What is Religion: Definition & Classification

“I believe religion is an occidental concept, which uses Christianity as the norm, to compare other practices of the world. Other practitioners of these groups may not even consider what they are doing to be a “religion”. For the west, I believe religion means, for most, an organized set of beliefs, customs, and rituals, which set apart the sacred, from the profane.”

Europeans in India, defining religion, for a culture which never believed they were practicing a religion.

The above quote, is what I deemed the definition of religion after taking some religious studies courses at The University of Alabama (Roll Tide!). The French Historian, Daniel Dubuisson, has a similar mindset, as mine, when it comes to defining religion. He goes further wanting to do away with the term “religion”, in scholarly work, except to speak about how the term shouldn’t be used. Dubuisson states, “what the West and the history of religions in its wake have objectified under the name ‘religion’ is … something quite unique, which could be appropriate only to itself and its own history^.”1

When Europeans began exploration of uncharted lands, and exploitation of known nations, e.g. India, common Occidental parlance was incorporated to define different, oftentimes disparate, cultural displays. This allowed European colonialist to pigeonhole different social groups into separate categories. (Usually only 2 categories. Good/Bad. European/Non-European. Normative/Mystical. Us/Them.). Hinduism, which is a religion to us, was dharma to the pre-colonial Indians. Indians (which is another term “given” to a group of people, by the west, in regards to people who lived around and past the Indus river to the east), whether Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, or other, did not believe they were “doing” “religion”. Many were simply doing what they believed to be their social duty, their obedience, or simply just living their life, which to them was very normal. South Asia was not alone in these conquests, or views of not being “religious”. It was true, of everywhere European conquerors set their feet, i.e., the entire globe. (Well minus Antarctica). This is the reason why I formulated this definition.

In quoting Sura 5:3, from the Quran, Craig Martin writes, “I [Allah] have perfected religion for you.” [Martin 5]. Martin explains to us that there was no word in Arabic, the language of the Quran, which we can translate as religion. The word “religion”, in the above quote, is taken from the Arabic word, “din”, which Martin states is “custom”, or “law”. (I have also heard “din” to have a deeper meaning for Muslims, to mean they must fully comply, and submit to Allah’s divine law). This is a far cry from what the common meaning of “religion” is for our Christianized, Western, culture. Our culture’s meaning of religion, usually brings to mind a communal church meeting, with people wearing their “Sunday’s best”. Or maybe a more personal image of kneeling in prayer, with folded hands, beneath a Bible. Either way, outside of Europe, the pre-colonial world viewed religion in such different ways, that it becomes, in my opinion, disingenuous to lump them all together into this category.

Belief in a higher power is a concept which is foreign to many cultures as well. As Steven Ramey points out, “followers of Advaita Vedanta, one of several philosophical conceptions, commonly related to Hinduism, emphasize the unity of the individual with the cosmos or universal spirit.” [Ramey 31]. Belief in God(s) is just one, of a myriad, of western concepts, which we, as a society, use to define what a religion, or at least what a “true”, or “non-savage” religion, is. We also use the western ideas of a soul, afterlife, religious meeting establishment, etc., as ways to establish what constitutes a religion. In other words, “how akin to Christianity is that group over there?” This is an approach which marginalizes over half of the world!

In Religion, Religions, Religious Jonathan Z. Smith, in speaking about 19th century anthropologists states, “The ‘high religions,’ which could be designated ‘spiritual,’ required a different technique for their division, one that recognized history.” [Smith 277]. This Western mindset, from these 19th century men, was that the more “other” any groups activity was, the less civilized it was. Some were at least deemed higher up the religious evolutionary scale than others. Many practices which used verbal communication to pass down stories, hymns, and the like, were often deemed inferior, because they simply didn’t write them down. As a 19th century British colonialist may have said; “This is utter bollocks!” The indigenous people of N.A., African nations, Totemism in Australia, and many other practitioners of numerous practices, all passed down religion without writing them down. All of them also have very complex, structured belief systems, which have changed and adapted overtime, much like Christianity has.

In view of all of the new information I have learned in my time at ‘The Capstone’, I know that my definition of religion is lacking. I do believe it is closer to where I would like it to be, than it was at this time last year. I can only use the various representations I know, from various scholars, and sources to formulate my definition for religion. Here goes: Religion is a concept from the Western World, which we use to describe actions of people, and groups of people, in how, why, where and what they do within their culture, and society, in a way which is non sui-generis from other aspects of a culture.

I will say that my feeling now is that religion’s definition is extremely fluid in it’s history, and that as history is a living fluid entity itself, with the advent of new ideas, new discoveries, and new viewpoints, “what is religion” to us will remain in flux.

Future generations learning more about different cultures, and how we aren’t so different.

• 1. Daniel Dubuisson. The Western Construction of Religion. 1998. William Sayers (trans.) Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. p. 90.