Religion and reductionism : essays on Eliade, Segal, and the challenge of the social sciences for the study of religion

249 Pages·1994·26.99 MB·English

by  Thomas A. Idinopulos and Edward A. Yonan

RELIGION AND REDUCTIONISM
STUDIES
IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS
(.NUMENBOOKSERIES)
EDITED BY
H.G. KIPPENBERG • E.T. LAWSON
VOLUME LXII
Idinopulos and Yonan - 978-90-04-37884-1
RELIGION AND REDUCTIONISM
ESSAYS ON ELIADE, SEGAL, AND THE CHALLENGE
OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES FOR THE STUDY OF RELIGION
EDITED BY
THOMAS A. IDINOPULOS
AND
EDWARD A. YONAN
EJ. BRILL
LEIDEN · NEW YORK · KOLN
1994
Idinopulos and Yonan - 978-90-04-37884-1
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Religion and reductionism : essays on Eliade, Segal, and the challenge
of the social sciences for the study of religion / edited by Thomas
A. Idinopulos and Edward A. Yonan.
p. cm. - (Studies in the history of religions, ISSN
0169-8834 ; v. 62)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 9004098704 (alk. paper)
1. Religion-Study and teaching. 2. Reductionism. 3. Religion
and the social sciences. 4. Eliade, Mircea, 1907- . 5. Segal,
Robert Alan. I. Idinopulos, Thomas A. II. Yonan, Edward A.
III. Series: Studies in the history of religions ; 62.
BL4 l.R383 1993
200'.7-dc20 93-34581
CIP
ISSN 0 169-8834
ISBN 90 04 09870 4
© Copyright 1994 by EJ. Brit~ Leiden, The .Netherlands
All rights reserved . .No part qf this publication may be reproduced, trans/at,ed, stored in
a retrieval .rystem, or transmitt,ed in any form or by a'!)I means, e/,ectronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior writt,en
permission qf the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items far int£rnal or personal
use is grant,ed by EJ. Brill provided that
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PRINTED IN THE NETHERI.ANDS
Idinopulos and Yonan - 978-90-04-37884-1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Contributors vii
Introduction 1
PARTI
The Challenge of the Social Sciences for the Study of Religion
1 Reductionism in the Study of Religion
by Robert A. Segal 4
2 Are Religious Theories Susceptible to Reduction?
by Thomas Ryba 15
3 Clarifying the Strengths and Limits of Reductionism
in the Discipline of Religion
by Edward A. Yonan 43
4 The Instability of Religious Belief: Some Reductionistic and
Eliminative Pressures
by Terry F. Godlove, Jr. 49
PART II
Reductionism, Eliade, and Segal
5 Must Professors of Religion by Religous? On Eliade's Method of
Inquiry and Segal's Defense of Reductionism
by Thomas A. ldinopulos 65
6 Mircea Eliade and the Battle Against Reductionism
by Wayne Elzey 82
7 Reduction without Tears
by Ivan Strenski 95
8 Beyond the Sceptic and the Devotee: Reductionism in the
Scientific Study of Religion
by Donald Wiebe 108
9 What is Reductionism?
by Arvind Sharma 127
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vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
10 Human Reflexivity and the Nonreductive Explanation of
Religous Action
by Lome Dawson 143
11 Religion, Explanation, and the Askesis of Inquiry
by Tony Edwards 162
12 Explaining, Endorsing, and Reducing Religion
by Daniel Pals 183
PART III
Sources and Applications ofR eductionism
13 Before 'The Sacred' Became Theological: Durkheim and Reductionism
by William E. Paden 198
14 Reductionism in the Classroom
by George Weckman 211
15 Reductions of a Working Historian
by Dan Merkur 220
16 Discourse with Angels: literature and Religion
by Edward Tomarken 230
Index of Names 237
Index of Subjects 238
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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Professor Lorne Dawson Department of Sociology
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
N2L3Gl
Professor Tony Edwards Department of Religion
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260
Professor Wayne Elzey Department of Religion
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056
Professor Thomas A. ldinopulos Department of Religion
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056
Professor Dan Merkur 3 Belsize Drive
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4S 1L3
Professor Daniel L. Pals Department of Religious Studies
University of Miami
Coral Gables, Florida 33124
Professor William E. Paden Department of Religion
University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont 05405-0128
Professor Thomas W. Ryba St. Thomas Aquinas Center
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana 47906
Professor Robert A. Segal Department of Philosophy and
Religious Studies
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803-3901
Professor Arvind Sharma Faculty of Religious Studies
McGill University
Montreal, PQ Canada
M3A2A7
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viii LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Professor Ivan Strenski Department of Religious Studies
University of California
Santa Barbara, California 93106
Professor Edward Tomarken Department of English
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056
Professor George Weckman Department of Philosophy
Ohio University
Athens, Ohio 45701-1979
Professor Donald Wiebe Department of Religious Studies
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5S1Al
Professor Edward A. Yonan Department of Religion
Millikin University
Decatur, Illinois 62522
