MODULE 1

Introducing Religion
 TOPIC OVERVIEW

MYSTERIES OF THE WORLD AND

HUMAN EXISTENCE
Why are we here?
Why do bad things happen to good people?
What is our purpose in life?
What happens after we die?

Speculation on this thoughts constitute

religion, religious experience and spirituality
Please watch M1.Video 1
“The Big Story: Origins of Religion”
in https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=V9mFNgu6Cww.
 OBJECTIVES

At the end of the lessons, the students are expected to:

1. Describe the approaches to this course.
2. Define religion in various ways.
3. Relate the study of religion to other disciplines.
4. Compare and contrast the terms and theories about religion.
5. Reflect on the importance of religion to one’s life.
 READINGS
M1. Reading 1. Russell Kirkland (1976), “Defining Religion,” in http://
faculty.stage.franklin.uga.edu/sites/faculty.franklin.uga.edu.kirkland/files/R
ELDEFINE.pdf
M1. Reading 2. “World Religions,” in https://courses.lumenlearning.
com/sociology/chapter/wor ld-religions/.
M1. Reading 3. Mohammad, Alashari (2019) “Introduction to Religion,”
in https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336698414_Introduction_
to_Religion.
 VIDEOS
M1.Video 1. “The Big Story: Origins of Religion” (2013) in https://www.
youtube.com/watch? v=V9mFNgu6Cww
M1.Video 2. “What is religion” (2016) in https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=c5KHDR8jdbA
M1.Video 3. “The Academic [Interdisciplinary] Study of Religion
Explained” (2017) in https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VAx4jZbBr8
 LECTURES
Religion: Studies and Approaches
Approaches to the Course
Etymology of“Religion”
Lexicon Meaning and Characteristics of Religion
Substantive and Functional Definition of Religion
Consolatory Definition of Religion
The Experience of Religion
Basic Theories and Terms about Religion
Interdisciplinary Approach to Religion
 APPROACHES TO RELIGION,
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND
SPIRITUALITY
• OPEN-MINDED APPROACH: We acknowledge that we have our own
individual religious beliefs that we so dearly hold. We may encounter ideas
which may be in direct contradiction to our beliefs, but we have to welcome
them for our own intellectual growth in this course.

• ACADEMIC APPROACH: We bear in mind that this course is a

requirement in the college program being one part of the school curricula
which all of you as students must take up.

• INTERDISCIPINARY APPROACH: We will study religion, religious

experience and spirituality from the perspectives of many different disciplines
such as philosophy, history, psychology, anthropology, ethics, law, political
science.
 WHAT IS RELIGION ?

Etymological Definition
LATIN re elegare = “to rebind” ENGLISH
Based on Christian biblical theology, when Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden
fruit, their relationship with God was broken by sin; and the human race was
separated from God. Through religion, people would again be united with God.

Religion is the means of rebinding the relations between

human beings and God.
 “RELIGION”
Etymological Definition
LATIN religio distinct from superstitio

• In Roman culture, the term “religion” was opposed to “superstition.

• Religion referred socially acceptable practices that the Roman people
considered to be the proper way of relating to their gods.
• Superstition meant what the Romans regarded to be unconventional and
incorrect beliefs about god and improper manner of worship

Christianity was in the beginning a superstition, but had become a

religion when institutionalized in the Roman empire.
 LEXICON MEANING
Religion is “an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and
rules used to worship a god or a group of gods”. (Merriam
Webster Dictionary)

Organized: Social institution such as a church, an association or a nation

System of Beliefs: Body of dogmas, doctrines, conventions or traditions that the

members adhere to in every religion

Ceremonies: Formal activities that people do like praying or performing rituals

Rules: Principles of ethics or moral codes that regulate people actions

God: Supernatural, divine or sacred beings as subject of worship

 CHARACTERISTICS OF RELIGION
No exact definition of religion, only similar characteristics called “family
resemblances” based on the philosophy of language by Wittgenstein.

1. Belief in a supernatural being (God)

2. Distinction between sacred and profane
3. Ritual acts focused on sacred or profane object
4. Religious feeling of awe
5. Direct communication with divine being
6. Worldview concerning the rule of humanity in the universe
7. Collective organization bound up in this worldview

Anything to be considered a religion have these characteristics, but not

necessarily all.
Please watch: M1.Video 2.
“What is religion” (2016) in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5KHDR8jdbA
 Please read: M1. Reading 1.
Russell Kirkland (1976), “Defining Religion,” in http://faculty.stage.franklin.
uga.edu/sites/faculty. franklin.uga.edu.kirkland/files/RELDEFINE.pdf

Substantive Definition: What religion is.

