1. MIDTERM REVIEW “RELIGION” AND THE HUMAN QUEST

2. WHAT DOES “RELIGION” MEAN? IF THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT USES OF A WORD, IT IS NECESSARY TO ESTABLISH LIMITS ON USE IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE— OTHERWISE WE DON’T KNOW WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT!

3. WORDS ARE SOUNDS WE MAKE THESE SOUNDS TO STORE AND RETRIEVE OUR EXPERIENCE

4. gezorninplatz

5. BOB NEWHART

6. A COMEDY ROUTINE The Premise: If you took an infinite number of monkeys and set them to work at an infinite number of keyboards, eventually they would type out the works of Shakespeare.

7. A COMEDY ROUTINE The Scene: Bob and his associates are circulating amongst the monkeys, checking out what they are typing.

8. A COMEDY ROUTINE The Discovery: Bob says: “Hey, Joe! Listen to this! I think we’ve got something!”

9. . “ To be or not to be. That is the gezorninplatz….”

10. Get it? CAN YOU EX-PLAIN THE MEANING OF “gezorninplatz”?

11. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? If you get it, you can just tell the story. The icon carries the meaning. If you don’t get it, explanation probably won’t really cut it.

12. EIKASIA PRODUCES EIKONES OUR EXPERIENCE (pistis) IS STORED IN OUR MEMORIES WE USE OUR IMAGINING (eikasia) to RE-MEMBER RE-CALL RE-COLLECT RE-CORD OUR EXPERIENCE

13. WE EXPRESS ALL THIS IN ICONS ICONS EMBODY AND EXPRESS THE EXPERIENCE, NOT JUST ABSTRACT OR GENERALIZED IDEAS ABOUT EXPERIENCE HUMAN EXPERIENCE COLLECTS AND ACCUMULATES IN ICONIC FORMS THAT BECOME TRADITIONS

14. WHAT KINDS OF ICONS? THERE ARE MANY FORMS OF ICONIC EXPRESSION THESE FORMS ARE EXTENSIONS OF OUR BODIES IN SOME WAY: – SPEECH AND HEARING (Stories, poems, songs…) – MOVEMENT (gesture, dance, pilgrimage…) – SMELL AND TASTE (eating, incense…) – VISION (pictures, statues, mandalas, books…) – SKIN (clothing, dwellings, architecture…)

15. HOW DO ICONS WORK? THE MOST POWERFUL OF THEM ARE SYNESTHETIC (combine forms) CONVEY THE EXPERIENCE REPEATED EXPOSURE (practice) FACILITATES “FRAMING” (cf. Lakoff) “Virtue”= “habit” MERELY GETTING IDEAS, EXPLANATIONS OR PROPOSITIONAL STATEMENTS IS SHALLOW, UNIMPRESSIVE

16. HOW DO ICONS WORK? THE KEY TO AN EFFECTIVE RELATIONSHIP TO ICONS IS BEING OPEN TO EXPERIENCING THEM— Using them to deepen and broaden one’s own pistis THIS IS THE HEART OF PISTIS—THE ACT OF “believing,” “’faith-ing’,”

17. HOW DO ICONS WORK? ONE CAN USE EPISTEME (noesis and dianoia) to probe, “ex-plain,” icons, BUT THIS ONLY WORKS TO THE EXTENT OF THE DEPTH AND BREADTH OF— ONE’S OWN HUMAN EXPERIENCE PRACTICED INVOLVEMENT WITH THE ICONIC EXPERIENCE

18. WHAT IS ‘RELIGION’? R=ICV

19. WHAT IS ‘RELIGION’? THAT IS: THE HUMAN QUEST, SEARCH (VALUING) FOR LIFE, AWARENESS, FULFILLMENT THAT IS CHARACTERIZED BY GENUINE, AUTHENTIC, HONEST COMMITMENT (INTENSIVENESS) IN SEARCH TO OBTAIN THE WHOLE ACTUALITY AND MEANING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE AND NOT ONLY SOME PART OR PARTS OF IT (COMPREHENSIVENESS)

20. WHAT IS ‘RELIGION’? THIS DEFINITION OF RELIGION ASSUMES: – THE HUMAN DESIRE TO FIND LIFE – THE RECOGNITION THAT HUMAN LIFE IS CONDITIONAL – THE SUCCESSFUL LIVING IS ACHIEVED BY POSSESSING AND ENGAGING IN STRATEGIES THAT ARE EFFECTIVELY LIFE PRODUCING, SUSTAINING AND ENHANCING

21. WHAT IS ‘RELIGION’? RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS FLOW FROM THE HUMAN QUEST AND EMBODY THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE FOR ACCESS BY LIVING PERSONS AND FUTURE GENERATIONS WHO ADD TO AND DEEPEN THAT EXPERIENCE BY APPLYING IT IN THEIR OWN TIMES, PLACES, SITUATIONS AND CIRCUMSTANCES.

22. WHAT IS ‘RELIGION’? A SEARCH FOR HOLY POWER AND HOW TO RELATE TO IT THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE OF THIS SEARCH IS EMBODIED IN THE GREAT TRADITIONAL ICONS

23. WHAT IS ‘RELIGION’? HOLY ICONS OF THE COSMOS SOME TRADITIONAL ICONS FOR STUDY

24. ORIGINS AND NAMINGS Water went they say. Land was not they say…… In the very beginning everything was resting in perpetual darkness: night oppressed all the earth…. The fish does…HIP…I throw myself to the left… I act the fish.

25. DIRECTIONAL STRUCTURE OF COSMOS

26. LAKOTA STAR EIKON

27. THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE UNITY SENTIENCE HARMONY MAINTAINING HARMONY SURVIVAL

28. THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE

29. LAO TZU: TAO TE CHING THE GREAT MYSTERIOUS TAO THE WAY OF ULTIMATE REALITY THE WAY OF THE COSMOS THE WAY TO ORDER ONE’S LIFE

30. HINDU HOLY POWERS www.sanatansociety.org/hindu_gods_and_go ddesses.htm (Be able to describe Ganesha, Saraswati, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva) www.sanatansociety.org/hindu_gods_and_go ddesses.htm Note the video clip on Ganesha on the bottom of the above page.

31. HINDU HOLY POWERS The term “Holy Powers” is preferable to the terms “gods and goddesses” because the iconic figures are representations of certain powers that operate in the cosmos. Remember Demeter and Persephone!

32. HINDU HOLY POWERS THE POINT IS TO RECOGNIZE WHAT POWER IS BEING IDENTIFIED AND HOW IT FIT INTO THE WHOLE “HOLY POWER” COMPLEX.

33. LEVELS OF HINDU HOLY POWERS ____WHO?____ (Ultimate concern) BRAHMA-VISHNU-SHIVA (Pan-cosmic concerns) 330 MILLION HOLY POWERS (Mundane concerns)

34. USING DIANOIA TO EXPLORE THE COSMOS SEE “COSMOS AND BIG BANG” ppt. at academic.regis.edu/rlumpp