Toward a Definition of Religion The Sacred Quest

Toward a Definition of Religion The Sacred Quest

• Identify and discuss several of the most important issues in defining religion.

Elements of Religion

Substance or Function • Function – Elements are identified with the roles religion plays in peoples lives – Feelings: Religion enables hope and offers comfort – Social: Glue that binds us together. . Creates a community – Action: Religion informs behavior through rules, guidelines • Substance – The elements are connected to religious ideas – Belief includes the supernatural – Ritual is directed towards the supernatural

What is something that is obviously religious

Why is it religious? • Notion of sacred reality A boundary between religion and non-religion • Made manifest in human experience It may be experienced, thought about or acted on i. e. rituals, persons, nature • In such a way as to produce long lasting ways of thinking, feeling and acting Impact on human culture …. Religious ways develop over time • With respect to problems of ordering and understanding existence. Functional part of the definition. This is what it does for us.

Vocabulary • • • Shamans Morality Functional Substantive Religion

The Nature of the Sacred The Sacred Quest

How do we recognize Sacred Reality • Whenever a group designates a particular thing as a manifestation of the real in terms that indicate • 1) distinctive, “set apart” from other things • 2) beyond the control of humans • 3) prominent with respect to human welfare • 4) properly determinative of human existence The most basic quality. The independence of the Sacred All plans are ultimately the province of sacred reality We ought to order our lives in ways that are consistent with our sacred reality

Vocabulary • • Transcendence Immanence Sacrifice Sacred