Abstract
“Belief” as an analytical tool and critical category of investigation for the study of religion has been a resurging topic of interest. This article discusses the problems of language and practice in the discussion of “belief” and proceeds to map a few of the emergent frameworks, proposed within the past decade, for investigating “belief”. The issue of inconsistency, however, continues to remain a perennial issue that has not been adequately explained. This article argues for the utility and value of the “believing selves” framework, in conjunction with revisionist theories of cognitive dissonance, to advance the claim that beliefs are representations, as well as functions, of cultural history which bind individual and society.
Highlights
Human Economy Programme, Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria, Academic Editors: Douglas James Davies and Michael J
In Belief, Language and Experience [3], anthropologist Rodney Needham began his inquiry by raising the question whether a non-English speaking person, from a culture without a concept of “belief,” can say: “I believe in God.”
Taking up the framework of “believing selves,” and its emphasis on commitment, the issue of inconsistency is addressed through the theory of cognitive dissonance and its four emergent revisionist theories
Summary
“Truth cannot be out there—cannot exist independent of the human mind—because sentences cannot so exist, or be out there. In Belief, Language and Experience [3], anthropologist Rodney Needham began his inquiry by raising the question whether a non-English speaking person, from a culture without a concept of “belief,” can say: “I believe in God.”. Within this proposition, the concepts of “belief” and ‘God’ are put into question. Taking up the framework of “believing selves,” and its emphasis on commitment, the issue of inconsistency is addressed through the theory of cognitive dissonance and its four emergent revisionist theories This combination situates religion’s meaning-making capacities in relation to identity and the individual as a reflective index of social structures. The article argues that beliefs are embodied representations, a function of cultural histories, that bind individual and society together
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