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• one cannot understand human culture without some knowledge of _.

  religion
• Ultimately most students study _ because they find it fascinating and interesting.

  religion
• _ has been an extremely powerful influence in human affairs. It has affected practically every sphere of human experience: Culture, Politics, Art and Literature

  religion
• Religion, in other cases, it has had a disastrous effect, promoting sectarianism, intolerance, violence, and terrorism especially when it becomes an ideology (fixed beliefs and superiority complex.)
• theology emphasizes the study of the divine within a particular religious framework
• philosophy of religion explores broader philosophical questions related to religion
• sociology of religion investigates the social dimensions and impacts of religious beliefs and practices within societies
• Religion expresses itself differently from a secular articulation of reality. It deals with the "Totally Other," which is transcendent and cannot be fully captured by human understanding or expressed adequately in human language.
• humans create unique expressions through symbols, myths, and rites.
• Man, in his very nature, is a 'homo symbolicus.' He cannot help but create symbols.
• . As long as humans are present, symbols are also present, as they are the only means of expression when words prove inadequate.
• Plato described 'symbolon,' the Greek translation for a symbol, as having a doubled-face.
• The symbol reveals something that cannot be expressed conceptually, and at the same time, it conceals because what is grasped from the symbol is not its full meaning.
• Myth is another expression of religion
• The English word 'myth' comes from the Greek word 'mythos,' meaning "story."
• Myth is an imaginary recitation featuring supernatural beings, actions, and events, possessing an element of reality.
• Mythical symbols are distinct from mere symbols as the former are more articulated within the dimensions of a narrative with characters, places, and times.
• Myth serves various functions, such as strengthening tradition, validating or reinforcing tribal morality, and providing resolutions for contradictions.
• Mythical symbols are valued by those who believe that truth is expressed through them, revolving around deep human concerns about origins and destinies.
• In the book by Raymond Firth, "Symbols Public and Rite," ritual is described as a symbolic mode of communication, a formal way of 'saying something' not expressed in ordinary language or informal behavior.
• Rituals are characterized by repetition, formality, reliance on symbols, and the ability to intensify bonds within a community.
• Anthony Wallace categorizes rituals into technological, therapy and antitherapy, ideological, salvation, and revitalization rituals.
• Rituals have the power to set off certain times and spaces as sacred, creating something fundamentally and totally different from the profane.
• For religion, things in this world are of two types: the sacred and the profane.
• . On the other hand, the Latin root of the word 'profane' means 'before (pro) the temple (fanum).'
• The elementary hierophany is the manifestation of the sacred in the ordinary, such as stone or a tree.
• Religion is derived from the Latin word ‘religio’. However, its exact meaning in Latin is somewhat elusive.
• One of its central concepts is halakha, meaning the “walk” or “path” sometimes translated as “law”, which guides religious practice and belief and many aspects of life.
• The Greek word “threskia, was used by Greek writers such as Herodotus and Josephus, is found in the New Testament.
• Threskia is sometimes translated as “religion” in today’s translations.
• In Quran the Arabic word din (law) is often translated as “religion”.
• The Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as “religion” also means law.
• It was in the 19th century that the terms “Buddhism”, “Hinduism”, Taoism”, “Confucianism”, and “World religions” first emerged.
• defined religion as das schlechthinnige Abhängigkeitsgefül, commonly translated as “the feeling of absolute dependence”.

  Friedrich Schleiermacher
• defined religion as “Divine Spirit becoming conscious of Himself through the finite spirit.”

  Georg Wilhelm Hegel
• defined religion as “the belief in spiritual beings.”

  Edward Taylor
• defined religion as “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”.

  William James
• he stated faith is “state of being ultimately concerned”, which “is itself religion. Religion is the substance, the ground and the depth of man’s spiritual life.”

  Paul Tillich
• defined religion as a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods seem uniquely realistic.

  Clifford Geertz
• emphasized the ‘cultural reality’ of religion which he defines as the entirety of linguistic expressions, emotions and emotions and, actions and signs that refer to a supernatural being and supernatural beings.

  Antoine Vergote