RELS 203 Asian Religions: Defining Religion

Defining Religion in Academia

  • Technical vs. Folk Definition
    • Folk: Theological, normative/prescriptive, pertains to specific faith community.
    • Technical: Anthropological, descriptive, non-evaluative, cross-cultural, empirically detectable.
  • Dilemma of Approaches
    • Essentialists: Passive recognition of values (e.g., Otto's "mysteriumremendumetfascinansmysterium remendum et fascinans", Tillich's "ultimate concern", Eliade's "the sacred"). Theistic, focuses on belief/experience.
    • Functionalists: Active concoction of values (e.g., Marx's "economic oppression", Freud's psychological "obsessive neurosis"). Atheist, reductionistic.

Utilitarian Approach to Definition

  • Distinguishes moral/normative judgments from utilitarian judgments (usefulness for context).
  • Purpose: Useful within a public institution with a diverse constituency.
  • Must be non-evaluative, empirically detectable, and cross-culturally present.

Anthropological Definition (Melford E. Spiro, 19661966)

  • "An institution consisting of culturally patterned interaction with culturally postulated superhuman beings."
  • Focuses on human cultural activities and institutions.
  • Key differentiator: reference to superhuman beings.
  • Superhuman beings: can do what ordinary mortals cannot, known for miraculous deeds/powers, benevolent or malevolent, related to myths/rituals.
  • Excludes concepts like Nazism, Marxism, secularism, nationalism from this definition.

Usefulness of an Anthropocentric Definition

  • Does not prioritize inner belief over observable behavior.
  • Defines sacredness as a result of observable human actions.
  • Emphasizes culturally postulated systems of human practice.
  • Anthropologically-based, not theologically-based.
  • "Brackets" extremes of essentialism and reductionistic functionalism.

Methodological Agnosticism

  • Position of not taking a positive or negative stance on nonhuman entities, supernatural beings, or secrets of the universe.
  • A "wait-and-see" attitude regarding God's existence; not to be confused with atheism.
  • Theoretically Sound Because: avoids prioritizing religious positions, avoids theism/atheism debate, sticks to description/comparison, limited to scholarly tools (not personal viewpoints).

"World Religions" Concept

  • Origin: First coined in 18271827 by a German scholar, elaborated by Cornelius Tiele in 18761876.
  • Initially a sublimation of "universal" vs. "ethnic/national," then "ours" vs. "theirs."
  • Initially three "Universalistic" religions: Christianity, Buddhism, Islam.
  • Expanded to seven: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Chinese Religions, Japanese Religions.
  • Problems: Assumes historical divisions are the same, ignores variations within traditions, leaves geographical gaps, classification is often political, prioritizes Western historical importance.
  • Solutions: Discuss religions as complex, specific to places/contexts; use re-conceived categories like "generalization," "beginnings," "culture."