RT Article
T1 Some Second Thoughts on Substantive versus Functional Definitions of Religion
JF Journal for the scientific study of religion
VO 13
IS 2
SP 125
OP 133
A1 Berger, Peter L. 1929-2017
LA English
YR 1974
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1668052482
AB 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.
K1 Atheism
K1 Existence
K1 Phenomena
K1 psychology of religion
K1 Religious experience philosophy
K1 Religious rituals
K1 Religious transcendence
K1 Secularization
DO 10.2307/1384374