What is Religion?

Robert Crawford

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• eBook ISBN: 9781134588947
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

We all know what religion is - or do we? Confronted with religious pluralism and cultural diversity, it manifests itself in many forms. What is Religion? serves not only as an introduction to the different belief systems flourishing throughout the modern world, but asks us to consider how the very boundaries of faith might be drawn now and in the future. How might religion interact with political ends, or permeate culture, society and everyday life? Is the post-secular world in thrall to 'religions' of its own kind - materialism, humanism, medicine, science? And what logic separates 'common-sense' or academic knowledge from the immutable but unstable boudaries of faith? Which is the more certain? What does it mean to believe?
Combining clear accounts of contemporary global religious practice with an incisive philosophical interrogation of the dynamics and aims of belief, What is Religion? offers a fresh and wide-ranging introduction to the perennial human questions of ritual, faith, ethics and salvation.

1 Can religion be defined?

When someone is asked ‘What is religion?’, they usually point to a mosque or church or Hindu temple or Sikh gurdwara and say that people who go there have ‘got’ religion! But this is drawing attention to the places of worship and members of the various religions, it is not telling us what religion is. Can it be distilled from a study of these religions? Some scholars have tried to do it but an essence of religion fails to appear so most seek to understand its effect on society. We will begin with stating some definitions and then go on to comment briefly on them:

The cosmos is a gigantic flywheel making 10,000 revolutions a minute. Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it. Religion is the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give man the ride.

(H. L. Mencken)

Religion masks the face of God.

(Martin Buber)

A system of beliefs and practices by means of which a group of people struggle with the ultimate problems of human life.

(J. M. Yinger)

A belief in spiritual beings.

(E. B. Tylor)

Religion is what the individual does with his solitariness… institutions, churches, rituals, bibles, codes of behaviour, are the trappings of religion, its passing forms.

(Alfred North Whitehead)

Any beliefs which involve the acceptance of a sacred, transempirical realm and any behaviour designed to affect a person’s relationship with that realm.

(Peter Connolly)

It is the presence in the world of something spiritually greater than man himself… man’s goal is to seek communion with the presence behind the phenomena.

(Arnold Toynbee)

It is an emotion or morality touched by emotion.

(Matthew Arnold)

Ancestor worship is the root of every religion.

(Herbert Spencer)

Religion is an illusion.

(Sigmund Freud)

Religion is not born out of speculation or reflection, still less out of illusion or misapprehension, but rather out of the real tragedies of human life, out of the conflict between human plans and realities.

(Bronislaw Malinowski)

It is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the feeling of a heartless world, the soul in a place without a soul; it is the opium of the people.

(Karl Marx)

Religion is a virus.

(Richard Dawkins)

A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and for- bidden, beliefs and practices which unite into one single community called a church, all those who adhere to them.

(Émile Durkheim)

It is a way of life.

(Most religions)

A religion is a seven-dimensional organism, ritual, doctrinal, mythical or narrative, experimental or emotional, ethical or legal, organisational or social, material or artistic.

(Ninian Smart)

Religion is a revolutionary urge, a psycho-social impulse to generate a new humanity.

(Aloysius Pieris)

Religion is a sense of the numinous, the ‘wholly other’, the mysterium tremendum et fascinans.

(Rudolf Otto)

These definitions reflect the perspective of anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers, psychologists, biologists, theologians, historians, scriptures, and show that there is no universally accepted definition of religion. The experts differ even with regard to definition! So much so that a feeling of despair is created. John Hick writes:

Religion is one thing to the anthropologist, another to the sociologist, another to the psychologist (and again another to the next psychologist!), another to the Marxist, another to the mystic, another to the Zen Buddhist and yet another to the Jew or Christian. As a result there is a great variety of religious theories of the nature of religion. There is, consequently, no universally accepted definition of religion, and quite possibly there never will be.¹

The anti-religious strain is clear when defined by Freud and Karl Marx and more recently by the biologist, Richard Dawkins, who compares religion to a computer virus passed from one brain to another. Dawkins reacts to any ‘wheel of design’ in the cosmos: we are here because of a random process. The definitions also raise questions: How can religion simply be a private affair since it develops in communities and has an impact on social and political life? If it is a way of life how can we keep it private? But how can it be demonstrated that it has contact with the sacred or supernatural or something greater than ourselves, as Toynbee said? And what is it that religion is pointing to, since the presence of God has different forms in the religions? Perhaps it would be easier to think of religion as emotion and morality with Matthew Arnold, but would that not make it so subjective that validation would be difficult? If it is a way of life there must be some beliefs connected with it.

The definition which relates religion to ancestor worship impressed itself upon me when teaching large numbers of students in Africa. They told me how they venerated their ancestors, had a special place in the home where they went to consult them before an important decision, and generally showed that respect for them was akin to worship. So was Spencer right when he saw the origin of religion in ancestor worship? It is largely discounted today as applicable only to certain tribes and we cannot simply define something by its origins and fail to notice its development. The African students were mainly Christian yet held on to this belief. Perhaps some of their respect for the dead and the living would be helpful in Western society today.

Some of the definitions are functional, stating what religion does, but others are substantive, stating what religion is. If we say that religion unites or separates people or comforts those who suffer and so on, then we are thinking of it in a functional way. Functionalism is a theoretical perspective in sociology but function refers more to the role of an institution in society. A substantial definition seeks to highlight key features of a religion such as belief in God. Durkheim appears to supply both a functional and substantive definition but his beliefs do not include what those who want a substantive definition consider crucial, the supernatural dimension. Religion concerns only the human: a creation of society. His view has been followed by many modern scholars.

