DOCSLIB.ORG

Chapter One: What Is Religion and Spirituality?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Chapter One: What Is Religion and Spirituality? 00_Singleton_Prelims.indd 3 11-Jan-14 1:55:04 PM 1 what is religion and spirituality? After reading this chapter you will: • be able to define religion and spirituality; • know the seven substantive elements of religion; and • understand how social scientists study religion. This book examines religions, spiritualities and faiths in the contemporary world. Due consideration will be given to apparently diverse groups: Christians in Latin America who, during their exuberant services of worship, appear to speak in unknown languages; Buddhists in England who gather each week in someone’s house to meditate; teenage witches in Australia celebrating in spring an ancient, European pagan festival. What do these diverse groups have in common? What makes their activities religious? How would a social scientist study them? This chapter examines the fundamental features of religion and spirituality, and introduces the social scientific way of studying religions. WHAT IS RELIGION? Recently I was filling my car with fuel when I noticed that the cashier, whose car was parked out front, had a license plate with the word ‘F’BAHCE’ on it. I was pretty sure I knew what that meant. When I was paying for the fuel, I asked the cashier if he was a supporter of Fenerbahçe, the Turkish football team. He eyed me suspiciously and asked how I knew about this team, living here in Australia, so far away from Turkey. I mentioned that I was a keen student of the world game, and now, in this globalized era, it was easy to follow teams and leagues anywhere in the world. So, I asked him again. Was he a fan of Fenerbahçe? Tears almost welled in his eyes. ‘It’s my life’, he said. This made me wonder: is it his religion? 01_Singleton_Ch-01 Part I.indd 3 11-Jan-14 1:55:08 PM 4 making sense of religion and religious change One of football’s most outstanding exponents, Diego Maradona, reputedly once said, ‘Football isn’t a game, nor a sport, it’s a religion.’ In like manner, a BBC jour- nalist, Stephen Tomkins (2004) wrote: ‘We’re increasingly deserting the church in favour of the pitch. Players are gods, the stands are the pews, football is the new religion.’ Can football – in all its variations – reasonably be described as a religion? Many football fans will declare happily that football is their religion. Football teams have places of ‘worship’, devoted followers, heroes with glorious past deeds, creeds and supporting music. For the individual fan, following a team might give life mean- ing, purpose and fulfillment. But it seems wrong to declare that football is a religion. Isn’t religion about the transcendent? Believing that there is some being, power or force that is greater than humans? Substantive and functional definitions of religion It is important to distinguish between religious and nonreligious phenomena, behavior and meaning systems, otherwise a scholarly investigation of religion ought to treat the powerful social forces of football and, say, Islam equally. To my mind they are far from the same, and I can’t imagine writing a book that covered all the world’s religions and football. So what makes football and Islam different from each other, and why is one a reli- gion and the other not? Here we must look at definitions of religion. Some scholars feel that defining religion is inherently problematic (e.g. Asad 1993). For these schol- ars, definitions are either too exclusive or too broad, historically limited or culturally specific, a point I expand upon later. Others have attempted definitions of religion, and while there is considerable variation, they tend to fall into one of two camps: substantive definitions, which describe the ‘substance’ of religions, that is, their dis- tinctive properties or attributes; and functional definitions, which focus on the ‘func- tion’ religions perform in the lives of individuals and communities. Both these ways of defining and understanding religion are helpful for those interested in studying it. Substantive definitions explained Most substantive definitions emphasize that religion is about humanity’s relation- ship with the supernatural, the transcendent or the otherworldly. For example, Australian sociologist Gary Bouma (1992: 17) defines religion as ‘a shared mean- ing system which grounds its answers to questions of meaning in the postulated existence of a greater environing reality and its related sets of practices and social organization’. This definition draws attention to the fact that religion has a ‘beyond- this-world’ dimension to it. This sets religion apart from other worldly systems of beliefs, values and practices. Marxism, for example, a well-known political ideal and philosophy, is very much focused on the material world. For Marxists, there is no god. Humanity’s problems are caused by social forces and can be resolved through social action. 01_Singleton_Ch-01 Part I.indd 4 11-Jan-14 1:55:09 PM what is religion and spirituality? 