philosopher that influenced the materialistic explanation for religion-started as a way to improve society for the oppressed, but became failed and became both a longing for a better life and a way to oppress people and pardon the higher class. |
immanent | Present in the visible world |
theistic | Believing in a deity or deities |
polytheistic | Believing that they are many deities |
incarnation | Physical embodiment of the divine |
agnosticism | Belief that if there is anything beyond this life it is impossible for humans to know it |
symbol | Visible representation of an invisible reality or concept |
cosmogony | Models of the origin of the universe (creation stories) |
sacred | The Realm of the extraordinary, beyond everyday perceptions, the supernatural, holy |
Sigmund Freud | Psychoanalyst that proposes religion is based in our loving and fearful relationships with our parents |
Mircea Eliade | Helped develop the field of comparative religion - finding common patterns in various religions |
profane | Wordly, secular, as opposed to sacred |
transcendent | Spiritual reality that exists apart from the material universe |
monotheistic | Believing that there is only one deity |
monistic | Believing that there is one deity that is interpreted in several ways (One god with many faces) |
atheism | Belief that there is no deity |
worship | The ways members of a religion express their reverence or attempt to commune with that religion's deities or sacred |
myth | A symbolic story expressing ideas about reality or spiritual history |
phenomenology | Studying a religion while setting aside your own beliefs and values to get an objective conclusion |
reductionism | Explaining a religion as simply psychological, political or sociological phenomenon |
Erich Fromm | Psychoanalyst that proposed religion is a stable frame of reference for humans |