E.E. Evans Pritchard

As we have read through the Pals text, I have gotten really excited about each theorist in turn. The lens through which they each view religion has opened my mind and given me great new insights. Unfortunately, at the close of each chapter their theories are all shot full of holes, and I come away from them with a sense of being even more lost in the philosophical wilderness. Finally, with Evans-Pritchard I finshed reading and found myself right back where I stared at the beginning of this course! Which is a good thing. With each of the previous theorists, they talk a good game and make some really interesting connections and observations, but at the end of the day, that is all they are. With Evans-Pritchard it becomes clear that there can not be any overarching theoretical framework for all of the worlds religious beliefs. Some may find this unsatisfactory, and admittedly it is a bit dissapointing, but Evans-Pritchard demonstrated that one can dedicate an entire career to examining ONE religion and still come away with only a single theory in which to explain it. The early attempts to explain religious phenomenon are way too grandious. In a way they remind me off the weakness of religioous dogma in the way they attempt to wave a hand say "this is why everything is the way it is." In reality, the cosmos is far too complex and complicated to be described in any simple terms.