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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
• Emphasize the substantive content of
• Views religions as human constructs, which
religious belief in a transcendent
should be rationally explained in
reality and the profound individual
sociological and psychological rather than
experience of it, and hold that
supernatural terms
sociological and psychological views
are reductive when they ignore this
• These definitions are also called
absolutely crucial truth of all
functionalist, since they focus on the
religions.
functions of religion in society or the
individuals psyche.
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