This subject develops an understanding of the place of religion in personal and collective life, the varieties of religious phenomena, and the social organisation of religious belief and practice. In particular, the subject draws a comparison of the types of religious worldviews embodied in animistic, polytheistic and monotheistic religion and their political consequences. In so doing, it examines the great religious traditions, including the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese religion, as well as new religious movements. The subject also discusses the relation between religion and modernity, especially science, capitalist rationality and the secular state.
Programme: SOC(HSS)
This subject develops an understanding of the place of religion in personal and collective life, the varieties of religious phenomena, and the social organisation of religious belief and practice. In particular, the subject draws a comparison of the types of religious worldviews embodied in animistic, polytheistic and monotheistic religion and their political consequences. In so doing, it examines the great religious traditions, including the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese religion, as well as new religious movements. The subject also discusses the relation between religion and modernity, especially science, capitalist rationality and the secular state.