GUIDELINES FOR RESEARCH METHODOLOGY -RELIGIOUS STUDIES-

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RELIGIOUS STUDIES, QUID?

Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes compares, interprets, and explains religion. There are two principal approaches that can be used to study religions: the theological and the academic. Both are rational enterprises and there are concerned with knowing and understanding all the aspects of religions. Thus, both require rational inquiry though their orientation and culture are different. The theological approach is mainly used in theology departments or faculties. As we know, theology is a noble disciple; it explains the revealed truth that is necessary for mans salvation since man is directed to God as to an end that surpasses the grasp of his reason. Mans whole salvation, which is in God, depends upon the knowledge of this truth. This is taught in theology. Thus, the theologians primary work is to explain Gods revelation as manifested in scripture and doctrines. However, the academic approach is employed in the departments of Religious Studies. The academic study of religions is indeed a collective way of reading the following features: 1. The functional features of religions; that is how religions meet the emotional, social, intellectual needs of people. Here we study different beliefs, social organizations, moral and ritual practices, individuals in a given believing community, mans desire to know the how and the why of things. 2. The substantial features since we believe that, in spite of their differences and views, religions have an essential nature manifested in two aspects: a) there is a strong conviction that there is something supernatural. b) There is the belief that human existence, if it is to be fulfilled, must be harmonized with or subrogated to what people experience as beyond. This is what distinguishes religious people from nonreligious groups, if there are. 3. The formal features which function in relation to the supernatural, such as arts, ceremonies, languages, morality, and science As we use a collective method, religious studies embrace the history of religions (origin and development of religions), philosophy of
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religions (analysis of the truth-claims and logical consistency of religious beliefs), sociology of religions (the role of religions in the society), phenomenology of religions (the way religions appear to us), psychological of religions (the inner character of religious experiences and the ways individual needs are met through religion). While theological studies are tied to a religious community, academic ones embrace all. Theologians function within a circle of faith; students in religious studies have no limited area. Theologians are specialists, those is religious studies are generalists. Note that in the expression Religious Studies, the word study modifies religion and gives it a new direction. Though those in Religious Studies are meant to identify an objective, scientific, nonbiased study of religions, personal belief or piety is necessary for the inquiry. Academic study of religions is not synonymous to irreligion or paganism. Religion serves to give life meaning and to bind humans together. Generally, whoever wants to carry out a study, a survey, or an investigation in some field of knowledge or establishing facts and principles needs beforehand a method (methods) to guide him; without any doubt, he is obliged to use a method, which is a systematic procedure for reaching a goal or doing inquiry into an area of study. This includes techniques and particular practices used to carry out a method. As Bernard Lonergan puts it in his introduction to Method in theology, Method is not a set of rules to be followed meticulously by a dolt. It is framework for collaborative creativity. It would outline the various clusters of operations to be performed by theologians when they go about their various tasks. A modern method would conceive those tasks in the context of modern science, modern scholarship, and modern philosophy, of historicity, collective practicality and coresponsibility. Here, Lonergan is talking to theologians but this is also applied to those in humanities. In the same way, it concerns those in religious studies, perhaps with little differences.

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For Bernard Lonergan, method is not to be learnt from books or lectures but in the laboratory or seminars. What counts is the example of the master, the effort to do likewise, his comments on ones performance. (Method in theology, p.3) Sciences differ in their objects and particularly in their methods. As a science, study of religions is has a more or less defined object and method. From the time Weber and other scholars recognized the seriousness and importance of mans religious interest and activities, and the causal significance of religious ideas affecting human action and historical development of the society, religious studies have gone into great development in such a way that they stand as an independent subject, an independent science. Independence, here, does not mean autonomy. Nonetheless, even when it is well known that all peoples have a religion, the following question remains: how could investigation be carried on if the investigators had no precise idea of the object of their research? Therefore, we need to know what religion is all about. Definition of Religion We know that the concept religion is familiar to us as much as the people of humanity are religious people. But a definition of religion is yet to be found. Because of this, we talk about definitions because religion is defined in different ways. In other words, a comprehensive definition of Religion is hardly to be found but we can give some views of different scholars. Even in its etymology, the term Religio refers to four Latin verbs relegere, religare, reeligere, relinquere. These approaches influence, in one-way or the other, the definitions of scholars. Religion could be defined as a reading over of things or phenomena, which pertain to the worship of God (relegere). It could be defined as a bond, which binds the visible, and the invisible worlds (religare). It could be taken as a repeated choice of what has been neither lost nor neglected. Being created (first election), man is chosen again to enter into relationship with the Creator (reeligere). Religion is also considered as an act of leaving certain things in order to be submitted to others, maybe to a Supreme Being (Relinquere). All these ways are nominal and etymological
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definitions; they are important but not sufficient. Note that definitions of religions can be nominal, theological, or historical.