• Religion is the worship of sacred being
• It teaches doctrines and moral codes
• It is about formal ceremonies and rituals

Functional Definition: What religion does.

• Religion unites the people in a community together.
• It regulates people’s moral life and actions.
• It provides acceptable cultural behaviors of the members of
the society.
“A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices
relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and
forbidden–beliefs and practices which unite in one single
moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to
them”.

- Emile Durkheim
Consolatory Definition: Religion satisfies our
philosophical and psychological longing for the
explanations regarding our lives and the existence of
the universe.

• Premise: As human beings, we encounter difficulties in life.

• We experience uncontrollable events, sickness and death,
uncertainty, injustice, scarcity or deprivation, hostility of others.
• “Religion is humanity’s means of coping with these basic
problems of human existence.”
This consolatory definition is the one we will use in our course.
“Religions brings out the ultimate meaning of life experiences; it provides
models and guideposts for the meaningful integration of all one’s
experiences.
That is, it not only allows the person to understand what phenomena and
events mean singly; but it also shows him how they fit together into a single
homogenous reality. It thus provides a comprehensive worldview, and means
of orienting one’s life in all its facets.
If dissected, this comprehensive system might be seen to consist of a
conceptual complex and a set of values pertaining to various aspects of
life.”
Russell Kirkland,
Defining “Religion”
 THE EXPERIENCE OF RELIGION
Examples of Religious Experience
§ Worship
§ Cemetery Visit
§ Encounter with Death
§ A Mother’s Deep Concern for her Family

Descriptions of Religious Experience

It is found in an encounter with a sacred mysterium tremendum et
fascinosum, a mystery that is both awe-inspiring and attractive.
- Rudolph Otto
Religion emerges from the experience of the ordinary, profane and the sacred
world.
- Mircea Eliade
All human beings encounter religion in certain powerful experiences at
“crucial” moments in life.
- John Smith
 BASIC THEORIES ABOUT RELIGION
• THEISM is the belief in the existence of a supreme being or deities.
• ATHEISM denies God or god’s existence.
• MONOTHEISM is the belief that only one deity exists.
• POLYTHEISM is the belief that there is more than one god.
• PANTHEISM asserts that everything is God.
• ANIMISM is the belief that natural or inanimate objects, natural
phenomena, and the universe itself possess souls or a distinct spiritual
essence.
• AGNOSTICISM stresses that God cannot be known by human
reason; whatever we claim to know about God cannot be certain and
always subjected to doubt.
• FIDEISM maintains that God can only be known by faith.
 TYPES OF RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
• CULT refers to an underground, small, organized religion that is generally not
socially acceptable and with unconventional and radical beliefs and teachings.

• SECT is a religion with unpopular and usually fundamentalist doctrines formed

by a minor group of people who separated themselves from one major religious
group.

• DENOMINATION is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a

common name, tradition, and identity; not a formal part of the state.

• ECCLESIA refers to a large, bureaucratic religious organization that is a formal

part of the state and has most or all of state’s citizens as its members.

Please read: M1. Reading 2.

“World Religions,” in https://courses.lumenlearning. com/sociology/chapter/world-religions/.
 INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO
THE STUDY OF RELIGION

Please watch: M1.Video 3.

“The Academic [Interdisciplinary] Study of Religion Explained” (2017) in https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VAx4jZbBr8

• Religion and History: the development of religions depend on the prevailing

historical events of the period, and history unfolds as conditioned by religion.

• Religion and Psychology/Anthropology/Sociology: We look at

religion as an essential part of the behavior and culture of people in the society.

• Religion and Law/Political Science: Religion interacts with the fields of

law and political science in the context of power relations that have been going
on ever since the beginning of nation-states.
• Religion and Philosophy. Both of these fields of learning deal with the
ultimate cause, such as the reality and existence of the world, the meaning of
human life, and the relation between human beings and God.
• Religion and Ethics. Religion has ethical component because of the moral
codes inherent in its doctrines, such as the Ten Commandments and the Golden
Rule.
• Religion and Theology. Religions of the world have their own theologies.
The Christian religion, particularly Catholicism, has a very rich and consistent
body of theological doctrines which have spanned for a period of two thousand
years. There are Biblical Theology, Dogmatic Theology and Moral Theology, and
major topics like Christology, Mariology and Eschatology.
Please read: M1. Reading 3.
Mohammad, Alashari (2019) “Introduction to Religion,” in
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336698414_Intro duction_to_Religion.
THANK YOU!

DBD