Religion and the Social Sciences: Conflict or Reconciliation?
I offer an account of Weston La Barre's The Ghost Dance to indicate the continuing vitality of a Freudian ideological attack on religious beliefs and behavior. A contemporary group of social scientists, chiefly featuring Bellah, Geertz, and Luckmann, could possibly meet La Barre's sociopsy...
| Published in: | Journal for the scientific study of religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
[1972]
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| In: |
Journal for the scientific study of religion
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| Further subjects: | B
Religious symbolism
B Social Sciences B Traditions B Religious Behavior B Omnipotence B Religious rituals B Psychological Stress B religious naturalism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | I offer an account of Weston La Barre's The Ghost Dance to indicate the continuing vitality of a Freudian ideological attack on religious beliefs and behavior. A contemporary group of social scientists, chiefly featuring Bellah, Geertz, and Luckmann, could possibly meet La Barre's sociopsychiatric challenge to religion. I examine their reliance on functional definitions of religion as a conciliatory measure designed to overcome the conflict between religious belief and the social scientific study of religion. Despite certain logical and empirical problems in the use of functional definitions of religion, I conclude that theoretical advances have been achieved in their writings. But in a more philosophical context, which is where La Barre's analysis really belongs, I suggest that their positions are logically insufficient as a rejoinder. The bridge between religion and social science, therefore, may yet contain some shaky girders. |
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| ISSN: | 1468-5906 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the scientific study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/1384547 |