101-week2a
What is religion?
What are we talking about?
What is Religion?
- How would you describe, in religious terms, the following events? Is one more, or less, religious than the other? Why?
- A morning prayer service at the National Cathedral.
- A political rally that is led by a local pastor, begins with a religious prayer, and concludes with the crowd singing “Gob Bless America.”
Posters
- What is a religious experience?
- Brainstorm as many different examples as you can think of.
- Consider why they are religious.
A Definition of Religion (1)
- The terms “religion” and “religious” are used every day to describe:
- places
- actions
- ways of thinking and feeling
- persons or groups who engage in certain rituals
- The search for definitions is a search for boundaries; a desire to say that X is religious and Y is not.
Possible Definitions of Religion (2)
(James Martineau)
“Religion is the belief in an ever living God, that is, in a Divine Mind and Will ruling the Universe and holding moral relations with mankind” .
(Friedrich Schleiermacher)
Religion is the “feeling of absolute dependence” or “the consciousness that the whole of our spontaneous activity comes from a source outside of us” .
Possible Definitions of Religion (3)
(Anthony Wallace)
Religion is “a set of rituals, rationalized by myth, which mobilizes supernatural powers for the purpose of achieving or preventing transformations of state in man or nature” .
(Emile Durkheim)
“Religion is only the sentiment inspired by the group in its members, but projected outside of the consciousness that experiences them, and objectified” .
Possible Definitions of Religion (4)
(James G. Frazer)
Religion is “a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are believed to direct and control the course of Nature and of human life” .