DEFINITION AND NATURE OF RELIGION

Religion may defined as “an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and

rules used to worship a god or a group of gods” Merriam-Webster Dictionary
2014). The Latin word religio refers to “ something done withoveranxious or
scrupulous attention to detail” (Bowker 1997). This term may have probably
been derived from the latin verb religarewhich means “ to tie together, to bind
fast.”
According to Grassie (2010), the word religion refers to expression of
proper piety, that is, binding to god. Quite later, religion was used to designate
formal belief systems and tenets. The term was eventually applied to what we
now call as religion because of the manner in which people performed rituals
during those days. While religion may be universal in all stages of human
history, it does not follow that all individuals are religious or even religious to
some degree ( Parrinder 1971).

DEFINITION FROM SOME SCHOLARS

Scholars from different disciplines have defined religion in varying ways,

though some similarities and intersections can easily be observed in these
definitions. These definitions resulted from their studies of religions using the
lens or perspectives of their own respective disciplines, which include
sociology, anthropology, philosophy, theology, and religious studies
 Name of Scholar Year View on Religion
Friedrich 1768- The essence of religion consists in the
Schleiermacher 1834 feeling of absolute dependence
James Martineau 1805- Religion is the belief in ... a Divine mind
1900 and will ruling the universe and holding
moral relations with mankind
C. P. Tiele 1830- Religion is . . . that pure and reverential
1902 disposition or frame of mind which we call
piety
F. H. Bradley 1846- Religion is ... the attempt to express the
1924 complete reality of goodness through every
aspect of our being

James Frazier 1854- Religion is . . . a propitiation or

1941 conciliation of powers superior to man
Emile Durkheim 1858- Religion is... a unified system of beliefs and
1917 practices relative to sacred things . . .
which unite into one single
moral community
Rudolf Otto 1869- Religion is that which grows out of, and
1937 gives expression to, experience of the holy
in its various aspects.” 8. Paul Tillich
(1886-1965): “Religion is the state of being
grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern
which qualifies all other concerns as
preliminary and which itself
contains the answer to the question of the
meaning of our life
J. Milton Yinger 1916- Religion is a system of beliefs and practices
2011 by means of which a group of people
struggle with the ultimate
problem of human life
John Hick 1922- Religion constitutes our varied human
2012 response to transcendent reality
Ninian Smart 1927- The six characteristics or dimensions of
2001 religion are: “the ritual, the mythological,
the doctrinal, the ethical, the social, and
the experiential
Peter Berger 1929- Religion is ... the establishment through
human activity of an all-embracing sacred
order, that is, of a sacred cosmos that will
be capable of maintaining itself
in the ever-present face of chaos
James C. Livingston 1930- Religion is that system of activities and
beliefs directed toward that which is
perceived to be sacred in value and
transforming power
Roy A. Clouser 1937- A religious belief is any belief in something
or other as divine. ‘Divine’ means having
the status of not
depending on anything else.
Roland Robertson 1938- Religion pertains to a distinction between
an empirical and a super-empirical,
transcendental reality: the affairs of the
empirical being subordinated in
significance to the nonempirical

KEY ELEMENTS OF RELIGION

A. Religion contains a worldview

➢ A worldview refers to a set of beliefs that is both coherent and
comprehensive. As a coherent set of beliefs forms a belief system,
another way of saying the same is that a worldview refers to a
comprehensive belief system.
➢ First, religion consists of beliefs. Beliefs generally refer to assertions,
claims, or thoughts about things that are held to be true. Beliefs are,
strictly speaking, mental states that advance claims or knowledge about
the world, and are expressible in the form of statements (or
propositions). Examples of religious beliefs are the beliefs that humans
have immortal souls, that there is a God or gods, and that there is
universal justice in the world in which wrongdoings shall be
appropriately punished and good deeds shall be appropriately rewarded,
if not in this world, in the afterlife.
➢ Second, a set of beliefs forms a system when these beliefs are coherent;
and they are coherent when they are consistently interrelated. Being
interrelated, the beliefs in a system influence or affect one another. For
instance, the belief that humans are free and thus are accountable for
their actions is related to the belief that there is universal justice; or the
belief that human life is sacred, as it is a creation of God or animated by
a soul, is related to the ethical principle that it is wrong to destroy a
human life. And being coherent, these beliefs do not contradict one
another. An example of two incoherent beliefs are the belief that there is
universal justice and the belief that there is no life after death. For
without an afterlife, there would be no guarantee that universal justice
will be served in that all wrongdoings will be appropriately punished and
all good deeds will be appropriately rewarded. Being coherently
interrelated, a worldview thus has the function of giving order to our
experiences and the realities in our world.
➢ Lastly, a belief system is comprehensive when it accounts for a wide
range of phenomena (or events in the world) or when it deals with a wide
range of human concerns. Religious belief systems are comprehensive in
this light for they address a wide range of human concerns. For instance,
they address concerns about what makes life
 meaningful, what happens after death, how the world began and how it
would end, how humans ought to deal with one another, why there are
various human races and languages, how humans ought to regard their
natural environment or its nonhuman members, and what is the right
attitude towards wealth, authorities, spouses, money, sex, worries,
knowledge, sufferings, and so many others. A set of beliefs that is not
comprehensive is not a worldview.

