This essay was submitted on December 10, 2021 as part of a final assignment for my World Religions and The Cultures They Create course.
The comparative nature of our study of the Axial Age encompasses Wasserstrom’s notion that “all religion is inter-religion”. In a general sense, the Axial Age describes a shift in religious ideas induced by multiple but interrelated cultural changes, however it is only upon closer investigation of each Axial Centres that we come to understand this development in religion. “The trans-disciplinary commission of Religious Studies is to sponsor encounters between philosophical claims to truth and historical claims to power” (Wasserstrom 13). In our study of the Axial Age, we historically compare several Axial Centres, then philosophically reflect on these comparisons.
Wasserstrom describes religion as "a function of folks meeting other folks—contact—and folks maintaining their old ways—continuity" (Wasserstrom 10). In the context of the Axial age, we see points of contact between two religious traditions that unmistakably influences the development of both religions. For example, the rise of Daoism can be seen as a counterbalance to Confucianism. While Confucianism emphasizes discipline and self-denial (Muesse 186), Daoism sought to abide by the changes and rhythms of nature (Muesse 209). The Taijitu icon is used in Daoism to illustrate the “Chinese ideal of harmony and wholeness by suggesting that all things require an equal and opposite thing to maintain balance” (Muesse 206). The principle of balance held by Daoism comes to fruition in the ways they emphasize the yin side of life in the Daodejing in order to offset the yang emphasis in Confucianism; it is interesting to wonder if Daoism may have emphasized different principles had Confucianism not been a competing force in Chinese ideology. Moreover, the concept of the Taijitu originates deep in China’s history and has evolved overtime as it becomes incorporated in different schools of thought. This signifies Wasserstrom’s idea that continuity of beliefs is also an important aspect of religion, an aspect which is best seen with a more specific perspective rather than a wide scope. The complex network of relations involved in religious studies includes interactions between religions, influences of earlier beliefs on emerging ideas, and effects of non-religious cultural phenomena. In its intricacy, both the Axial Age and Wasserstrom’s notion depict a rhizomatic developmental narrative of religion.
Wasserstrom’s notion is helpful in understanding the necessity for comparative religion in religious studies. Earlier notions of comparative approaches had the fault of essentializing religion, leading to misguided assumptions that religion is static and uniform and creating dichotomies that falsely categorized religious traditions (Week 11 Slide Set 1, slides 4-5). Yet, the interplay between religious traditions remains an integral characteristic of understanding religion that cannot be grasped by studying religious traditions in isolation. An oscillating perspective between the specific and the general allows religious scholars to investigate the complex network of relations that religious traditions are embedded in.
Work Cited
"Nine Theses on the Study of Religion" by Steven M. Wasserstrom, from All Religion is Inter-Religion.
Comentários