Discerning Religious Belief Systems ANTREL 363 Religious Belief

Discerning Religious Belief Systems ANT/REL 363 Religious Belief Systems

Discerning Religious Belief Systems These notes have been adapted from the work of my mentor: Norman Allison, Ph. D

Discerning Religious Belief Systems • Anthropology is replete with theories designed to help us understand peoples and cultures around the world.

Discerning Religious Belief Systems Anthropological theory changes with time. I have selected an older approach to the study of religious beliefs that should immediately improve a student’s ability to visualize the complexity of communicating effectively to people from other belief systems and cultures.

Discerning Religious Belief Systems • I follow what is known as the “general systems theory” approach to cultural analysis, molded by functionalism, modified by my Christian worldview!

Discerning Religious Belief Systems Anthropological theory changes over time. I have selected an older approach to the study of religious beliefs because it is easy to understand should immediately improve a student’s ability to visualize the complexity of communicating effectively to people from other belief systems and cultures.

Discerning Religious Belief Systems • We will use what is known as the “general systems theory” approach to cultural analysis modified by my Christian worldview! • In recent years, many anthropologists have moved away from understanding the intricacies of culture through the study of structural systems because of essentialism. Essentialism is the belief that something exists exactly the way it has been described.

Discerning Religious Belief Systems • My preference for a systems approach is directly related to the impact of Christian anthropologists Norman Allison, • Paul Hiebert, • and Charles Kraft.

Discerning Religious Belief Systems • I have taken classes under Allison and Hiebert. I have had the opportunity to meet and talk with Kraft. The impact of their works on my life has made it difficult to know where their ideas end and mine begin, so it’s good… thank them. If it’s bad… I’ll take the credit!

Discerning Religious Belief Systems • The purpose of our class is to demonstrate the use of a systems model as a way to enable students who are training for ministry to use such tools in the examination of the religious belief systems, and their expression in the daily lives and rituals of people in any part of the world. Of course the ultimate purpose is to train them to be able to understand the people to whom they will go from an emic perspective, and to enter their world in such a way that they see through the eyes of those to whom and with whom they share the Good News, understanding the way they see the world and communicating to them in ways that will facilitate their clear understanding of God’s truth.

Discerning Religious Belief Systems • Through etic analysis, biblical absolutes always form the essential guidelines for any application of anthropological theory in Christian teaching. I understand the contemporary discussions on imposing Western structures of understanding on non-Western cultural data, but I work to see that emic structures are given a high priority. This course will help monocultural students to examine non-Western beliefs and values without the inherent ethnocentrism so often seen in the history of missions.

Discerning Religious Belief Systems • We will be also be discussing some of Miles Horton’s thinking concerning the similarities that underlie African thought and Western science, and then comparing the differences. • Our study of Religious Belief Systems is based in part on Horton’s method of analysis.

Discerning Religious Belief Systems • We will work our way through Communicating Christ in Animistic Contexts. • We will address the concept of folk religious systems during the course. • Our class discussions and reading will guide and inform students in the person project of discerning a RBS.

Discerning Religious Belief Systems • Students have the opportunity to review the work of students who completed this course in previous years. They see how a triangle diagram has been used and modified to present Religious Belief Systems.

Discerning Religious Belief Systems • I will describe some of the religious beliefs of Nuer and Kalibari via this diagram. It is important for students to realize that this diagram is a simple tool that helps in conceptualizing how the belief structures of a particular person might be constructed.

Discerning Religious Belief Systems • In reality, only God knows our full belief structure. He will guide us in the process of making disciples. • It would be incorrect for students to believe they have fully and accurately described the belief structure of a people. • However, this conceptual tool can help us ask good questions as we seek to discern religious belief structures.