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 the appropria,t,e fees are paid direct!J to Copyright Ckarance Cent,er, 27 Congress Street, Sal.em MA 01970, USA. Fees are suiject to change. 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 Idinopulos and Yonan - 978-90-04-37884-1 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 Idinopulos and Yonan - 978-90-04-37884-1 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 Idinopulos and Yonan - 978-90-04-37884-1 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. Idinopulos and Yonan - 978-90-04-37884-1 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