Shanker Thapa's Conceptual Analysis Of Religion And Religious Pluralism - By Shanker Thapa
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To be cited as: Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.
Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism Dr. Shanker Thapa Religion: A Dialectical Approach: Religion as such is a way of life. It has important role in setting the course of a civilization. In traditional societies individuals have been clearly and ambiguously identified where high degree of unity and integration is laid upon the institutional structure of religion. In the pluralistic societies, identity becomes more ambiguous because continuity of socialization is undermined along with its clarity.1 It is rather logical to start the introductory part of this article with definitions of religion and religious pluralism because it largely intends to deal with conceptual aspect of religion, religious pluralism and religious minority culture. It also deals with the secularization process as well. Therefore, it starts with materialistic interpretation of religion. The evolutionists, positivists and socialist reformers of the Marxian kind viewed religion as irrelevant to progress. Marx's understanding of religion is sporadic and complex in nature 2It is also related to the Marxist concept of alienation, which is an aspect of Marxian dialectics 3 According to it, a specialized division of labour makes man to forget that he himself externalizes his inner potentialities towards his products. Those products are regarded as object and thus, alienated from oneself. For Marx, religion was always a form of alienation because religious belief involves the attribution of mystical entities of capabilities or powers that are in fact possessed by man. It, obviously means that man projects in inner capabilities around him. Those projections are separated from the individual and finally mystified itself. 4 The reification has been considered as the extreme case of alienation. So, religion as a reified consciousness is resulted from the theory of alienation. Thus, Karl Marx has interpreted religion on the basis of theory of alienation. In fact, the scholars like Mercea Aliade viewed 1
2 3 4
Peter Berger, "Social Mobility and Personal Identity", European Journal of Sociology, Vol. 5, 1964, 331-344 ; Kim Choung Suh, Religious Pluralism and the Concept of Religious Revalorization : A Study in the Thought of Mircea Eliade and Peter, L. Berger, (Ph.D. Dissertation : U.C. Santa Barbara 1993, pp.69-70. Comstock, W. Richard, "The Marxist Critique of Religion, A Persisting Ambiguity", Journal of the American Academy of Religion, xliv, 1976, pp.337. Merlan, P., "Alienation of Marx's Political Economy and Philosophy", in M. Natanson (ed.), Phenomenology and Social Reality, The Hague, Nijhoff, 1970, p.201. Easton, L. and Guddat, K., Writings of Young Marx on Philosophy and Society , New York, Doubleday, 1967, pp.165-166.
1
To be cited as: Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.
that religion is always understood in terms of the sacred, and sacred for him, is first of all, an ontological phenomenon. Thus, it is ontologically explained to revalorize something religiously. Religious belief is something which is attributed to make life meaningful and deals with disparities between expectations and actual experience. The issue of defining religion in sociological perspective has been dominated by the conception of Emile Durkheim. He defines religion as"A unified system of belief 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 them" 5 E.B.Taylor, a prominent anthropologist has proposed a minimum definition of religion in this way By requiring in this definition the belief in a supreme deity or of judgment after death, the adoration of idols or practices of sacrifice, or other partially diffused doctrines or rites, no doubt many tribes may be excluded from the category of religious. But such narrow definition has the fault of identifying religion rather with particular development than with the deeper motive which underlines them. It seems best to fall back at once on his essential source and simply to claim, as a minimum definition of religion, the belief in spiritual being. 6 This definition could provide at least one base line for an interactionist approach to culturally defined divine human encounters7 Melford Spiro also took an explicit defense to Taylor's definition of religion. He viewed that Durkheim's insistence on sacred has confused the cross cultural applicability of concepts8. The definition of religion in terms of spiritual being has not, there by lost its cross cultural applicability. Mythological belief systems without statements about gods become either interesting cases in their own right or points of contrast for belief system which are, in 5 6 7 8
Durkheim Emile, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1976, p- 47. Taylor, E.B., Primitive Culture, Vol. I, London, J Murray and company, 1891, p- 499. Bryan S. Turner, Weber and Islam, London, Rouletge and Kegan Paul, 1974, p- 45. Spiro, Melford, "Religion: Problem of Definition and Explanation", in M. Banton (ed.), Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religions, London, 1966, p- 85-126.
