Study Questions Ross Douthat: “The God Within”, sociology homework help

Douthat offers one kind of account describing the rethinking of religiosity and its implications.

Study Questions Ross Douthat: “The God Within”

  1. How is Douthat using the life that is revealed in a book by Elizabeth Gilbert in his explanation or critique of the idea of “The God Within”?
  1. For Douthat, is “The God Within”, when stripped of all its “sexy pantheism” not much more than Christianity light, or is it better understood a Christianity 2.0? 3.0?
  1. Douthat describes the “creed” those theologists of “The God Within” as consisting of three tenets. What are they and how, taken together, do they represent a departure from the tenets of traditional Christianity? Or perhaps they are not so distant from the old religions.
  1. How are those tenets of “The God Within” creed linked to those of the “prosperity gospel”?
  1. What exactly are those “different set of spiritual needs” to which “The God Within” “ministers?” Douthat’s rich description of their theology is at the service of activity in the text?
  1. Does Douthat view the emergence and development of “The God Within” as very different from the various other forms of religious mysticism? If so, how? If not why would he offer so many backward glances at several of the exemplars of religions with a God Within orientation?
  1. How does Douthat use the figure and writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson in his descriptions of the proponents of a god within theology? Are they simply supposed to be the latter day representatives of Emerson?
  1. How does Douthat use the quote by Alexis de Tocqueville in his predictions about American’s religious future? As a criticism? As justification (if so for of what). As a neutral account of how such religions arise? None of the above?
  1. How are the god within folks connected to the new atheists such as Harris or Dawkins. Perhaps they’re not. But if they are, how could they also be linked to the new view of such Christians as Armstrong or for that matter Elizabeth Gilbert?
  1. Douthat in noticing a problem with the new mysticism characterizing some features of the god within group, writes:

It’s more difficult than many spiritual writers suggest to separate ideas from actions, teaching from conduct, and dogma from practice in religious history. The dogmas tend to sustain the practices, and vice versa; making a bricolage of different religious traditions is often just a way of guaranteeing that those same traditions die out within a generation.

If that’s supposed to be a criticism of those who drink at the well of the god within, how is it to be understood?

  1. According to Douthat’s account, how exactly do we move from traditional religions, and it’s low score on the cited narcissism scale to the god within and its higher scores on that same test? How does it work in his view that moderns score so high? What is the connection between the emergence or reemergence of religions like the god within and higher or lower scores on a narcissism scale?

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