The aim of this paper is to give a detailed and succinct synopsis of Chapter four of the book titled “The Religion Toolkit.” I will begin by addressing the author’s salient arguments, and conclude by addressing questions which arise in Chapter four.
In this chapter, the author discusses ways in which academic scholars have evolved in terms of how they approach the academic study of religion. The writer explains that from the beginning of the early 20th century, there was a visible shift in the academy, from the past pervasive ethnocentric approach, to an objective and balanced one. It is made clear that although scholars may be uniformly objective in their approach to academic study, they will often hold varying views about what constitutes …show more content…
The author in this chapter connects the early development of religious practice among humans to the environment they inhabited and the respective obstacles within those environments they had to face. Early Homo sapiens had to contend with threats from animals and humans alike. Those with keen senses often fared better than those with less heightened senses. In this context, everything that moved was seen as an agent, an organism that could threaten their safety. This led to the birth of animism, where in their eyes, movement was seen as a sign of life. Additionally, objects and phenomena were assigned human tendencies by our nomadic ancestors and this phenomenon was defined as anthropomorphism. A combination of factors such as Hypersensitivity and the almost nonexistent knowledge of how the world worked led early humans to create and assign causes or agents for specific …show more content…
The author in this chapter analyzes various factors and scholars, which led to the modern academic discipline of religious studies. The views of prominent figures in the study of religion are presented and the various approaches they took are analyzed and categorized. The discipline of religious studies has at its core an objectivity in its study of various religious practices. Like science, scholars in this discipline must support presented ideas with evidence.
Religious scholars when addressing a specific tradition, ask themselves three questions. First, are the ideas that tradition purports clear, coherent and credible? Inventions such as the printing press paved the way for the creation of fields such as source criticism. Individuals such as Baruch Spinoza were able to apply this form of textual analysis to religious documents. This later became a critical component of this discipline. The role played by the Protestant reformation in the discipline cannot be forgotten. Before the reformation, the Church of Rome was the only body permitted to legitimately interpret the Bible. The occurrence of said reformation introduced the possibility of broad and varied textual interpretation. This is key to the study of
In this chapter, the author discusses ways in which academic scholars have evolved in terms of how they approach the academic study of religion. The writer explains that from the beginning of the early 20th century, there was a visible shift in the academy, from the past pervasive ethnocentric approach, to an objective and balanced one. It is made clear that although scholars may be uniformly objective in their approach to academic study, they will often hold varying views about what constitutes …show more content…
The author in this chapter connects the early development of religious practice among humans to the environment they inhabited and the respective obstacles within those environments they had to face. Early Homo sapiens had to contend with threats from animals and humans alike. Those with keen senses often fared better than those with less heightened senses. In this context, everything that moved was seen as an agent, an organism that could threaten their safety. This led to the birth of animism, where in their eyes, movement was seen as a sign of life. Additionally, objects and phenomena were assigned human tendencies by our nomadic ancestors and this phenomenon was defined as anthropomorphism. A combination of factors such as Hypersensitivity and the almost nonexistent knowledge of how the world worked led early humans to create and assign causes or agents for specific …show more content…
The author in this chapter analyzes various factors and scholars, which led to the modern academic discipline of religious studies. The views of prominent figures in the study of religion are presented and the various approaches they took are analyzed and categorized. The discipline of religious studies has at its core an objectivity in its study of various religious practices. Like science, scholars in this discipline must support presented ideas with evidence.
Religious scholars when addressing a specific tradition, ask themselves three questions. First, are the ideas that tradition purports clear, coherent and credible? Inventions such as the printing press paved the way for the creation of fields such as source criticism. Individuals such as Baruch Spinoza were able to apply this form of textual analysis to religious documents. This later became a critical component of this discipline. The role played by the Protestant reformation in the discipline cannot be forgotten. Before the reformation, the Church of Rome was the only body permitted to legitimately interpret the Bible. The occurrence of said reformation introduced the possibility of broad and varied textual interpretation. This is key to the study of