Kelsey Brooks - Supernatural

I found it interesting in the article, The Concept of Supernatural in Primal Religions, that religion could not be defined without the term 'supernatural'. Supernatural is a key concept in defining the term religion. This was interesting to learn because when I think of 'supernatural' I think of bad, ghostly, things and not religion. I have a hard time relating the world 'supernatural' to a religion. In future years, I would like to explore this concept more and see what other people have to say other than the Professor that wrote the article.

Kelsey Brooks - Symbolism of the 'Centre'

While reading Images and Symbols by Mircea Eliade, I found it interesting to learn the symbolism of the 'centre'. The most widely distributed variant of the symbolism is the Cosmic Tree. It is situated in the middle of the Universe. The 'primitive' religions along with many others held different versions of the Cosmic Tree. It was interesting to learn the different meanings behind what each religion held for the purpose of the Cosmic Tree. One religion said the roots were in Hell. This was an interesting symbol because it is like the tree started in Hell, but then began to grow and expanded into the Heavens. I pondered a lot of thoughts on the many different symbols of the Cosmic Tree.

Kelsey Brooks - Fate

In the book 'Oral tradition as History', describes that in Rundi oral traditions and their perception on the future, it always comes true. They call this fate. This is put into an "ultimate reality." This is the reality that includes religion and the unseen along with the visible world. This was interesting to read because in order to have fate, one must believe. This can teach a lot of people that belief of a higher power can lead to greater things. Some people might have a hard time believing in something, but with faith it is possible. There is always something greater to what is unseen to the eye.

Kelsey Brooks - Storytelling

I was researching different oral traditions and came across African Storytelling. This was a very interesting topic because it was part of the African tradition. Most Africans today are still primal peoples. It was interesting to learn they still try to carry out traditions to this day. They are more "in touch" with nature than we as Americans can be. It seems Africans have more respect and represent their country well. Africans still tell different stories from generation to generation.

Kelsey Brooks-Religious Growth

In The Ritual Process by Victor Turner, I thought it was interesting about religious growth. Turner states that religion deals largely with the imaginative and emotional nature, and consequently with uncertain elements of knowledge. In order to believe in a higher power, we must think beyond ourselves. We must also connect with a higher power in an emotional state. For example, Christians pray to God to "connect" with him and try to feel that emotional presence. We must imagine Him in existence and perceive what we feel is reality.

Katrina Thralls-Religion throughout my Day

It fascinated me to learn that most primal cultures don’t think of “religion” the same way we do. It isn’t an aspect of their lives, but infused into every aspect of their lives. So today, I tried to infuse my spirituality into every moment of the day, no matter what I was doing.

I started off eating my breakfast. Knowing that it all comes from the Earth, I thought a few words of gratitude for not only the wheat that made the bread, the chickens who laid the eggs, and the cow that gave the milk, but to the farmers who harvested the ingredients, and everyone along the way that helped get it to me this morning so that I could be nourished.

Next, I took my medication, and I realized that I was ingesting not only the helpful ingredients, but the work of people gathering ingredients, people working for years to find the right combinations, and people working with me to give me what I need.

Next, I got on my computer to do some work, and instantly got on the internet. Suddenly I was privy to almost any information I could possibly want, but more importantly, I was connected to everyone else in the world that was at that moment on the internet. We could look at the same pages, talk to the same people, and feel the same things as we watch human experiences unfold.

It’s only midday, and already I feel a connection to everyone on the planet. It’s amazing what a little awareness can do.

Katrina Thralls-Christianity without Writing

If Christianity were to exist without a system of writing, it would look very different than it does today. The most obvious reason is the lack of a Bible. There could be some of the same Old or New Testament, but it would be held within people, trained to recite the stories of the Bible. This may shift the religion from having so many who follow the Bible as a strict, literal set of rules to having more who follow the stories as allegory used to show moral guidelines and the love of God. The Bible would probably no longer be the ultimate authority. Either there would be something like the Pope or a shaman, where you would have a religious leader to be the authority, or the individual would be the authority, accountable directly to God. Of course, there would also not be the incredible theological library to study the faith, which I think is a necessary part of human nature.

