Anthropology 116
Prof. Varisco
Fall 2000
 
Definitions of Religion
 
 
The following is a list of definitions and comments by various individuals about religion. The purpose of this list is not to choose which is the right definition, but to recognize the variety of ways in which we approach this essentially undefinable subject. As you read each excerpt, apply it first to your own experience with religion and then to "religion" as a universal phenomenon. Try to grasp the motives of the writers.
 
To begin, look at the ways in which "religion" has been used in English over the past several centuries. In the Oxford English Dictionary (1989) "Religion" has been used to mean the following:
 
1. A state of life bound by monastic vows.
2. A particular monastic or religious order or rule.
3. Action or conduct indicating a belief in, reverence for, and desire to please, a divine ruling power; the exercise or practice of rites or observances implying this.
4. A particular system of faith and worship.
5. Recognition on the part of man of some higher unseen power as having control of his destiny, and as being entitled to obedience, reverence, and worship; the general mental and moral attitude resulting from this belief, with reference to its effect upon the individual or the community; personal or general acceptance of this feeling as a standard of spiritual and practical life.
6. Devotion to some principle; strict fidelity or faithfulness; conscientousness; pious affection or attachment."
[Note that these are ways the English word has been used in the past. Some of these usages are archaic. Historically there has not been one "simple" meaning in actual usage.]
 
Durkheim, Emile (1915)
"At the foundation of all systems of beliefs and of cults there ought necessarily to be a certain number of fundamental representations or conceptions and of ritual attitudes which, in spite of the diversity of forms which they have taken, have the same objective significance and fulfill the same functions everywhere. . . Religious representations are collective representations which express collective realities; the rites are a manner of acting which take rise in the midst of the assembled groups and which are destined to excite, maintain or recreate certain mental states in these groups."
Feuerbach, Ludwig (1840)
"Religion, at least the Christian, is the relation of man to himself, or more correctly to his own nature (i.e., his subjective nature); but a relation to it, viewed as a nature apart from his own. The divine being is nothing else than the human being, or, rather the human nature purified, freed from the limits of the individual man. made objective -- i.e., contemplated and revered as another, a distinct being. All the attributes of the divine nature are, therefore, attributes of the human nature."
 
Geertz, Clifford (1966:4)
"(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic."
 
Huxley, Julian
"Religion in the light of science is seen not as a divine revelation, but as a function of human nature. It is a very peculiar and very complicated function of human nature, sometimes noble, sometimes hateful, sometimes intensely valuable, sometimes a bar to individual or social progress. But it is no more and no less a function of human nature than fighting or falling in love, than law or literature."
 
Klass, Morton (1995:38)
"Religion in a given society will be that instituted process of interaction among the members of that society -- and between them and the universe at large as they conceive it to be constituted -- which provides them with meaning, coherence, direction, unity, easement, and whatever degree of control events they perceive as possible."
 
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim (died 1781)
"To acknowledge one God, to seek to form the ideas most worthy of him, to take account of these most worthy ideas in all our actions and thoughts, is the most complete summary of all religion."
 
Malinowski, Bronislaw (1925)
"Religion needs the community as a whole so that its members may worship in common its sacred things and its divinities, and society needs religion for the maintenance of moral law and order."
 
Marx, Karl (1844)
"Man makes religion, religion does not make Man. In other words, religion is the self-consciousness and self-feeling of Man, who has either not found himself or has already lost himself again. But Man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of Man, the state, society. This state, this society, produce religion, a reversed world consciousness, because they are a reversed world. Religion is the general theory of that world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its universal ground for consolation and justication. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence because the human essence has no true reality... It is the opium of the people."
 
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1887)
"After Buddha was dead, his shadow was still shown for centuries in a cave &endash; a tremendous, gruesome shadow. God is dead; but given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown. &endash; And we &endash; we still have to vanquish his shadow, too."
 
Paine, Thomas (1794)
"The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion.
 
Russell, Bertrand (1927)
"Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing -- fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand..."
 
