Joyful Disaster: An Ambivalence-Religion Hypothesis
Ambivalence is a rather recent and important concept for analyzing human emotions. Understood as both a generic experience and the result of sociohistorical forces, it is often an anxiety-producing condition that persons seek to resolve. Analysts of religion find ambivalence at the heart of the reli...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
1989
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| In: |
Sociological analysis
Year: 1989, Volume: 50, Issue: 1, Pages: 73-88 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | Ambivalence is a rather recent and important concept for analyzing human emotions. Understood as both a generic experience and the result of sociohistorical forces, it is often an anxiety-producing condition that persons seek to resolve. Analysts of religion find ambivalence at the heart of the religious experience. Religion may function to resolve ambivalence by including contradictory expectations or emotions within a larger system of meaning. This leads to a new definition of religion illustrated in a brief historical review of Western Christianity. The modern situation, furthermore, presents a totally new source of ambivalence, namely, possible nuclear destruction. It is hypothesized that fundamentalist apocalyptic eschatology can be interpreted as a contemporary instance of religion's ambivalence-resolving function. |
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| ISSN: | 2325-7873 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociological analysis
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3710919 |