Religion HW

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? A Polythetic Definition

One way of avoiding many of the controversies around defining what exactly is or is not “religion” is to define religion in terms of its observable characteristics, and to declare that wherever enough of these characteristics are found, we are dealing with a religion. This is called a polythetic definition. It means that there is no single trait that all religions share (and that no “non-religions,” like golf or tennis, possess). Instead, there is a set of beliefs, values, institutions, and behaviors that together indicate that something can be categorized as a “religion.”

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Characteristics of Religion

A long list of elements typically found under the broad heading of religion would include symbol, myth, rites of passage, ritual, scripture, the marking of sacred time, ethics, doctrine, and many others. However, all of these can be placed into three major categories first delineated by sociologist of religion Joachim Wach. According to Wach, religions can be recognized by their concern with what he called “Ultimate Reality” and the fact that they find expression on three levels: the theoretical, the practical, and the sociological.

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Defining Religion

Why is it important to find a way to understand religion that does not identify God as the defining characteristic of religion? For the simple reason that some things that look like religion to us (for example, Buddhism) are ambivalent on the questions of God’s existence, or may even declare that there is no God. To get around this problem, many thinkers have described religion as that which is of “ultimate importance” for a person or group of people. This definition sounds reasonable until someone points out that golf and tennis must be religions, since for some people these sports are the most important things in the universe.

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Myth

Among the various aspects of religion we might categorize under “the theoretical,” myth deserves special mention. In common usage, myth is often understood to mean “not true.” This is not what scholars mean when they talk about the myths told by various religions. Myths are sacred stories that are believed to carry deep and important meanings about who people understand themselves to be and how they stand in relationship to the divine.

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? One Reality or Many? 1

Can there be one thing, called religion by us, that exists everywhere, even where there is no word to describe it? Some have argued that though cultures have a range of ways of understanding or worshiping the sacred, they are all still doing just this. That is, though terms and practices differ, all peoples distinguish between what historian of religion Mircea Eliade, following Emile Durkheim, called the sacred and the profane. Some suggest this is the common core to all phenomena we would recognize as religion.

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? One Reality or Many? 2

To say that all peoples distinguish between the sacred and the profane (and that religion is concerned with the sacred) is to say that religion is universal: wherever you find human beings, you find religion. Some believe religion is universal because God (or the sacred) really exists. All people are trying to relate to God, though they may do so differently in different cultures. Others argue that human beings have a need to experience all or part of life as sacred, and have created religions to fill that need.

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Origins of the Term Religion

The English word religion comes from a Latin word, religio, which referred to the experience of worshiping a god or goddess, to the feeling of being in the presence of something divine. There is still a tendency today to regard religion as having something to do with God or other supernatural beings. But for over a century now, scholars have been struggling to define religion in a way that is not dependent on the existence of a supernatural being.

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Religion & Religions

As we embark on our journey through the religions of the world, it is helpful to establish a basic framework for understanding what religion is. The most important thing to understand about the term religion is that although it is familiar to us in the West, it is not a concept that is found universally (that is, in every culture). Many societies have no specific word to refer to that part of their lives that we would call “religion.”

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Religion without Religion

How is it possible to have religion without having a word for it? Part of the answer to this question is that in some societies only one religion is available. A general term for religion is unnecessary when there is only one form of religion to be found. Even where several religious traditions are practiced (take Japan as an example) there may be no word in the native language equivalent to the word religion in English.

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Religion

Before setting out, it is helpful to have a sense of where you are beginning. How do you define religion? What does religion include? Do you think there is something that all religions have in common, or is each religion its own unique entity?

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Religious Specialists 1

Another aspect of the sociological expression of religion is what is called most generally a religious specialist. These are people who fill special functions within a religion: ministers, spirit mediums, priests, diviners, imams, monks, nuns, deacons, etc. The roles of religious specialists differ from religion to religion, but some common patterns are helpful for comparative purposes.