2
To be cited as: Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.
terms of our definition incontrovertibly religious. As Spiro claims - the belief in super human beings and in their power to assist or to harm approaches universal distribution and his belief is the core variable which ought to be designated by any definition of religion.9 Therefore, the actual religious behaviour of human society is claimed in this definition and a notion that the God is still powerful, is a vital component to take into account. However, the phrases such as ‘harmonization of God’ and ‘marketization of religion’ are such themes which are very famous among sociologists of religion. One more definition is given here for better understanding of the dialectic approach of Karl Marx and his way of analysis of religion. He differed with the views of Hegel and Feuerbach. His approach saw it as a reflection of the corrupt world in which men are estranged. He took religion as a reversed world. The struggle against religion is therefore, mediately the fight against the other world, of which religion is the spiritual aroma. For Marx, religion is an ideological expression of the contradictions in the human relationship and therefore, the criticism unmasks the problems at the root of social relations.10 Karl Marx's reduction of religious consciousness to a mere superstructure reflection is less than convincing. His emphasis on the social relations of production as the infrastructure determinant of human praxis overlooks the impact of revelation as a subjectively autonomous and casual domain of action. Otto Maduro, a neo-Marxist emphasizes three factors on the status of religion.11 1
Religion is not merely a passive effect of social relations of production. But it is an active element of social dynamics conditioned by social process.
2
Religion is not always a subordinate element within social processes. It may often play an important part in the birth and consolidation of a particular social structure; and
3
Religion is not necessarily a functional, reproductive or conservative factor in the society; it is often one of the main available channels to bring about a social revolution.
Religious Pluralism: 9 10
Ibid, p- 94 Marx, K., "Thesis on Feuerbach'", in Karl Marx and F. Engels, On Religions, Moscow, Progress Publisher, n.d., pp. 41-42. 11 Maduro, Otto, "New Marxist Approach To the Relative Autonomy of Religion", Sociological Analysis, Vol. 38, No.4, 1977, p - 366 -
3
To be cited as: Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.
The religious pluralism, in fact, has greater importance in the existence and identity of a particular religious group. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the conceptual aspect of religious pluralism. It further helps to analyze religious identity. The term is usually referred to as the coexistence of heterogeneous situations in a competitive situation. It has usually been applied only to those cases in which different religious groups are tolerated by the state and then those religions are engage in free competition with each other.12 Now, it may be concluded that here pluralism is referred to as the existence of the heterogeneous groups. Peter Berger has used the term pluralism to indicate heterogeneous situation in connection with independent groups, their world views etc. Because there are diverse factors of heterogeneity, the notion of rivals engaging in competition are also diverse. Considering his concerns, four major rival relationships can be taken into account in terms of factors of heterogeneity.13 1.
Non-religious (sociologism Vs psychologism, historicism).
2.
Extra-religious-(religion Vs nationalism).
3.
Intra-religious (Protestant Vs Catholicism, Baptist Vs Presbyterian
4.
Inter-religious (Christianity Vs Buddhism / Hinduism Vs Islam)
These types of rival relationships stand at the core of religious pluralism. Thus, Berger's understanding of pluralism can be analyzed in this quadruple conceptual paradigm. Even from the non-religious sociological views, it shows aspects of pluralism such as modernization, the role differentiation by technological production, polarization of public and private sector, the disintegration of plausibility structures etc. In
14
the extra religious (socio-
religious) aspect, the dimensions are the problem of secularization, religion-state relationship.15 The intra-religious dimension (denominational and parochial) includes the ecumenical aspects of pluralism derived from the marketized situation of religious institutions.16 Berger further emphasizes inter religious dimension or the comparative religion 12
13 14 15 16
A. Berger, Peter, The Sacred Canopy-Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion, New York, Doubleday, 1967, pp. 135 B- Berger, P. and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, New York, Doubleday, 1966, p-125 Kim, f.n. no.1, pp. 64-94 Berger, P., Brigitte, Berger and Hansfried Kellner, The Homeless Mind: Modernization and Consciousness, New York, Random House, 1973, pp. 109-115. Berger, f. n. no 12A, pp. 127 and 155 Berger, P., "Social Mobility and Personal Identity", European Journal of Sociology, Vol. 5, 1964, pp. 77-93
4
To be cited as: Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.
