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Upcoming events
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•OnlineThe Evolution of Religion
OnlineFor millennia, religion has been a major factor for many people in how they view themselves and the meaning of life. The religious worldviews that emerged not only helped shape their everyday lives but also had an effect on the society and culture around them. However, those worldviews and their effects changed over time. In this session, we will be exploring the topic of the evolution of religion, beginning in prehistoric times and continuing all the way to the present day.
To facilitate this exploration, we’ll be looking at the key features of religion in an essay called “Religious Evolution” by the renowned sociologist of religion, Robert Bellah. In this essay, he proposes a heuristic of five stages in this evolution where there were significant changes in the religious landscape of major religious movements throughout the world.
Those stages are:- Primitive Religion (pre-agriculture and written history)
- Archaic Religion (early agricultural societies - roughly from 3000 to 800 BCE)
- Historic Religion (starting in the axial age (800 to 200 BCE))
- Early Modern Religion (16th to the 18th centuries, starting with the Protestant Reformation)
- Modern Religion (19th century on)
From the time his essay was published in 1964, there have continued to be significant changes in religiosity. So, we’ll also be looking at some recent research on what is happening in the religious landscape as well as societal changes related to religion. Particularly noteworthy is the rise of the “nones” (the unaffiliated), religious diversity, and the politicization of religion. Then there will be an open discussion for comments and insights on this topic, what is happening in religion today, and what might happen going forward.
Here are some links for those interested:Robert Bellah, Religious Evolution - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tpQUG0RKlWXFr_1IqGfgMn-lfBZXbXvD/view
Pew Research Center on Religion - https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/religion/
Benedict Center, Understanding Unbelief - https://research.kent.ac.uk/understandingunbelief/wp-content/uploads/sites/1816/2019/05/UUReportRome.pdf18 attendees
Past events
2094
