ETYM French, from Latin religio; cf. religens pious, revering the gods, Greek alegein to heed, have a care. Related to Neglect.
1. A strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny; SYN. faith, religious belief.
2. Institution to express belief in a divine power; SYN. faith.
Code of belief or philosophy that often involves the worship of a God or gods. Belief in a supernatural power is not essential (absent in, for example, Buddhism and Confucianism), but faithful adherence is usually considered to be rewarded; for example, by escape from human existence (Buddhism), by a future existence (Christianity, Islam), or by worldly benefit (Soka Gakkai Buddhism). Among the chief religions are.
Ancient and pantheist religions of Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
Oriental Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Parseeism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Shinto.
“religions of a book” Judaism, Christianity (the principal divisions are Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant), and Islam (the principal divisions are Sunni and Shiite).
Combined derivation these include Bahaism, the Unification Church, and Mormonism.
Comparative religion studies the various faiths impartially, but often with the hope of finding common ground, to solve the practical problems of competing claims of unique truth or inspiration. The earliest known attempt at a philosophy of religious beliefs is contained in fragments written by Xenophanes in Greece 6th century BC, and later Herodotus and Aristotle contributed to the study. In 17th-century China, Jesuit theologians conducted comparative studies. Towards the end of the 18th century, English missionary schools in Calcutta compared the Bible with sacred Indian texts. The work of Charles Darwin in natural history and the growth of anthropology stimulated fresh investigation of religious beliefs; work by the Sanskrit scholar Max Müller (1823–1900), the Scottish anthropologist James Frazer, the German sociologist Max Weber, and the Romanian scholar Mircea Eliade has formed the basis for modern comparative religion.
Other related studies are the psychology of religion, which examines human states of mind under religious influence, for example, ecstasy, diabolic possession, and faith healing, and the possible causal factors of; and the philosophy of religion, which coincides to a large extent with natural theology. + prikaži više