in which major aspects are noted as - paganization or dechristianization. In the contexts of Muslims, it can be mentioned as deIslamization .17 Similar, terminology may be the socialized version of religion for new religious movements. It can be further elaborated in the analysis of religion in connection with modernism or post-modernism. The details of pluralism of religion and its theoretical analysis help us to understand different aspect of a religion. Therefore, pluralism as such is explained in more detail because it is more or less concerned with identity of individual or a group. But individual role in the society is fragmented by division of life into various sectors. The public role of individuals is coexistent with their works. However, this phenomenon of dual role of individuals demands to rationalize it. The identity of an individual as a religious unit within the particular religious boundary does not remain as a personal one. Since such an identity is tied with the identity of entire society as a religious group, it is however not personal but impersonal and anonymous. In the societies where higher emphasis is laid upon the unity, integration, confinement within the religio-cultural boundary in an orthodox way, the community as a whole is continuously identified in its entirety. Thus, the individual members are also identified continuously and unambiguously as a social unit. For an instance, the Muslim minority in an orthodox neighbourhood always find their own identity and institutionalization process very perfect and unambiguous. However only changes in the traditional life pattern based on sacred religious scriptures and growing pace of cultural assimilation brings changes in the perception of religious identity. As the result, it becomes ambiguous. These kinds of changes make the new identity differentiated from the traditional one. It is a process that makes identity of a religious group to be changed gradually. However, it should be noted that the identity frame changes among the same group of minorities living in different geographical regions. But there is certain relationship between identity and individualization of religion. The uncertainty of one's own public religion makes a man to pursue private religion.
18
Thus, this type of individualization has something to do with
common identity. At the moment, the major religions or several other smaller groups within a religion is also characterized by voluntary adherence and mutual competition among religious institutions or the smaller groups. In fact, it is the marketization of religious institutions for 17
Thapa, S., "Some Aspects of Muslim Minority and Problem of Identification", A Research Report submitted to the Research Division, T.U., Kathmandu, 1997, pp. 46-48 18 Kim, f. n. no 1, pp- 71-72.
5
To be cited as: Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.
voluntary followers. In this case, it is not authoritatively imposed but comes to be operated by
the logic of the market economics. This kind of activities also has significant impact on faith as well as identity behaviour of the adherents or other major or minor religious groups as well.
Prof. Dr. Shanker Thapa Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. Email: [email protected]
6
Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism Dr. Shanker Thapa Religion: A Dialectical Approach: Religion as such is a way of life. It has important role in setting the course of a civilization. In traditional societies individuals have been clearly and ambiguously identified where high degree of unity and integration is laid upon the institutional structure of religion. In the pluralistic societies, identity becomes more ambiguous because continuity of socialization is undermined along with its clarity.1 It is rather logical to start the introductory part of this article with definitions of religion and religious pluralism because it largely intends to deal with conceptual aspect of religion, religious pluralism and religious minority culture. It also deals with the secularization process as well. Therefore, it starts with materialistic interpretation of religion. The evolutionists, positivists and socialist reformers of the Marxian kind viewed religion as irrelevant to progress. Marx's understanding of religion is sporadic and complex in nature 2It is also related to the Marxist concept of alienation, which is an aspect of Marxian dialectics 3 According to it, a specialized division of labour makes man to forget that he himself externalizes his inner potentialities towards his products. Those products are regarded as object and thus, alienated from oneself. For Marx, religion was always a form of alienation because religious belief involves the attribution of mystical entities of capabilities or powers that are in fact possessed by man. It, obviously means that man projects in inner capabilities around him. Those projections are separated from the individual and finally mystified itself. 4 The reification has been considered as the extreme case of alienation. So, religion as a reified consciousness is resulted from the theory of alienation. Thus, Karl Marx has interpreted religion on the basis of theory of alienation. In fact, the scholars like Mercea Aliade viewed 1
2 3 4
Peter Berger, "Social Mobility and Personal Identity", European Journal of Sociology, Vol. 5, 1964, 331-344 ; Kim Choung Suh, Religious Pluralism and the Concept of Religious Revalorization : A Study in the Thought of Mircea Eliade and Peter, L. Berger, (Ph.D. Dissertation : U.C. Santa Barbara 1993, pp.69-70. Comstock, W. Richard, "The Marxist Critique of Religion, A Persisting Ambiguity", Journal of the American Academy of Religion, xliv, 1976, pp.337. Merlan, P., "Alienation of Marx's Political Economy and Philosophy", in M. Natanson (ed.), Phenomenology and Social Reality, The Hague, Nijhoff, 1970, p.201. Easton, L. and Guddat, K., Writings of Young Marx on Philosophy and Society , New York, Doubleday, 1967, pp.165-166.
