What is religion?
- Created by: Emily Uffindell
- Created on: 08-05-14 13:40
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- What is religion?
- Substantive religions
- These focus on the content or substance of religious beliefs, such as a belief in God or the supernatural.
- Weber: defines religion as belief in a superior or supernatural power that is above nature and cannot be explained scientifically.
- They're exclusive (draw a clear line between religious and non-religious beliefs)
- To be a religion a set of beliefs must include a belief in God or the supernatural.
- Defining a religion in this way leaves no room for beliefs and practices that perform similar functions to religion but do not involve a belief in God.
- Conform to a widespread view of religion as a belief in God.
- Accused of Western bias because they exclude religions such as Buddhism, which do not have the Western idea of God.
- Functional definitions
- Define religion in terms of social and psychological functions it performs for individuals or society.
- Durkheim: defines religion in terms of the contribution it makes to social integration rather than any specific belief in God or the supernatural.
- They're inclusive (allow us to include a wide range of belief and practices that perform functions such as integration)
- No Western bias
- Social Constructionist definition
- Take an interpretivist approach that focuses on how many members of society themselves define religion.
- It is not possible to produce a single, universal definition of religion to cover all cases, since in reality different individuals and groups mean very different things by "religion."
- Interpretivists are interested in how definitions are constructed, challenged and fought over.
- Aldridge: For its followers, society is a religion whereas many governments have denied its legal status as a religion and have sought to ban it.
- Don't assume that there must be a belief in God or the supernatural, or that it performs similar functions for everyone in society.
- Allows them to get closer to the meanings that people themselves give to religion.
- Makes it impossible to generalise definitions of religions as everyone holds a different meaning
- Substantive religions
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