Philosophers have come up with some definitions too. For many of them, religion is mans awareness to moral law (Kant); religion is one form of knowing the absolute (Hegel); religion is an illusion, a dream of human mind; the essence of religion lies in the feelings of dependence (Schleiermacher); religion of humanity has replaced the worship of God; religion is the encounter of an individual with God; religion is based on the I-thou relationship; religion is the bridge between the supernatural and the natural (Maurice Blondel). Whitehead defines religion in this way: religion is the vision of something which stands beyond, behind and within the passing flux of immediate things; something which is real, and yet waiting to be realized; something which is remote possibility, and yet the greatest of present facts; something that gives meaning to all that passes, and yet eludes apprehension (Roger Schmidt, Exploring religion, p. 15). In trying to define the concept religion, theologians have made a very tremendous contribution but it is more or less limited to those so-called revealed religions. According to them, religion is a virtue that leads man to render to God the homage that is due to Him. This homage comprises belief in one God, personal and infinite in his attributes, an attitude of absolute respect and submission, external acts that express his belief. Though theologians are talking about revealed religions, this definition could be extended to non-revealed religions. For Saint Thomas Aquinas, for instance, religion denotes properly a relation to God. For it is He to whom we ought to be bound as to our unfailing principle; to whom also our choice should be directed as to our last end; and who we loose when we neglect him by sin, and should recover by believing in Him and confessing our faith. He adds that religion is a virtue since it directs us to good, the supreme good, God.

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Now, Paul Tillich gives the differences found between theology and religion. He said, Concepts such as revelation and redemption stand in clear opposition to religion. They express an action happening only once, transcendent in origin and transforming in its effect on reality, while religion subordinates a whole series of spiritual acts and cultural creations under a general concept. Revelation speaks of divine, religion of human action. Revelation speaks of an absolute, singular, exclusive, and selfsufficient happening; religion refers to merely relative occurrences, always recurring and never exclusive. Revelation speaks of the entrance of a new reality into life and the spirit; religion speaks of a given reality of life and a necessary function of the spirit. Religion speaks of culture, revelation of that which lies beyond culture. (What is religion, pp.27-28). Moreover, let us know that religions are not the same. Historians note that not even one religion is the same, century after century, or from one country to another, or from a village to a city. Surely, they have both similarities and differences. Some religions hold many principles and components in common but we do not see them because we have been trained not to see them or think of them. When we focus on doctrines and beliefs, world religions could be divided into revealed (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and non-revealed (African Traditional Religions, Hinduism, Buddhism) or monotheistic (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and polytheistic (Old Greek and Roman religions and Hinduism) religions. But based on their origin, religions are African, Asian, Semitic and European. As we study religions, let us not fall into these following mistakes: Reductionism: Everything in religions is reduced to one particular phenomenon, which, perhaps, appears, objective.

Limitation: We can think that there is only one religion or one family of religions; consequently other religions are denied or ignored. Again related to this point, there is a danger of limiting a particular religion to what is practiced in a particular zone or area or by particular people.

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Neglect: There is a great tendency of neglecting some truths that do not seem to be rational to us. It is widely noted that rationality is the only instrument of true assessment.

Subjectivism: Many times and in many occasions, we fail to describe or reflect objectively on others doctrines. Subjective opinions are welcome but too much subjectivity overlooks the truth of the matter; it leads to a wrong assessment, for here the truth is evaluated according to my religion not according to the truth of those religions. Philosophy of religions must, therefore, be applied since it deepens our reflection.