Katrina Thralls-Drum Circle Reflection

I was hesitant to participate in the drum circle, for a lot of reasons. Firstly, it was an inconvenient time, right between two other classes, so I was very tied to my feeling of anxiety about making it to my next class on time. Secondly, I’ve done drum circles before, and never really gotten much out of them. Thirdly, I was dressed up for a presentation I had had earlier in the morning. Finally, it was cold.

With the reassurance that I would be given enough warning to get to my next class on time, I reluctantly took the plunge and took off my shoes, sitting carefully on my jacket so that I didn’t mess up my dressy clothes, and immersed myself into the experience. Much to my surprise, I enjoyed it. I was shocked how early 5 o’clock came, and how I wished I could stay longer.

Katrina Thralls-Technology as Stereotypically Gendered

It’s interesting to me that the stereotypes of men and women relate to a literate and oral society respectively. Men are considered on the cusp of technology, which is why most of the engineers in this country are men. Women, on the other hand, are considered to be excellent at communicating orally, which is part of why you see so many women in the humanities. Women are also seen as the nurturers and seen as more spiritual, which are things that are focused on in primal cultures. Of course, these are only generalizations which say nothing about an individual’s ability in either capacity, but these are images you see in society.

Katrina Thralls-Ways to Eat

Helping to create bread made me stop and think about the fact that there’s a lot of different ways people eat:

There’s the average American, who eats mostly over-portioned, greasy, high-sodium fast food prepared by other people.

There are pescetarians, who exclude meat except for fish.

There are vegetarians, who exclude all meat.

There are vegans, who exclude all animal products.

There are fruitarians, who exclude animal products, vegetables, and grains.

There are raw foodists, who eat food in its natural, raw state.

There are those who eat what they make themselves.

Now this last type flourished when the economy hit rock bottom, when people started making their own fruit and vegetable gardens. This is nothing compared to those who do so in primal cultures, where one must do every part of any sort of processing needed. If it’s an animal, that includes killing it. You have to be very connected with your food in a way that even most fruitarians and raw foodists are not.

Katrina Thralls-Rituals

Mol, Hans. Meaning and Place: an Introduction to the Social Scientific Study of Religion. New York: Pilgrim, 1983. Print.

“Yet ‘ritual’ is not confined just to the transcendent. Down-to-earth habits can have a similar effect on personal well-being or sense of integrity. If ritual deals with the reenactment of sameness and wholeness, one can find it in such worldly acts as having a cup of tea every afternoon at three o’clock, getting up every morning at seven, the Sunday afternoon ride in the car with an ice cream cone at the end, or the wifely kiss on return from work” (54-55).

Normally we tend to think of rituals as far away ceremonies that primitive people do for gods we don’t understand, but this puts ritual much closer to home. Thinking of it this way, many things in our daily lives are rituals. My nightly cup of hot cider is not just a way for me to fall asleep; it is a ritual that gives me peace.

Not only that, but my daily procrastinations are a ritual, in a way. Doing other things instead of my work makes me happier for the time being, and it gives me a routine. I always end up doing certain work at certain times on certain days because it is the point at which I can no longer procrastinate. It is almost as if the whole process is a ritual, a repeated dance—first I procrastinate, then I do the work, then I feel relieved because it’s done, then I receive another assignment, and I begin the motions again.

Katrina Thralls-Idea of the Good

Otto, Rudolf. The Idea of the Holy. Trans. John W. Harvey. London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1958.

“Plato did indeed make a powerful contribution towards the rationalization of his religion, for according to his philosophy the deity had to become identical with the ‘Idea of the Good’, and consequently something wholly rational and conceivable. But the most remarkable characteristic of Plato’s thought is just that he himself finds science and philosophy too narrow to comprise the whole of man’s mental life” (94-95).

I love this quote, because I love the idea that the diety had to become identical with the “Idea of the Good.” Even if you do not buy into god being something rational and conceivable, even if you think that the essence of god is exactly the opposite of that, I think that most people around the world can buy into the “Idea of the Good.”