5 All religions posit the existence of some kind of transcendence, that is, something greater than the individual and beyond the earthly or natural world. Followers of the Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – believe in the existence of a single invisible entity, called variously God, Yahweh or Allah. A belief in this entity is an irreducible part of these religions. The Hindu tradition posits the exis- tence of many gods. Some Buddhist traditions do not believe in the existence of a god or gods; indeed Buddhism is often described as ‘a philosophy of life’. However, Buddhists believe that when humans die they are reborn, a process that occurs many times over. It is possible to break free of this cycle and pass into a state where con- sciousness ceases to exist. The belief that one can be reborn is a belief in a different order of existence, one that transcends the ‘here and now’. Other Buddhist tradi- tions believe in a complex supernatural world with gods and demons. In contrast, the heroes of football are not gods, but mere mortal men and women. As such, and because it lacks a transcendent or otherworldly dimension, football cannot be counted as a religion. The transcendent element posited by all religions may or may not exist – a ques- tion we can not ultimately answer – but all religions proceed as if this transcendent dimension is real. That said, religion involves more than just a belief in the transcen- dent; it has several other important elements as well. This will be discussed briefly. The seven elements of religion Most readers would be familiar with hip-hop or rap music. For the purists of this musical genre, music is only part of the equation. The culture of hip-hop has five dis- tinct elements: rapping itself, dancing, graffiti, DJing and beat-boxing (drum noises made with mouth). To truly live the hip-hop life, or be immersed in its culture, a person must partake of all of these elements, and do so with other like-minded indi- viduals. So it is with other kinds of social life, such as religion. In his book Dimensions of the Sacred: An Anatomy of the World’s Beliefs (1996), renowned scholar Ninian Smart argues that religion has seven elements to it. These are: ritual; mythological; doctrinal; ethical; experiential; social and material. Each of the dimensions are explained below. Ri tual Religious rituals are deliberate, traditional actions and activities which forge a link between a religious person or religious community and the ‘transcendent’ (that which is beyond). Performing a religious ritual can assist a person to feel some kind of connection – be it intellectual, emotional or physical – to the transcendent. Every religion has distinct rituals. Well-known examples include prayer, Holy Com- munion, pilgrimage and meditation. Some religious rituals, like the Catholic Mass, or the Hajj (the pilgrimage to Islam’s Holy City of Mecca) are governed by formal rules, while other rituals occur informally and spontaneously, such as the Pentecostal 01_Singleton_Ch-01 Part I.indd 5 11-Jan-14 1:55:09 PM 6 making sense of religion and religious change Christian practice of ‘speaking in tongues’. (All of these rituals are discussed later in this book.) Mythological Religious myths are the stories and teachings shared among members of a religious group. These stories address topics such as the origins of the universe, ways in which to live, the nature of the universe or a religious group’s history. Calling something a ‘myth’ doesn’t mean it is untrue. Rather, calling it a ‘myth’ signifies that it is a story or teaching that has great social significance. Mostly, religious myths are recorded in sacred or important texts. Latter Day Saints (Mormons), a Christian group, have two sacred texts, the Book of Mormon and the Christian Bible. The Hindu tradition has many important scriptures, including the Bhagavad-Gita. In some religious tradi- tions, myths are shared by word of mouth. Doctrinal Religious doctrines are the formal or accepted teachings that govern a religion. Doctrines usually address matters of belief, practice or morality. If you attended a Catholic school you will recall reciting the Nicene Creed during Mass: ‘We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God …’. This statement of belief was first formulated in the fourth century CE. For Catholics, the sources of doctrine are scripture (the Bible) and tradition (the constant teaching of the Church). The same is true of most religions. Ethical Followers of a religion are expected to obey a code of ethics. These are the values and standards of behavior expected of the faithful (or even of all humans).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 103 Introduction to Religion
    University Studies Course Rationale Statement The study of our religious world from its historical context is vital for students to correctly view global human relationships and events in their world today. The modern world is one in which religion plays a central role in social, identity- making, political, and economic events, as well as in the lives of communities and individuals. There is an essential need for ongoing reflection on and questioning of religious traditions, issues, and values. The purpose of REL 201, Introduction to Religious Studies, is to promote understanding and reflection through use of critical examination of primary source materials and investigative surveys of religious history within class lectures and discussions. This class will engage students in critically thinking about religions, humanity, and global society. The critical thinking and writing skills that will be developed in this class will assist the student in any other class they may take. Course Catalog Description (found on the Religious Studies university webpage) REL 201: Introduction to Religious Studies Introduction to the academic interdisciplinary study of religion, including the basic concepts and methodologies employed in understanding religion and interpreting religious beliefs, practices and artifacts. Topics covered may include historical and contemporary debates on religious issues, morality, the sacred and the profane and related themes. Master Syllabus Course: REL 201 – Introduction to Religious Studies Cluster Requirement 4C Course Description: Introduction to Religious Studies introduces students to the academic study of religion as a global concept and phenomenon. This course discusses the definitions, evolution, and forms of religious worldviews and belief systems by examining social definition and identity making, anthropology, theology, symbolism, and literary analysis.