Fanaticism: We notice a very remarkable tendency in the life of many scholars of religions; sometimes they become so fanatical of a particular religion that everything in their religious fields is exempted from any mistake or error. Everything is praised and presented as the best of all.

Some directives for a research Research begins by setting some hypotheses, which must be affirmed, confirmed or contested. A hypothesis is a supposition, an unproved theory that is opened to further investigations. For example: Shari a law is the foundation of the development of Saudi Arabia or prayer is a therapeutic. This can be studied with a scientific method in order to confirm it or contest it. However scientific studies follow the rules of science, which provide for power, power to know, power to predict and to control. Generally, scientific knowledge is theoretical, that is a set of theories and descriptions of the world, particularly of its regularities or laws that also explain the observable facts. Scientific knowledge is empirical because every theory needs to be confirmed or contested on observable events or entities because theories of science should be explained or modified by what is observed.
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This makes us come out from common sense or appearances for us to embrace something higher understanding, something that can be justified and defended with solid arguments. Scientific knowledge is testable. Karl Propper wrote: A theory which is refutable by any conceivable event is nonscientific. Scientific theories must not only account for the facts, they must also be capable of being disconfirmed by conflicting data. This leads us to confront our ideas with others for verifiability. Pro and contra arguments are possible ways for testing what we have known or formulated. Scientific knowledge is probable rather than certain: Whatever we know or hold as truth is always subject to modification. We can doubt on things that we were taught or given (cf. Rene Descartes) Such studies are done in order to strive for clarity and comprehensiveness but with a minimum of neutrality and objectivity. J. Milton said religion, when it is being examined with the framework of science, is dealt as part of the natural world, subject to the laws of cause and effect and the rules of logic. A dispassionate language is required. As we explore religions, we need to adopt a language of a critical observer who describes and explains religious phenomena in terms of the categories and classifications of phenomenology and the approaches of the historian and philosopher. That is why phenomenology and philosophy of religion are very important courses in religious studies. Whatever we know has passed through many stages that it needs to be interpreted by asking questions such as: what happened? (This is a question asked by historians in order to reconstruct the pass of the event or of the phenomena or of the idea) What is its function? (Here is a question, which seeks the function of the observable fact and to know how it has affected the people) How is to be interpreted? (Here is the great work of interpretation or hermeneutics. We conduct a kind of exegesis because studies of religion are not final but incomplete). We agree with Lonergan that a method is a normative pattern and related operations, which are submissive to cumulative and progressive result. It is a normative process because it goes with norms that must be taking into account for a successful result. Each discovery or operation conducted must be related to others in a way that ideas do stand as independent
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entities but as elements of the same system. One transforms the other. Finally the results are cumulative and progressive, for in the process, first data give way to new ones, new observations, new description that may or may not confirm the hypothesis. The whole process of doing research is about seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting, inquiring, imagining, understanding, conceiving, formulating, reflecting, weighing of evidence, judging, deliberating, evaluating, deciding, speaking and writing. We need to make present the object we studying; therefore our senses are the fist instruments of knowledge. The hierarchy of these operations helps us to move from infants world to adults world where we enter into the world of meanings, we shift from myths, legends and stories to rational truths. The researcher needs to obtain some unavoidable skills that he or she gets more by following people examples than by having lectures. It is, therefore, required to have a great degree of assimilation and adjustment in order to learn more comfortably and through trial and error, modified the previous data and supplements them with new ones. Feelings are also essential. Because of our feelings, our desires and fears, our hopes or despair, our joys and sorrows, our enthusiasm and indignation, our esteem and contempt, our trust and distrust, our love and hatred, our tenderness and wrath, our admiration, veneration, reverence, our dread, horror, terror, we are oriented massively and dynamically in a world of meaning. (Bernard Lonergan, Method in theology, p.31). These drive us to preferences, agreements and disagreements, indeed to some values. A method leads towards new meanings or new connotation of objects. These come through human intersubjectivity, symbols, languages, lives and deeds of persons. Relations of I and Thou are highly encouraged; artistic works carry out peoples mind, desires, realities or aspirations; symbols are objects that hide truths that what we see in them is not always what they mean; languages are vehicles of cultures, they mould consciousness and structure the world about the subject. There exist
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ordinary languages and meta-languages. Many times, religious language is analogical and metaphorical. It is analogical because we are unable to think or speak of God as God really is, and nothing we can say about God is literally true in the same sense as when applied to finite human experience. Analogy is basically a comparison of two or more things in terms of their likeness, in a way that recognizes their differences (e.g God is intelligent: this flows from the intelligence of man). There are two types of analogy: analogy of attribution and analogy of proportionality. We attribute to God what we have but in a high degree: (man and God are good but God has it in a highest level that he is goodness itself). However, metaphor is figure of speech in which a word applied to an object in a nonliteral way in order to suggest a comparison between two objects. (e.g. Time is money). (Cf. David Stewart, Exploring the Philosophy of Religion, pp. 222-225 and 236).

