Definition of religion
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Religion can be variously defined as a a cultural system of behaviors and practices, a "comprehensive worldview" or a "moral community called a church". Some scholars, such as Wilfred Cantwell Smith, have tried to correct a perceived Judeo-Christian and Western bias in the study of religion.
Competing definitions
- Emile Durkheim defines a religion as "a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practises which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them." [1]
- Max Stackhouse, professor of Princeton Theological Seminary defines religion as "a comprehensive worldview or 'metaphysical moral vision' that is accepted as binding because it is held to be in initself basically true and just even if all dimensions of it cannot be either fully confirmed or refuted".[2]
Some jurisdictions refuse to classify specific religions as religions, arguing that they are instead heresies, even if they are widely viewed as a religion in the academic world.[3]
Religion vs religious denomination
Whereas a religion is a system of beliefs and practices illustrating a code of morality and humanity's place in the world,[4] a religious denomination is a collective spiritual community for a grouping or congregation.[5]
Religion as modern western construct
A number of scholars have pointed out that the terminology used in the study of religion derives from Judeo-Christian tradition, and that the basic assumptions of religion as an analytical category are all Western in origin. This idea was first raised by Wilfred Cantwell Smith in his 1962 book, The Meaning and End of Religion.[6] Talal Asad later refined this notion by showing that many assumptions about religion derive specifically from post-Enlightenment Christianity.[7]
While few would dispute that the concept of "religion" does have a historical genealogy, there is some disagreement about what the Western origin of the term has meant historically. Some such as Tomoko Masuzawa have felt that the equation of religion with Christianity had the effect of diminishing other traditions, especially in the study of "comparative religions" as it developed during the highpoint of Western imperialism.[8] Others have felt that this sort of criticism overestimates the influence that Western academic thought had on the rest of the world.
References
- ^ Taves, Ann (2009). Religious Experience Reconsidered: A Building-Block Approach to the Study of Religion and other Special Things. p. 176.
- ^ Nelson, Robert (2010). New Holy Wars:. p. xi.
- ^ Minahan, James (2002). Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: A-C. p. 234.
- ^ Dawes, Gregory (2013). A New Science of Religion. p. 15.
- ^ Doe, Norman (2011). Law and Religion in Europe: A Comparative Introduction. p. 90.
- ^ The Meaning and End of Religion (1962), Fortress Press 1991 paperback: ISBN 0-8006-2475-0
- ^ Asad, Talal. Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford, Calif: Stanford, 2003
- ^ The Invention of World Religions or, How European Universalism was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism (2005)