religion within this particular framework. This, among others, is the
main reason why there are so many definitions of religion; but none
of them encompasses the entire phenomenon or commands
universal acceptance. In fact, every investigator in this field has
given his own definition and some have offered more than one.
Surprisingly enough, some of them are even self-contradictory.
Some scholars hold that a set of doctrines is essential to religion;
while others believe that religion may exist as a purely emotional
attitude without any beliefs. Again, for some, belief in God is the
life-blood of religion – but others reject this view and cite as
instances Buddhism and other atheistic religions. However, let us
examine a few representative definitions of religion, hoping to find
some element common to them all which serves as the clue to a
comprehensive definition:
Religion is (subjectively regarded) the recognition of all duties as
divine commands (Kant).
Religion is to take everything individual as a part of the whole,
everything limited as a representation of the infinite (Schleiermacher).
That which expresses the innermost tendency of all religions is the
axiom of the conservation of values (Hoffding).
William James holds religion to be “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.” Calverton takes a different view of religion.
“Magic and religion,” he affirms, “evolved as (a) means whereby
(man) believed he was able to acquire power (over his environment)
and make the universe bend to this wishes.” Professor Whitehead
speaks of religion as “what the individual does with his own
solitariness.”(2) and in another place defines it as a “force of belief
cleansing the inward parts”.(3) Whitehead’s considered opinion on
the nature of religion is stated more fully and clearly in the following
passage which occurs in his Science and the Modern World:
Religion is the vision of something which stands beyond, behind, and
within, the passing flux of immediate things; something which is real,
and yet waiting to be realised; something which is a remote possibility,
and yet the greatest of present facts; something that gives meaning to
all that passes, and yet eludes apprehension; something whose
possession is the final good, and yet is beyond all reach; something
which is the ultimate ideal and the hopeless quest.(4)
What is Religion 37