Table of Contents
Introduction to the Second Edition xi
Part I Human Experience and Religion 5
1 Creating Order and Meaning 5
Shaping Human Experience 5
Order and Meaning 10
The Symbolic Process 16
Cultures and Cosmologies 20
Experience and Imagination 25
The Aryans and Vedic Religion 26
The Haudenosaunee and Longhouse Religion 30
Resources 35
2 Religious Understandings of Life 41
The Power of Life 41
Land in Warlpiri Experience 43
Freedom in Jewish Experience 47
Sacred Space and Sacred Time 54
Person, Self, and Experience 59
Resources 62
3 The Study of Religion 67
Nature, Culture, and Religion 67
Culture-A Shared Pattern for Living 70
Studying Religion 75
Defining Religion 79
Science and Religion 82
Symbolic Forms 83
Resources 88
Part II Religious Action
4 Ritual Action 95
Religious Ritual 97
Symbolic/Expressive Dimensions of Ritual 98
Personal and Social Functions of Ritual 102
Types of Religious Ritual 104
Summary 119
Resources 119
5 Ethical Action 123
Religious Ethics 126
Religion as a Source of Ethics 128
Norms for Moral Conduct 129
Norms for Moral Character 139
Social Ethics 152
The Relationship between Symbolic and Practical Religious Action 156
Ritual and Moral Pedagogy 157
Ritual and Moral Redemption 159
Ritual and Moral Transformation 162
Summary 164
Resources 165
Part III Religious Language
6 Talking about the Sacred 171
Religious Language and Figurative Language: Sides of the Same Coin 173
Religious Metaphors: Here One Century, Gone the Next 175
Myth 181
Prophets Who Challenge the Status Quo 197
Many Types of Religious Language 200
Summary 203
Resources 204
7 Scriptures, Canons, and Creeds 209
Scripture 209
Why Scripture and Not the Bible? 217
Reading Religious Literature 225
Critical Reading for Meaning Inside and Outside a Religious Tradition 229
The World within the Text 230
Thinking with Scriptures 232
Doctrines and Creeds 235
Summary 238
Resources 240
Part IV Religious Change
8 Personal Religious Change 247
Personal Religious Change as Development 248
Personal Religious Change as Conversion 251
Development and Conversion in an Individual Life 260
Personal Conversion and New Religions 263
From Personal to Communal Religious Development 265
Summary 270
Resources 270
9 Communal Religious Change 275
Renewal and Reform within a Religion 281
Social Change as a Catalyst for Religious Change 284
Cultural Contact and Religious Change 289
Religion as a Catalyst for Social Change 296
Resistance to Change 299
Summary 304
Resources 307
Part V Religious Authenticity
10 Alienation 315
The Religious Legitimation of Cultural Biases 317
Alienating Images of God 328
The Tendencies of Religious Authorities to Control 332
Religious Responses in the Face of Suffering 334
Personal Sources of Alienation 336
Responses to Alienation 338
Cults 339
Religion Understood as Totally Alienating 343
The Ambiguity of Religion 344
Summary 345
Resources 345
11 Reconcilling Religion 349
Personal Reconciliation within the Community 349
Conflicting Worldviews 352
The Confession of Transgressions 353
Reconciliation between Religious Groups 359
Reconciliation to Oneself 362
Buddhism and Inner Peace 374
The Concept of Reconciliation in Review 377
Conclusion 378
Resources 378
Glossary 381
Index 395
