UWR C 1: Different Views on Religion

According to Emile Durkheim, what is religion?

• the recognition of all duties as divine commands

• a unified system of beliefs and practice relative to sacred things

• a body of doctrines handed down by tradition

• the innate impulse of human selfhood to direct itself toward the true or toward a pretended absolute

What does Immanuel Kant define as religion?

• a set of institutionalized rituals, identified with a tradition and/or evoking sacral sentiments

• the recognition of all duties as divine commands

• systems of general compensators based on supernatural assumptions

• a body of doctrines handed down by tradition

Max Müller characterizes religion as:

• a unified system of beliefs and practice relative to sacred things

• the recognition of all duties as divine commands

• a body of doctrines handed down by tradition, or in canonical books, and containing all that constitutes the faith of Jew, Christian, or Hindu

• the innate impulse of human selfhood to direct itself toward the true or toward a pretended absolute

Ninian Smart suggests that religion is:

• a set of institutionalized rituals, identified with a tradition and/or evoking sacral sentiments directed at a divine or trans-divine focus seen in the context of the human phenomenological environment and at least partially described by myths or by myths and doctrines

• the recognition of all duties as divine commands

• a body of doctrines handed down by tradition

• the innate impulse of human selfhood to direct itself toward the true or toward a pretended absolute

Herman Dooyeweerd views religion as:

• the recognition of all duties as divine commands

• a set of institutionalized rituals, identified with a tradition and/or evoking sacral sentiments

• the innate impulse of human selfhood to direct itself toward the true or toward a pretended absolute

• a body of doctrines handed down by tradition

Stark and Bainbridge define religion in its most basic form as:

• a unified system of beliefs and practice relative to sacred things

• the recognition of all duties as divine commands

• a body of doctrines handed down by tradition

• human organizations primarily engaged in providing general compensators based on supernatural assumptions

According to Eliade/Campbell/Jung, what is a myth?

• A story that is simply untrue

• A story with culturally formative power

• A story containing unique insights into religious truth, archaic insights often lost to humans living in industrial societies

• Any story which affects the way people live

What does Smart/Malinowski define as a myth?

• A story with culturally formative power

• A story that is simply untrue

• A story which affects the way people live; not necessarily historical or unhistorical, it can be true/false, historical/unhistorical

• A story containing unique insights into religious truth

What is "implicit" religion as compared to "explicit" religion?

• The actual practices and beliefs of people as discovered by their words at face value

• What people actually believe is determined by what they say

• The actual practices and beliefs of people as discovered by others through careful observation of their actions as opposed to simply taking their words at face value

• The way people live their lives without any religious influence