1
To be cited as: Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.
that religion is always understood in terms of the sacred, and sacred for him, is first of all, an ontological phenomenon. Thus, it is ontologically explained to revalorize something religiously. Religious belief is something which is attributed to make life meaningful and deals with disparities between expectations and actual experience. The issue of defining religion in sociological perspective has been dominated by the conception of Emile Durkheim. He defines religion as"A unified system of belief 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 them" 5 E.B.Taylor, a prominent anthropologist has proposed a minimum definition of religion in this way By requiring in this definition the belief in a supreme deity or of judgment after death, the adoration of idols or practices of sacrifice, or other partially diffused doctrines or rites, no doubt many tribes may be excluded from the category of religious. But such narrow definition has the fault of identifying religion rather with particular development than with the deeper motive which underlines them. It seems best to fall back at once on his essential source and simply to claim, as a minimum definition of religion, the belief in spiritual being. 6 This definition could provide at least one base line for an interactionist approach to culturally defined divine human encounters7 Melford Spiro also took an explicit defense to Taylor's definition of religion. He viewed that Durkheim's insistence on sacred has confused the cross cultural applicability of concepts8. The definition of religion in terms of spiritual being has not, there by lost its cross cultural applicability. Mythological belief systems without statements about gods become either interesting cases in their own right or points of contrast for belief system which are, in 5 6 7 8
Durkheim Emile, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1976, p- 47. Taylor, E.B., Primitive Culture, Vol. I, London, J Murray and company, 1891, p- 499. Bryan S. Turner, Weber and Islam, London, Rouletge and Kegan Paul, 1974, p- 45. Spiro, Melford, "Religion: Problem of Definition and Explanation", in M. Banton (ed.), Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religions, London, 1966, p- 85-126.
2
To be cited as: Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.
terms of our definition incontrovertibly religious. As Spiro claims - the belief in super human beings and in their power to assist or to harm approaches universal distribution and his belief is the core variable which ought to be designated by any definition of religion.9 Therefore, the actual religious behaviour of human society is claimed in this definition and a notion that the God is still powerful, is a vital component to take into account. However, the phrases such as ‘harmonization of God’ and ‘marketization of religion’ are such themes which are very famous among sociologists of religion. One more definition is given here for better understanding of the dialectic approach of Karl Marx and his way of analysis of religion. He differed with the views of Hegel and Feuerbach. His approach saw it as a reflection of the corrupt world in which men are estranged. He took religion as a reversed world. The struggle against religion is therefore, mediately the fight against the other world, of which religion is the spiritual aroma. For Marx, religion is an ideological expression of the contradictions in the human relationship and therefore, the criticism unmasks the problems at the root of social relations.10 Karl Marx's reduction of religious consciousness to a mere superstructure reflection is less than convincing. His emphasis on the social relations of production as the infrastructure determinant of human praxis overlooks the impact of revelation as a subjectively autonomous and casual domain of action. Otto Maduro, a neo-Marxist emphasizes three factors on the status of religion.11 1
Religion is not merely a passive effect of social relations of production. But it is an active element of social dynamics conditioned by social process.
2
Religion is not always a subordinate element within social processes. It may often play an important part in the birth and consolidation of a particular social structure; and
3
Religion is not necessarily a functional, reproductive or conservative factor in the society; it is often one of the main available channels to bring about a social revolution.
Religious Pluralism: 9 10
Ibid, p- 94 Marx, K., "Thesis on Feuerbach'", in Karl Marx and F. Engels, On Religions, Moscow, Progress Publisher, n.d., pp. 41-42. 11 Maduro, Otto, "New Marxist Approach To the Relative Autonomy of Religion", Sociological Analysis, Vol. 38, No.4, 1977, p - 366 -
3
To be cited as: Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.
