Title: Understanding Religion
Course: REL 201 RTZ > Section: Week 1 - Introductions, Introductions to the Course and Introductions to Religion

What does the word religion mean?  In common terms most people think of religion as a tradition that is organized, has a religious text, believes in a deity or deities and have commandments.  Take a moment and jot down some ideas that you have to define the word religion.

If you were to compare your ideas to twenty-five other people there would easily be over a hundred ideas.  Now take a moment to look up the word religion in a dictionary.  Does that definition match what you listed?  Maybe, it is similar or very different from your ideas.  Take a moment and text a friend to see what they think the best definition is for the word religion.  Is his answer the same as yours?

Are you any closer to understanding what the word religion means, probably not yet.  If there are so many definition and ideas in the world for the basic word religion, how, can we study religion in a college course?  Take a moment and think back thirty years ago.  If you were taking a course in religion thirty years ago you would have studied the three major religions of the Western world, the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  Also, you would have been exposed to Buddhism and Hinduism.

Jump ahead ten years and if you were taking a world religions class you would have studied the Abrahamic traditions along with Buddhism, Hinduism and toss in Jainism.  Now we have three major traditions from the West and three major traditions from the East.  How do they compare?  The most obvious difference is that the western traditions are monotheistic and the eastern traditions are polytheistic.  What do they have in common?  A belief in God? Maybe religious texts?  Or, do they all have commandments?  No, is the resonating answer to these questions.  There is not a common point of reference to get a clear idea as to what the word religion means yet.

We are getting closer to a definition but it is not encompassing enough to allow us to find all religious traditions in the world.  How would we classify Zen Buddhists?  They do not have a higher deity.  Therefore, Zen Buddhists would be eliminated as a religion. However, Zen Buddhists are one of the fastest growing religions in America today, especially in the southwest.    Many Native American and Indigenous tradition do not have religious texts.  Does that make those belief systems any less of a religion then traditions that have a sacred scripture?  Japanese Shinto does not have any commandments.  Shinto does have scriptures and deities.

It seems to be getting more convoluted as we talk about the definition of the word religion.  Let us look at the word from its core roots.  Religion comes from the Latin word Religio.  Re-ligio:  re means again and ligio means to connect or to join.  Religio, therefore, means to again connect or again join. More specifically religio means to reconnect or rejoin.  What is one reconnecting to a deity, scripture, commandments, etc.?

We are still no closer to understanding what the word religion means then when we started this course.  Once again, I could send you to your textbook, websites, or religious books for you to review the concept of the word religion and you would still be moving further and further away from having a clear-cut answer to what the word religion means.

I am going to take the liberty to share with you my methodology of how to understand religion and how to classify groups of people into being a religion.  However, this methodology must be used with great awareness and prejudice so as not to misuse its intent.

As I moved through my academic career of studying religion, I found that it was imperative that I understand the concept of the word religion before I could understand the traditions that I was studying.  Some of the things that I kept in mind are that religion is a western world word and concept that is not clearly defined for all cultures.  In addition, there is not short and easy definition.  I wanted to see what the common themes amongst traditions and what patterns could be found.  Over the years this had lead me to find a methodology to defining religion and what constitute a religions group in the study of academia.  These I call the Nine Key Characteristics of Religion.

Nine Key Characteristics of Religion

The first criteria is belief system.  A belief system is a group’s worldview.  This worldview describes how the world came into existence.  The world may have always existed, or was created by a God(s) or nature.  The worldview also details how the world operates.  This can be the role of humans, the relationship between humans, humans and animals, humans and nature or humans and God(s).

After there is acceptance of a belief system you will start to see people coming together. A religions is only as successful as its membership.  The second criteria is community. A community must accept the set of belief systems and share in this common belief system.  How often do you hear of a religious organization that has one member?  I have not come across any organized religion that has one member.  We are more inclined to categorize these people with being spiritual and not belonging to a religion.

Myths is the third criteria to understanding religion.  Contrary to popular usage of the word myths can be document events that have occurred.  Therefore, myths can either be real or fictional.  If a myth is fictional that does not mean that it did not occur.  What it means when a myth is fictional we are saying that there is no documented evidence of this even occurring.  This status can change over time as we learn more and have more scientific and/or archeological discoveries.  Myths are used to express the central beliefs of a community.

The way that communities often express their myths are through rituals, the fourth criteria.  Rituals are typically reenactments of the belief system.  Rituals can be performed by religious leaders or lay members of the community.   Rituals can be steeped in rich and elaborate performances or can be as small as walking into a temple or church and offering a prayer.

