I have to take this more seriously....

Well, TMA06 just went in! I wrote it in a couple of hours this evening whilst watching Ricky Gervais and Johnathon Woss! Not enough words and nowhere near enough use of resources but who knows, I thought the last one was really good... and it wasn't!

Anyway, here it is...

TMA 06
Religious Studies

How far do you think observing a visual religious activity - such as a festival, can help you to understand the part a religion plays in the life of an individual and a community?

Religion, in today's world is both a very personal issue and very public display of belief and faith. An observer of any religious festival can obviously see the community effects, the clothing, processions, activities, songs and praise. These can not only be observed, but they can also be researched, taught and in many cases, descriptively broadcast, enabling further understanding of them. Personal effects, however, are much more closeted. They are held within the minds and souls of the participants and they differ from believer to believer. Overall however, the effects of any religion depend on attaining a depth of feeling which simple observation cannot hope to understand.

The first question we need to answer is that of the insider or outsider. Otto suggested that if you cannot direct your mind to a moment of deeply-felt religious experience (Block 4, page 49), then you will find it hard to understand religion and therefore can be considered an outsider. This is particularly relevant when we look at the Christian festival of Christmas. The deep religious meaning behind the festival of Christmas has been hijacked by modern life. It is now as much a time for family, holidays and celebration of life in general as it is the Christian festival to honour the birth of the son of their Lord. This actually has the effect of both improving and at the same time, impairing the outsiders' view of the festival.

Whilst an insider knows, and understands, the specifically religious activities entwined in the festival, an outsider would have to delicately pick through the pieces and try to separate the religious from the holiday. The benefits here, to the outsider, are that the festival is so widely publicised, so broadly celebrated and as such, there is an enormous amount of source material for them to view. This does mean that many of the religious subtleties of the festival are intrinsically wrapped up with the 'extras' however and many important religious aspects could be overlooked as simply modern bastardisations.

An example of this could be the act of gift giving. This has become, to many, and especially to children, the single most important aspect of the Christmas period. An outsider would see no correlation between this act and the religious festival, but an insider would understand that the act does have grounding in the Christians Christmas story.

Of course, this broad celebration will also limit anybodies understanding of the part that the religious side of it plays on either an individual or a community. The argument could follow the line that without the religious undertones, the holiday or festival would be entirely groundless. Christmas is, without doubt, a Christian religious festival.

Christianity itself however, allows the festival to become diluted through its own sub-divisions and more importantly, its acceptance of a blasé attitude from its followers. As a community, the festival is celebrated by almost every member of the religion. Many followers attend church for the one and only time during the year, to sing carols and hear the nativity. The media and shops are saturated by images, programmes and other reminders of the festival and most businesses close. To an observer the effect would be one of the communities total submersion in the festival and whilst that observation would hold true, the religious aspects of that submersion might not be what is gripping the community in such fever. Christianity allows this in a way that many other religions would baulk at.

The sight, to an observer, of queues of worshipers outside a church on Christmas Eve, revellers standing at the back of church, singing carols of praise which they all know and understand would certainly lead that observer to come to some very obvious conclusions about the effect that the religion was having on the community. They would not, however, understand that personally, many of the attendees of the service were merely there because they enjoy carols. That it's seen as the 'thing to do' and as such, they would maybe misinterpret the effect the festival has had. Many Christians believe that the spirit of Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, is totally overlooked these days but in the society we live in today, their voices are certainly not loud enough to make a difference, or even, more importantly here, to be heard by observers. They are swept along with the general will!

We could try to analyse the festival using a more scientific method. Ninian Smarts seven dimensions of religion could be used to tell an observer how intrinsically linked into the religion the festival is. Again, this could only ever be used to show that religion was playing a part in the festival. The effect of this part cannot really be analysed out of the situation. For example, if we look at the practical and ritual dimension we can see that, quite obviously, there are many examples over the Christmas period of rituals and practices. Again, how many of these are religious in their basis is another matter. The whole community celebrates them but only study and inside knowledge will help to determine which are based in religious celebration and which are not.

To conclude, although the Christian festival of Christmas is almost swamped by the holiday celebration, at its fundamentals it is still a religious festival and can be observed as such. Observation of the community involvement, at a cursory glance, would lead to a belief that the festival was all-consuming and hugely followed. More serious observations of the depths of the festival and community show that everything is not what it seems but regardless of this, without the religion, the community would not be stirred. Personal feelings are another matter as they do not show amongst the celebration. There are not avenues for these feelings to be adequately expressed and an observer would not be able to tell either the significance of the festival to that individual nor the depth with which they felt a part of it.

Gwilym Beckerlegge. (2005) Units 14 and 15, Studying Religion, Block 4 - Religion and science in context, Second Edition. pp. 11-83

Resource Book 3, (2005), Section A5, pp 34-45