Podium and Pulpit

Professor June O'Connor, Religious Studies Department, UCR
(used for spring 2006 RLST 7 ["Western Religions"] with Prof. O'connor's permission)

Read through the following statement of principles of the academic study of religion and discuss: What are the upsides and downsides of studying a religion objectively? What is gained, and what might be lost?

In our society, there are two chief ways through which religions are studied.  The differing purposes and functions of these two ways are aptly captured in the images of podium and pulpit.

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The pulpit represents the confessional approach to understanding religion.   The confessional approach is visible in the work of priests and ministers who preach the messages of Christianity in the churches, in the work of rabbis who explain the riches of Judaism in the synagogues, in the work of imams who communicate the meanings and values of Islam in the mosques (masjids).  Hindu priests, Buddhist monks and other teachers similarly inform and nourish the faith life of their congregants in Hindu and Buddhist temples.  Confucian, Ba'hai, Taoist, Shinto, Native American, and other religious communities likewise share their beliefs and practices in home and temple, on land and in lodge, practicing and preaching their religions in ways that will instruct and nurture the religious participation of those attending.

The podium represents the academic approach to understanding religions.   The academic approach is visible in the work of scholars and professors in colleges and universities who seek to inform students about the religions of the world.  The academic study of religions uses the tools and resources of the human sciences; thus, students and scholars of religions employ a variety of approaches characteristic of the humanities and social sciences as they ask and seek to answer a wide range of questions.  They tap historical, literary, psychological, sociological, anthropological, philosophical, ethical, and comparative methods, seeking to satisfy their curiosity, inform their minds, expand their thinking, and develop their abilities to examine religions both appreciatively and critically.  Religions are studied as cross-cultural features of human life.  And although faith in divinity, supernatural beings, spirits, forces, powers, and laws of the universe are commonly discovered features of religions, religious faith is neither assumed nor promulgated in the academic study of the religions.  Faith is not taken for granted but is part of the data base of what is studied.  In the University, we seek to understand what religious people believe, think, do, value, and hope for.  We work to understand the ways in which religions function, for good and for ill.  Students are encouraged to engage in the processes of inquiry and investigation with open-minded attention to sources (texts and practices, participants and observers).  In the process of doing so, they are expected to grow in the skills of paying disciplined attention to the facts, noticing and analyzing claims, engaging in critical and constructive analysis and interpretation, and developing skills in oral and written communication through which they express insights, conclusions, and new questions.

These differing approaches to the understanding of religions are not oppositional.  But neither ought they to be confused with each other, for each has its own distinctive mission and purpose.