Material expression is the fifth criteria.  How a community comes together and use their physical elements determines if it is sacred or mundane.  For example, a wandering church may rent a high school gymnasium to hold their weekly service.  Any day of the week a person can walk into that gymnasium and that gymnasiums is a symbol of exercise and associated with smelly sweating children. However, the moment that the community arrives and commandeers that space for the religious ceremony, a ritual, will transform the gymnasium from a mundane physical space to s sacred space used to re-enact their religious beliefs and create a stronger community.  Talk to any of these community members after their ritual and they will describe their time in that gymnasium as sacred and personable.  Ask them what their experience in that same gymnasium after a basketball and they will describe the emotions of happiness, sadness, exhilaration, and/or disappointment of the game which holds no sacred feelings.

The sixth criteria are symbols.  Symbols can be physical objects or personal actions.  Symbols become physical reminders of one’s belief system. These symbols can be used as reminders to their beliefs, their myths or used to be used in a personal or public ritual.

Religious practitioners rarely describe their religious experiences as boring and dull.  Practitioners often have a difficult time describing their religious experiences. When they do it with very vivid descriptors, such as awe, overbearing sense of joy, happiness, peace, pain or fear.   These experiences can either be private and personal or public and shared with other community members. At times groups of people will describe a similar experience with the same language and terminology independently.  Emotional Expression, the seventh criteria, creates a connection or bond between the human and the esoteric.  This experience fosters the belief system and brings one closer to the community.

Ethics, the eight criteria, are a common theme amongst religious communities.  Unlike commandments, which are rules provided by a deity(ies) ethics are manmade rules about human behaviors.  All religions have a variation of the Golden Rule: Do unto others what you want done to you. Other ethics are how men, women, children, animals, nature and God(s) relate to one and another.  Ethics are enforces by religious leaders and lay members alike. Ethic often are social rules that create a harmonious community, provide healthy lifestyles or safely guidelines.

Sacredness distinguishes between what is sacred and what is ordinary. Sacred, the ninth criteria, gives relevance, credence and honor to tangible items.  Scripture can be viewed as sacred by a community and holds high value and respect within the community. Whereas, a Huck Finn is considered a book to be read usually by youth.  Both are objects made of paper and ink.  Both contain words.  Both items are books found in libraries and homes.  However, one is considered to sacred and other is a book cast often cast aside after being read through once.

1. Belief System: A belief system is a group’s worldview.  How was the world created, who created the world, how does the world operate, etc.
2. Community: A community is established that shares a common set of belief systems.
3. Central Myths: Myths can be either real or fictional.  Central myths are stories that express the belief systems.
4. Rituals: Reenactment of the belief system is rituals.
5. Material Expression: How a community uses their physical elements determines if it is sacred or mundane.
6. Symbols: Physical objects or personal actions that are physical reminders of one’s belief systems or to be used in personal or public rituals.
7. Emotional experiences: Closeness to the intangible establishes a connection between humans and esoteric.
8. Ethics: Commandments are rules provided by a deity.  Ethics are manmade rules about human behavior.
9. Sacredness: Distinguishing between the sacred and the ordinary gives relevance, credence and honor to tangible items.

Let us put this methodology into play by comparing two groups:  Jainism and this course!

Criteria | Jainism | Asian Religions Class
Belief System | The world has always existed and will always exist | I need to get a degree to have a  better job and earn more money
Community | Order of Jain monks, nuns and lay members | Students, faculty and staff
Central Myths | We will be reincarnated until we are enlightened | I need to pass all my classes to earn a degree
Rituals | Praying and meditating to seek enlightenment | Attending class, doing homework and taking tests
Material Expression | The recycling of Buddhist and Hindu temples as their own | The diploma is the coveted goal of higher education
Emotional experience | Awareness of a higher power then oneself | I got an A!
Symbols | Om symbol. Jains use the Om symbols to represent the five lines of the Navakar mantra. | I need a backpack, notebooks, writing utensils and textbooks to be a student.
Ethics | Must follow the guidelines of the Ahimsa to attain enlightenment | Must not cheat on tests or plagiarize work
Sacredness | Honoring individuals as Saints or gurus | When you graduate you receive a blank diploma which is ordinary, however, when you receive your official diploma it is upheld as sacred

After reviewing the nine key characteristics methodology, you can see how easy it is to classify anything as a religion.  Once again I stress that you must use common sense when working with this definition and make sure that it is actually fits the tradition being observed to see if it really should be classified as a religion.  We will be using the nine key characteristics in this course as a basis for the traditions we will study.