Part 2 - Beliefs and Conversions
Popular associations with 'belief'
- belief as a characteristic to defining religion
- dichotomy of knowledge and belief, where science knows religion believes
- belief as a motivation behind a person's actions; if you belieb you will act accordingly
- the belief in the existence of things of purpose
History of Belief
The early Church
- 'pisteuo' (from Greek) - faith, trust/confidence in something
- in Apostolic wirting it came to mean 'converted': belief 'that' rather than belief 'in'
- creed as an act of affirmation, belief as a symbol of membership (e.g. baptism as a resurrection for Catholics)
Council of Nicaea (325AD)
- under the patronage of Emperor Constantine
- Arius challenged the sects of Christianity (as the Church was made up of diverse entities) to create a doctrine expounding a true Christian: belief as inferior to doctrine
The Reformation and Luther
- father of Protestanism - challenged the authority of the papacy
- instead regarded the Bible as the source of religious authority and so translated it into the vernacular
- universal priesthood
- 'inward totality of Christian belief'; belief fully realised after inward/inner struggle
Popular associations with 'belief'
- belief as a characteristic to defining religion
- dichotomy of knowledge and belief, where science knows religion believes
- belief as a motivation behind a person's actions; if you belieb you will act accordingly
- the belief in the existence of things of purpose
History of Belief
The early Church
- 'pisteuo' (from Greek) - faith, trust/confidence in something
- in Apostolic wirting it came to mean 'converted': belief 'that' rather than belief 'in'
- creed as an act of affirmation, belief as a symbol of membership (e.g. baptism as a resurrection for Catholics)
Council of Nicaea (325AD)
- under the patronage of Emperor Constantine
- Arius challenged the sects of Christianity (as the Church was made up of diverse entities) to create a doctrine expounding a true Christian: belief as inferior to doctrine
The Reformation and Luther
- father of Protestanism - challenged the authority of the papacy
- instead regarded the Bible as the source of religious authority and so translated it into the vernacular
- universal priesthood
- 'inward totality of Christian belief'; belief fully realised after inward/inner struggle
The problem with 'belief'
- is belief as important to other religions as it is to Christianity?
- does the belief of a person necessarily explain their behaviour?
- is belief an interior state?
- do beliefs have to be associated with a declared identity or allegiance?
Conversion
Pauline Conversion
'combines notions of an unexpected flash of revelation, a radical reversal of previous beliefs and allegiances and an underlying assumption that converts are passive respondents to outside forces' (Rambo 2003: 213, in Buckser and Glazier)
David Icke's conversion
'My predictions were meant to be wrong on a massive scale because I have always been scared of ridicule,' said Icke. 'Unless you have experienced hot and cold you cannot know what lukewarm is.'
- he had been a firm believer in a new age conspiracy on 'who and what is really controlling the world'
- specifically, a secret group called Illuminati, and members included George Bush, Queen Elizabeth II and Kris Kristofferson, and were thought to be a race of reptilian humanoids (reptilian-humanoid DNA combination allows the members to shape-shift)
Process of conversion
- incremental - no conversion happens instantly
- may at first be experimental; note that there is no simple break with the past
- may include bodily and somatic changes, e.g. through yoga and meditation
Syncretism
- from the Ancient Greek 'syngkrasis' to mean 'a mixing together'
- history of religion: purity was tarnished by the introduction of the deviant and the ambiguous
- anth gives and affirmative meaning to syncretism: better than acculturation (which implies agency and degree of subversion)
- all practices of religion are syncretic but some may deny it for political purposes; asyncretism is a claim to authenticity
- so the focus is on: processes of religious sythesis and the discourse of syncretism
Socio-political contexts of religious affiliation and syncretism
- Christain and Hindu interactions in Tamil Nadu: display of caste hierarchy in church
- Vatican II [a movement amongst some theologians and Vatican officials to integrate modern human exp with Christian dogma - seen as a more accurate understanding of the scriptures] and social justice
- Dalit theology - a branch of Christian theology that emerged from the understandings of the Dalit caste in India 1980s
- moving from syncretism to anti-syncretism
Example of syncretism
- the Toba of the Chaco region in Argentina
traditionally shamans knew about heaven but could not enter; Christianity allowed the to enter
Summary
- belief needs to be qualified in ethnographic, historical and social terms
- conversion located in terms of individual exp and socio-political affiliation
- doubt may be as important to examine as what people are certain of
- incremental - no conversion happens instantly
- may at first be experimental; note that there is no simple break with the past
- may include bodily and somatic changes, e.g. through yoga and meditation
Syncretism
- from the Ancient Greek 'syngkrasis' to mean 'a mixing together'
- history of religion: purity was tarnished by the introduction of the deviant and the ambiguous
- anth gives and affirmative meaning to syncretism: better than acculturation (which implies agency and degree of subversion)
- all practices of religion are syncretic but some may deny it for political purposes; asyncretism is a claim to authenticity
- so the focus is on: processes of religious sythesis and the discourse of syncretism
Socio-political contexts of religious affiliation and syncretism
- Christain and Hindu interactions in Tamil Nadu: display of caste hierarchy in church
- Vatican II [a movement amongst some theologians and Vatican officials to integrate modern human exp with Christian dogma - seen as a more accurate understanding of the scriptures] and social justice
- Dalit theology - a branch of Christian theology that emerged from the understandings of the Dalit caste in India 1980s
- moving from syncretism to anti-syncretism
Example of syncretism
- the Toba of the Chaco region in Argentina
traditionally shamans knew about heaven but could not enter; Christianity allowed the to enter
Summary
- belief needs to be qualified in ethnographic, historical and social terms
- conversion located in terms of individual exp and socio-political affiliation
- doubt may be as important to examine as what people are certain of
No comments:
Post a Comment