Steps to be taken For a successful research As said above, method is normative; and one of the rules to consider is the knowledge, the importance, the progression and the content of the necessary phases. Thus, there is a time for formulating hypotheses, which can be formulated theory or an opinion or a belief or a presumption, a question. There will a time for collecting data or gathering materials, or selecting some writings. There will be another time for interpreting the materials, arts, symbols and deeds of people. The last is the time for putting down what someone has gathered round. In summary, these steps are heuristic process, hermeneutic work and composition.

Heuristic procedure The heuristic process is a way of being informed, a way of knowing whatever presents itself in the consciousness of the investigator. Nobody
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gets information about a topic by sitting down but by gathering materials with a scientific method. The root meaning of the word heuristic comes from the Greek word heurikein, which means to discover or to find. A researcher is bound to discover the nature and the meaning of what he is intending to describe, analyse and reflect on in order to find new images and meanings regarding a particular phenomenon. It is a transforming self-doubt into self-confidence. Thus, the researcher has to gather materials (trips, feelings, dreams, experiences, readings, situations, beliefs, events), sources of his knowledge. This process begins by setting a question or identifying a problem, which he seeks to illuminate or to answer. The question is one that has been a challenge and perplexity in the search to understand ones self and the world in which he lives. So He or she engages in gathering all kind of materials that could help him to discover what he is looking for, and what he or she intends to understand. He or she has to identify with the issue, get inside and become one with it, allowing the phenomenon to speak of itself and to be questioned by it.

This process of gathering materials could be through interviews or readings or attending conferences, seminars and classes. Here taking notes, listening and visiting become the reservoir of the materials gathered. Than the researcher could move to the second step, which the process of interpretation.

Hermeneutic process The question What does it mean? is referred to as hermeneutics; that is the task of interpretation. With this, we understand that religious studies that is the understanding beliefs and practices are conditional not indubitable, incomplete not final. The question What does it mean? generates a range of question such as What happened? What is its function?

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Not every text stands in need of interpretation since some texts reveal its meaning as soon someone reads it. It only requires a common sense. However, common sense is common not to all people of all places and times, but to the members of a given community. Thus, the hermeneutic work allows us to judge how correct ones understanding of the text is. This raises the problem of context. A text that has traveled from one place to another, or from one epoch to another needs interpretation. A text without a context is a pretext. Know that a text is a general term: a person or an art, or writings or a tree or an idea could be a text.

Interpreting a text is defining its context; it is about understanding the object to which the text refers to or discovering the meaning of the object. A researcher learns about the data or the objects that he does not know.

Interpretation is also about understanding the words used in the text since the meaning of a text is an intentional entity. It is a unity that is unfolded through parts, sections, chapters, paragraphs, sentences, and words. All these reveal the purpose of the author for writing the text and in this way and the knowledge of the people for whom he wrote.

Interpreting a text is in addition about understanding the author. Even people of the same epoch, the same place, who speak the same language, understand things differently. Thus, the researcher needs to enter into the mind of the writer, to understand his nation, language, time, culture and his way of life in order to grasp what exactly he meant.

Interpreting a text is a self-correcting process through which we learn not only the way we acquire knowledge but also the way others understand

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objects that we come across. It brings a great revolution to our own perceptions.

