In this lecture, we will look at religion from a social science perspective. Whether easily recognizable or not, many phenomena in our modern society are closely connected to religion. This lecture aims to provide students with the necessary skills to analyze the relationship between societal phenomena and religion.
In the first half of the lecture, we look at several examples of religious elements apparent in modern society and examine how Japanese values took form since the influx of Christian culture in the Meiji period and during the modernization of Japan.
In this lecture, we neither support nor criticize any religion. We aim to discuss religion purely from an academic point of view.