Theories of ReligionIs there such a thing?

Five Theories of Religion

• Animism and Magic - Tylor and Frazer

• Religion and Personality - Sigmund Freud

• Society as Sacred - Emile Durkheim

• Religion as Alienation - Karl Marx

• A Source of Social Action – Max Weber

Animism and MagicDo You Believe in Magic?

EB Tylor

Animism

• Edward B Tylor• 1832-1917• Self educated• Primitive Culture

• Ethnological and Ethnographic Approach• Stress on scientific analysis of

human development• Did not appeal to Bible or

supernatural• Adopted Muller’s idea on

human thought patterns

Animism

• Attempted to show the “science of culture”• Argued for “psychic unity

of humanity”• The use of magic is an

example of this unity• Magic logical

development of cause and effect

• Definition of Religion• Belief in Spiritual beings

• Therefore• As souls animate persons,

so spirits must animate the world

JG Frazer

• JG Frazer• 1854-1941• Shy scholar• Golden Bough

• Convert of Tylor• Atheist/Agnostic despite

family Christian orientation• Sympathetic Magic• Imitative• Contagious

Magic

• Magic involves ritual• Tribal people

everywhere see the cause and effect• Magic declines religion

fills its place• Real power is

supernatural personalities

• Connection of Gods makes things happen• Religion is progress over

magic• Better explanation• Prayers implore the gods

and rituals help the gods.

Examples

• Pawnee Indians believed because the tools which touched the blood of a sacrificed maiden that the life giving influences of the tools would be transferred to the plants through the tools.

• Magic confers power on those who use it.• The magician becomes the king.• Kings are those who wield much power through magic.

Sigmund FreudPersonally speaking

Religion as Personality

• Religion is a “universal obsessional neurosis, a clash of opposing desires.”

• Healthy people do not need religion. Religion is for weak people who cannot face life’s problems and so rely on religion to help them with life’s difficulties.

Immature Dependency

• "religion [is] a symptom of an incomplete or pathological development within a personality." One depends on religion because one does not have mature attitude toward oneself or toward one's environment.

• Religious ideas are childhood imaginations of father, magic and so on which one uses to "actualize" adult behavior.

Oedipus Complex• Religion is a way that individuals act or live out the Oedipus

complex.• It is the unconscious desire to have sex with the parent of the

opposite sex usually between the mother and son.• The son replaces his father.

Society as SacredThe Totemic Principle

Biography• Some Background• Born in Epinal, France• 1858 – 1917• Educated• Elemental Forms of

Religious Life

• Built on the work of other French Scholars• Early Sociologist

Importance of Society• The Clan makes a

deep impact on the individual• Morality, etc

inseparable from religion• Everything depends

on social context http://www.britannica.com/bps/media-view/102010/1/0/0

Sacred vs. Profane• Sacred Items set

apart• Profane is ordinary,

has everyday use• Sacred objects

pertain to the community• Profane things

pertain to the individual.

http://www.kentnews.co.uk/polopoly_fs/825_1_1017044!image/3755458285.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_300/3755458285.jpg

Society as Sacred• The individual is deeply

affected by the clan.• When people are worshipping

a god or gods they are really worshipping their clan.

• "The god of the clan, the totemic principle, can therefore be nothing else than the clan itself, personified and represented to the imagination under the visible form of the animal or vegetable which serves as totem.” excerpt 8 Theories of Religion.

Religion in use• Thus religion is used to control and modify behavior of the

clan.• It determines appropriate behavior and consequences for

aberration.• The clan uses religion to embody its principles and values.

Karl Marx“Religion is the opium of the people.”

Religion as Alienation• Religion is an illusion with evil consequences.• It is used by the oppressors to keep things as they are.• Religion is determined by economics and therefore has to be

considered along with economics.• Man makes religion and it alienates.

Religion is used for control

• The specific form religion takes depends on "the shape of social life as determined by the material forces in control of it any given place and time. Marx asserts that belief in a god or gods is an unhappy by product of the class struggle, something that should not only be dismissed, but dismissed with scorn.” 7 Theories of Religion

Sources

• Slide 4 - http://www.swt.edu/~rw04/theory-web/images/tylor_edward.jpg; http://www.liceus.com/cgi-bin/aco/ant/frazer.jpg• Slide 6 -

http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/quote-f1.htm• Slide 9 - http://durkheim.itgo.com/images/bigdurk.gif• Slide 12 - http://www.maoism.org/graphics/marx.jpg• The Seven Theories of Religion by Daniel Pals