Cunningham and Kelsay, Chapter 1: Defining Religion
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Exam Review Items
Terms: mysterium tremendum et fascinans, religion (etymology and definition), tradition
● Functionalist vs. Substantive Definitions of Religion (and difficulties in defining religion)
● Explain the interrelation of 5 elements of religion offered by CK: belief, feeling, action,
individual/social existence, and values
● CK definition of religion: view of sacred reality made manifest in experience so as to form a living
tradition that provides ultimate order and meaning to human existence.
● Alston (see Alston handout): list 3 RMC’s and explain and illustrate how Alston uses them to define
religion
Reading Questions
1. Why define religion?
2. What are the challenges to defining it?
3. Explain: “Religion cannot stand for any single principle or essence, but is rather a
collective name . . . [for] many characters which may alternately be equally important to
religion” (13).
4. Explain why CK argue that belief, feeling, practices, the individual and community, and
moral values are all necessary elements of religion yet no single element, taken alone, is
sufficient to make a religion.
5. Can religion be defined solely in terms of what function (or role) it plays in human life?
Why or why not? Illustrate your answer with an example.
6. Can religion defined solely in terms of a particular content believed, felt, practiced,
shared by a community, or informing morality? Why or why not? Do CK offer any
substantive element in their definition of religion?
7. Explain the relationship between substance and function in CK’s definition.
8. Why do CK ask their readers to think of their clearest example of religion? How can this
help to define it?
9. Explain CK’s definition of religion and its four elements (22).
10. How do CK define “sacred”? What is the opposite of sacred?
11. Give examples of the four elements in CK’s from the Thich Nhat Hahn readings.
Readings and Lecture
1. Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans: (see p. 14 Job and Krishna; and p. 42 Moses and the
burning bush): Latin for “the tremendous (in the sense of causing one to tremble) and
fascinating mystery;” the holy mystery that simultaneously attracts and pushes away by
causing fear; an experience of a mystery that evokes, on the one hand, fear, terror, awe, and
ultimate respect, and, on the other hand, a love that draws us to it like the irresistible siren’s
song calling us to lose ourselves in its overwhelming truth, goodness, beauty, power, and
grandeur. It makes us feel at once small and invited into something infinitely great.
2. Etymology of Religion [religio: proper behavior and attitudes for a Roman citizen]
A. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.E.) re: again + legere: to read = to reread; to pass on;
religion = tradition or a process of rereading what has been handed over as sacred.
B. Caecilius Lactantius (240-320 C.E., Latin Christian Church Father) re: again + ligare: to
bind fast; connect, gather together = to rebind or reconnect [humans to each other and
to the sacred]
Cunningham and Kelsay, Chapter 1: Defining Religion
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3. A Short Definition of Religion: a way of ordering the world that seeks to re-bind people to
the sacred and to each other—living, dead, and yet to be born. In other words, religion seeks
to bind a community and its members across generations to the sacred. Religion is “sacred
tradition.”
4. Tradition. Jaroslav Pelikan defines traditionalism (a distorted and false form of tradition) as
“the dead faith of the living” and tradition as “the living faith of the dead.” As a tradition,
religion is handed over from one generation to the next and reinterpreted so as to preserve
continuity across the changes necessary to bring it to life in each new generation and
context. In short, tradition is the communal process of “making the old ever new.”
5. Cunningham and Kelsay’s Definition of Religion.
“Religion signifies those ways of viewing [and ordering] the world that refer to
A. a notion of sacred reality
B. made manifest in human experience
C. in such as way as to produce long-lasting ways of thinking, feeling, and acting
[traditions]
D. with respect to problems of ordering and understanding existence [including
ultimate problems of suffering and death—limit experiences—what is on the
other side?]” (22).
Cunningham and Kelsay define “religious” as displaying a “sacred-regarding intention.”
6. Necessary Yet Not Sufficient Elements of Religion. CK argue that the following are
necessary elements of religion, yet no single element, taken alone, is sufficient to make a
religion:
A. Belief
B. Feeling
C. Practice(s)
D. The Individual and the Community
E. Moral Values
7. Functionalist vs. Substantive Definitions of Religion (see pp. 17-19).
A. Functionalist. Religion is whatever fulfills a designated function. Here are few
examples.
i. John Bowker. Religion is whatever enables people to cope with the ultimate limits of
human existence such as suffering and death, e.g., “What happens after death?”
(Function = cope with ultimate limits).
ii. Durkheim. Religion is whatever serves as “the social glue” that transforms a mere
collection of individuals into an organic, integrated whole which is greater than the
sum of its parts; it is whatever effectively calls the members of a group to transcend
their individual existences through a collective effervescence. Note: this is an
incomplete or reductionistic interpretation of Durkheim. (Function = serve as social
glue).
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iii. J. Milton Yinger. Religion is whatever serves as way of dealing with problems when
all ordinary means have failed by seeking to explain what cannot otherwise be
explained, achieve power when all other powers have failed us, heal us when all other
healing leaves us broken, etc. Another version = Religion is whatever reassures
people in the face of the unknown. (Function = provide extraordinary means or
reassurance)
iv. Marx. Religion is nothing more than an ideological opiate of the masses which
allows the elite owners of capital to oppress the laboring masses. Note: while not
strictly functionalist, Marxism tends to treat religion as that which serves as the opiate
of the masses. (Function = dull and oppress the masses).
v. Freud. Religion is nothing more than an illusory attempt to meet unfulfilled
psychological needs for a father/mother figure. Note: Again, while not strictly
functionalist, some Freudians tend to treat religion as that which falsely attempts to
meet unfulfilled psychological needs for a parental figure. (Function = meet
unfulfilled psychological needs).
B. Substantive. Religion is distinguished from nonreligion by its distinctive substance or
content. Some examples follow.
i. James Martineau (paraphrased). Religion is belief in a God who creates, sustains,
and governs the universe with ultimate power and goodness; a “One” to Whom the
many owe their existence and well being. (Content = God).
ii. Friedrich Schleiermacher. Religion is the “consciousness that the whole of our
spontaneous activity comes from a source outside of us.” (Content = transcendent
source)
iii. Melford Spiro. Religion is “an institution of culturally patterned interaction with
culturally postulated superhuman beings.” (Content = culture patterned in relation
to superhuman beings).
iv. CK. Religion is the quest for the sacred as “ultimate reality” as in the ultimate truth,
goodness, and beauty of the universe. (Content = the sacred/ultimate reality).
C. Both/And. CK argue that an adequate definition of religion must include both function
and substance. Explain why the following definition does or does not include both
functional and substantive elements: Religion is “a set of symbolic forms and acts that
relate [humans] to the ultimate conditions of [their] existence” (Robert Bellah).