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RST1501 Summary Notes Study Unit 1
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Summary Notes on what is religion
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1.1 What is ‘religion’Definition 1: Refers to beliefs and practices related to the sacred, which serves to unify its
adherents.
In this definition:
The ‘sacred’ refers to things, people, places or events ‘set apart’
from the ordinary by a specific group
‘beliefs’ include sacred stories (myths) and doctrines
‘practices’ include rituals and festivals
This definition holds the primary function of religion as an institution is to create a collective
identity and to bind adherents together as a unified group.
Religion may also be used for justifying class, gender and colonial forms of discrimination and
exploitation
Sacred beliefs, practices and institutions are not innocent and neutral, but embody ethical values,
which are constitutive of contested power relations in society
Definition 2: Religion is a system of ultimate meaning in the sense that it provides an individual
with answers to his/her deepest questions. Central to religion is the sense of a transcendent,
mysterious reality beyond the observable world, in the presence of which and individual
experiences utter awe. An encounter with the holy or sacred thus not only causes the believer to
tremble, but also fascinates him/her profoundly
, Reductionist Essentialist
Views religions as human constructs, which Emphasize the substantive content of
should be rationally explained in religious belief in a transcendent
sociological and psychological rather than reality and the profound individual
supernatural terms experience of it, and hold that
sociological and psychological views
These definitions are also called are reductive when they ignore this
functionalist, since they focus on the absolutely crucial truth of all
functions of religion in society or the religions.
individuals psyche.
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