R315 GLOSSARY
another world to live in: The imagined realm to which one has access through the system of symbols constituting a religious tradition by dwelling in them (= attending from them subsidiarily). It is the realm wherein one encounters or at least makes connection with what the tradition takes to be ultimate reality. It is the "inside" which qualifies insiders as "insiders."
at-onement: The state of being at-one with what is taken to be ultimate reality. It encompasses in its range of meaning "reconciled with," "in right or appropriate relation to," "in rapport with," "in agreement with," "in harmony with," "in conformity to," and "in union with"--with the understanding that the precise characterization of this state of at-onement will differ from one tradition to another.
bracketing: The separating of an empathetic description of a religious phenomenon from the speaker's or writer's own person -- putting it in neutral, as it were -- so that the phenomenon may be observed, understood, and appreciated for what it is on its own apart from whatever the personal position of the speaker or writer may be on the subject. Instead of directly giving expression to the convictions of the participant, bracketing defers to the participant as holding those convictions. E.g., instead of saying, "In the Roman Catholic Mass the bread and wine sacramentally become the body and blood of Christ," bracketing would say, "In the Mass, Roman Catholics believe that the bread and wine sacramentally become the body and blood of Christ."
central (or primary) story: One of the most important parts of the system of symbols making up a religious tradition, the most important story of all the stories that are told and typically the one in relation to which all other stories, beliefs, symbols, and practices take on the meaning they characteristically have in that tradition. To convey most essentially the core meaning of what a given religion is all about, a story will be told and usually it will be the same story or variations on the same story, regardless of the context. Usually it is the story of the founding or establishment of the tradition.
crossing the threshold: The action of entering into (coming to dwell within) the system of symbols of a religious tradition and thus the "other world" of a tradition -- i.e., becoming an insider. Adult converts cross a threshold self-consciously, while persons growing up within a tradition do so gradually and typically unselfconsciously. Adult insiders typically, however, recross the threshold again and again, whenever they engage in religious practice and renew their understanding of things from within the tradition. Empathetically objective understanding by outsiders of a tradition requires a crossing of the threshold in an act of empathetic imagination.
Eastern religions: The family of the great religious traditions which emerged in the Far East, primarily the religions originating in India (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism) and China (Taoism, Confucianism), though it includes more than these.
empathetic objectivity: An objectivity appropriate to the study of human subjects and cultural phenomena such as religion. Specifically, it involves the effort to take into account and do full justice to the understanding and experience of the insider in developing a full or rounded understanding of the object of investigation. A disciplined empathy is thus an essential part of what is involved.
empathy: An act of imaginatively stepping into another person's perspective and considering how things look from over there, as if one were an insider while one is not one in fact. Success in empathetic understanding would be a matter of having (temporarily, in an act of imagination) entered the perspective of the other person sufficiently well to be able to re-present it credibly to others, especially and above all in a way that is recognizable and credible to those persons who themselves occupy that perspective.
eschatological: Pertaining to the end of history as we know it, sometimes spoken as the end of time. It relates to those religious traditions (primarily Western religions) that speak of a final end or culmination to human history, which is said to involve a cosmic judgment of persons in relation to the expectations of God and a final apportioning of justice in which each is expected to receive what he most truly deserves. There is no such conception in traditions (such as Eastern religions) which conceive cosmic time as cyclical rather than linear or non-repeating.
historical religion: A religious tradition which conceives itself to have originated in (or have been decisively shaped by) a revelation of "ultimate reality" intervening in human history through certain particular events, persons, and circumstances. Its central story will tell of a decisive revelation of trans-historical, universal significance as having actually taken place in historical time. In consequence, all efforts to convey the content of that alleged revelation will be shaped and colored by those historical particulars, and the tradition will continue to be preoccupied with those historical particulars as having been vested with eternal significance. The Western family of religions are all historical religions in this sense.
holiness of God: The awesome, infinite standard of righteousness, justice, and inward beauty that God in Western religions is understood both to set or establish and to be by his very being. This is a characteristic of "ultimate reality" held in common by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but particularly stressed in Judaism.
monotheism: Belief that there exists one and only one God. A common trait among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
objectivity (the sense of objectivity appropriate to the study of religion): A striving to draw near to the object of investigation at the point where all relevant perspectives on it intersect, thus to comprehend it in its transcendence beyond any one perspective in a way that commands the recognition of those who dwell within them and know them well. It is fundamentally a matter of doing justice to the object itself, the object in the round. (This meaning of objectivity is to be distinguished from that often associated with modern natural science, namely a comprehensive methodology of distancing: of separating the investigating self from the object of investigation.)
