Religion is “A set of rituals which transform the state of man. Rituals which are rationalized and confirmed by sacred myths. A supernatural power behind the ritual brings the transformation” (What is Religion 5). Humans do have an innate need to feel connected to a great power, based on their belief that there must be something more to their existence than meets the eyes. As such, this definition illustrates the important role that rituals and ritualistic behavior have played in the lives of humans since the dawn of man. Rituals bring home that feeling that there is, indeed, a supernatural power behind our existence.
There is a weakness in this particular definition, however, in that it puts the emphasis on a notion that rituals somehow define religion. In actuality, rituals are often a manmade construct within the institution of religion, not the other way around. To define religion, it is important to focus more on the supernatural and divine creator aspect. Religion entails a belief in the supernatural, and rituals should be seen as only one of many manifestations of this belief (Muckadell 498). This definition is simply too narrow in scope to provide a comprehensive picture of what religion entails, and rituals should form just one small component of the overall concept.
My definition of religion, as formed at the outset of this course, was: Religion is a system of different practices, perspectives, and cultural traits that may bring a set of people together to follow a certain way of doing things.” This does fit in a bit with ritualistic behavior, as such practices do often require corporate adherence to a particular belief or faith (Dobbelaere 199).
Works Cited
Dobbelaere, Karel. "The Contextualization of Definitions of Religion." International Review of Sociology 21.1 (2011): 191-204. Web.
Muckadell, Caroline Schaffalitzky. "On Essentialism and Real Definitions of Religion." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 82.2 (2014): 495-520. Web.
"What Is Religion?" What Is Religion? N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.
