Description
You will read a number of important scholar’s work this week. Russell McCutcheon is a philosopher of religion and is considered one of the foremost authorities on the study of religion. He is often the editor of edited volumes and introductory textbooks for graduate and undergraduate students alike. Robert Winzeler was cultural anthropologist that specialized in religion, psychology, and Southeast Asia. Winzeler is best known for his undergraduate textbookAnthropology and Religion: What We Know, Think, and Question, which I extracted two chapters for your reading this week. Winzeler raises some great questions that I want you all to be thinking about despite whether or not you agree with the answers he gives (I find his answers disagreeable myself). Lastly, you will be reading Colin Renfrew who is a very important archaeologist whose work has gone a long way to dismiss earlier scholarly assumptions regarding the “religions” of prehistoric peoples.
Do these three authors you read for this week agree or disagree as to what religion is, and is religion something all human beings possess or need to possess to be human? What do the authors write about regarding these questions and where in the reading do they write it? How do these questions challenge your previously held assumptions regarding religion, if at all? Why, or why not?
You have five hundred words to fashion a post that addresses one or more of these questions and hopefully articulates something else you found interesting from this week’s readings.
Syllabus
McCutcheon’s, “What is the Academic Study of Religion?” on
Blackboard
Winzeler’s “Anthropology and Religion” on Blackboard
Renfrew’s “Archaeology of Religion” on Blackboard
Explanation & Answer
Attached.
Running Head: THE CONCEPT OF RELIGION
The Concept of Religion
Name
Instructor
Institutional Affiliation
Date
1
THE CONCEPT OF RELIGION
2
Religion has a broad definition, but in simple terms, it refers to a set of beliefs regarding
the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, particularly when deemed as the creation by a
superhuman being (McCutcheon, 1997). It usually involves devotional and ritual observances
incorporating moral and ethical codes governing the general conducts of human beings. From the
class discussions and readings, we noted that several scholars came up with a different
understanding of religion. Russell T. McCutcheon is a Canadian scholar and a philosopher of
religion. In his book, titled “Manufacturing Religion” he critiques the concept of religion by
showing how the notion of religion has an autonomous aspect of reality which is revealed in
unique experiences, idealized and dehistoricized (McCutcheon, 1997). In his critique of the
concept of religion, he shows how sui generis discourse have marginalized the real explanation
of religion and protected the religion and uniquely given it a historical reality.
Robert Winzeler in his book, ‘Anthropology and Religion: What We Know, Think, and
Question’ notes that religion is a concept that has broader meaning from the perspective of
different societies (Winzeler, 2012). He notes that religion is universal since it is commonly
found in almost every society. The only difference is that rel...
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