Dr.

Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado

REL 101
Theology in Confessional settings
Theologians talking about their religion as true and persuading (not religious studies)
No questioning what they are writing about
Religious Studies emerges in the 1960s
Makes sense of how humanity perceives the sacred
Objective approach

Insider vs. outsider perspective
Theology is from a insiders perspective
God-talk
Word theology literally means this
Faith seeking understanding

Belief is not irrational

Religion and humanity vs. the sacred
Religion is always the human response

Religious authority controls the sacred
Religions have religious leaders
Believers are often uninformed about their religion
Faith as critical
People have very intentional reasons for what they believe
Communal
We dont live in a world of spiritualties of I


Popular vs. institutional faith
Many practitioners do things that do not go with or even go against their religion
This is popular faith



Storyteller
Academics create frameworks for religions to make sense of the big picture and to look for trends.
Most practitioners do not do this

Categorizes religion in ways practitioners do not

Half in and half out of belief


The point is not to liberate folks from their
delusions
Emerges during European colonialism of Asia
and Latin America
Abrahamic religions are Christianity, Judaism, and
Study of religion is political

Scientific study
Very hard to be objective about something they cant see
Initially focuses on Christianity
Constitution deems religion as significant
aspect of U.S. life
Hard to say separation of church and state has been successful
Viewed as subjective belief and individual
preference
In the US religion is viewed as a choice, very rarely in other parts of the world
Subject not a method
Better understanding of self and others
Part of being an educated person
Over 90% of humanity is religious
Globally religion is growing
History and current events
Lifes big questions
Is this it?
Religions teach that your actions in this life affect you
in another