Folk religion
Folk religion, also known as popular religion or traditional religion, includes various forms of belief and practices that are different from the official teachings of organized religions. It's the religious side of everyday culture, with customs specific to certain regions or ethnic groups, falling outside the official doctrines.[1]
The term "folk religion" covers two main areas. First, it involves the religious aspects of everyday culture or how religion is expressed in folk traditions. Second, it explores the blending of different cultures, like the mix of African folk beliefs and Roman Catholicism that gave rise to Vodun and Santería. In China, folk Protestantism emerged during the Taiping Rebellion.[2] Examples of folk religion connected to major faiths include Chinese folk religion, folk Christianity, folk Hinduism, and folk Islam. People who don't regularly attend religious events, aren't part of a church, and haven't formally declared a specific belief may still want religious ceremonies like weddings or funerals, leading to the use of the term by clergy to describe such practices.[3]
References
change- ↑ Sutcliffe, Steven (2004). Religion: Empirical Studies. Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-4158-2.
- ↑ Dunn, Emily (2015). Lightning from the East: heterodoxy and Christianity in contemporary China. Religion in Chinese Societies. Leiden Boston: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-29724-1.
- ↑ Sutcliffe, Steven; British Association for the Study of Religions, eds. (2004). Religion: empirical studies ; a collection to mark the 50th anniversary of the British Association for the Study of Religions. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-4158-2.