GEE Chapter 1
GEE Chapter 1
GEE Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Nature and Definition of
Religion
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GEE 5: RELIGION, RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY
Lesson 1
Nature and Definition of Religion
Introduction
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that relate
humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives,
symbols, traditions, and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain
the origin of life or the universe.
Specific Objectives
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Acquire basic knowledge about religion.
2. Deeper awareness of religion in our world.
3. Rationalize our belief and practices.
Duration
Time Allotment: 3 Hours
Lesson Proper
Religion is a
collection of cultural
systems, belief
systems, and
worldviews that
relate humanity to
spirituality and,
sometimes, to moral
values. Many
religions have
narratives, symbols,
traditions, and sacred
histories that are
intended to give
meaning to life or to
explain the origin of
life or the universe.
Figure A: Sacred Buddhist Ritual in Nepal: His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Sakya
leading the empowerment into practice at Tharlam Monastery, Boudha,
Kathmandu, Nepal.
Many languages have words that can be translated as “religion,” but they may use
them in a very different way, and some have no word for religion at all. For example, the
Sanskrit word “dharma,” sometimes translated as “religion,” also means law. Throughout
classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and
ceremonial and practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a similar union between
“imperial law” and universal or “Buddha law,” but these later became independent sources of
power.
The typical dictionary definition of religion refers to a “belief in, or the worship of, a
god or gods” or the “service and worship of God or the supernatural. ” However, many writers
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GEE 5: RELIGION, RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY
and scholars have noted that this basic “belief in god” definition fails to capture the diversity
of religious thought and experience. Edward Burnett Tylor defined religion as simply “the
belief in spiritual beings. ” He argued, in 1871, that narrowing the definition to mean the belief
in a supreme deity or judgment after death would exclude many peoples from the category of
religious and thus “has the fault of identifying religion rather with particular developments than
with the deeper motive which underlies them. ” He also argued that the belief in spiritual beings
exists in all known societies.
The sociologist Emile Durkheim, in his seminal book The Elementary Forms of the
Religious Life, defined religion as a “unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred
things. ” By sacred things he meant things “set apart and forbidden — beliefs and practices
which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them. ”
Sacred things are not, however, limited to gods or spirits. On the contrary, a sacred thing can
be “a rock, a tree, a spring, a pebble, a piece of wood, a house, in a word, anything can be
sacred. ” Religious beliefs, myths, dogmas, and legends are the representations that express the
nature of these sacred things and the virtues and powers that are attributed to them.
The development of religion has taken different forms in different cultures. Some
religions place an emphasis on belief while others emphasize practice. Some religions focus on
the subjective experience of the religious individual while others consider the activities of the
religious community to be most important. Some religions claim to be universal, believing their
laws and cosmology to be binding for everyone, while others are intended to be practiced only
by a closely defined or localized group. In many places religion has been associated with public
institutions such as education, hospitals, the family, government, and political hierarchy.
One modern academic theory of religion, social constructionism, says that religion is a
modern concept that has been defined relative to the Abrahamic religions and that thus, religion
as a concept has been applied inappropriately to non-Western cultures that are not based upon
such systems.
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GEE 5: RELIGION, RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY
Religious
What/Who Is Divine Example
Classification
Note that some religions may be practiced—or understood—in various categories. For
instance, the Christian notion of the Holy Trinity (God, Jesus, Holy Spirit) defies the definition
of monotheism, which is a religion based on belief in a single deity, to some scholars.
Similarly, many Westerners view the multiple manifestations of Hinduism’s godhead
as polytheistic, which is a religion based on belief in multiple deities, while Hindus might
describe those manifestations are a monotheistic parallel to the Christian Trinity. Some
Japanese practice Shinto, which follows animism, which is a religion that believes in the
divinity of nonhuman beings, like animals, plants, and objects of the natural world, while
people who practice totemism believe in a divine connection between humans and other
natural beings.
It is also important to note that every society also has nonbelievers, such as atheists,
who do not believe in a divine being or entity, and agnostics, who hold that ultimate reality
(such as God) is unknowable. While typically not an organized group, atheists and agnostics
represent a significant portion of the population. It is important to recognize that being a
nonbeliever in a divine entity does not mean the individual subscribes to no morality. Indeed,
many Nobel Peace Prize winners and other great humanitarians over the centuries would have
classified themselves as atheists or agnostics.
Philosophy of religion is the philosophical study of the meaning and nature of religion.
It includes the analyses of religious concepts, beliefs, terms, arguments, and practices of
religious adherents. The scope of much of the work done in philosophy of religion has been
limited to the various theistic religions. More recent work often involves a broader, more global
approach, taking into consideration both theistic and non-theistic religious traditions. The range
of those engaged in the field of philosophy of religion is broad and diverse and includes
philosophers from the analytic and continental traditions, Eastern and Western thinkers,
religious believers and agnostics, skeptics and atheists. Philosophy of religion draws on all of
the major areas of philosophy as well as other relevant fields, including theology, history,
sociology, psychology, and the natural sciences.
There are a number of themes that fall under the domain of philosophy of religion as it
is commonly practiced in academic departments in North America and Europe. The focus here
will be limited to six: (1) religious language and belief, (2) religious diversity, (3) concepts of
God / Ultimate Reality, (4) arguments for and against the existence of God, (5) problems of
evil and suffering, and (6) miracles.
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GEE 5: RELIGION, RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY
The Catechism sums up the chapter on man’s capacity to know God. Man, the Church
claims, is a “religious being,” an affirmation with plenty of evidence. Humanity has
demonstrated itself to be religious by nature from its earliest origins.
There is something innate in us that seeks after the truth, but not just truth within our
grasp. Otherwise, recent scientific advances would have obliterated man’s pursuit of faith. The
predictions that science would dispel religious beliefs have proven to be wrong time and time
again.
Man, however, is, by nature, a religious being. He seeks something bigger than himself,
beyond the physical, beyond what he can see and observe. There is an evident and apparent
spiritual aspect of man, an inkling of the existence of something beyond, a truth not merely
involving the way things work, but why they work that way and the purpose behind them.
References/Additional Resources/Readings
Craig, Mary, transl. 2002. The Pocket Dalai Lama. Boston, MA: Shambhala.
Feng, Gia-fu, and Jane English, transl. 1972. “Introduction” in Tao Te Ching. New York:
Random House.
Holy Bible: 1611 Edition, King James Version. 1982 [1611]. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
Smith, Huston. 1991 [1958]. The World’s Religions. San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins.
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