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Religious Specialists 2

The shaman is a religious specialist who is able to move back and forth between seen and unseen worlds either by entering a trance or becoming possessed by a spirit. A priest is typically one who officiates in religious ceremonies, transmits religious practices and beliefs to ordinary practitioners, and cares for a temple or shrine. A monk is one who removes himself from ordinary life to pursue spiritual matters full-time. These specialists may be either male or female, depending on the religion (though a female monk is usually called a nun).

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Religious Syncretism 1

Whatever the sacred reality to which a religion refers or the modes of expression it takes, every religion is characterized by syncretism. That is, though religions may claim to have been created by the gods or ancestors completely independent of any other influences, one of the central characteristics of religion as we know it is the way it combines beliefs, practices, holidays, ceremonies, and so on from many different sources.

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Religious Syncretism 2

The phenomenon of religious syncretism is especially obvious in today’s pluralistic world, where a group of Methodists may meet in their church basement to practice Buddhist meditation, or where African gods are worshiped by Caribbean Catholics under the names of Christian saints. But religious syncretism is as old as religion itself. When ancient peoples traveled, they customarily made offerings to the gods of the people they visited, and sometimes brought the worship of these gods back to their homelands.

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Religious Syncretism 3

As we explore the religions of the world, we will see many syncretistic patterns. Some result from direct inheritance: Christianity was born out of Judaism, and Buddhism out of Hinduism. The daughter religions share much in common with their parent religions. Other forms of religious syncretism are the result of a religion spreading to a new land. For example, in many ways Japanese Buddhism is as Japanese as it is Buddhist; African Christianity is as African as it is Christian. Keeping an eye out for religious syncretism allows one a much fuller appreciation of the world’s religions.

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Ritual 1

The English word ritual can refer to any act that is performed repetitively and precisely, whatever the meaning attached to it. For example, you may have a “ritual” of brushing your teeth every night before bed. In the realm of religion, ritual refers to actions whose purpose is to interact with the divine or to bring its practitioners to a deeper understanding of God or their traditions. Typically, ritual involves people’s bodies, whether they are simply bowing their heads or eating certain foods, lighting candles or walking in a procession.

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Ritual 2

These are some of the many forms ritual may take:

• the re-enactment of sacred myths or stories

• worship of deities in chant or song

• making offerings or sacrifices to deities

• celebrating periodic holidays considered sacred to God or to the community

• recognizing changes in an individual’s status through ceremonies like weddings or ordinations (called “rites of passage”)

• solitary prayer or meditation

• drumming and dancing to induce trance or spirit possession

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? Summary: What Is Religion?

You have learned:

• Not all languages have a word comparable to the English word religion.

• Though the overall concept of “religion” was developed in the West, all peoples we know of have something we would call religion, whether or not this includes worship of or belief in a God or gods.

• It is difficult to find any one thing that all religions have in common, so it is best to define religion polythetically: in terms of a set of features that most religions share.

• Different religions conceptualize God or the sacred quite differently, but religions are typically expressed through three modes: the theoretical, the practical, and the sociological.

• Religions are generally built up through cultural syncretism, by borrowing cultural and religious elements from other societies and religions.

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? The Practical

The practical aspect of religion has to do with behavior. In every religious tradition, certain acts are considered religious: to perform them is to practice religion. Many different religious behaviors, such as worship, prayer, chant, dress, pilgrimage, meditation, and so on, are found cross-culturally. If one term can sum up religious behaviors in general, it would be ritual.

Revealing World Religions What Is Religion? The Sociological

Religions can be recognized at the sociological level in the way that people form themselves into groups and organizations around shared beliefs and/or practices. The social unit for a religion may be the family or tribe (that is, a social unit that already exists for reasons other than the practice of a religion). Or it may be a community church or temple toward which those of similar beliefs gravitate. The sociological expression of a religion may even be a collection of like-minded individuals who share their religious beliefs and practices over the Internet.