oneness of God: The singularity of God in the understanding of Western religions, transcendent beyond all created things, as their creator, sustainer, providential governor, source of moral guidance, controller of their destiny, and final judge -- the singular focus of what should be one's ultimate allegiance. A characteristic of "ultimate reality" shared in common by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but particularly stressed in Islam.
otherness of God: The person-like character of God in the understanding of Western religions, in virtue of which (a) God and his intentions in essential respects would not be known did he not reveal himself (make himself and his intentions known) in human history and (b) God is capable of entering into relationship with particular persons and peoples, thereby singling them out from among other persons and peoples to accomplish his special purposes in history.
presentational symbol: A religious symbol that serves not only to represent some aspect of what is taken to be ultimate reality but which in the appropriate circumstances serves for participants to render it present and enable direct participation in it. In that respect they are sometimes called sacramental symbols. All presentational symbols are in the first place representational symbols, but the reverse is not true.
problem of meaning: The respect in which events in human experience from time to time in a variety of different ways pose a threat to the ultimate meaningfulness of life and disclose a felt disrelationship between the persons feeing that threat and what is taken to be ultimate reality (i.e., a felt lack of rapport with, or need to be regrounded within whatever is conceived to be the ultimate ground of meaning and purpose in life). The question is, how to cope with the threat and, in the face of it, attain to an affirmation of the meaning and worth of life despite it. There are at least six different ways that such a threat is posed, six aspects of the problem of meaning, corresponding to each of the six ways of being religious, which are in turn six generic ways (that in principle might be found within any major tradition) of coping with the threat and attaining to an affirmation of the meaning and worth of life despite it.
prophet: A human spokesperson for God in Western religions, allegedly chosen and enabled by God to declare and make known his revelation to human beings, which revelation typically involves (in part at least) some divine moral expectation that needs to be heeded to get in right relationship with God.
public education religion studies (of the sort that is legally appropriate): Objective studies about religion (in contrast with studies assuming a religious perspective and designed to foster and support that perspective) in the context of public education that are consistent with the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution, namely studies which are secular (neither promote nor hinder religion) in nature, intent, and purpose, studies whose primary effect is secular (in the same sense), and studies which involve no entanglement between the state and a religious organization.
religion (generic definition of): A means of getting in touch with and of attaining at-onement with "ultimate reality." In slightly different words, a religion is a system of symbols (e.g., words and gestures, stories and practices, objects and places) that functions religiously, namely, an ongoing system of symbols that participants use to draw near to, and come into right or appropriate relationship with, what they deem to be ultimate reality.
representational symbol (in the context of religion): Anything which refers to and thus represents something pertaining to "ultimate reality." Some such symbols under certain circumstances may also serve as presentational symbols, in which case they are experienced as conveying the very presence of what they are understood to represent.
revelation: A disclosure or communication by the "ultimate reality" to human beings of matters that would not otherwise be known, or not known as clearly and decisively. A primary religious concept within Western religions.
scandal of particularity: A feature of historical religions (see especially Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) whereby the universal and eternal message of divine revelation is accessible only in and through the particular historical and culturally specific circumstances in which it is held to have originally been given. In consequence, there results a perpetual controversy over sorting out what is essential to the divine message and what are the non-essential particulars of its initial historical reception. The mix often comes across as "scandalous" to outsiders who might identify with what seems to be matters of universal significance but are put off by what appears to be culturally and historically specific particulars.
system of symbols: The complex of stories, scriptures (if the tradition is literate), rituals, symbolic forms, and particular vocabulary for referring to what is taken to be ultimate reality, that as an interconnected whole constitute the core of a given religion.
test of empathy: One of two tests of candidates for empathetically objective interpretations of religious phenomena. Its purpose is to test how well one's interpretation has captured and conveyed an insider's perspective. The actual test is to see whether or not knowledgeable and thoughtful insiders can recognize their own understanding as insiders in the proposed interpretation.
test of neutrality: One of two tests of candidates for empathetically objective interpretations of religious phenomena. Its purpose is to test how well one's interpretation is disengaged from the expression of one's own personal attitude, orientation, and judgment toward the phenomena. The actual test is to see if a third party can detect from the interpretation any expression of your own attitude, orientation, and judgment, especially insofar as it may have biased, distorted, or colored what is conveyed by the interpretation.
