summary of jonathan z. smith’s "religion, religions, religious"
210.14 c934
A. chronicle of usage religion:
1. the original concept of ‘religion’ by richard eden, treatyse of the newe india, 1553:
1) not a native category, nor a self-characterization
2) universality, ubiquitous phenomenon
3) a generic category in constructing the 'second order'
4) rather theological than anthropological
1.1 etymology
1) prior to 16th century, irrelevant to contemporary usage
2) 'reread' or 'to be careful': lactantius, divine instututes, 4th c., augustine, on true religion, 5th c., william camden, britannia, 1586
3) 'careful performance or ritual obligations': of cultic sense and individual monasticism, herman cortes, carta de relacion, 1520, 64
2. development in 16th and 17th centuries
1) assimilated by cortes was 'religion' systematically categorized as dual:
catholic religious orders, moral history
2) 'belief system resulting in ceremonial behavior, custom, superstition, idolatry, sacrifice, feasts' (acosta)
3) 'antiquities' (columbus)
4) idolatry + cannibalism v. christian practice = comparative projects and critical inquiries → alternation from ritual aspect to dialectical
3. development in 18th
1) 'virtue, as founded upon reverence of God, and expectations of future rewards and punishments', samuel johnson, dictionary of the english language, 1771
2) 'to know God, and to render Him a reasonable service, are the two principal objects of religion... man appears to be formed to adore, but not to comprehend, the supreme being', encyclopaedia britannica, 1771
3) morphological german language: glaube v. religione (plural form) → interest in 'religions'
B. study of 'religions':
1) origin: 'the true religion can be but one, and that which God Himself teacheth[,]... all other religions being but strayings from Him, whereby man wander in the darke, and in labyrinthine errour', samuel purchas, purchas his pilgrimage: or relations of the world and the religions observed in all ages and places discovered, 1613
2) 'religious beliefs and practices based on rational understanding that all people allegedly can discover for themselves and can warrant by rational reflection'
v.
'that which is held to be common to the different actual faiths that have been and are present in the world' demonstrated by david pailan, 1994
3) why there's or there's not an impasse of religions study?
'if God, then from the beginning gave men a religion... he must have giv'n them likewise sufficient means of knowing it... if God never intended mankind shou'd at any time be without religion, or have false religion; and there be but one true religion, which all have been ever bound to believe, and profess... all men, at all times, must have had sufficient means to discover whatever God design'd they shou'd know and practice... He has giv'n them no other means for his, but the use of reason... there was form the beginning but one true religion, which all men might know was their duty to embrace... by natural religion, i understand the belief of the existence of a God, and the sense and practice of those duties, which resulf from the knowledge, we by our reason, have of Him and his perfections; and of ourselves, and our won imperfections, and of relations we stand in to Him, and to our fellow creatures; the reason and the nature of thins.', matthew tindal, christianity as old as the creation; the gospel, a republicantion of the religion of nature, 1730s
4) questions of truth?
if 'religion is defined as the belief of invisible, intelligent power, through widely distributed, it is not universal, nor is there commonality, for no two nations, and scarce any two men, have ever agreed precisely in the same sentiments.' therefore 'religion fails the minimal requirements for innateness, that it be absolutely universal in all nations and ages and has always a precise, determinate object, which it inflexibly pursues.' hence, 'the first religious principles must be secondary.', david hume, the natural history of religion, ca.1749; four dissertations, 1757
5) questions of origin?
'polytheism or idolatry was... the first and most ancient religion of mankind. its origin must be sought in the ordinary affections of human life. filled with anxiety, human beings seek the unknown causes that become the constant object of our hope and fear, the primary human experience, which becomes a secondary religious interpretation when these 'unknown causes are personified through imagination.', david hume, the natural history of religion, ca.1749; four dissertations, 1757
C. is the study 'religious' enough since 19th century?
1) the multifold use of reason
'the goal of the inquiry was to make religion intelligible by discovering precisely where it is situated within the wide range of interactive human powers and faculties.', wlater capps, 1995
2) taxonomic issues referring to explosion of data: roughly at least 15 genres
3) dualistic? ours? theirs?
4) the initial problem for a classification of the religions is the disaggregation of this category!
5) anthropological approaches in 19th century focused 'natural religious categories on 'primitive people' segmented as fetishism, totemism, shamanism, anthropomorphism, pre-animism, animism, family gods, guardian spirits, ancestor worship, departmental gods to name but a few...
6) high religions, spiritualized triad classified by languages, christianity, mohammedanism, buddhism, w. d. whitney, 1881
7) new def division of natural religions and ethical religions, cornelius petrus tiele, outline of the history of religion to the spread of unversal religions, 1876
7.1) three families of natural religions:
a. polydaemonistic magical religions under the control of animism
b. purified or organized magical religions, therianthropic polytheism
c. anthropomorphic polytheism
7.2) the rest is ethical, laws, holy scripture: taoism, confucianism, brahamanism, jainism, primitive buddhism, mazdaism, mosaism, judaism...
7.3) christianity>islam (not original, an unripe fruit) v. judaism; buddhism 'neglects the divine and atheistic in its origin, it very soon becomes infected by the most fantastic mythology and the most childish superstitions.', tiele, 1884, 20:358-71
8) world religions expanded to seven:
hinduism, buddhism, chinese religions, japanese religions, islam, judaism, christianity
9) other taxonomical ideas:
a. language analog, f. max mueller, enquiries touching the diversity of languages and religions, 1873, 143
b. statistical, geographical, demographical, ethnographical, nativistic approaches...
10) ultimate concern, paul tillich, 1959, 7-8
11) revival of anthropological def as 'superhuman beings, melford e. spiro, 1966,96
D. appendix by j. z. smith:
religion is not a native term; it is a term created by scholars for their intellectual purposes and therefore is theirs to define. it is a second-order, generic concept that plays the same role in establishing a disciplinary horizon that [is like] a concept such as language plays in linguistics or culture plays in anthropology. there can be no disciplined study of religion without such a horizon.
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