THE ROMANIAN RELIGIOUS MENTALITY - A PROBLEM OF METHOD AND THOUGHT - ALEXANDRACHE CARMEN The Teacher Training Department, ”Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati

The romanian religious mentality historiographical directionsattitudessensitiveinterdisciplinary

The problems are.... For the scientific world and for the public, mentality represents still a very attractive but extremelly complicated subject, its implications justifying the human attitudes and behaviours. If the focuse is laid on the XVII th century, the situation becomes more complicated because of the difficulties encountered while checking the observations.

The aim is... Starting from the contemporary analitical perspectives, the study suggests some directions regarding the interpretation and analysis of the Romanian religious mentality from this century, dominated by religious problems.

Research methodology and results  The term mental comes from the word lat. mens – ment. It refers mainly to spirit, mind. As the form of a noun, it means the ability to think intelligently.  In the form of the adjective, the word designating belongs to mind, that is made in mind, after the powerless of mind  If the Romanian language, the word origin was found in fr. mentalité; it means the way of thinking of an individual (a community), or of an era, a mood, a conduct

Research methodology and results  Through mentality it can knows the feelings and thoughts of people, their vision of life shaped in different historical contexts. Therefore, the mentality is also associated with popular culture, with the mental" baggage" of past generations.  Naturally, the religious mentality finds with hard its research methods and tools of work,becouse she must find different angles of observation and analysis that are specific to other scientific fields

Research methodology and results  The mentality generates emotions and behaviors, causing relations with each other, the accepting or not the accepting of the dialogue on the basis of the difference.  Becouse, the mentality is meaning attitudinal, behavioral and emotional models with which it is encounter a individuality, it is responsibile by the needs of the cultural. 

Research methodology and results Trese findings will lead to establishing relationships with two other research areas: - the imaginary - the imagology

Research methodology and results The historic direction of the research has established a compromise between the context of events and thinking, while the antropological direction has omitted causality, the explanation thus being internalized.

Research methodology and results In this situation, the research tendencies are placed, either at the descriptional level (identifying and describing the facts and the practices), colaborating very well with the quantitative level (interested in statistics done after reading from numerous sources), or at the qualitative level (dominated by images and symbols).

Research methodology and results  These highlights are soustained historically, but they also encourage branched research.  Thus, the study opens up new research posibilities

Research methodology and results  The most common way to research the religious mental belongs to the history of mentalities.  The manifestation of the religious mental through facts of social field, as well as the highlighting issues her in many cultures and societies those are important components of sociological approaches

Research methodology and results The theological perspective is a possibility of analysis of the religious mental, but more specialzata Obviously, the portrayal of religion in one's life can be achieved by psychology perspective (it is stating a new field: psychology of religion.)

Research methodology and results The antropologique perspective: the preference of the current researchs goes to non-verbal expressions, or to the elementary forms developed of thinking (symbols and archetypal structures, etc.), to the how people think their world.

Conclusion…  The conclusion of the study emphasizes the importance of the interdisciplinary colaboration and the responsability and courage needed to start such an approach.  The interdisciplinarity is "methodological solution" and a scientific fact. It has become a necessity for dialogue with other disciplines is an important scientific research

Conclusion… The mental study of religion encourages multidisciplinary investigations or at least makes use the purchase of neighboring sciences: social psychology, human geography, historical demography, lexicology, semantics, theology and sociology, anthropology

Conclusion…  The umane gestures,his behaviors can not be reduced to automatisms or only the results of thought and conscience.  The mental research is anchored more religious interpretation, than to describe its forms exteriorization

Conclusion… The study of the religious mental must take into account the fact that man is a whole, body and psychology, and it is situated in time and society