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Flip to reveal answersWhat is a substantive definition of religion?
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All 9 Flashcards — What is religion?
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Question
What is a substantive definition of religion?
Answer
One that names religion's content — for example E B Tylor's "belief in spiritual beings". Its weakness is that it excludes traditions with no creator god.
Question
What is a functional definition of religion?
Answer
One that names what religion does — for example Durkheim's account of beliefs and practices uniting followers into one moral community. Its weakness is that it includes far too much.
Question
What is a family-resemblance definition of religion?
Answer
One that treats religion as a family of shared features rather than a single test — Ninian Smart's seven dimensions. No tradition has to show all seven.
Question
Name Smart's seven dimensions.
Answer
Ritual, narrative, experiential, doctrinal, ethical, social and institutional, material.
Question
What is the numinous?
Answer
Rudolf Otto's term for what adherents describe as an encounter with something wholly other: mysterium tremendum et fascinans — overwhelming and deeply attractive at once.
Question
What are William James's four marks of religious experience?
Answer
Ineffable, noetic, transient, passive.
Question
Why is Theravada Buddhism awkward for a substantive definition?
Answer
Because it does not teach a creator god, so a definition built on belief in gods or spirits leaves it outside — a result almost every scholar rejects.
Question
What does it mean to say a definition of religion is never neutral?
Answer
Whichever definition is chosen decides which traditions count, so the choice is itself a claim about what religion is.
Question
What is the one habit that raises a Paper 1 answer?
Answer
Attribution. Ask "who holds this?" before every sentence about a belief, and name them.
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Full study notes for What is religion?
Topic 1.1 hub
Studying religion
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World Religions exam skills
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