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i. T
HE
D
IVERSITYOF
R
ELIGIONSANDTHE
P
ROBLEMSOF
D
EFINITION
i.i. Elements of the Definitionof Religion
There is no one definitive definitionof religion that is generally accepted byscholars. Among the many definitionsthat have been advanced there are, how-ever, a number of elements that are fre-quently invoked. These elements appearin various combinations. They include:(a) Beliefs, practices, relationshipsand institutions relative to:1) supernatural forces, beings,or goals;2) higher unseen power or powers;3) man’s ultimate concern;4) sacred things (things set apartand forbidden);5) an object of spiritual devotion;6) an agency that controls man’sdestiny;
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APPENDIX TWO
Scientology
s
 An Analysisand Comparison of its Religious Systemsand Doctrines
Bryan R. Wilson, Ph.D.
Emeritus FellowOxford UniversityEngland
 
7)the ground of being;8) a source of transcendentknowledge and wisdom;(b) Practices which constituteobedience, reverence or worship;(c) The collective or group characterof religious life.
Although causes are rarely includedin definitions of religion, “an experien-tial encounter with the spiritual” issometimes indicated. The consequencesand functions of religion are indicatedas:
(a) maintenance of a moralcommunity;(b) the conferment of group and/orindividual identity;(c) a framework of orientation;(d) a humanly constructed universeof meaning;(e) reassurance and comfortrespecting prospects of help andsalvation.Religion is always normative, butsince each religion differs from others,modern specialists in the sociology of religion and comparative religion seek todiscuss the normative without them-selves becoming committed to it.Such is the diversity of patterns of belief, ritual, and organization, however,that any definition of religion is strainedin attempting to encompass all the man-ifestations of religion that are known.
i.ii. The Original Use of the Concept
The concept “religion” was formerlyoften identified with actual concretemanifestations of beliefs and practicesin Western society. Apart fromChristians, Jews and Muslims, it wasgenerally held that other peoples hadno religion in the proper sense. Theywere “heathens”. Theologians who usedthe term “religion” tended to mean byit Christianity, and in England refer-ence to “Christianity” was often takento mean that faith as purveyed specifi-cally by the Church of England. Thatrestricted usage has steadily receded asmore has become known of orientalbelief-systems, and as the study of religion has transcended the narrownormative prescriptive restraints of traditional Christian theology. Religionhas become an object of study foracademic disciplines—in particularthe social sciences—which approachthat subject objectively and neutrallyand without any implication of adher-ence to any one particular religion, or apreference for one above another.
i.iii. Cultural Bias andthe Definition of Religion
The development of a thorough-going neutrality in the study of religionwas achieved only slowly, however.Some contemporary studies in compar-ative religion still manifest evident bias.Even in the social sciences, explicitlycommitted to value-free enquiry, cer-tain prejudices are apparent in workdone in the inter-war years. In particu-lar, it was often gratuitously assumedthat there had occurred a process of religious evolution analogous to that of biological evolution and that the
Churchof Scientology
112
 
religion of the most advanced nationswas necessarily “higher” than that of other peoples. For some (conspicuous-ly Sir James Frazer) it was believed thatreligion was an evolutionary step onthe road from magic to science.
i.iv. Contemporary Usage
Today social scientists and increas-ingly theologians employ the conceptas a neutral expression, no longerimplying any
a priori
assumptions aboutthe greater truth of one religion overanother. It is not now assumed thatbelief in one deity is necessarily a high-er form of religion than belief in sever-al deities or in none. It is recognizedthat a religion may postulate ananthropomorphic god, some otherform of deity, a supreme being, a plu-rality of spirits or ancestors, a universalprinciple or law, or some other expres-sion of ultimate belief. Some Christiantheologians such as Bultmann, Tillich,van Buren and Robinson have aban-doned traditional depictions of deity,and prefer to refer to “the ground of being” or “ultimate concern”.
i.v. Extension of the Concept
As anthropologists came to main-tain that there was no clear instance of a society that lacked all forms of super-natural beliefs and institutions thatsupported such beliefs, so they con-cluded that, in the wider sense of theterm, there was no society without reli-gion. The concept “religion” came toconnote phenomena that had familyresemblance rather than shared identi-ty, and religion ceased to be defined interms specific to one particulartradition. The concrete items thatpertained to Christianity, and whichhad been regarded as essential to thedefinition of religion, were now seen tobe merely examples of what a defini-tion might include. The specificationof such concrete elements was super-seded by more abstract formulationswhich embraced a variety of types of beliefs, practices and institutionswhich, although far from intrinsicallyidentical, could be regarded as func-tional equivalents. Every society wasperceived to have beliefs that,although diverse, transcended knownempirical reality and had practicesdesigned to bring men into contact orrapport with the supernatural. In mostsocieties, there were people whoundertook the special functions associ-ated with respect to this goal.Together, these elements came to berecognized as constituting religion.
i.vi. Religious Diversityin Simple Societies
In relatively small, tribal societiesthere are often rites and myths of con-siderable complexity which do notusually constitute one consistent,internally integrated and coherent sys-tem. Religion undergoes change, andaccretion occurs in both myth and rit-ual as a society experiences contactwith neighbouring or invading peo-ples. Different rites and beliefs may beattached to different situations (e.g.,to induce rain, to ensure fertility incrops, animals and women; to provideprotection; to cement alliances; to ini-tiate age-groups or individuals, etc.).All such activities are directed to-wards supernatural agencies (howeverdefined) and they are recognized byscholars as religious.
Appendix Two
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