B. Spiritual World

➢ Religion believes or assumes that there is a spiritual world or a

transcendent reality in addition to the physical, natural world that we
live in.
➢ By spiritual, we simply mean nonphysical or nonnatural. As such, the
spiritual world refers to what is sometimes also called the transcendental
world or supernatural world (by “transcendental” and “super,” we mean
“outside the physical or natural”).
➢ Being nonphysical, the spiritual world is known or accessed not by
means of scientific methods (generally the methods of sense observation
and quantification), but by other means of knowing such as visions,
revelations, and mystical (or religious) experiences.
➢ Moreover, the acceptance of its reality or truth is not a matter of having
some objective evidence or method of verification; rather, it is a matter of
having faith.
➢ Religion is therefore opposed to materialism (sometimes also called
physicalism or naturalism), which is the belief that reality is just physical
and nothing more, or that the only real world is the world that is known
through the methods of the sciences. Depending on the particular
religions being considered, the spiritual world of religion usually
includes a God, gods, souls, angels, principles (like the law of karma),
and values, among others.
➢ We earlier noted that religion contains a worldview or a comprehensive
belief system. It shall, however, be noticed that it is not only religion
that contains a worldview. Science, some philosophies, and ideologies
(like Marxism) also contain worldviews, for they too hold a set of beliefs
that are coherent and comprehensive. One essential difference, however,
between the religious worldview and these other worldviews is that the
religious worldview includes a spiritual world.

C. Sacredness

➢ Religion regards certain things as sacred. The sacred is contrasted with

the ordinary, secular, or profane. While ordinary things can be used as
mere instruments to satisfy human interests, sacred things are treated
with respect or reverence. Also, the value of the ordinary thing depends on
human interests (it is “mind-dependent”), while the value of a sacred thing
does not (it is “mind-independent”).
 ➢ A sacred thing either has its own (intrinsic or inherent) value or it derives
its value from association with a sacred thing which has value on its own.
In this consideration, we can distinguish between two kinds of
sacredness, which we shall call inherent sacredness and derived
sacredness. Something has inherent sacredness if it has value on its own
(or it is valuable by itself), while something has derived sacredness if its
value is derived from something that has inherent sacredness.
➢ Accordingly, we respect the inherently sacred because it is worth
respecting on its own; and we also respect the derivatively sacred
because we respect the inherently sacred that is associated with it. Our
division of the sacred into the inherent and the derived can be gleaned
from the following remarks by Zinnbauer and Pargament (2005, 34) on
the nature of the sacred in consideration of the views of Durkheim (1915)
and Pargament and Mahoney (2002): “As stated by Durkheim (1915, 52),
by sacred things one must not understand simply those personal beings
which are called Gods or spirits; a rock, a tree, a spring, a pebble, a
piece of wood, a house—in a word, anything can be sacred.
➢ Thus, the designation is not limited to higher powers or imminent
forces, but includes other aspects of life that take on divine character
and meaning through their association with or representation of the
holy.”These remarks indicate that the inherently sacred are usually
spiritual in nature, such as God or gods, souls, principles, and values;
while the derivatively sacred are usually physical in nature, such as
spaces (like the places of worship and the places where important
events or turning points in the development of a religion occurred—
which may be a place in nature like under a certain tree, a certain
river, a certain mountain, and others), symbols, statues, relics, scrolls,
and clothing.

D. Ethical Codes

➢ Religions have ethical or moral codes referring to guidelines concerning

how humans ought to relate to the divine, treat one another, or behave
towards one another, God, gods, and revered teachers. In some cases,
these codes also include rules about what types of food to refrain from
eating generally, what type of clothes to wear on specific occasions, and
others. Some of these ethical codes are revealed by a God to chosen
messengers; while some are realized through a heightened form of
spiritual activity like meditation.

