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Worldview Religious Studies brings the study of religion, spirituality, secularism, and other mixed attitudes of life under the overarching scheme of worldview studies. This book introduces and defines worldviews more generally before establishing a framework specific to religious studies.
The drive for meaning-making is explored through ritual-symbolic activities, ideas of 'play', and the power of emotions to transform simple ideas into values and beliefs that frame identity and signpost destiny. Identity and its sacralisation are discussed alongside gift/reciprocity theory in their relation to ideas of merit, karma, and salvation in Eastern and Western traditions. This theoretical background is used to introduce a new classification of worldviews - natural, scientific, ancestral, karmic, prophetic-sectarian, mystical, and ideological.
Organised thematically by chapter, this book brings together familiar and unfamiliar authors, theories, and sources to challenge students and teachers of Religious Studies, Theology, and Ethics. It introduces worldview religious studies as a framework through which to re-think human endeavours to identify, cope and even transcend life's flaws and perils.
List of contents
Part 1 Theories and Perspectives - 1. Framing Worldviews, 2. Religion and Religious Studies, 3. Destiny, Ritual-Symbol and Gift, 4. Evil, Merit, Salvation. Part 2 Worldview Types - 5. Types of Worldview, 6. Natural Worldview, 7. Scientific WorldvieW, 8. Ancestral Worldview, 9. Karmic Worldview, 10. Prophetic Sectarian, 11. Mystical Worldview, 12. Ideological Worldview, 13. Ludic Worldview, 14. Seeing and Seeing-through Worldviews.
About the author
Douglas J Davies is a Professor in the Study of Religion in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University, UK.
Summary
Worldview Religious Studies brings the study of religion, spirituality, secularism, and other mixed attitudes of life under the overarching scheme of worldview studies. This book introduces and defines worldviews more generally before establishing a framework specific to religious studies.