The most popular religion in the world by size is Christianity, with 2.1 billion as of 2005. They believe in an all-loving, all-powerful God who is both transcendent and imminent. To me, this speaks to an “Idea of the Good.” The same goes for Islam (1.5 billion). The next largest group are non-religious individuals (1.1 billion), but this includes secular humanists, theists, and atheists, who can probably see the “Idea of the Good” either in this world or another. Finally, Hinduism (900 million) has many gods with humanlike characteristics and faults, some of whom are dark and murderous, but Hindus see the good in them and worship even the destroyers devotedly, and they especially see the “Idea of the Good” in Brahman, their Ultimate.

I had one unanswered question: if science and philosophy are too narrow to comprise the whole of man’s mental life, what is there to fill the gaps?

Katrina Thralls-Awakening as Salvation

Eliade, Mircea. Myth and Reality. Trans. Willard R. Trask. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1975.

“Since Hypnos is a brother to Thanatos, we see why, in Greece as in India and in Gnosticism, the act of ‘awakening’ had a ‘soteriological’ meaning (in the broadest sense of the word). Socrates awakens those who will talk with him, even though against their will” (126).

It is interesting to connect an awakening to a concept such as salvation. Certainly, the imagery and metaphor are there in the background of our collective mind. In the case of Socrates, he gave others salvation by awakening them from their own closed-off perceptions through his arguments. Another way this could be interpreted, however, is that every time we awaken, we are saved, and given another chance and a new day and a clean spirit. This means, that with the start of a new day, people are fundamentally good and have the potential to do good for one another on a huge scale. I think is an interesting philosophy that is rarely explored.

Katrina Thralls-Ministry Survey

Berger, Peter L. A Rumor of Angels: Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural. New York: Anchor Books, 1969.

“[A minister] decides to do a little do-it-yourself sociological research and hands out a questionnaire. The answers come back and show that the greater part of the congregation do not seem to have heard his preaching at all. They agree and disagree, on the questionnaire, with things he never said” (41).

As a future minister myself, reading this particular passage was difficult. Imagine, finding out that everything you think you do, day in and day out, was not actually getting accomplished. Imagine that you stood up in front of people, week after week, bearing your soul, only to find out that you were ignored.

It strikes me that this would be no issue in a primal culture. A shaman is held in the highest of respects and is needed for rituals in everyday life. Of course, in a primarily oral culture, this sort of honest blind survey could not exist, because the writing is what enables the identities to be concealed. Without complete anonymity, congregants might feel pressured to agree with every question asked, because a minister is an authority figure.

With technology comes increasing distractions. Our minds have to work differently with new technology, and to some extent, I think it might be to blame for this minister’s shocking discovery. Perhaps quieter, more focused minds with nothing to worry about at that moment except what their minister was trying to give them would be able to better listen and that would reflect better in the survey.

Katrina Thralls-The Eternal Thou

Buber, Martin. I and Thou. Comp. Gary E. Kessler. Philosophy of Religion: toward a Global Perspective. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub., 1999. 171-76. Print.

“Every particular Thou is a glimpse through to the eternal Thou; by means of every particular Thou, the primary word addresses the eternal Thou” (173).

If everyone participated in I-Thou relationships and related through encounters and not just experiences, I think the entire system of living as we know it would change. First, the obvious, there would be no wars, because you cannot kill someone you relate to on that deep level. That could easily extend downwards in scale far enough to mean that there would be no abuse.

On a more complicated level, I think it would change the entire system of education that exists here in the United States, because I think that glimpsing “the eternal Thou” in each encounter with a child would make it hard to judge them as “below average.” Instead, there would be interpersonal dialogue to teach what the child is missing while respecting their strengths.

Each religion could stay basically the same with the key obvious difference that they would have a much more humanist view of this world through glimpsing god in every person. Alternatively, this viewpoint could make religions much more connected.

Katrina Thralls-Spontaneous communitas

Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 1995.

“Thus, it is necessary to distinguish between: (1) existential or spontaneous communitas—approximately what the hippies today would call ‘a happening’… (2) normative commmunitas, where, under the influence of time, the need to mobilize and organize resources , and the necessity for social control among the members of the group in pursuance of these goals, the existential communitas is organized into a perduing social system; and (3) idealogical communitas, which is a label one can apply to a variety of utopian models of societies based on existential communitas” (132)

While it seems unfair, I cannot help but judge that the first time of communitas, existential or spontaneous communitas, seems to be the most significant, the most real, and the most representative of what I think of as communitas. Perhaps it is because I have been a part of “a happening,” and that makes me biased towards that form of communitas.

