DEFINITION OF RELIGION
Before we discuss the nature of religion, it is necessary to define it.
Because God’s definition of religion is different from the world’s definition. We will first look at the world’s definition.
Clifford Geertz, an anthropologist described it in “Religion as a Cultural System,” in Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion, ed. M. Banton (London: Tavistock, 1966):
| (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 |
This is a technical, academic description of religion that begins to make sense only when we apply it to our own religious experiences. Having done that, we offer the following summary paraphrase of Geertz’s five points:
| Religion is a system of physical, man-made symbols (e.g. Christian Cross, Star of David, clothing, jewelry, buildings, leaders, objects, traditions, ceremonies, festivals, sacraments, etc.)
… to which people form long-lasting, powerful, emotional affections, … that motivate them to organize the symbols into a system of corporate and religious laws, … that will successfully preserve and advance the religion in ways that are very believable because they have an appearance of Godliness. |
We also offer this short, non-technical, somewhat cynical, man-on-the-street definition of all kinds of religion:
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