threshold (of a system of symbols, of "another world to live in"): An entryway whereby one crosses the boundary from being outside the "other world" of a tradition to being inside it. Though it may be symbolized by a physical threshold (as to a temple or shrine), it essentially refers to a shift of consciousness from focally attending to a tradition's symbols to subsidiarily attending from them to what they symbolize, which is to say coming to dwell within them.
threshold effect: A change in the appearance and experienced texture of religious symbols as one crosses the threshold of a tradition's system of symbols and enters the "other world" to which it grants access, as one no longer looks at them from the outside but comes to dwell in them. On the outside, symbols are opaque and at best refer to matters within that other world. As one begins to cross the threshold, one begins to glimpse intimations of those matters more or less directly; the symbols become translucent. Insofar as one is able fully to cross the threshold, the symbols become transparent to their referents and serve to usher one into the very presence of them.
"ultimate reality": A variable standing for whatever the people of a given tradition take to be the ultimate ground of meaning and purpose in life--both how things are and how life ought to be lived. It stands for whatever is taken to make up the ultimate cosmic context of life that lies beyond the perspectives of ordinary human awareness and the mundane sphere of everyday life.
way of being religious: One generic manner and pattern among others of drawing near to and coming into right or appropriate relationship with what a religion takes to be ultimate reality. Each way is further characterized in terms of a mode of approach to what is taken to be the ultimate reality, an aspect of the problem of meaning to which it is addressed, a heremeneutical orientation, a pattern of social structures, and specific virtues and vices.
way of devotion: Cultivation of a personal relationship to "ultimate reality" of whole-hearted adoration, devotional surrender to "its" transforming grace, and trust in "its" providential care, anticipating in return an influx of sustaining energy, hope, and a sense of affirming presence or at-onement. It typically involves a conversion experience and emotional purgation.
way of mystical quest: Employment of ascetic and meditative disciplines in a deliberate quest to interrupt, slow down, or otherwise break through and become free of, the obscuring limitations and distracting compulsions of ordinary life in order to attain a direct awareness of "ultimate reality," come to be wholly at-one with it, and have life and one's relations with all things become transparently grounded in it. (The way of mystical quest should not be confused with "mysticism" as the term is used at large or by other authors, though there is in most cases some overlap. "Mysticism" in common usage is in some respects much broader, is focused more on extraordinary experiences, and, except for individual authors, is not possessed of a single, clear definition.)
way of reasoned inquiry: A rational, dialectical struggle to transcend conventional patterns of thinking in the effort attain understanding of, and consciousness-transforming insight into, what is taken to be the ultimate what, how, and why of things--i.e., to bring together and unite, so far as possible, mind with what is taken to be the ultimate Mind and thereby acquire a portion of divine wisdom. It typically involves systematic study of a tradition's scripture and previous attempts to articulate what is ultimately the case.
way of right action: Concerted effort to bring all of life, individual and communal, into conformity with the way things are ultimately supposed to be (however understood)--i.e., to realize and fulfill what is taken to be the sacred intendedness of life--that promises individual fulfillment, social justice, and the embodiment of divine ideality in the midst of mundane, this-worldly life.
way of sacred rite: Participation in the sacred archetypal patterns through which "ultimate reality" is understood by participants to be manifest, by means of symbolic ritual enactments or presentations that enable participants repeatedly to enter their presence, attain at-onement for the moment with them, and thereby have established and renewed their sense of meaningful order, identity, and propriety. It is typically communal rather than individual.
way of shamanic mediation: Entry into altered states of consciousness in which persons become mediators or channels for what is taken to be an intervention of spiritual reality, in the expectation that "supernatural" (trans-mundane) resources of imagination, power, and guidance will be released for solving or dealing with otherwise intractable problems of life. Expressed through phenomena such as "possession" (trance), "oracular utterance," "ecstatic vision," and/or "spirit journeying," it seeks at-onement with "ultimate reality" in what is taken to be its readiness to bring about healing, well-being, and fulfillment for the world.
Western religions: The family of major religious traditions which emerged in the Near East, primarily Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, each of which defines itself in certain respects in relation to the former as a further development or as a successor. All claim to be based upon a decisive revelation of "ultimate reality" as a person-like God.
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