Idinopulos and Yonan - 978-90-04-37884-1
INTRODUCTION
This volume of essays on religion and reductionism grew out of a confer
ence convened in November, 1990, at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, at
which the participants were asked to respond to the challenging question
of the role of social scientific reductionism in religious studies. The focus
of our conference was the writings of Robert A. Segal on reductionism,
and particularly his critical reaction to Mircea Eliade's account of
religion.
At the conference we considered some of the most important and
enduring questions in our discipline: What is religion? What is religious
truth and meaning? How best to study and teach religion? And one ques
tion above all: What are the possibilities and limits of social scientific
analysis of the religious phenomenon?
It was in the context of this last question that the all-important matter
of reductionism was discussed. That discussion focused on the provoca
tion essay written by Robert A. Segal, "In Defense of Reductionism,"
(Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 51 [March 1983], 97-
124). Professor Charles H. Long of Syracuse University presented his
own unique view on religion, reductionism, and the development of the
History of Religions school in America. Formal critical responses to the
views of Segal and Long were presented by Wayne Elzey, Edward A.
Yonan, and Thomas A. Idinopulos. In several instances the respondents
defended Mircea Eliade's analysis of religious meaning in the face of
Professor Segal' s critique of Eliade' s method.
Reductionism in the physical sciences is the attempt to demonstrate
that the central concepts and conclusions of one science can be accurately
and completely understood by the principles of another science. An ex
ample would be the reduction of biology to chemistry, and perhaps a fur
ther reduction of chemistry to physics. Another example would be the
reduction of psychology to physiology. The positivistic claim that any
valid idea is directly connected to a sense datum would be another but
different instance of reductionism. It is far from clear that all scientists or
philosophers of science are in agreement that reductionism, as defined, is
a successful or valid operation.
The application of reductionism to religious studies is no less contro
versial and uncertain. Generally speaking this reductionism has meant
that the claims or assertions of religion can be adequately (o r more truth
fully) interpreted through the concepts of sociology and psychology.
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2 IN'IRODUCTION
Without passing judgment on the correctness of their views, Karl Marx,
Sigmund Freud, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, amongst a large number
of nineteenth and twentieth century thinkers, have been described as
reductionists. The issue posed by reductionism then comes down to the
question, is religion a unique phenomenon resisting any act of "reduc
tion" or can religion, as virtually every other activity, be adequately
reduced to or interpreted by the social or behavioral sciences?
The vigorous discussion on religion and reductionism that took place
in Miami and the enthusiastic responses of the students present encour
aged us all to think that the discussion should be widened to include other
professors of religion who were not present, but who had written
probingly on this subject. For contributing to this volume we are grateful
to Professors George Weckman and Edward Tomarken, who participated
in the conference; and we are also grateful to those not present who were
willing to add their voices to the present debate: Professors Lome
Dawson, Tony Edwards, Terry F. Godlove, Jr., Dan Merkur, William E.
Paden, Daniel L. Pals, Thomas Ryba, Ivan Strenski, and Donald Wiebe.
We are also grateful to Dr. Alan Miller and Dr. Newell Booth, along with
all the members of Miami's religion department, without whose coopera
tion and support the conference on religion and reductionism could not
have taken place. Financial support for the conference came from the
Arthur C. Wickenden memorial lecture fund.
Our special thanks are also extended to Millikin University, Eric D.
Schmulbach, Mary Yonan, and Elisabeth Erdman at Brill Publishers for
their gracious support, encouragement and enthusiasm during every stage
of the completion of this volume.
The issues raised by the Segal-Eliade confrontation over reductionism
are complex and rewarding; they touch on the fundamental questions that
everyone who engages in a productive study of the world's religions must
answer. We can enumerate some of those questions:
1. Is there an irreducible religious "essence," which stubbornly re
mains after or resists every rational, conceptual effort to explain religion?
If so, what is that essence? Its meaning?
2. Acknowledging that religion is woven into the socio-cultural fabric
of human existence, how should one identify, describe, explain the reli
gious strand or component of society and culture? What is the difference
between description and explanation? What old and new methods of
study can reveal the religious pattern? Are there special characteristics or
religion? What are they?
3. Can one study religion as one studies art, or economics, or politics
or sociology? Does religious study require a special methodology sepa-
Idinopulos and Yonan - 978-90-04-37884-1