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"Religion, properly understood, is a very subversive force." (Stephan L. Carter, 1993, pg. 43)
Defining religion is problematic because so many things can be called religion or religious. The term 'religion' is used in so many ways. John Dewey claimed it is not possible to define religion, (Dewey, 1934, pp.7-8). The situation is no better for art. Art can refer to anything from grand opera, to erotic photographs to cave scratching. The arts are often referred to as 'culture', an equally plastic term. We must attempt to define art and religion side-by-side or we will not see their relationship.
Feuerbach helped usher in a negative view of religion, voiced by Marx, "Religion is the opiate of the people." Whatever slim truth that statement might contain, it is wholly inadequate to explain religion. Peter Berger notes, "Modern philosophy and science, in the wake of Feuerbach, are quite correct in seeing religion as a symbolization of the human world. The gods are indeed symbols of human realities. This insight, as important as it is, does not necessarily imply that the gods are nothing but that. Religious experience insists that, over and beyond their capacity to become human symbols, the gods inhabit a reality that is sui generis and that is sovereignly independent of what human beings project into it." (Berger, 1979, pg.123).
Anthropologist Clifford Geertz defines religion as "(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic", (Geertz, 1973, pp.87-125). While Geetrz' definition is clinical and owes an allegiance to Feuerbach, it is a good starting point for understanding the practice of religion.
The vehicle of religion is a cannon of religious memories and stories. The brass rings are the symbols, the flags, crosses or tokens that tie the present to the religion's story. The cannon of story may be myths of totemic animals or the gospel account. The community must sense the importance of the story. The scientific truth of the story is not important. What is important is the truth delivered to the heart and soul of the community. The truths are spiritual. Myths, stories and memories legitimize community values, (Fallding, 1974, pg.53-59).
The great social anthropologist Emile Durkheim sees totemic cultic rituals as the means of attaching the present to the past, (Durkheim, 1961, pg.423). One possible root definition of "religion" stems from the Latin term for binding. While the vehicles of religion are the sacred stories, sacred things and sacred places, the action is binding. The individual and the community are bound to that which is uniquely meaningful, the sacred. The practitioner is bound by sacred obligations and trusts to the community, their spouse, their ancestors, etc. A compelling (and aura of factuality) world view (general order of existence) is created within the religious community, which creates a spiritual bond, a bond of desire.
"Religion is something eminently social. Religious representations are collective representations which express collective realities; the rites are a manner of acting which take rise in the midst of assembled groups and which are destined to excite, maintain or recreate certain mental states in these groups." (Durkheim, 1961, pg.22). Harold Fallding, in his book The Sociology of Religion describes the religious community: "What is shared between them is what is deepest for each of them, and they are in fellowship with the divine. The divine communion and the human community coincide and resonate." (Fallding, 1974, pg.77).
Religion is the underpinning for values, (Fallding, 1974, pg.15), thus fulfilling the second and fifth parts of Geertz's definition, powerful moods and motivations. Religion is a community generated attempt to discover and enforce 'the right thing'. Notice that none of these definitions are attempting to define the right thing. In essence, each religious community decides its own 'right thing'. Therefore, 'true religion' is not being defined here.
So what about the monk sequestered in a desert cave for twenty years? How is this monk a part of the collective reality of the religious community? The monk is reinforcing, by the act of extreme devotion, the significance of the religious quest. Devoting themself, for the greater religious body, to a seeking out and claiming of the spiritual fountainhead.
If after twenty years, the monk returns: the Christian monk returns to the larger Christian community an enriched Christian, or the Buddhist monk returns to the larger Buddhist community an enriched Buddhist, then the community is enriched. If the monk never returns, then the twenty years is lost to the community and thus the religion. The monk is spiritual, but nothing pertaining to the religion is transacted.
Essentially, religion is about the community in relationship to the divine. If the divine is not involved, it is not religion. If a community of believers is not involved it is not religion. Religion is corporate devotion and not personal. An aesthetic who stands aloof, such as the lone and despised prophets of Israel, but is later revered, is often the catalyst for strengthening, transforming or cleansing the religious community, and therefore the religion. In this case, the solitary meditations of the one come to enrich the religious vision of the many. But also notice that, while these meditations may be religious in nature, that is they concern the divine, they are not religion until they are embraced by a community of believers.
Occasionally is useful to step away from the complex world of modern religion and to look at religion that is totally alien to us here in the West. Emile Durkheim produced one of the classic studies of early religion The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. In it, Durkheim studies the totemic religions of stone age tribes. Among the Australian Aborigines, he notes, an elaborate ancestry is created, complete with ritual remembrances, mythic ancestry and sacred prohibitions which force the community and especially inter-clan social interactions into specific channels. Rituals attach or bind the person, (Durkheim, 1961, pg.423). To view this as magic is to limit the view of primitive religion to a materialistic analysis.
The totem or animal spirit is of deep significance to anyone bound tightly to the natural world as stone age tribes are. Durkheim claims that the totem is the first representation in art, (Durkheim, 1961, pg.149). Australian Aborigines trace their ancestry directly to totemic ancestors giving them a familial bond with the natural world.
