Syncretism a summary
The concept of syncretism is showed
as a simplification of merging of different religious traditions. It is also a classification
of different elements put into one main religion from different outside and
inside sources. It is a global conversion of religion, common to all religions
on earth since it proves that all world religions are the ultimate products of
history. The numerous communications of exchange forms different types of
syncretism. Many Scholars who studied religion and anthropology both categorized
syncretism as objective scientific. But with new theories that came up, this categorization
was again put to consideration. While examining many societies in the past and
today’s world, we can see that the world’s religion has been through changes
while coming across other religions. Syncretism is an important topic in the
study of religion. The Syncretistic
strife happened in the sixteenth and seventeenth century in Germany by the
protestant theologians of the reformed church (2009: 696). Georg Calixt a
Danish theologian was accused of syncretism for the reason of his teaching that
he hoped would unify all Christian churches. Syncretism is likewise connected
to the examination of Hellenism supporting the Greek historian Plutarch's
utilization of the notion. In his article Moralia,
Plutarch used the term synchretismos to
exemplify how the Cretans put off their common conflicts and united to confront
a mutual foe. Toward the start of the twentieth century the German History of
Religion School portrayed syncretism in the similar vein, as the aftereffect of
the subjective creativity of religion in the Greek period that additionally
incorporated early Christianity (2009: 696). After the topic of syncretism
emerged in the field of anthropology referencing European colonialism and
making Africans slaves and deporting them to the new world. To show the
consequences of power abuse, an idea called Creolization
is used as a reference. Creolization specifically
refer to Afro- American and Afro- Caribbean syncretism. This syncretism of the
Afro-Christian cultures in the Americas resembles a “Defence Mechanism” for
saving the minority (2009: 697). Parallelization
is another type of syncretism, where a part on a foreign religions
tradition is recognised as the same as in “one’s own” (2009: 698). Analogical coding is a
sub-categorization of parallelization that
displays how syncretic formations of very different religious traditions are
formed through constructing a false correlation.
The antonym of syncretism is anti-
syncretism. Anti-Syncretism is the aversion of cultural mixture. Anthropologist
André Droogers associates syncretism with metaphors. There are unconscious and conscious types of
syncretism which naturally refers to “Layman’s syncretism” and the
“theologian’s syncretism” respectively. Similar to metaphors, syncretism also
has probable amount of meaning because they can became parts of another
structural context (2009: 703). Divergent modes of religiosity shows an
important role in the understanding of the anti-syncretistic stands of
Christian societies. Numerous of those disagreements contrary to syncretism
occurred due to the struggle within the Christian community to protect the
unauthorized interpretation of the Christian doctrines (2009: 701). These
struggles can be related to the Christian ideologies and notions of truth in
the Christian belief system. The definition of notion is the political and
theological misunderstanding of religion overall. It is a clear sense whether
to use or not to use syncretism. Therefore the discourses of syncretism are
subject to study whether scientifically or theological. Discourse carries
meanings and inconsistent imaginary viewpoints. The fusion of religions are
serious offences in some religions. Some religions are more prone towards
syncretism while some others are more prone towards anti-syncretism. This
relates to the social and political matters of religion. Syncretism could not be defined with just one
level of analysis, we need to go more into different levels to analyze and get
a full interpretation of its nature. Depending on the historical, cultural,
political and social climates, syncretistic formations vary. Using syncretism
taxonomically is mandatory since the objective is to get a full perspective on
the phenomenon even though it is no completely unproblematic. To get a better
understanding of the taxonomical problem of syncretism we can distinguish
syncretism on two levels: system level and
the elemental level (2009: 699). System level is, when two systems comes
into an affiliation, which stays to be characterized. Elemental level is where the affiliation concerns only elements,
but not the whole related system (2009: 699). Hybridization, as a metaphor,
points at the relationship among biological process and with the dynamics of
mixing of the religion. The history of religions proves that every religion is
in essence syncretistic. From different studies, in the taxonomic outline, we
can divide the transformation of religions according to syncretism into three
parts, the social, the semiotic and the cognitive levels
of explanation. The social level is where the issues of power to
syncretism is assigned. The blending of religion is the second level, semiotic. The third level, cognitive, is the theoretical
description of the phenomenon of syncretism. Successful syncretism includes
seeing similarities where there was nothing before.
Syncretism and anti-syncretism are
different ways of responding to the problems of change. These two ideas shows
the problem of changing environments among the adaptations of new ways on one
hand and the preservation of traditional ways on the other (2009: 707). The
transformation of different cultures depends on both these methodologies.
However in order to mingle with other people, we will always chose to come into
those intermingled spaces irrespective of inconsistencies. As a result,
Syncretism is an important reason for transforming world religions.
Bibliography
Peter
B. Clarke, Peter Beyer, (2009) The world's religions [electronic resource]:
continuities and transformations, London: Routledge.
Assignment for my RLGA01
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