Definition of religion

Religious symbols

The definition of religion is a controversial subject in religious studies. Some scholars define "religion" as a cultural system of behaviors and practices, others as 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 definition and study of religion. Thinkers such as Daniel Dubuison^[1] have doubted that the term "religion" has any meaning outside of western cultures, while others, such as Ernst Feil^[2] even doubt that it has any specific, universal meaning even there.

Competing definitions

• Emile Durkheim defined 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." ^[3]
• Max Stackhouse, professor of Princeton Theological Seminary, defined 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".^[4]

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.^[5]

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,^[6] a religious denomination is a collective spiritual community for a grouping or congregation.^[7]

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 Smith in his 1962 book, The Meaning and End of Religion.^[8] Talal Asad later refined this notion by showing that many assumptions about religion derive specifically from post-Enlightenment Christianity.^[9]

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 high point of Western imperialism.^[10] Others have felt that this sort of criticism overestimates the influence that Western academic thought had on the rest of the world.

Notes

1. Dubuison, Daniel (2007). The Western Construction of Religion: Myths, Knowledge, and Ideology. Johns Hopkins University Press.
2. Feil, Ernst. On the Concept of Religion.
3. Taves, Ann (2009). Religious Experience Reconsidered: A Building-Block Approach to the Study of Religion and other Special Things. p. 176.
4. Nelson, Robert (2010). New Holy Wars:. p. xi.
5. Minahan, James (2002). Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: A-C. p. 234.
6. Dawes, Gregory (2013). A New Science of Religion. p. 15.
7. Doe, Norman (2011). Law and Religion in Europe: A Comparative Introduction. p. 90.
8. Wilfred Cantwell Smith, The Meaning and End of Religion (1962; reprint Fortress Press, 1991).
9. Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity (Stanford, Cal: Stanford, 2003).
10. Tomoko Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions or, How European Universalism was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005).

Bibliography

• Michael Bergunder. “What is Religion? The Unexplained Subject Matter of Religious Studies”, Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 26(3) (2014): 246–286.
• André Droogers, “Defining Religion: A Social Science Approach”, in The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion, ed. Peter B. Clarke. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 263–279.
• Arthur L. Greil & David G. Bromley, eds. Defining Religion: Investigating the Boundaries between the Sacred and Secular. Amsterdam: JAI, 2003.
• Malcolm Hamilton. The Sociology of Religion: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives, 2nd edn. London–NY: Routledge, 2001 (1st edn. 1995), pp. 12–21.
• Thomas A. Idinopulos & Brian C. Wilson, eds. What Is Religion?: Origins, Definitions, and Explanations. Leiden–Boston–Cologne: Brill, 1998.
  • Brian C. Wilson. “From the Lexical to the Polythetic: A Brief History of the Definition of Religion”, pp. 141–162.
• Seth Daniel Kunin. Religion: The Modern Theories. The John Hopkins UP, 2003.
• Craig Martin. “Delimiting Religion”, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 21 (2009): 157–176.
• Moojan Momen. The Phenomenon of Religion: A Thematic Approach. Oxford: Oneworld, 1999.
• Jan G. Platvoet & Arie L. Molendijk, eds. The Pragmatics of Defining Religion: Contexts, Concepts and Contests. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 1999.
• Caroline Schaffalitzky de Muckadell, “On Essentialism and Real Definitions of Religion”, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 82(2) (2014): 495–520.
• Michael Stausberg & Steven Engler. “Definition”, The Oxford Handbook of the Study of Religion, eds. Michael Stausberg & Steven Engler. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 9–32.