Interpreting a text is reading the mind of the author or knowing what the author meant in writing on a particular topic or a particular subject. It is looking for what he wants to communicate, what he presents and what he defends.

Interpreting a text also means understanding the world of meaning that a given text opens. Sometimes, a text is opened to numerous meanings that go beyond the mind of the author. Composition Composition, which can be defined as the act of putting together a whole by combining parts or the arrangement of parts of a work to form a unified, harmonious unity, could come through a description or an analysis or reflection. At this level, composition is essentially a reflection -the fixing of the mind on some subjects-, which could have the two others as parts of the whole reflection. It is therefore required to use reason as someone exercises his mind in order to understand the nature, the matters and forms, the relations and the finalities or objects. It is indeed going into Aristotles four causes: material (a thing is made of what?), formal (How does a thing appear to us?), efficient cause (Where does a thing come from?), and the final cause (What is the ultimate end of a particular thing?)

A good reflection flows into sound arguments, which are reasons for or against something; there are statements made or a proof given. In search of certainty, some opinions might be (1) inductive: the passage of the mind from particular cases of a given kind of thing to a general or universal notion concerning all cases of the same kind. Though induction has serious problems, it is the most used by our mind; all our knowledge is inductive in origin. (2) Deductive, however, is the passage of the mind from
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a universal notion to particular cases; it is the movement of the mind from a whole to particulars. What is said of the human race can be applied to many individuals. (3) Scientific in a way that the mind proceeds by setting Hypotheses, then explains them in order to attain a scientific certainty which is presumed to be the truth of the matter at a given time or period. Here, observations and propositions or antecedent affirmations are analyzed for better affirmations or conclusions.

A description is more or less a quantitative and external process in which someone states what he observes from an object, gives an account of what is observed, and gives in words the picture of the object. Descriptions do classify objects.

An analysis, conversely, is more a qualitative than quantitative course of action in which someone breaks or separates a whole into parts and examines these parts to find out their nature, proportion, function and interrelationship. According to Bertrand Russell, analysis reveals the constituents of realities; it renders experience intelligible.

A scientific reflection stands on arguments that allow the writer to give reasons for or against something. It is indeed a great challenge to our reason. Argumentation is a discussion about a problem, or an issue through agreements and disagreements, dispute and debate. The contra as well as the pro ideas are equally important, for they test the truthfulness of the reality under discussion. This practice assists to pass from a priori statement to a posteriori declaration. Thomas Aquinas for instance, proceeds by asking a question, then he presents a number of objections that is what previous people have said about-, he goes on by giving an argument contrary to the objections, states his view, and finally he replies to the objections.

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It is here that philosophy of religion finds its impact in the study of religions, for by virtue of the critical task of philosophy; it frees the mind from personal beliefs in order to be able to examine critically the fundamental questions raised by religion. To think critically is to be consistent and coherent, provide evidence and concluding reflections. We begin with the question what is this? And we end with the question why this?

All this will be done within a structure that requires first a general introduction which comprises a statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, the scope and the structure of the work, the methodology used in writing (there is a method of gathering materials and another for putting down what was collected), a literature review that presents the books and articles of great value. Second, we continue by setting chapters; these must have bridges for more consistency. Chapters are not isolated entities in the whole work; so the second emerges from the first and so on. Chapters are divided into different points and point into paragraphs; each paragraph is a development of a strong idea; it is a distinct section or subdivision of a chapter. Third, a conclusion where the writer gives the summary of what has been said, creates a place for his own critique and asks new questions for a future debate. A conclusion is more or less a reintroduction. Last, we give a comprehensive bibliography, which lists the reference book, books and journals used throughout. Note that there is no need of listing the materials that the student did not consult at all.

What is a Statement of the problem? Knowing and understanding a problem at hand is one thing and stating it, is another. From Greek, (problema) means anything thrown forward, hindrance, obstacle, anything projecting. Therefore, a problem is an obstacle, which makes it difficult to achieve a desired goal, objective or purpose. It refers to a situation, condition, or issue that is yet unresolved. In a broad sense, a problem exists when an individual becomes aware of a significant difference between what actually is and what is desired. Every
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problem asks for an answer or solution that leads us to write on some topics because we want to suggest some solutions. In other words, a genuine problem within a situation becomes a stimulus. In academic discourse, a problem is a challenge to an assumption, an apparent conflict that requires synthesis and reconciliation.

