schleiermacher cosmic view in order to understand religion

The attempt is a natural consequence of the Western speculative, intellectualistic, and scientific disposition. The very attempt to define religion, to find some distinctive or possibly unique essence or set of qualities that distinguish the religious from the remainder of human life, is primarily a Western concern. The MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religions states:

Scholars have found it difficult to develop a consistent definition, with some giving up on the possibility of a definition. Others argue that regardless of its definition, it is not appropriate to apply it to non-Western cultures.Īn increasing number of scholars have expressed reservations about ever defining the essence of religion. They observe that the way we use the concept today is a particularly modern construct that would not have been understood through much of history and in many cultures outside the West (or even in the West until after the Peace of Westphalia). Parallel concepts are not found in many current and past cultures there is no equivalent term for religion in many languages. Modern westernĬhristians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Baha’is, Eckists, Sikhs, Jains, Wiccans, Unitarian Universalists, Shintoists, Taoists, Thelemites, Tenrikyoists, Zoroastrians

Some jurisdictions refuse to classify specific religions as religions, arguing that they are instead heresies, even if they are widely viewed as a religion in the academic world. Max Lynn Stackhouse, defined religion as “a comprehensive worldview or ‘metaphysical moral vision’ that is accepted as binding because it is held to be in itself basically true and just even if all dimensions of it cannot be either fully confirmed or refuted”.Emile Durkheimdefined religion as “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 into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them.”.There are however two general definition systems: the sociological/functional and the phenomenological/philosophical. Scholars have failed to agree on a definition of religion. Thinkers such as Daniel Dubuisson have doubted that the term religion has any meaning outside of western cultures, while others, such as Ernst Feil even doubt that it has any specific, universal meaning even there.

Oxford Dictionary defines religion as the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. Others, such as Wilfred Cantwell Smith, have tried to correct a perceived Judeo-Christian and Western bias in the definition and study of religion. The definition of religion is a controversial and complicated subject in religious studies with scholars failing to agree on any one definition.

Schleiermacher cosmic view in order to understand religion