Religion: The Basics by Malory Nye

In order to understand the complex, global community in which we reside, we have to understand one of its underlying currents, religion.

Concludes that since religion is what people do, therefore the study of religion is concerned with people and cultures

Religion is not merely a set aside time or set of beliefs but also dictate social norms and cultural activity; “religion is culture (3)

A thorough study of religion must be cross-cultural◦ The study is an agnostic pursuit in that the academic study of religion is not interested in

theological speculation, but rather classifying and understanding the human sphere In early 1900s, viewed religion primarily as a way to grapple with the self

◦ Sigmund Freud purported that religion was a misguided outgrowth of an adolescent's struggle with his father▪ Based on his assumptions of the human personality and misguided in that it assumes that

all other religions share father figure Our cultural setting significantly impacts our religious outlook (for instance how a particular

culture views fatherhood impacts how it sees its divine fatherly figure) Religion and culture are a symbiotic relationship whereby they both inform each other Although the fundamentalist approach it there is only one religion (their own), the common

parlance is to refer to many world religions One of approach to the study/ classification of religions is the world religions paradigm (where

each religion where what distinguishes each religion from another is emphasized◦ Problematic approach in that it lacks the rich, vibrant experience of each religion ◦ Also gives the impression that each religion consists of a homogenous group of people◦ Glosses over other religious groups who simply do not have the large number or

participants Should use the world religions paradigm as a starting point but primarily work from the bottom

up (i.e. to begin at the particular, localized culture) Should use the terms Christianties, Hinduisms, etc. to communicate that each of these “major

religions” have a very specific way of being lived in different places The mass abandonment of religion can be used to bolster the claim that religion is not innate

nor universal, but could also be argued that communism or other ideologies are the new age religions

Difficulty in trying to identify the universality of religion is a language barrier: is religion what we connote with the English word religion or is it more expansive?

Religion can mean many different things depending on the cultural context “Religion is about a way of talking about the world, of perceiving differences and similarities

with other types of activities” (17)

Nye in this article attempts to show that the colloquial meaning of the word religion corrupts our ability to study and understand religion. We associate the word religion with an institution where the people who subscribe to it follow similar rituals, believe in the same ideology, and use a similar language to describe their religious experience. Therefore, we often classify the world religions leaving out a significant population who do not practice the popular religions. However, Nye wants to redefine religion as a shared experience, it is an implicit bond that bonds a particular group of people. Therefore, it is accurate to classify the foodies, who believe in eating healthy and showing kindness to animals, are a religious group. This seems preposterous because there is no divine being in their belief system. However, they have a common value system and use the same nomenclature to describe their

ideology. This is a helpful definition of religion because it creates a more pluralistic view of the world. Religion is not something that by participating in it makes me superior. Rather, it is a common bond that connects all individuals of the world. Perhaps, it is part of the world culture.