    [Show full text]
  • Definitions of "Religion"
    What IS “religion?” E.B. Tylor: "It seems best. .simply to claim as a minimum definition of Religion the belief in Spiritual Beings." James Frazer: Religion began in early attempts by humans to influence nature. Religion is an intermediate stage of development between magic and science. William James: “‘Religion’ means the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine…the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto." F. Schleiermacher: Religion is "the sense and taste for the infinite." Religion is a feeling of total dependence upon a source or power that is distinct from the world. Mircea Eliade: "It is unfortunate that we do not have at our disposal a more precise term than 'religion' to denote the experience of the sacred." Rudolf Otto: Religions emerge from a mysterious encounter with the sacred. The “sacred” is: “mysterium tremendum et fascinans” (“a mystery that causes trembling and fascination”) Emile Durkheim: Religion is "a system of ideas with which individuals represent to themselves the society of which they are members and the obscure but intimate relations which they have with it." "A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden, beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church all those who adhere to them." Sigmund Freud: "Religion would thus be the universal obsessional neurosis of humanity; like the obsessional neurosis of children, it arose out of the Oedipus complex, out of the relation to the father." Clifford Geertz: Religion is (1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.
    [Show full text]
  • THE LEGAL MEANING of RELIGION and BELIEF Modern Human Rights
    CHAPTER TWO THE LEGAL MEANING OF RELIGION AND BELIEF Modern human rights law has sought to avoid much philosophical controversy by asserting that the terms religion and belief are meant to refer to both theistic views of the universe, as well as atheistic, agnostic, rationalistic and other con- victions where religion and belief are absent. Because religion, in general, has been too hard to define, the United Nations has adopted instead a catalog of rights in the sphere of religion, under the heading of freedom of thought, con- science, and religion. The same approach has been followed in regional human rights instruments. None of the international and regional instruments addressing the freedom of rights of religion has attempted to define religion.1 Religion Some legal dictionaries have attempted to define the term religion more pre- cisely. Stroud’s Judicial Dictionary, for example, provides the following descrip- tion: “The essential elements of religion arc belief in and worship of God.” Here, the distinction between religion and belief is absent. Stroud’s further asserts that “religion and ethical principles must not be confused, for religion is concerned with man’s relation to God, ethics with man’s relation to man.”2 By comparison, Black’s Law Dictionary defines religion as “a [human’s] relation to Divinity, to reverence, worship, obedience, and submission to mandates and precepts of supernatural or superior beings. In its broadest sense [religion] includes all forms of belief in the existence of superior beings exercising power over human beings by volition, imposing rules of conduct, with future rewards and punishments.”3 These and similar dictionary definitions of religion contain several com- mon elements.
