Some Second Thoughts on Substantive versus Functional Definitions of Religion
Scientific approaches to religion have always alternated between functional and substantive definitions of the field--that is, between defining religion in terms of its social or psychological functions and in terms of its believed contents. Recently there has been a predominance of functional defin...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[1974]
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| In: |
Journal for the scientific study of religion
Year: 1974, Volume: 13, Issue: 2, Pages: 125-133 |
| Further subjects: | B
Religious experience philosophy
B Atheism B Secularization B Religious rituals B psychology of religion B Religious transcendence B Existence B Phenomena |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Scientific approaches to religion have always alternated between functional and substantive definitions of the field--that is, between defining religion in terms of its social or psychological functions and in terms of its believed contents. Recently there has been a predominance of functional definitions, as exemplified by Bellah, Geertz, and Luckmann. Quite apart from the scientific utility of these definitions, they have come to serve an ideological use--as a quasiscientific legitimation of the avoidance of transcendence. This is in accord with a secularized Zeitgeist, but it threatens to lose sight of the very phenomenon of religion. To regain the phenomenon, what is required is a return to a substantive definition, an understanding of religion "from within." Schutz's analysis of "multiple realities" in human experience may serve as a useful starting point for this. |
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| ISSN: | 1468-5906 |
| Reference: | Kritik in "Functional, Substantive, or Political? (1974)"
Kritik in "On Peter Berger's Definition of Religion (1975)" |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the scientific study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/1384374 |