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Introduction
Conducting research on different religions, cultural anthropologists usually prefer having different perspectives on the phenomenon under study. One of the most effective of them is the view from etic and emic perspectives. Etic perspective requires to look on the religion as “outsider” of it. It means that the researchers should detach themselves from this religion to analyze it at an objective and scientific level. Emic perspective means the view on the religion as “insider”, that is the view of a person who engaged in it. In this essay, the catholic church will be discussed from these two sides with the use of credible sources.
Etic
The objective view on Christianity requires elaborating a specific paradigm that will allow looking at it more systematically. Molloy (2020) recommends to researchers studying any religion consider three main patterns: view of the world and life, the focus of beliefs and practices, and views of male and female. In fact, the general worldview of Catholics does not differ from the common Christian paradigm (Alva, 2017). They believe that all that exists in the world was produced out of nothing by God. The people were created because of the incredible love of God. These basic explanations will vary from one culture to another, but all religions have such kinds of answers to the questions of world creation, the purpose of life, and human beings’ existence.
As for the practices and sacred things, Catholicism has some specific peculiarities. They worship through prayers and rarely through songs, while it is distinct from other branches by the practice of Veneration of Mary, mother of Jesus. Catholicism slightly adjusts the Bible phrase “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (English Standard Version Bible, 2001, 1 Timothy 2). The sacred symbols in Catholicism are cross and rosary which are used during worship. Concerning the position of women and men, in the Catholic church, they are equal and complementary.
Emic
The emic perspective requires the look of the people who engaged in Catholicism and can speak from the position of its active member. For instance, concerning crucifixes, the etic approach has quite a rational and objective approach. In contrast, Pope Francis brings some personal feelings in it: “Crucifixes are found all around us: on necks, in homes, in cars, in pockets. <…> Let us not reduce the cross to an object of devotion, much less to a political symbol, to a sign of religious and social status” (Rome Reports, 2021).
In this phrase, Pope Francis promotes the political and social message to the Catholics about the way how crucifixes should be perceived. One of the limitations of the emic perspective is that it can create an “emic bias” (Mostowlansky & Rota, 2016, p. 323). People’s thoughts and activities who engaged in a particular religion sometimes cannot objectively evaluate some aspects of their religious teaching.
Contribution of Etic/Emic Perspectives
The dichotomy of emic/etic perspectives helps analyze different cultures and religions in a more complex way. The researcher should distinguish these views in her study to not assume some emic biases as objective truth and to not relate objective scientific information to the mindset of religious people. As for patient care, it is really the critical rule that the attitude of outsider and insider is different. It will be wrong to judge different religions as some systems with a specific structure and form. Without having a deep emic perspective, the physician should be very attentive to any her judgments about patients’ religion.
Conclusion
To sum up, the analysis showed that the picture of insider and outsider to religion has its own features. Etic perspective analyses Catholicism as a system through scientific methods creating objective information about it. Emic paradigm is related to the view of an “insider” who has a deep understanding of the Catholic church through experience and personal feelings. As for me as a student, this distinction will guide me in further work with different people for whom religion plays a major role in life.
References
Alva, R. (2017). The Catholic Church’s perspective of human dignity as the basis of dialogue with the secular world. Stellenbosch Theological Journal, 3(2), 221-241.
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). ESV Online. Web.
Molloy, M. (2020). Experiencing the world’s religions (8th edition). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Mostowlansky, T., & Rota, A. (2016). A matter of perspective?: Disentangling the emic–Etic debate in the scientific study of religions. Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, 28(4-5), 317-336.
Rome Reports (2021). Pope Francis: Don’t reduce the cross to a political symbol. Web.
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