Philosophy

1. Informative (Revelational) 2. Inductive (Empirical) 3. Indefinitive (Skeptical) 4. Interpretive (Hermeneutical) 5. Integrative (Synthetical) 6. Inferential (Rational) 7. Intuitive (Mystical) © Domenic Marbaniang, 2000, 2012.

About four decades ago, the American theologian Harvey Cox , had already defined secularization as an inevitable process. [1] Almost a decade prior to that, Bryan Wilson, in his book Religion in Secular Society (1966) had considered it to be irreversible. [2] However, history has a different tale to say. The scepter of philosophy is hard to cast away. Somewhere or the other it holds its reins and pulls history on. In the 1920s a small group of scientists, mathematicians, sociologists, and economists, (not philosophers) had gathered together in Vienna to develop a unified philosophy that embraced science and attempted to destroy philosophy. [3] Their new philosophy came to be known as Logical Positivism . It, of course, suffered a natural death soon. But, what the empiricists then did not realize was that philosophy may be philosophically denied but not scientifically annihilated. In less than a decade, the world saw the angry reins of philosophies on the chariots of the nations as

by Domenic Marbaniang (2003) The word “psychology” is a combination of two Greek words psyche meaning “soul”, “spirit”, or “mind” and logos meaning “science” or “study of”. The science of psychology tries to investigate every area of human experience and behavior. Psychology of religion tries to understand the cause-effect relationships of religious experiences and religious consciousness so as to be able to predict behaviors. It aims to study the religious consciousness with investigations in religious behavior patterns. The major systems of psychology are: structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and Gestalt School of Psychology. Obviously, each system has its own way of understanding religious consciousness. Psychological Definitions of Religion About a century ago, James Henry Leuba was able to select forty-eight definitions of religion to which he added two of his own to include in his famous Psychological Study of Religion (1912) . Various psychologists have

© Domenic Marbaniang, 2003 The word conversion has different meanings for different people in different contexts. The various contexts are the occasion and object of conversion. That is, conversion takes place somewhere/sometime (occasion) of something (object). The Latin word convertere, from which our English term is derived, means “to turn or to change”. The whole of phenomena is a panorama of change. As Heraclitus rightly observed, “Nothing is permanent except ‘change’”. Conversion in the physical context is a reality. Every physical change has a physical cause. For instance, the United States Energy Research and Development Administration displays in show cases the “underground conversion” of coal “to synthetic natural gas”. Here, as per Aristotelian classification of causes, coal is the material cause, whereas the other factors that cause the conversion are the efficient causes. It is also proved that in the human being, mental causes can be efficient causes of psychosomatic s

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