List: Religious Studies 101 | Curated by Jon Law

Oct 17, 2024
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Religious Studies 101
Jon Law
Hinduism Through Prothero’s Four-Part Approach and Eck’s DarsanIn Prothero’s seminal work God Is Not One, he presents a four-part framework to understanding religions: identifying the central problem…
Oct 17
Oct 17
Jon Law
Leach’s Approach to Creation Myths & Leachian Mythological AnalysisBritish sociologist and anthropologist Edmund Leach studies in part creation myths. We’ve explored his arguments and ideas on creation…
Oct 17
Oct 17
Jon Law
How Does Hermeneutic Theory Critique Biblical Literalism?In John Bartkowski’s Beyond Biblical Literalism and Inerrancy, he uses hermeneutic theory to analyze and critique biblical literalism via…
Oct 17
Oct 17
Jon Law
What does Prothero say about Islamism?In Prothero’s God is One, he explores the notion of Islamism, defining Islamism as a “radical form of politicized Islam.”
Oct 16
Oct 16
Jon Law
What is the Bhagavad Gita in Hinduism?The Mahabharata is a famous, ancient epic and one of the two Sanskrit texts revered in Hinduism. Today, the most adored part of the…
Oct 16
Oct 16
Jon Law
The Qur’an at the 1893 World Columbian ExpositionAli explores the ways in which the Qur’an was received and displayed at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago through her work…
Oct 16
Oct 16
Jon Law
What is Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha? Religious Studies 101Buddhism is a missionary religion, meaning like Christianity and Islam, one “converts” to Buddhism. All you have to do is recite the Three…
Oct 15
Oct 15
Jon Law
What is Mahayana versus Theravada Buddhism?Scholar Stephen Prothero, author of God Is Not One, highlights the differences in doctrine, goals, and practices within the two major…
Oct 15
Oct 15
Jon Law
What is Nirvana in Buddhism?In Buddhism, the problem is suffering (dukkha), and the solution is nirvana. Nirvana literally means “blowing out” and refers to the notion…
Oct 15
Oct 15
Jon Law
What are Creation Myths in Religious Studies?Creation myths are core narratives found across cultures that explain the origins of the universe, the Earth, life, and humanity. These…
Oct 15
Oct 15
Jon Law
What is Chidester’s Church of Baseball?In David Chidester’s Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture, he uses the metaphor of the Church of Baseball to connect…
Oct 15
Oct 15
Jon Law
What are the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism?The Four Noble Truths compress the problem, solution, and techniques of Buddhism into what is considered to be the simplest doctrinal…
Oct 15
Oct 15
Jon Law
What is Darsan in Religious Studies?Diana Eck, Harvard theologian, explores the significance of visual perception in Hindu worship through the concept of Darsan in her book…
Oct 15
Oct 15
Jon Law
Esther versus Jezebel in Religious StudiesJennifer Knust, an American Biblical scholar out of Duke, posits Esther and Jezebel as two archetypal female figures—models of the…
Oct 15
Oct 15
Jon Law
What are Totems versus Symbols in Religious Studies?I’ve previously written on Durkheim’s take on the sacred versus the profane (click to read). Therein we explore Durkheim’s take on religion…
Oct 15
Oct 15
Jon Law
What is the Sacred versus the Profane in Religious Studies?French Sociologist Émile Durkheim posited the sacred and the profane as two distinct aspects of human life which play into his idea of…
Oct 14
Oct 14
Jon Law
What are Binary Structures in Myth?Binary structures in myth were popularized by British anthropologist Edmund Leach and detail how core binary oppositions are mediated via…
Oct 14
Oct 14
Jon Law
What is Virtual Orientalism?In a previous article where we detailed Jane Iwamura’s Oriental Monk figure, we touched on her work Virtual Orientalism. We’ll detail her…
Oct 14
Oct 14
Jon Law
What Is Perennial Philosophy? (Perennialism)Perennial philosophy is the idea that all religions are different sides to the same coin and represent a shared core. As Swami Sivananda…
Oct 14
Oct 14
Jon Law
What are Binary Oppositions in Mythology?Binary Oppositions refer to implicit, at-odds facets of the human condition that individuals or society struggles with. Here are a few…
Oct 13
Oct 13