{"id":25,"date":"2021-01-27T17:16:21","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T17:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understandingreligion\/part\/main-body\/"},"modified":"2024-08-20T21:04:34","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T21:04:34","slug":"main-body","status":"publish","type":"part","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understandingreligion\/part\/main-body\/","title":{"rendered":"Part 1: About Religion"},"content":{"raw":"\"candle<\/a>\r\n\r\n \r\n

Religion describes the beliefs, values, and practices related to sacred or spiritual concerns.<\/h2>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n
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DEFINITION<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<\/header>\r\n
\r\n\r\nThe Latin origins of the word \"religion\"--<\/strong>In Latin\u00a0religi\u014d<\/strong>\u00a0originally meant \u2018obligation, bond\u2019. It was probably derived from the verb relig\u0101re \u2018tie back, \u00a0tie tight\u2019 (source of the English word rely), a compound formed from the prefix re- \u2018back\u2019 and lig\u0101re \u2018tie\u2019 (source of the English words liable, ligament, etc). It developed the specialized sense \u2018bond between human beings and the gods\u2019, and from the 5th century it came to be used for \u2018monastic life\u2019 - the sense in which English originally acquired it via Old French religion. \u2018Religious practices\u2019 emerged from this, but the word's standard modern meaning did not develop until as recently as the 16th century.\r\n\r\nIn J. Ayto,\u00a0Word origins<\/i>\u00a0(2nd ed.). London, UK: A&C Black.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\nMore Definitions<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_810\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"150\"]\"<\/a> \u00c9mile Durkheim[\/caption]\r\n\r\nSocial theorist \u00c9mile Durkheim<\/strong> defined religion as a \u201cunified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things.\"\u00a0 To him, sacred meant extraordinary\u2014something that inspired wonder and that seemed connected to the concept of \u201cthe divine.\u201d Durkheim argued that \u201creligion happens\u201d in society when there is a separation between the profane (ordinary life) and the sacred. A rock, for example, isn\u2019t sacred or profane as it exists. But if someone makes it into a headstone, or another person uses it for landscaping, it takes on different meanings\u2014one sacred, one profane (secular).\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_811\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"150\"]\"Max<\/a> Max Weber, 1918[\/caption]\r\n\r\nMax Weber<\/strong> believed religion could be a force for social change. He examined the effects of religion on economic activities and noticed that heavily Protestant societies\u2014such as those in the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and Germany\u2014were the most highly developed capitalist societies and that their most successful business leaders were Protestant. In his writing\u00a0The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism<\/em>, he contends that the Protestant work ethic influenced the development of capitalism. Weber noted that certain kinds of Protestantism supported the pursuit of material gain by motivating believers to work hard, be successful, and not spend their profits on frivolous things. (The modern use of \u201cwork ethic\u201d comes directly from Weber\u2019s Protestant ethic, although it has now lost its religious connotations.)\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_812\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"150\"]\"<\/a> Karl Marx (1818-1883)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nKarl Marx<\/strong> viewed religion as a tool used by capitalist societies to perpetuate inequality. He believed religion reflects the social stratification of society and that it maintains inequality and perpetuates the status quo. For him, religion was just an extension of working-class (proletariat) economic suffering. He famously argued that religion \u201cis the opium of the people\u201d .\r\n\r\n \r\n
These definitions come from a singularly masculine approach to the study of religions in our world, and some very different approaches will come from female scholars, leaders, and writers.<\/strong><\/div>\r\n \r\n\r\n It may be useful to read this article about the place of women in religion--<\/span>Women's Studies in Religion<\/a>. Much of the field of religious studies was considered a male field of study, and yet women have been key parts of religions across the globe for all of human history.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_806\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]\"English:<\/a> This is the photo used by those creating events with the 1000 Women in Religion Project 1 November 2018 Parliament of the World's Religions[\/caption]\r\n\r\nTo quote the article<\/strong>,<\/span>\r\n