    [Show full text]
  • Defining Religion in a Multi-Cultural World
    The Pragmatics of Defining Religion in a Multi-cultural World Dr. Victoria Harrison University of Glasgow This is an archived version of ‘The Pragmatics of Defining Religion in a Multi-cultural World’, published in The International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 59 (2006): 133–152. The original article is available at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/4025242541886547/ Dr. V. Harrison Department of Philosophy University of Glasgow Glasgow G12 8QQ Scotland UK E-mail: [email protected] The Pragmatics of Defining Religion in a Multi-cultural World Abstract Few seem to have difficulty in distinguishing between religious and secular institutions, yet there is widespread disagreement regarding what “religion” actually means. Indeed, some go so far as to question whether there is anything at all distinctive about religions. Hence, formulating a definition of “religion” that can command wide assent has proven to be an extremely difficult task. In this article I consider the most prominent of the many rival definitions that have been proposed, the majority falling within three basic types: intellectual, affective and functional definitions. I conclude that there are pragmatic reasons for favouring the formerly popular view that essentialist definitions of “religions” are inadequate, and that religions should be construed, instead, as possessing a number of “family resemblances”. In so arguing, I provide a response to the view that there is nothing distinctive about religions, as well as to the recent claim that religions do not exist. Our world contains a striking diversity of religious traditions. Given that most of us probably have no trouble recognizing such traditions as religious, it is perhaps surprising that there is little agreement about what religion is or, indeed, if “it” is anything distinctive at all.
    [Show full text]
  • Religion and Violence
    Religion and Violence Edited by John L. Esposito Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Religions www.mdpi.com/journal/religions John L. Esposito (Ed.) Religion and Violence This book is a reprint of the special issue that appeared in the online open access journal Religions (ISSN 2077-1444) in 2015 (available at: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/ReligionViolence). Guest Editor John L. Esposito Georgetown University Washington Editorial Office MDPI AG Klybeckstrasse 64 Basel, Switzerland Publisher Shu-Kun Lin Assistant Editor Jie Gu 1. Edition 2016 MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan ISBN 978-3-03842-143-6 (Hbk) ISBN 978-3-03842-144-3 (PDF) © 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. All articles in this volume are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY), which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. However, the dissemination and distribution of physical copies of this book as a whole is restricted to MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. III Table of Contents List of Contributors ............................................................................................................... V Preface ............................................................................................................................... VII Jocelyne Cesari Religion and Politics: What Does God Have To Do with It? Reprinted from: Religions 2015, 6(4), 1330-1344 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/6/4/1330 ............................................................................ 1 Mark LeVine When Art Is the Weapon: Culture and Resistance Confronting Violence in the Post-Uprisings Arab World Reprinted from: Religions 2015, 6(4), 1277-1313 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/6/4/1277 .........................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • What Isn't Religion?*
    What Isn’t Religion?* Kevin Schilbrack / Western Carolina University I. INTRODUCTION This article is motivated by the sense that the category of religion has be- come sprawling, overly inclusive, and unwieldy. This problem is partly be- cause the multiple definitions of religion in play today are so various and divergent, but it is also because some of those definitions are so capacious that the term “religion” loses its analytic usefulness. The study of religions will be helped, I judge, by a principled recommendation about what to exclude from the category. Because the promiscuity of what I will call “pure functional” definitions of religion is central to my case, it may be worth providing a sense of the frustration of those who oppose them. In an extremely influential paper written half a century ago, Melford Spiro complains that with “½pure func- tional definitions of religion ...it is virtually impossible to set any substan- tive boundary to religion and, thus, to distinguish it from other sociocultural phenomena. Social solidarity, anxiety reduction, confidence in unpredictable situations, and the like, are functions which may be served by any or all cul- tural phenomena—Communism and Catholicism, monotheism and monog- amy, images and imperialism—and unless religion is defined substantively, it would be impossible to delineate its boundaries.”1 More recently, Timo- thy Fitzgerald complains that, given a pure functional definition of reli- gion,“one finds in the published work of scholars working within religion de- partments the term ‘religion’ being used to refer to such diverse institutions as totems ...Christmas cakes, nature, the value of hierarchy, vegetarianism, witchcraft, veneration of the Emperor, the Rights of man, supernatural tech- nology possession, amulets, charms, the tea ceremony, ethics, ritual in gen- eral, The Imperial Rescript of Education, the motor show, salvation, Marx- ism, Maoism, Freudianism, marriage, gift exchange, and so on.
