' The Concept and Definitions of Religion

The concept of "religion" and the separation of religious/nonreligious spheres are products of historical development, not universal social facts.
Many pre-contact cultures lacked a direct equivalent term for "religion."
Ancient Greek terms like eusebia and threskia, Sanskrit dharma, Chinese li, and Latin pietas emphasized fulfilling social obligations (to gods, family, society) rather than just internal belief.
Latin precursors religare or religere meant "to bind tightly," "to re-read," or "to pay close attention," not primarily a system of belief.

The historical and cultural specificity of the term "religion" raises questions about its cross-cultural application without imposing Western concepts.
Scholars aim for technical, cross-culturally useful definitions, similar to how chemists use terms like $H_2O$ instead of "water."

Seeks a single, internal, often non-empirical feature or "essence" that defines religion, focusing on what religion is.
Edmund Burnett Tylor: Defined religion as "belief in spiritual beings" ( $1871$ ), emphasizing an intellectual component.
Rudolf Otto: Argued the essence is a feeling of awe and fascination in the presence of the mysterium tremendum ( $1917$ ).
Utilizes an inductive method, comparing examples to find underlying similarities, often ignoring historical differences as nonessential.

Defines religion by the purpose or role it plays in society or for individuals, shifting focus from internal qualities to external effects and context.
Émile Durkheim: Defined religion as a "unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, which unite into one single moral community called a Church" ( $1912$ ), stressing its collective, social function.
Karl Marx: Viewed religion as a social pacifier, deadening pain and preventing action against oppression.
Sigmund Freud: Likened public ritual to private obsessive-compulsive disorders and myths to dreams, expressing anxieties symbolically.
This approach is favored in human sciences for studying observable, inter-subjective aspects of culture.

Proposed by Ludwig Wittgenstein, it involves classifying things based on shared traits, acknowledging that no two members are exactly alike, but share a "family resemblance."
Definition becomes an act of choice by the classifier, requiring a prototypical definition and judgmental calls when artifacts deviate significantly.
Scholars actively constitute an artifact as "religious" based on how well it matches their prototype.

Contemporary scholars, notably Jonathan Z. Smith, argue that "religion" is an analytic tool and a creation of scholarship, not a universal human affectation or an inherent datum.
Classification is a tactical, provisional activity, driven by deductive scholarly theories and prior social interests.
Definitions are starting points for analysis, not conclusions, providing a framework for disciplined inquiry (Brian K. Smith).