Religion

             During the course of the year, I have analyzed many different descriptions and definitions in an effort to isolate the meaning of the words 'religion' and 'religious'. In what I am going to discuss for the remainder of this essay, I find it necessary to give a brief explanation of what I understand religion as being before I can classify anything else as being religious or not.
             In my study I have not yet found a normative definition of religion which impressed my mind. It may be the case that no such definition exists and it may well be futile to search for such a definition. C.J. Webb writes: 'We all know what we mean by holding a thing to be sacred better than any definition can tell us, as we all know what we mean by calling things beautiful better than any definition of beauty can tell us.' (Webb: 1916) That, however, is not to say that the important and necessary aspects of religion which we need to formulate our discussion cannot be pointed out. I found Donald Wiebe's analysis particularly helpful in delineating the most important and necessary aspects of religious rituals or phenomenon. Wiebe states: 'The three elements that jointly make a cultural phenomenon a religious one are transcendence, human limitation and salvation.' (Wiebe 1981)
             Transcendence expresses that there is another world, the world of the Gods. It also implies the superiority and sacredness of that world with respect to ours. Human limitation or human limitedness is derived from transcendence as man is always limited in his abilities and status compared to the other realm. Man is constantly in need, inadequate to deal with death, sin, or the suffering of this world. Salvation naturally draws from the previous two ideas as man, accepting eternal power of the other world and inadequate to deal with things on his own, draws on the other realm. Prayer is the primary form of expressing this salvation.
             Very r...

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Religion. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 08:43, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/5626.html