    [Show full text]
  • THE ROLE of RELIGION in CONFLICT and PEACE- BUILDING the British Academy Is the UK’S Independent National Academy Representing the Humanities and Social Sciences
    THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN CONFLICT AND PEACE- BUILDING The British Academy is the UK’s independent national academy representing the humanities and social sciences. For over a century it has supported and celebrated the best in UK and international research and helped connect the expertise of those working in these disciplines with the wider public. The Academy supports innovative research and outstanding people, informs policy and seeks to raise the level of public engagement with some of the biggest issues of our time, through policy reports, publications and public events. The Academy represents the UK’s research excellence worldwide in a fast changing global environment. It promotes UK research in international arenas, fosters a global approach across UK research, and provides leadership in developing global links and expertise. www.britishacademy.ac.uk The Role of Religion in Conflict and Peacebuilding September 2015 THE BRITISH ACADEMY 10 –11 Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5AH www.britiahacademy.ac.uk Registered Charity: Number 233176 © The British Academy 2015 Published September 2015 ISBN 978-0-85672-618-7 Designed by Soapbox, www.soapbox.co.uk Printed by Team Contents Acknowledgements iv Abbreviations v About the authors vi Executive summary 1 1. Introduction 3 2. Definitions 5 3. Methodology 11 4. Literature review 14 5. Case study I: Religion and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 46 6. Case study II: Mali 57 7. Case study III: Bosnia and Herzegovina 64 8. Conclusions 70 9. Recommendations for policymakers and future research 73 10. Bibliography 75 Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to Leonie Fleischmann and Vladimir Kmec for their assistance in the preparation of this report and to Philip Lewis, Desislava Stoitchkova and Natasha Bevan in the British Academy’s international policy team.
    [Show full text]
  • "Religion": Protestant Presuppositions in the Critique of the Concept of Hindu
    “HINDUISM” AND THE HISTORY OF “RELIGION”: PROTESTANT PRESUPPOSITIONS IN THE CRITIQUE OF THE CONCEPT OF HINDUISM Will Sweetman The claim that Hinduism is not a religion, or not a single religion, is so often repeated that it might be considered an axiom of research into the religious beliefs and practices of the Hindus, were it not typically ignored immediately after having been stated. The arguments for this claim in the work of several representative scholars are examined in order to show that they depend, implicitly or explicitly, upon a notion of religion which is too much influenced by Christian conceptions of what a religion is, a conception which, if it has not already been discarded by scholars of religion, certainly ought to be. Even where such Christian models are explicitly disavowed, the claim that Hinduism is not a religion can be shown to depend upon a particular religious conception of the nature of the world and our possible knowledge of it, which scholars of religion cannot share. Two claims which I take to have been established by recent work on the history of the concept “religion” provide the starting point for my argument here. The first is that, while the concept emerged from a culture which was still shaped by its Christian history, nevertheless the establishment of the modern sense of the term was the result of “a process of extracting the word from its Christian overtones” (Bossy 1982: 12).1 The second is that the concept, like all abstractions, im- plies a categorization of phenomena which is imposed upon rather than emergent from them: “religion” is not a natural kind.
    [Show full text]
  • Religion.Pdf
    METHOD Method and Theory in the Study & THEORY in the STUDY OF of Religion �6 (�0�4) �46-�86 RELIGION brill.com/mtsr What is Religion? The Unexplained Subject Matter of Religious Studies Michael Bergunder WTS, University of Heidelberg, Kisselgasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg/Germany [email protected] Abstract Religious studies cannot agree on a common definition of its subject matter. To break the impasse, important insights from recent discussions about post-foundational political theory might be of some help. However, they can only be of benefit in con- versations about “religion” when the previous debate on the subject matter of religious studies is framed slightly differently. This is done in the first part of the article. It is, then, shown on closer inspection of past discussions on “religion” that a consensus- capable, contemporary, everyday understanding of “religion,” here called Religion 2, is assumed, though it remains unexplained and unreflected upon. The second part of the article shows how Religion 2 can be newly conceptualized through the lens of Ernesto Laclau’s political theory, combined with concepts from Judith Butler and Michel Foucault, and how Religion 2 can be established as the historical subject mat- ter of religious studies. Though concrete historical reconstructions of Religion 2 always remain contested, I argue that this does not prevent it from being generally accepted as the subject matter of religious studies. The third part discusses the previous findings in the light of postcolonial concerns about potential Eurocentrism in the concept of “religion.” It is argued that Religion 2 has to be understood in a fully global perspective, and, as a consequence, more research on the global religious history of the 19th and 20th centuries is urgently needed.