A problem known and understood must be expressed and articulated in words or in a meaningful text. A statement of the problem, in this context, means the presentation of the difficulty found in the society. It can be expressed in a form a question such as 1. Why do many believers of different faiths and religions live in conflict and hatred? 2. Why do we experience divisions in indigenous Churches? 3. Why do we have more divorces and temporary separations nowadays? 4. What prevents Christians to live in conformity with the life of Christ? In stating the problem, the writer imagines the materials to be used in solving the problem, the scope of his investigation, the significance of his/her research, the structure of his development. Martin Heidegger says that the relevance of the problem addressed in any work stands as a very important criterion for assessing it.

About the purpose, objectives and significance of the study These three concepts seem to carry out the same meaning but a necessary distinction needs to be underlined. A propose in a thesis or dissertation is what the thinker or the writer has in mind as a goal to be achieved; it is the aim and the projection that guides the writer in his heuristic work, his hermeneutic process and in the composition. This goal is described in different but interconnected statements, which make up the objectives. Usually, objectives are linked to one or more program goals. Objectives are statements of attainable, quantifiable; intermediate-term achievements that help accomplish goals contained in the comprehensive plan. Objectives are operational statements; that is, they are written in terms, which make it evident when they have been achieved. As with
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goals, they are descriptions of position rather than an action. They are descriptions of a desirable future. They may imply immediate action or a sequence of activities in the near future. Then the significance of a research is its importance in the field; A finding in religion may be said to be of religious significance if it shows a theory to be useful or not useful, or if it has implications for scientific interpretation or policy practice.

About Scope and delimitation

With reference to the Structure of the work It is about the flow of the content. However, this is not imposed to any work; simply there are some logical reasons that design what could be considered as a conventional way of structuring dissertations or thesis. The structure micro and macro- gives to the reader the most accessible way of seeing why the research was done, how it was done and, most importantly, what has been achieved. You can, therefore, see the logic of the arrangement of the content. The following basically is the structure in many humanities theses. 1. Why am I doing it? : Introduction and Significance 2. What is known? What is unknown? : Literature review, Identifying gaps 3. What do I hope to discover?: Aims 4. How am I going to discover it? : Methodology 5. What have I found? : Results 6. What does it mean? : Discussion 7. What are the possible applications or recommendations? What contribution does it make to knowledge? What next? : Conclusion A structure refers to the organization of the chapters or sections that make up the dissertation. So we can have, for instance, this conventional structure:

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IN QUALITATIVE METHOD -OUTLINE Chapter 1: Introduction

Background of the Problem Statement of the Problem Purpose of the Study Research Questions Importance of the Study Scope of the Study Definition of Terms Delimitations and Limitations

Chapter 2: Review of the Literature Chapter 3: Research Methods

The Qualitative Paradigm Qualitative Methods The Researcher's Role Data Sources Data Collection Data Analysis Verification Ethical Considerations Plan for Narrative OR Pilot Study Results

Chapter 4: Research Findings Chapter 5: Conclusions, Discussion, and Suggestions for Future Research

Summary Conclusions Discussion Suggestions for Future Research

QUANTITATIVE DISSERTATION OUTLINE Chapter 1: Introduction

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Background of the Problem Statement of the Problem Purpose of the Study Theoretical Framework Research Hypotheses Importance of the Study Scope of the Study Definition of Terms Summary

Chapter 2: Review of the Literature Chapter 3: Research Methods

Research Design Participants Instrumentation Research Procedures and Pilot Testing Data Analysis Assumptions of the Study Limitations of the Study Summary

Chapter 4: Research Findings Chapter 5: Conclusions, Discussion, and Suggestions for Future Research

Summary Conclusions Discussion Suggestions for Future Research

On Method

About the literature review What is known? What is unknown? Bibliography

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