\"Although most religions are male-dominated in terms of power structures, female adherents are the majority participants in many religions, and a small number of religious movements and sects\u2014such as Afro-Brazilian healing cults, Japanese <\/span>Ry\u016bky\u016b<\/i>\u00a0 religion, Christian Science, and Black Carib religion\u2014can be described as women's religions to the extent that the leaders and most of the adherents are female (see Sered, 1994).<\/span>\r\n\r\nWomen's sacral power is honored cross-culturally through specialist roles as ascetics, diviners, healers, mystics, prophets, shamans, and witches. Frequently women are leading organizers and participants in purification, fertility, birth, and funerary rites and carry the burden of preserving oral traditions. Within many religions women prepare ritual food and observe low-profile and often private rites within the household (e.g., praying, fasting, chanting) as a means of protecting their families and their livelihoods from harm.\r\n\r\nAlthough leadership positions are more associated with male religious roles, women share with men authority and leadership positions in many religions,<\/span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_808\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\"]\"Swearing-in<\/a> Swearing-in ceremony of the first ever Gw\u00e8t\u00f2De held 2\/25\/2017 at National Black Theatre in Harlem NYC. Gw\u00e8t\u00f2De's are the clergy of Haitian Vodou, representing the interests of Haitian vodouyizan in a specific geographic region. The Haitian Constitution of 1987 gave Vodouyizan the same rights as practitioners of other faiths.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nwhether as bishops, priests, and preachers in certain Christian denominations, as priestesses in traditional African religion and Haitian Vodou, as Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist Jewish rabbis, as Buddhist teachers, and in the rare but not unheard of cases of Hindu gur\u016bs and Daoist priests.<\/span>\r\n\r\nSome religions offer females certain roles and communities that allow them to be independent from the conventional domestic arrangements of marriage and childbearing, as in women's religious orders in Buddhism and Christianity.\r\n\r\nStories of powerful female heroes, teachers, and saints are preserved in many traditions. Women have been active as founders of new religious movements, including Mother\u00a0Ann Lee<\/span>, the eighteenth-century founder of the Shakers in\u00a0<\/span>North<\/span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_807\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"256\"]\"<\/a> Depiction of Nakayama Kokan in Osaka doing missionary work.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAmerica<\/span>, <\/span>and Nakayama Miki, the nineteenth-century founder of Japanese Tenriky\u014d. In the late twentieth century women-dominated goddess-based feminist spiritualties became popular. Amid this colorful diversity it is clear that the reasons women become involved with and remain in religions are many and complex and are subject to the influence of various social, political, and economic factors that inform women's needs and desires.\"<\/span><\/blockquote>\r\n \r\n\r\nAccording to the <\/span>MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religions<\/strong>, there is an experiential aspect to religion which can be found in almost every culture:<\/span>\r\n\r\n \r\n
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[\u2026] almost every known culture [has] a depth dimension in cultural experiences [\u2026] toward some sort of ultimacy and transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life. When more or less distinct patterns of behavior are built around this depth dimension in a culture, this structure constitutes religion in its historically recognizable form. Religion is the organization of life around the depth dimensions of experience\u2014varied in form, completeness, and clarity in accordance with the environing culture.<\/strong><\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n\r\nReligion is a social institution<\/strong>, because it includes beliefs and practices that serve the needs of society. Religion is also an example of a cultural universal<\/strong>, because it is found in all societies in one form or another.\u00a0 While some people think of religion as something individual because religious beliefs can be highly personal, religion is also a social institution. Social scientists recognize that religion exists as an organized and integrated set of beliefs, behaviors, and norms centered on basic social needs and values. Moreover, religion is a cultural universal found in all social groups. For instance, in every culture, funeral rites are practiced in some way, although these customs vary between cultures and within religious affiliations. Despite differences, there are common elements in a ceremony marking a person\u2019s death, such as announcement of the death, care of the deceased, disposition, and ceremony or ritual.\r\n