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Slide Notes
Peter Berger, in his book The Sacred Canopy (1967), notes that "Every human society is an enterprise of world-building (3)." Elsewhere, he says that society is the aspect of culture that structures our relations with one another. We build the mental and social worlds that we inhabit.
Paradigm Communities
Published on Nov 06, 2015
How do science and religion change? Through paradigms and paradigm communities.
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Socially Constructed Worlds
We live in
Peter Berger, in his book The Sacred Canopy (1967), notes that "Every human society is an enterprise of world-building (3)." Elsewhere, he says that society is the aspect of culture that structures our relations with one another. We build the mental and social worlds that we inhabit.
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We produce societies
We enter at birth into a biological world, but we construct a human world and we call it "culture." Society is an element of culture—one that we constitute and maintain.
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Societies produce us
"Every individual biography is an episode within the history of society, which precedes and survives it . . . What is more, it is within society, and as a result of social processes, that the individual becomes a person, that he attains and holds onto an identity, and that he carries out the various projects that constitute his life. Man cannot exist apart from society (Berger 3)."
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We build cultures
that must be maintained
Cultures are real, they are objectively external to us. They can be experienced by everybody. We may not always understand this thing that we have created; we may have to observe it, ask questions of it, engage it, and struggle with it. "Above all," warns Berger, "society manifests itself by its coercive power. Society directs, sanctions, controls, and punishes individual conduct (Berger 11)."
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It's precarious
Culture is inherently unstable
"Culture consists of the totality of man's products," says Berger (6). Culture must be continuously produced and reproduced by us. That means its structures are inherently unstable and constantly subject to change. We may build our worlds, but it's not easy to keep them going.
Cultures > Societies
World-building as a social enterprise
Society has no reality apart from humankind—but it occupies a privileged place because we are social animals. "Society, therefore, is not only an outcome of culture, but a necessary condition of the latter (Berger 7)."
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Meaning
The stuff which makes societies
The world-building activities of humans are always social and collective enterprises. "Men together shape tools, invent languages, adhere to values, devise institutions . . .(Berger 7)." We are constantly creating meaning in our societies.
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Religion:
both a locus of meaning
and legitimator of power.
As we shall see, religion is both a creator of meaning and a means to legitimating power. "Religion is the human enterprise," says Berger, "by which a sacred cosmos is established (Berger 25)."
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Socially constructed world
An ordering of experience
The point to emphasize here is that humans build and maintain their worlds through the ordering of everyday experience. We do this in two powerful ways: through science and through religion.
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Paradigm
Greek: example or pattern
We may understand shifts and changes in our relation to nature and to our interior life through paradigms. Paradigm is from the Greek for an example or pattern.
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Standard examples of scientific work that embody a set of methodological and conceptual assumptions. - Thomas Kuhn
In science the sets of assumptions that allow scientists to discover and communicate their discoveries are known as paradigms.
Beliefs guide selection
Interpretation permits evaluation of data
Thomas Kuhn says that we bring our beliefs and assumptions to the collecting, interpreting, and sifting of facts in nature.
"If that body of belief is not already implicit in the collection of facts—in which case more than ‘mere facts’ are at hand—it must be externally supplied, perhaps by a current metaphysic, by another science, or by personal and historical accident."
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 16-17.
"If that body of belief is not already implicit in the collection of facts—in which case more than ‘mere facts’ are at hand—it must be externally supplied, perhaps by a current metaphysic, by another science, or by personal and historical accident."
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 16-17.
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Historical Scientific Paradigm Shifts
- Ptolemaic
- Copernican
- Newtonian
- Quantum
There have been major changes in scientific thinking through the centuries. These paradigmatic shifts brought about radically new ways of perceiving how the world works. Thomas Kuhn called them 'scientific revolutions.'
Alternative
Replaced by a more promising
Barbour notes that comprehensive theories and paradigms are extremely difficult to overthrow. "Paradigms are not rejected because there is contradictory evidence; they are replaced when there is a more promising alternative (Barbour 126)."
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Best Paradigm Wins
"To be accepted as a paradigm, a theory must seem better than its competitors, but it need not, and in fact never does, explain all the facts with which it can be confronted."
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 17-18.
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 17-18.
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"Truth emerges more readily from error
than confusion."
-- Francis Bacon
Paradigms allow scientists to focus selectively and effectively on some aspects of experience rather than others. Their assumptions—the paradigm—make that possible.
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Religious Paradigms
Broad set of metaphysical and theological assumptions
Religious traditions, like the scientific community, pass along metaphysical and methodological assumptions that new initiates learn in order to be part of what we call "normal religion."
Ian Barbour, Religion and Science, 127-128.
Ian Barbour, Religion and Science, 127-128.
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Religion
Builds and maintains worlds of meaning
Religion, like science, builds worlds of meaning through models, analogies, and symbols. These are based on common assumptions that unite believers under paradigms—collective ways of thinking, perceiving, and acting.
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Untitled Slide
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Paradigm communities
Centered on core ideals and assumptions
Paradigm communities, centered on core ideals and assumptions, provide a way to be in the world, to find meaning, and to order experience.
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Religion
Provides meaning and legitimation
Religion provides meaning and legitimation. This can be described as reality-maintenance.
"Religion legitimates so effectively because it relates the precarious reality constructions of empirical societies with ultimate reality (Berger 32)." Religion turns policy into divinely-ordained truth.
"Religion legitimates so effectively because it relates the precarious reality constructions of empirical societies with ultimate reality (Berger 32)." Religion turns policy into divinely-ordained truth.
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Historical Christian Paradigm Shifts
- Greek Alexandrian
- Latin Augustinian
- Medieval Thomistic
- Reformation
- Modern-Critical
Hans Kung noted five major paradigm shifts within Christian history. Each one provided a means for working and worshipping and dealing with problems in life.
-- Ian Barbour, Religion and Science, 129
-- Ian Barbour, Religion and Science, 129
Paradigm Shifts
- New experience of gospel message
- Institutional crisis
- Societal challenges
Barbour says, “Each new paradigm arose from a fresh experience of the original message, as well as from institutional crises and external challenges. The gospel thus contributed to both continuity and change."
Ian Barbour, Religion and Science, 129
Ian Barbour, Religion and Science, 129
Alternative
Replaced by a more promising
In every historic shift the current paradigm was replaced by one that was thought to be more promising, more encompassing, and more fruitful.
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Uncertainty
A time of
Many are saying that this is a pivotal moment for Seventh-day Adventism. We, too, are faced with internal and external challenges. For many, this is a time of uncertainty and anxiety. Could Adventism be ripe for a paradigm shift?
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Women's Ordination
Unity or Uniformity?
The debate over the ordination of women to ministry reveals a possible paradigm shift.
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Religious institutions legitimate the ideals of a community through authority and tradition. Ordination is one of those ideals. Therefore, we can expect ordination to be defined and limited through appeals to authority and tradition.
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Paradigms and paradigm communities arise in times of crisis to clarify what is intangible. Women's ordination is just such a crisis point for the Adventist community. Therefore, we can expect paradigm communities to become evident in response.
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Paradigms reflect the core ideals of a community. There appear to be two contending core ideals in the current Adventist experience: authority/tradition and justice/equality. Therefore, we can expect the emergence of at least two paradigm communities.
Reinterpret the past
Reimagine the future
Honest dialogue without recrimination is needed. As members of paradigm communities we need the humility to reinterpret our past—and to reimagine our future.
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References
- Barbour, Ian G. (1990). Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco.
- Berger, Peter L. (1967). The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. New York: Anchor Books.
- Kuhn, Thomas S. (1996). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 3rd ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