The religious pluralism, in fact, has greater importance in the existence and identity of a particular religious group. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the conceptual aspect of religious pluralism. It further helps to analyze religious identity. The term is usually referred to as the coexistence of heterogeneous situations in a competitive situation. It has usually been applied only to those cases in which different religious groups are tolerated by the state and then those religions are engage in free competition with each other.12 Now, it may be concluded that here pluralism is referred to as the existence of the heterogeneous groups. Peter Berger has used the term pluralism to indicate heterogeneous situation in connection with independent groups, their world views etc. Because there are diverse factors of heterogeneity, the notion of rivals engaging in competition are also diverse. Considering his concerns, four major rival relationships can be taken into account in terms of factors of heterogeneity.13 1.
Non-religious (sociologism Vs psychologism, historicism).
2.
Extra-religious-(religion Vs nationalism).
3.
Intra-religious (Protestant Vs Catholicism, Baptist Vs Presbyterian
4.
Inter-religious (Christianity Vs Buddhism / Hinduism Vs Islam)
These types of rival relationships stand at the core of religious pluralism. Thus, Berger's understanding of pluralism can be analyzed in this quadruple conceptual paradigm. Even from the non-religious sociological views, it shows aspects of pluralism such as modernization, the role differentiation by technological production, polarization of public and private sector, the disintegration of plausibility structures etc. In
14
the extra religious (socio-
religious) aspect, the dimensions are the problem of secularization, religion-state relationship.15 The intra-religious dimension (denominational and parochial) includes the ecumenical aspects of pluralism derived from the marketized situation of religious institutions.16 Berger further emphasizes inter religious dimension or the comparative religion 12
13 14 15 16
A. Berger, Peter, The Sacred Canopy-Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion, New York, Doubleday, 1967, pp. 135 B- Berger, P. and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, New York, Doubleday, 1966, p-125 Kim, f.n. no.1, pp. 64-94 Berger, P., Brigitte, Berger and Hansfried Kellner, The Homeless Mind: Modernization and Consciousness, New York, Random House, 1973, pp. 109-115. Berger, f. n. no 12A, pp. 127 and 155 Berger, P., "Social Mobility and Personal Identity", European Journal of Sociology, Vol. 5, 1964, pp. 77-93
4
To be cited as: Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.
in which major aspects are noted as - paganization or dechristianization. In the contexts of Muslims, it can be mentioned as deIslamization .17 Similar, terminology may be the socialized version of religion for new religious movements. It can be further elaborated in the analysis of religion in connection with modernism or post-modernism. The details of pluralism of religion and its theoretical analysis help us to understand different aspect of a religion. Therefore, pluralism as such is explained in more detail because it is more or less concerned with identity of individual or a group. But individual role in the society is fragmented by division of life into various sectors. The public role of individuals is coexistent with their works. However, this phenomenon of dual role of individuals demands to rationalize it. The identity of an individual as a religious unit within the particular religious boundary does not remain as a personal one. Since such an identity is tied with the identity of entire society as a religious group, it is however not personal but impersonal and anonymous. In the societies where higher emphasis is laid upon the unity, integration, confinement within the religio-cultural boundary in an orthodox way, the community as a whole is continuously identified in its entirety. Thus, the individual members are also identified continuously and unambiguously as a social unit. For an instance, the Muslim minority in an orthodox neighbourhood always find their own identity and institutionalization process very perfect and unambiguous. However only changes in the traditional life pattern based on sacred religious scriptures and growing pace of cultural assimilation brings changes in the perception of religious identity. As the result, it becomes ambiguous. These kinds of changes make the new identity differentiated from the traditional one. It is a process that makes identity of a religious group to be changed gradually. However, it should be noted that the identity frame changes among the same group of minorities living in different geographical regions. But there is certain relationship between identity and individualization of religion. The uncertainty of one's own public religion makes a man to pursue private religion.
18
Thus, this type of individualization has something to do with
common identity. At the moment, the major religions or several other smaller groups within a religion is also characterized by voluntary adherence and mutual competition among religious institutions or the smaller groups. In fact, it is the marketization of religious institutions for 17
Thapa, S., "Some Aspects of Muslim Minority and Problem of Identification", A Research Report submitted to the Research Division, T.U., Kathmandu, 1997, pp. 46-48 18 Kim, f. n. no 1, pp- 71-72.
5
To be cited as: Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.
voluntary followers. In this case, it is not authoritatively imposed but comes to be operated by
the logic of the market economics. This kind of activities also has significant impact on faith as well as identity behaviour of the adherents or other major or minor religious groups as well.
Prof. Dr. Shanker Thapa Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. Email: [email protected]
6
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