The name of the clan is a designation of social significance. The clan members are meaningfully tied together for mutual aid and comfort. Clan members are also tied to their spirit or totem relatives. A member of the Wallaby clan is a relative of the wallaby. Totemic clans have fully embraced their world, bringing their animal and plant neighbors into their spiritual life. For those of us who have grown up in a thoroughly civilized world, it is difficult to imagine the sense of kinship that tribal Aborigine feels towards the natural world in which he or she lives. We venture into the wild taking our civilization with us, not only in our food pack, utensils, books, hiking shoes, etc., but also in our approach to and understanding of the wilderness. As Westerners, we do not know how to beg forgiveness of the plants and flowers, or to fear the earth's anger. Perhaps this is a talent we will be forced to learn. Where the Westerner is independent of the natural surroundings, treating them with paternal deference at best, the Aborigine, through a relationship cultivated from birth, is one spirit with the plants and animals. The thunder speaks to the Aboriginal heart.
This binding action, plays out in a second way. Clans are thrown together in a world of mutual interdependence. By marrying only outside the clan, members are in continuous alliance with other clans. The clan of one's spouse is necessarily different from one's own. Members of separate clans are always living amongst each other. Other prohibitions increase interaction. In some tribes, the harvesting and eating of certain foods require that a prayer or tribute be offered to the leader of that food item's totemic clan, and permission must be asked.
When the natural order is upset, tribal members reach for understanding in the fabric of stories that surround them. The assurance is that balance will be restored. "They make men forget the real world and transport them into another where their imagination is more at ease." (Durkheim, 1961, Pg.424). Reaction to tragedy and hardship is ameliorated. This is the comforting, which the cynics refer to as the opiate of religion.
Through these interactions a meaningful and stable location in the universe as well as a remarkably harmonious and stable interclan and intraclan interaction has been established. Each individual is constantly assured of family importance and alliance, both with neighbors and the natural world on which they depend. This is a community of constant nurture. Is is any wonder that tribal villages left alone by the West often seems happier and more peaceful than more Westernized counterparts. Westernization traumatized the social fabric, destroys religious self-assurance and presents a philosophical system devoid of meaningful religious bonds for community life.
To judge the religious life of an aboriginal community by the standards of modern world religions, will not yield insight or understanding. Worse, to impose those modern religion without regard to the social, cultural and spiritual fabric of the community is destructive and counterproductive. Religion must be embraced. Religion imposed is a hollow shell held in place by great social, economic or military pressure.
The ultimate significance of a religion is not the artifact: the symbols, stories or cultic apparatus. Religion is the creation and maintaining of meaningful existence. When the community and the religious artifact begin to pull apart, the religion becomes an empty shell, a memory of a thriving interaction, but now without life. How many churches or synagogues seem like lifeless shells going through the motions, or trying with desperate foolishness to adapt to contemporary culture?
The popularity of Existential philosophy testifies to our sense of drifting in a culture that has escaped from our control. Our own culture is an anarchy thrust upon us by mass media and the enormous volume of social interaction imposed by contemporary urban life. We seem to be growing up 'absurd', i.e., without meaningful attachment to our ancestry, our community or our futures.
Those who are angry and disaffected by Western culture are driven to dogmatic religion. Religion which shuts its eyes and proclaims itself against the world. These religions are subsects of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or Judaism. The original religious body matters less than the current nature and spirit of the religious community. Judeo-Christian roots ameliorate Orthodox Jewish or Fundamentalist Christian anger in all but a few areas. Whereas the practice of Jihad seems to be releasing widespread vengefulness within certain portions of the Muslim world, where terrorism, assassination and pogroms are more than tolerated. Anger, stubbornness and unconscionable conduct has seriously disrupted all religious practice in Western society.
Many of us, long separated from our cultural roots, want to know about our Scottish or African or Jewish ancestors. Many return to church looking for a spark of life. It is as if we are trying to repair a severed cord attaching us to those who came before us. A return to natural joyfulness seems to pervade New Age religious movements, where drum circles, white magic and ancient wisdom bring solace to those trapped in concrete canyons and electronic hum. This inward turning can liberate by blocking interaction (at a spiritual or physical level) with the larger culture. These are all forms of (generally positive) escapism.
The wide open nature of Western democracy creating large and very porous communities, creates a dilemma for the religious bodies. Without cultural homogeneity, the stories are not all understood the same way becoming muddy and confused. Symbols which must compete with pop culture icons and intensive advertising lack luster. Events of the religious community which must compete with work, sports, cultural events or shear exhaustion, may never achieve a spiritual quorum. Widespread education and the rational scientific culture of "yes, but..." make cultural consensus very difficult to achieve. Achieving positive and meaningful spiritual interaction between religion and the community is difficult but incredibly important if Western culture is to retain a healthy spiritual backbone. The alternative is continued moral anarchy and spiritual disaffection.
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