    [Show full text]
  • Twentieth Century Approaches to Defining Religion: Clifford Geertz and the First Amendment Barbara Barnett
    University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class Volume 7 | Issue 1 Article 8 Twentieth Century Approaches to Defining Religion: Clifford Geertz and the First Amendment Barbara Barnett Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/rrgc Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, First Amendment Commons, Religion Commons, and the Religion Law Commons Recommended Citation Barbara Barnett, Twentieth Century Approaches to Defining Religion: Clifford Geertz and the First Amendment, 7 U. Md. L.J. Race Relig. Gender & Class 93 (2007). Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/rrgc/vol7/iss1/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TWENTIETH CENTURY APPROACHES TO DEFINING RELIGION: CLIFFORD GEERTZ AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT BARBRA BARNETT* Religious freedom is a fundamental feature of a democratic so- ciety.' In the United States, religious freedom is guaranteed through the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment. The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights begins: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise the- reof.",2 Although given pride of place in the Bill of Rights, there has been confusion and controversy over the meaning, scope, and purpose of these two phrases3 among judges, lawyers, and constitutional scho- lars since the Constitutional Convention. The complexities of inter- preting the two dimensions of religious freedom guaranteed by these two clauses increased with the adoption of the Fourteenth Amend- ment's incorporation clause, a growth in both religious and cultural di- versity, and expansion of governmental involvement in the daily lives of individual citizens.
    [Show full text]
  • The Concept of Religion
    Note The Concept of Religion Eduardo Pefialver 1. INTRODUCTION: WHY A CONSTITUTIONAL DEFINITION OF RELIGION IS DESIRABLE The First Amendment guarantees that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."' The great majority of modern judicial decisions interpreting the Religion Clauses have focused on determining what constitutes a "law respecting the establishment" or what is involved in "prohibiting the free exercise.",2 Far less frequently, however, have the courts expressly considered the meaning of the concept that stands at the very heart of the Religion Clauses: religion. At first glance, such an endeavor may seem to be altogether unnecessary. Religion is a commonly used and widely understood term in our everyday language, not some obscure term of art in need of technical definition. Indeed, when the Supreme Court discusses "religion," most of the time it uses the word unreflectively, as if it were completely self-defining.' This laissez-faire approach assumes that religion should be used for constitutional purposes in the same way that it is used in everyday language I. U.S. CONST. amend. I. 2. See, e.g., Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577 (1992) (holding that a rabbi's prayer at a public high school graduation ceremony constituted an establishment of religion): Emplo)mci D1% %Smith. 494 U S 872 (1990) (holding that Oregon's dismissal of two Native Americans for their religious use of peyote did not violate the employees' free exercise rights). Edwards v. Aguillard. 482 U.S. 578 (1987) (holding that a Louisiana law requiring public schools to ieach creation scicnce whenever esolution was taught was an unconstitutional establishment of religion): Wallace %,.Jaffree.
    [Show full text]
  • The Meaning of "Religion" in the First Amendment
    Duquesne Law Review Volume 40 Number 2 Article 3 2002 The Meaning of "Religion" in the First Amendment Lee J. Strang Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/dlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Lee J. Strang, The Meaning of "Religion" in the First Amendment, 40 Duq. L. Rev. 181 (2002). Available at: https://dsc.duq.edu/dlr/vol40/iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Duquesne Law Review by an authorized editor of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. The Meaning of "Religion" in the First Amendment Lee J. Strang I. INTRODUCTION This Article attempts to define the meaning of the word "religion" in the First Amendment. In doing so, this Article will not sidestep the debate over the emphasis on original meaning in constitutional interpretation, and instead draws upon the meaning attributed to the word "religion" in the Constitution by the Framers and Ratifiers of the First Amendment. While this Article contends that the criteria by which to judge the meaning of the text of the Constitution is the meaning attributed to the text by the Ratifiers, one must be mindful of the position taken by almost all constitutional scholars; that the original meaning of the text is important and is at least the starting point of constitutional interpretation.' The meaning sought is not the subjective meaning attributed by individual Ratifiers to the word religion, but rather the objectified meaning of the text as generally understood by all 2 the Ratifiers.
    [Show full text]