Religious Evolution Research Paper
Religious Evolution
Author(s): Robert N. Bellah
Source: American Sociological Review, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Jun., 1964), pp. 358-374
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2091480 .
Accessed: 22/08/2011 01:52
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. …show more content…
In one sense historic religions represent a great "demythologization" relative to archaic religions. The notion of the one God who has neither court nor relatives, who has no myth himself and who is the sole creator and ruler of the universe, the notion of self subsistent being, or of release from the cycle of birth and rebirth, are all enormous simplifications of the ramified cosmologies of archaic religions. Yet all the historic religions have, to use Voegelin 'sterm, mortgages imposed on them by the historical circumstances of their origin. All of them contain, in suspension as it were, elements of archaic cosmology alongside their transcendental assertions. Nonetheless, relative to earlier forms the historic religions are all universalistic. From the point of view of these religions a man is no longer defined chiefly in terms of what tribe or clan he comes from or what particular god he serves but rather as a being capable of salvation. That is to say that it is for the first time possible to conceive of man as such.
Religious action in the historic …show more content…
Together with the notion by the fluctuations of mere sensory impres- of a transcendent realm beyond the natural sions.34 Primitive man can only accept the cosmos comes a new religious elite that world in its manifold givenness. Archaic man claims direct relation to the transmundane can through sacrifice fulfill his religious ob- world. Even though notions of divine kingligations and attain peace with the gods. ship linger on for a very long time in variBut the historic religions promise man for ous compromise forms, it is no longer the first time that he can understand the possible for a divine king to monopolize relifundamentalstructureof reality and through gious leadership. With the emergence of a salvation participate actively in it. The op- religious elite alongside the political one the portunity is far greater than before but so problem of legitimizing political power enis the risk of failure. ters a new phase. Legitimation now
Author(s): Robert N. Bellah
Source: American Sociological Review, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Jun., 1964), pp. 358-374
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2091480 .
Accessed: 22/08/2011 01:52
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. …show more content…
In one sense historic religions represent a great "demythologization" relative to archaic religions. The notion of the one God who has neither court nor relatives, who has no myth himself and who is the sole creator and ruler of the universe, the notion of self subsistent being, or of release from the cycle of birth and rebirth, are all enormous simplifications of the ramified cosmologies of archaic religions. Yet all the historic religions have, to use Voegelin 'sterm, mortgages imposed on them by the historical circumstances of their origin. All of them contain, in suspension as it were, elements of archaic cosmology alongside their transcendental assertions. Nonetheless, relative to earlier forms the historic religions are all universalistic. From the point of view of these religions a man is no longer defined chiefly in terms of what tribe or clan he comes from or what particular god he serves but rather as a being capable of salvation. That is to say that it is for the first time possible to conceive of man as such.
Religious action in the historic …show more content…
Together with the notion by the fluctuations of mere sensory impres- of a transcendent realm beyond the natural sions.34 Primitive man can only accept the cosmos comes a new religious elite that world in its manifold givenness. Archaic man claims direct relation to the transmundane can through sacrifice fulfill his religious ob- world. Even though notions of divine kingligations and attain peace with the gods. ship linger on for a very long time in variBut the historic religions promise man for ous compromise forms, it is no longer the first time that he can understand the possible for a divine king to monopolize relifundamentalstructureof reality and through gious leadership. With the emergence of a salvation participate actively in it. The op- religious elite alongside the political one the portunity is far greater than before but so problem of legitimizing political power enis the risk of failure. ters a new phase. Legitimation now