Join Eythen Anthony and Ana Knudsen, cohosts of "From the Archives," as they look back, re-listen, and reconsider past talks, lectures, and speeches given at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.
Today, they listen to a lecture by sociologist of religion Robert Bellah called "Marriage: Sacred Institution or Obsolete Tyranny?”
In his speech, Bellah responds to what he sees as the modern opposition to institutions. He believes that in modernity, there is a popular idea that institutions are inherently oppressive, or that all of our inherited traditions are unexamined and backwards.
Bellah disagrees with this. He argues that institutions are absolutely essential. Without them, he claims, we would all be dead.
"What’s particularly interesting," says Ana, "is the way Bellah argues that institutions are necessary. The institution that Bellah uses to illustrate his point isn’t actually the institution of marriage. Instead, he bases his argument on the institution of language."
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