Religion - The Definition

What is Religion? It is a system of beliefs..... According to Emile Durkheim, religion as a unified ......

Divine Forces

Religion is a system of beliefs, rituals and values concerned with the sacred or the divine forces or a set of beliefs, symbols and practices which are based on the idea of the sacred, and which unites believers into a socio-religious community. The sacred is contrasted with the profane because it involves feelings of awe. Sociologists defined religion as a cultural system of commonly shared beliefs and rituals that provides a sense of ultimate meaning and purpose by creating an idea of reality that is sacred, all encompassing and supernatural. Religion is an attitude towards superhuman powers.

According to Emile Durkheim, religion as a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to scared things uniting into a single moral community all those who adhere to those beliefs and practices, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden. Religion begins with, according to Durkheim, the division of the world into two kinds of phenomena: the “profane” and the “sacred”. The profane is concerned with the ordinary aspects of everyday life, it has nothing to do with religious beliefs. The sacred refers to all objects and aspects of life set apart from the ordinary, regarding as holy and related to the supernatural. The latter forms the foundation of every religion. Anything that is sacred is so special to the believers that it cannot be questioned. Mac Iver and Page have defined religion as we understand the term, implies a relationship not merely between man and man but also between man and some higher power.

As we have seen, there are many definitions of religion but one definition is very useful for sociological analysis, since it emphasizes the social and corporate nature of religion and distinguishes religion from secular movements which may also be concerned with important values, is defined as a system of beliefs and practices by which a group of people interprets and responds to what they feel is supernatural and sacred. Sociologists have defined religion by reference to the sacred rather than to a belief in a God/s, because it makes social comparison possible, for example some versions of Buddhism do not involve a belief in God.

According to Anthony Giddens, there are three key elements in the definitions of religion:

1. RELIGION IS A FORM OF CULTURE: culture consists of the shared beliefs, values, norms and ideas that creates a common identity among a group of people.
2. RELIGION INVOLVES BELIEFS THAT TAKE THE FORM OF RITUALIZED PRACTICES: all religions thus have a behavioural aspect – special activities in which believers take part and that identify them as members of the religions community.
3. RELIGION PROVIDES A SENSE OF PURPOSE: perhaps most importantly a feeling that life is ultimately meaningful. It does so by explaining coherently and compellingly what transcends or overshadows everyday life, in ways that other aspects of culture (such as an educational system or a belief in democracy) typically cannot

Further M. Francis Abraham has enumerated the following elements of religion besides Giddens.

1. An irresistible obsession with the sacred, variously defined as God, totem, supernatural, divine, or the ultimate.
2. Symbols are present as any sacred objects like trishul, a cross, fire, totem, beads, prayer, wheels, etc.
3. A social form with networks of institutional arrangements and status-roles (priests, temples, monks, churches, shrines monasteries).
4. A moral philosophy which unites the mundane and the supernatural in a mystical blend.
5. Holy texts believed to be based on revelation and containing the tenets of faith and rules of conduct.
6. A system of rituals including festivals, ceremonies, prayers, religious services, feasts, sacrifices, fasts, offerings, pilgrimages, etc.
7. An expressive culture, particularly visual and performing arts, including dancing, singing, chanting, processions, possession, mystical ecstasy, trance, alteration of psychological states through drugs and deprivation.
8. Congregation which includes meetings, discourses and devotional gatherings. 

___________________________________________________________________

  

To know more you can visit these significant topics:
The Development of Literacy and Schooling, Commensality, Indian State, State, Indian Society, Marriage, kinship System, Social Institution, Types of Marriage, Family, Community, Indology, Social Movement, Bride Wealth (Price), Nation State

Reference:

• Anthony Giddens, Sociology.
• M. Francis Abraham, Contemporary Sociology.
• Various. 

___________________________________________________________________

Aptitude Amplifier ©2017. All Rights Reserved.