What is a Religion?

To further my interfaith work, I am enrolled in an intensive online course about the Baha’i faith. This course is offered by an educational arm of the Baha’is in the U..S called the Wilmette Institute.

One of the first assignments in the course asked the participants to read an article entitled, “The Concept of Religion” by Moojan Momen. Even though I deal with representatives of the world’s great religions on a daily basis, I don’t often stop to think about what constitutes a religion.

The article reminds us that the definition really depends on the religion that is practiced by the person answering the question.

For example, the article states, “For present day Christians, a religion is a set of beliefs. Christians are asked to subscribe to one of the various creeds that have been produced in the course of Church history.” The article asserts that, “Islam is a religion that is centered around a Holy law that lays down in great detail how one’s life should be lived.” Hinduism, as one of my Hindu friends has told me, is actually more of a culture or way of living than what other folks would define as a religion. Buddhists, by my understanding, are neutral about the idea of whether or not there is a God. We could go on and on in isolating the “distinctives” in defining what a religion means to the practitioners of the world’s great religions.

The author of the article I am writing attempts to find a working definition that can be used in a way that accounts for those distinctives. He sets out three interdependent aspects:

1. At the individual level, a religion is something that offers to a human an experience of the holy or sacred.

2. At the conceptual level, a religion asserts that “the most important activity for human beings is to establish and clarify their relationship with…” what the author refers to as an “Ultimate Reality.”

3. At the social level, religion aims at social cohesion and the healthy integration of individuals into society.

I have my own three-part definition of religion. Mine is based on something I learned in my study of Buddhism. Buddhists refer to “The Three Jewels” of their practice: The Buddha, The Dharma, and the Sangha. Put simply, the Buddha is the central figure and teacher in Buddhism. The Dharma is the set of laws and teachings about how to live a healthy, successful, and happy life. The Sangha is the Buddhist community. When I first read about the Three Jewels in a book by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, I realized that these three jewels are present in just about every religion. The way I would put it is that most (if not all) religions have:

1. A deity, person, or entity, to revere.

2. A set of principles or laws to guide the way people live.

3. A community of believers or practitioners.

While all three of these are important, the third is especially significant. Because without community, we don’t have a religion; we just have an individual spiritual practice.

There is much more that can be said about what constitutes a religion. I find my version of the Three Jewels very useful. But if we want to reduce a definition of religion down to one simple sentence, the author of the article does he good job when he writes:

“Religion is humanity’s response to what it experiences as holy.”

To learn more about the Wilmette Institute, click here:

http://www.wilmetteinstitute.us.bahai.org/

To learn more about the Baha’i faith, please visit:

http://www.bahai.org/