Smith, J. Z. (1978)
"What we study when we study religion is one mode of constructing worlds of meaning, worlds within which men find themselves and in which they choose to dwell. What we study is the passion and drama of man discovering the truth of what it is to be human... Religion is the quest, within the bounds of the human, historical condition, for the power to manipulate and negotiate ones 'situation' so as to have 'space' in which to meaningfully dwell. It is the power to relate ones domain to the plurality of environmental and social spheres in such a way as to guarantee the conviction that one's existence 'matters.'"
 
Spiro, Melford E. (1966)
"This brief explication of our definition of 'religion' indicates that, viewed systematically, religion can be differentiated from other culturally constituted institutions by virtue only of its reference to superhuman beings. By providing a culturally approved means for the resolution of inner conflict (between personal desires and cultural norms), religion (a) reduces the probability of psychotic distortion of desires, thereby providing a society with psychologically healthy members, (b) protects society from the socially disruptive consequences of direct gratification of these forbidden desires, (c) promotes social integration by providing a common goal (superhuman beings) and a common means (ritual) by which the desires may be gratified."
 
Tylor, Edward (1871)
"The first requisite in a systematic study of the religions of the lower races, is to lay down a rudimentary definition of religion. By requiring in this definition the belief in a supreme deity or of judgment after death, the adoration of idols or the practice of sacrifice, or other partially-diffused doctrines or rites, no doubt many tribes may be excluded from the category of religions. But such narrow definition has the fault of identifying religion rather with particular developments than with the deeper motive which underlies them. It seems best to fall back at once on this essential source, and simply to claim, as a minimum definition of Religion, the belief in Spiritual Beings."
 
Voltaire (1764)
"After our holy religion, which is undoubtedly the only good one, which would be the least bad? Would it not be the simplest? Would it not be that which taught much morality and very little dogma? that which tended to make men just without making them absurd? that which did not order one to believe things that are impossible, contradictory, injurious to divinity, and pernicious to mankind, and which dared not menace with eternal punishment anyone possessing common sense? Would it not be that which did not uphold its belief with executioners, and did not inundate the earth with blood on account on unintelligible sophisms? ..."
 
Wallace, Anthony (1966:52)
"It is the premise of every religion -- and this premise is religion's defining characteristic -- that souls, supernatural beings, and supernatural forces exist. Furthermore, there are certain minimal categories of behavior which, in the context of the supernatural premise, are always found in association with one another and which are the substance of religion itself. Although almost any behavior can be invested with a religious meaning, there seems to be a finite number -- about thirteen -- behavior categories most of which are, in any religious system, combined into a pattern that is conventionally assigned the title 'religion'."
1. prayer: addressing the supernatural; 2. music: dancing, singing, and playing instruments; 3. physiological exercise: the physical manipulation of psychological state; 4. exhortation: addressing another human being; 5. reciting the code: mythology, morality, and other aspects of the belief system; 6. simulation: imitating things; 7. mana: touching things; 8. taboo: not touching things; 9. feasts: eating and drinking; 10. sacrifice: immolation, offerings, and fees; 11. congregation: processions, meetings, and convocations; 12. inspiration; 13. symbolism: manufacture and use of symbolic objects.
 
Whitehead, Alfred North (1926)
"Religion, so far as it receives external expression in human history, exhibits four factors or sides of itself. These factors are ritual, emotion, belief, rationalization. There is definite organized procedure, which is ritual: there are definite types of emotional expression: and there are definitely expressed beliefs: and there is the adjustment of these beliefs into a system, internally coherent and coherent with other beliefs." (Religion in the Making )
 
Whitman, Walt
"I am the credulous man of qualities, ages, races;
I advance from the people in their own spirit;
Here is what sings unrestricted faith.
 
I, too, following many, and follow'd by many, inaugurate a
Religion -- I descend into the arena.
 
Each is not for its sake,
I say the whole earth, and all the stars in the sky,
are for Religion's sake.
 
I say no man has ever yet been half devout enough;
None has ever yet adored or worship'd half enough;
None has begun to think how divine he himself is,
and how certain the future is.
 
O strain, musical, flowing through the ages -- now reaching hither!
I take to your reckless and composite chords -- I add to them,
and cheerfully pass them forward."