E. Community

➢ Religions have communities. A religious belief system is shared and

practiced by a community of believers (see Durkheim’s and Otto’s
definitions of religion). The community of believers usually involves an
organization consisting of a hierarchy of authorities. Each level in the
 hierarchy has designated rights and duties. How people get to occupy the
higher positions vary in different religions.The ways include revelations,
reincarnations, blood relations, and election by revered members of the
religious community

F. Sacred Writings

➢ Religions have sacred writings, which contain their main teachings or

doctrines, central stories, ethical codes, and prophecies. Sacred writings
are divinely inspired. Their contents are usually revealed by a God or
gods through chosen messengers. In some cases, they are arrived at by
revered teachers as realizations during spiritual activities like
meditation. Sometimes the mere recitation of passages in the sacred
writings can already produce religious effects like blessings, forgiveness,
spiritual calmness, and power to over come sin and fear or to exorcise
evil spirits. Sometimes, too, the mere presence or sight of a sacred book
is enough to produce these religious effects.

G. Central Stories

➢ Religions have central stories. Some scholars refer to these stories as

“myths,” but due to a connotation of the term “myth” as being a story
that is purely imaginary or that is historically untrue, we shall use the
(hopefully) neutral term “story.”The central stories of religions include
accounts of how the world and the human race (or a chosen human race)
began; how God was personified or manifested in the world; how a great
teacher came to a realization of religious truths or received messages and
instructions from God, the gods, or the heavens; how the important
events in the life of a great teacher came about; and how some actions
of faithful followers (like acts of martyrdom) became worthy of
emulation or sources of religious inspiration.

H. Rituals

➢ Religions have rituals which include ceremonies that re-enact sacred

stories, and various activities, such as songs and dances that express
praise or thanksgiving to God, gods, or a revered teacher or prophet.

I. Artistic Expression

➢ Religions engage in various artistic expressions for their beliefs. These

artistic expressions can be in the form of music, dance, architectural
design, sculpture, poetry, drama, and others. Many of the world-
renowned artistic works were religiously inspired.
 UNDERSTANDING BELIEFS AND WORLDVIEWS

Every individual sees and interprets the world quite differently

from one another. This overall perspective is also termed
“worldview” which is a collection of beliefs about life and the
universe being held by people ( The Free Dictionary 2014).

Different kinds of belief systems or worldviews

1.Monism- There is no real distinction between god and the
universe. 2.Polytheism- The belief and worship of many gods.
3.Monotheism-The doctrine or belief in one supreme god.
4.Atheism-Disbelief in or denial of the existence of a
personal god. 5.Agnosticism- God cannot be known.

SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGIOUSNESS

In two large-scale studies examined by Zinnbauer and

Pargament (2005, 28) (see also Saucier and Skrzypiska 2006) about
how people perceive the relationship between spirituality and
religiousness, the respondents classified themselves into three
categories: 1. those who considered themselves as both religious and
spiritual (around 69%); 2. those who considered themselves as
spiritual but not religious (around 21%); and
3. those who considered themselves as religious but not spiritual (4%).
These findings, among others, point to a difference between the
concepts of spirituality and religiousness. Some of the questions that
arise, in this consideration are: Is spirituality opposed to
religiousness? Is it possible to be religious without being spiritual? Is
spirituality not an essential component of religion such that we can
have a religion without spirituality? How do we make sense of the
expressions “spiritual but not religious” and “religious but not
spiritual”? What is the role of spirituality in religion?
Zinnbauer and Pargament (2005) identify two general
perspectives on the relationship between spirituality and religiousness.
Both perspectives assume that religiousness and spirituality are not
identical concepts; but while the first perspective regards the two
concepts as incompatible opposites (or mutually exclusive, that is, they
cannot go hand in hand), the second one does not. For the first
perspective, it is not possible to be religious and spiritual at the same
time. A religious person, in this regard, is not a spiritual person, and a
spiritual person is not a religious person. On the other hand, the
second perspective maintains that it is possible to be religious and
spiritual at the same time. A religious person can be a spiritual person,
and a spiritual person can be a religious person. What makes them
different or not identical is simply that one is a form or version of the
other. That is, either religiousness is a form of spirituality or
spirituality is a form of religiousness.