I went to a youth conference for teenagers of my religion when it was in high school, and it was organized by the youth of the church it was held at. But once you arrived, it didn’t feel organized at all. There was a buzz in the air and conversation flowed naturally from one person to the next to the next. Everyone seemed to be in perfect sync. There were a few organized activities, but mostly, there was just flow. This continued not just for the night, but for three whole days, and when we left, everyone could feel that everyone else was somehow moved by the experience.

Katrina Thralls-Lists

Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. New York: Routledge, 1982.

“Lists began with writing” (121).

I know it is a simple fact and it makes sense, but reading this made me reevaluate how much writing plays into my life. My life revolves around calendars, grocery lists, to-do lists, packing lists, lists of books I need, Christmas lists, and I’m currently making a list of lists in my life. I think in lists sometimes. This blog, as we speak, is going from being at the top of my list of assignments to being crossed off. This means that I’ll be able to have more space on my three different calendars to do other things. If I didn’t have lists, I would never be able to get anything done, especially with my ADD. There’s even a couple lists in my blogs.

Katrina Thralls-Arguments against Computers

Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. New York: Routledge, 1982.

“Most persons are surprised, and many distressed, to learn that essentially the same objections commonly urged today against computers were urged by Plato in the Phaedrus (274-7) and in the Seventh Letter against writing” (78).

What’s interesting here, other than that Plato objected to writing in writings, is that these issues from so long ago are still applicable today, where we are beyond the choice of using writing, since it is so integral to our society. It is interesting to think about the other arguments against computers to see if they could have been used against writing. So here are the arguments Dr. Schweig gave as to why we could not have computers in his classroom:

1. It is unnecessarily noisy to type.

Anybody who has ever heard the sound of three dozen pencils scratching on paper understands that this is applicable. Thinking is silent, and speaking is at least a noise that is not usually considered annoying.

2. It is easier to get distracted while using a computer.

Even without the use of the internet to be distracting, while writing, one’s thoughts can wander in a “freewriting” sort of mode, or one can doodle, or be otherwise distracted.

Katrina Thralls-Bruchko

Olson, Bruce. Bruchko. Lake Mary: Creation House, 1973.

“He smiled and nodded. ‘Bruchko,’ he said. He turned and happily told it to one of the other men near him. ‘Bruchko.’ The fellow repeated it tentatively. ‘Bruchko.’ Soon the entire group had spread it around. ‘Bruchko,’ they repeated, pointing at me. So I was Bruchko” (90).

This says something about the Motilone Indians, but something more about society. The Motilone wanted to be just like Bruce and were excited to correctly mimic him (even though they didn’t). Why is it that the more primal culture always wants to move closer to the more technological, and never the other way around? And is it so far of a stretch to say that in this mimicry, they might lose their own way of doing things?

On the other hand, concealed within that quote is a willingness to sacrifice for the Motilone Indians, but only if necessary. He tries to correct them as they mispronounce his name, but when he sees no hope left of changing what they say is his name, he finally sacrifices it. This is a large sacrifice, as most people find labels, and especially names, to be of great importance. In most societies, the name is something you become attached to, something that forms a part of your identity.

Katrina Thralls-Humans as Sacred

Carmody, Denise L. and John T. Carmody. Original Visions: The Religions of Oral Peoples. New

York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1993.

“Human beings were the offspring of divine forces, in this case of the evening and morning stars. Behind the imagery lay the intuition that human beings could not explain themselves, and also the desire to give men and women a sacred origin” (32).

This quote brings up millennia of people wanting to believe that they are sacred, from primal religions to those we think of as the big world religions. Christianity believes that they are God’s children, as well as that they are filled with the Holy Spirit, which is one of God’s forms. Hinduism says that Brahman, the Ultimate in their worldview, is not only apart from them, but it is also within them.

More importantly, though, this brings up questions. Are we sacred? Should we act as though we are sacred? What would that look like? Should we be selfish or altruistic? Is there a way to treat others like they are sacred while treating yourself as sacred? Can you treat yourself as sacred and still be humble?