We will look at the sociological approach to religion in the next chapter but note here that the functional approach can lead to disagreement. Some conclude that religion has declined as religious symbols are less important, supernatural causes are not acceptable, and religion has little to say about society. A demystification of the world has taken place with a fall in attendance at places of worship. The sacred and magical have little place in civilized societies and religious values are being steadily eroded. Religion in any vital form, it is argued, survives only in the cults.

But other sociologists disagree, contending that it is based on the assumption that past communities were more religious than today. A consideration of history does not support the assumption since even the domination of Christianity in the Middle Ages did not prevent paganism and mass superstition. Today global religion is flourishing. For example, in the United States the majority of Americans believe in God and there is a resurgence of religious fundamentalism. It believes in a return to tradition, certainty, community, sanctification of politics and commitment, and opposes the modernity characterized by relativism, individualism and bureaucracy. Religion has not kept out of politics but has supported freedom movements to abolish injustice and exercises a world-wide influence.

If we estimate the world’s population at about 5400 million, there are 4333 million in the various religions–approximately 80 per cent.² And there is a mass of people who are not members of religious communities but say that they are religious. All sociologists recognize the growth of religious cults, with the British media in 1998 reporting that science’s popularity was waning and that there was a boom in New Age mysticism and spiritual belief. Books on chemistry and physics showed a drop in sales of more than a quarter but New Age titles and books on Eastern and minority faiths published in Britain shot up by 75 per cent.

Whitehead’s definition stresses individualism which figures in religions, but usually there is a community to which one belongs and receives help. John Wesley said that there was no such thing as a solitary Christian and organized his movement on a communal basis. Whitehead understands that the trappings of religion, churches, rituals, institutions, bibles and ethics are the passing forms, but would the religion not disappear without these? Of course, if they are being used as a substitute for a change of heart then he would have the support of Wesley, the Hebrew prophets and some of the founders of the religions. It is true that visions of God often occur in ‘solitary’ quiet places away from not only secular affairs but also the performance of religion.

Marx’s definition means that religion is the compensator, justifier and concealer of exploitation. It endorses the status quo by enabling the poor to accept their inequality and teaches that the capitalists’ power was God given. But Marx also saw it as a protest and would surely have endorsed the stand of Gandhi, Martin Luther King’s civil rights movement and Liberation theology in Christianity. Christians and Marxists joined together in Latin America with the common goal of defeating injustice. Protest ceased to be passive and became active resistance. Neither Marx nor Freud studied religions other than Christianity but Max Weber did, and he argued that religion could spearhead change in society.

It may be that the definitions are complementary rather than contradictory and that elements from each might be combined to form a satisfactory definition. If broad, it would allow secular belief systems, such as Marxism and Humanism and new developments like Transcendental Meditation, to be termed religious. In the latter, members claim that there is a field of consciousness which can be tapped into in order to exploit our inner energy and reach maximum intelligence. A deep relaxation is induced to reach subtle levels of the mind and eventually transcend it altogether. It is believed that we can then contact the source of thought. What this is, however, remains somewhat vague and there is little indication if it is natural or supernatural.

Definitions can be too broad, including what dominates or appears of ultimate concern: work, home, children, entertainment. Some of these have rituals which are similar to those of religion. Football has its assemblies with crowds displaying ecstasy and wonder at their team’s performance. There is the hallowed turf, the flags and banners, the hymn singing, and so on. Nationalism also extols the flag of the nation, and some lands are so sacred that they must be defended at all costs. But all of these consist of visible objects whereas religion, while having outward signs, refers to the invisible.

If the definition can be too broad, it can also be narrow and miss something which is essential. In an effort to distinguish between sacred and secular it may be defined by reference to sacred persons or places or rituals or relics. But, while these can be a focus, the religions insist that God is everywhere and cannot be confined to one place. He pervades the world and hence the secular and sacred cannot be kept apart. But if ‘God’ is essential in any definition then what about Buddhism which in its early beginnings moved away from the Hindu gods? This question has often been raised about Buddhism and we will attend to it in later chapters.

Ninian Smart opts for a broad understanding of religion by reflecting on the characteristics of religions in his seven dimensions. But why only seven? He does not mention the political which was very prominent in the last century, with religion protesting about apartheid in South Africa, poverty in Latin America, and injustice in the United States. What is it that makes Smart’s dimensions religious? It would seem that he is operating with some definition of religion, a broad one, so as to include Marxism, Humanism and Nationalism. Smart thinks that the search for an essence ends in vagueness, for we have to go on and define the supernatural or the ultimate or the transcendent Being. There is pluralism within traditions and he looks for patterns by considering the dimensions. If a movement has these seven dimensions he thinks there is a religion so there is no need to define it.³ But some religions in their beginnings did not have the material dimension of buildings, and he admits that non-literate societies are weak on the doctrinal dimension and the narrative one is absent among Buddhist modernists.

Perhaps it might be helpful to consider where the term reli...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Introduction
• 1: Can religion be defined?
• 2: How is religion studied?
• 3: Rituals
• 4: Scriptures
• 5: Behaviour
• 6: Women
• 7: Liberation
• 8: Divisions within religions
• 9: Why can religions not unite?
• 10: Confessing a murder
• 11: Is the world designed?
• 12: What are we?
• 13: Mind and brain
• 14: Other belief systems
• 15: The existence of God
• 16: A definition of religion
• 17: The future of religion
• Notes