Lesson 1 seeks to examine the subject of religion in general by asking the question, "What is religion?"
Lesson 1 - What is religion? - part 1 of 2 [This video was roughly edited to remove material that is specific to the administration and navigation of the coursework such as the syllabus and assignments required for college credit.] Link for Beatles 3000 video by Scott Gardiner found at 22:00: https://youtu.be/3Z2vU8M6CYI?si=6nhe0ZLAgDlJthEpAI Summary of Content
This lesson from Dr. Jeffrey S. Wasserman serves as an introduction to his course, Religions of the World, at the College of DuPage. The primary goal of the session is to grapple with the complex, academic question: "What is religion?" (1:12 - 1:30).
Class Discussion and Initial Perspectives:
Early in the video, students share their initial associations with the word "religion," which Dr. Wasserman charts on a whiteboard (2:01 - 8:56). Concepts mentioned include:
Beliefs and Faith: Core internal experiences and convictions (2:36 - 2:44).
Moral Frameworks: Concepts of reward, punishment, and judgment (3:11 - 5:06).
Community and Culture: How religion exists within a social structure (4:12 - 4:27).
Negative Aspects: The discussion also covers the role of doubt, sectarianism, and the historical link between religion and war (6:25 - 8:30).
Defining Religion:
Dr. Wasserman emphasizes that defining religion is notoriously difficult, noting that he once spent two weeks on this topic alone during his graduate studies (9:52 - 10:26). He introduces a "vanilla" working definition from professor Kent Richter: "Religion is a complex set of reasonably interwoven beliefs, behaviors, and experiences rooted in some notion of a : ultimate being" (12:57 - 13:16). He later explores the Latin root religare, meaning to bind or make loyal, suggesting that religion involves a voluntary commitment to something significant (16:24 - 17:48).
Methodology and Scholarly Perspectives:
Archaeology and History: Using a satirical video about the Beatles in the year 3000 (22:00 - 26:10), the instructor illustrates the challenges historians face when interpreting fragments of the past—a process similar to how we study ancient religious texts and traditions.
Anthropological Views: Medford Spiro defines religion as an institution of "culturally patterned interaction" with "culturally postulated superhuman beings," noting that humans often create images of God based on their own cultural needs (31:23 - 35:32).
Other Philosophical Frameworks:
Friedrich Schleiermacher: The essence of religion is the "feeling of an absolute dependence" (39:24 - 40:08).
Alfred North Whitehead: Religion is "what an individual does with his or her solitariness" (41:04 - 41:31).
Immanuel Kant: Religion is the recognition of all our duties as "divine commands" (42:24 - 43:10).
