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A religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence.〔While religion is difficult to define, one standard model of religion, used in religious studies courses, was proposed by Clifford Geertz, who simply called it a "cultural system" (Clifford Geertz, ''Religion as a Cultural System'', 1973). A critique of Geertz's model by Talal Asad categorized religion as "an anthropological category". (Talal Asad, ''The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category'', 1982.)〕 Many religions have narratives, symbols, and sacred histories that aim to explain the meaning of life, the origin of life, or the Universe. From their beliefs about the cosmos and human nature, people may derive morality, ethics, religious laws, or a preferred lifestyle. Many religions may have organized behaviors, clergy, a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, holy places, and scriptures. The practice of a religion may include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration (of a deity, gods, or goddesses), sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service, or other aspects of human culture. Religions may also contain mythology.〔(Oxford Dictionaries ) mythology, retrieved 9 September 2012〕 The word ''religion'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''faith'' or ''set of duties''; however, in the words of Émile Durkheim, religion differs from private belief in that it is "something eminently social".〔Émile Durkheim|Durkheim, E. (1915) ''The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life''. London: George Allen & Unwin, p.10.〕 A global 2012 poll reports 59% of the world's population as "religious" and 23% as not religious, including 13% who are atheists, with a 9% decrease in religious belief from 2005. Another 2015 poll similarly found that 22% of the world population are not religious, including 11% who were atheists. On average, women are "more religious" than men. Some people follow multiple religions or multiple religious principles at the same time, regardless of whether or not the religious principles they follow traditionally allow for syncretism.〔Soul Searching:The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers - Page 77, Christian Smith, Melina Lundquist Denton - 2005〕〔Christ in Japanese Culture: Theological Themes in Shusaku Endo's Literary Works, Emi Mase-Hasegawa - 2008 〕〔 (New poll reveals how churchgoers mix eastern new age beliefs ) retrieved 26 July 2013 〕 ==Etymology== (詳細はShorter Oxford English Dictionary''〕) is derived from the Latin ''religiō'', the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possibility is an interpretation traced to Cicero, connecting ''ラテン語:lego'' "read", i.e. ''re'' (again) + ''lego'' in the sense of "choose", "go over again" or "consider carefully". Modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell favor the derivation from ''ラテン語:ligare'' "bind, connect", probably from a prefixed ''ラテン語:re-ligare'', i.e. ''re'' (again) + ''ligare'' or "to reconnect", which was made prominent by St. Augustine, following the interpretation of Lactantius.〔In ''The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light.'' Toronto. Thomas Allen, 2004. ISBN 0-88762-145-7〕〔In ''The Power of Myth,'' with Bill Moyers, ed. Betty Sue Flowers, New York, Anchor Books, 1991. ISBN 0-385-41886-8〕 The medieval usage alternates with ''order'' in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders: "we hear of the 'religion' of the Golden Fleece, of a knight 'of the religion of Avys'".〔Johan Huizinga, ''The Waning of the Middle Ages'' (1919) 1924:75.〕 In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin root ''religio'' was understood as an individual virtue of worship, never as doctrine, practice, or actual source of knowledge.〔 The modern concept of "religion" as an abstraction which entails distinct sets of beliefs or doctrines is a recent invention in the English language since such usage began with texts from the 17th century due to the splitting of Christendom during the Protestant Reformation and more prevalent colonization or globalization in the age of exploration which involved contact with numerous foreign and indigenous cultures with non-European languages. It was in the 17th century that the concept of "religion" received its modern shape despite the fact that ancient texts like the Bible, the Quran, and other ancient sacred texts did not have a concept of religion in the original languages and neither did the people or the cultures in which these sacred texts were written. For example, the Greek word ''threskeia'', which was used by Greek writers such as Herodotus and Josephus and is found in texts like the New Testament, is sometimes translated as "religion" today, however, the term was understood as "worship" well into the medieval period.〔 In the Quran, the Arabic word ''din'' is often translated as "religion" in modern translations, but up to the mid-1600s translators expressed ''din'' as "law".〔 Even in the 1st century AD, Josephus had used the Greek term ''ioudaismos'', which some translate as "Judaism" today, even though he used it as an ethnic term, not one linked to modern abstract concepts of religion as a set of beliefs.〔 It was in the 19th century that the terms "Buddhism", "Hinduism", "Taoism", and "Confucianism" first emerged.〔 Throughout its long history, Japan had no concept of "religion" since there was no corresponding Japanese word, nor anything close to its meaning, but when American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in 1853 and forced the Japanese government to sign treaties demanding, among other things, freedom of religion, the country had to contend with this Western idea. According to the philologist Max Müller in the 19th century, the root of the English word "religion", the Latin ''religio'', was originally used to mean only "reverence for God or the gods, careful pondering of divine things, piety" (which Cicero further derived to mean "diligence").〔Max Müller, ''Natural Religion'', p.33, 1889〕〔(Lewis & Short, ''A Latin Dictionary'' )〕 Max Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, and India, as having a similar power structure at this point in history. What is called ancient religion today, they would have only called "law".〔Max Müller. ''(Introduction to the science of religion )''. p. 28.〕 Many languages have words that can be translated as "religion", but they may use them in a very different way, and some have no word for religion at all. For example, the Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as "religion", also means law. Throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a similar union between "imperial law" and universal or "Buddha law", but these later became independent sources of power.〔Kuroda, Toshio and Jacqueline I. Stone, translator. . ''Japanese Journal of Religious Studies'' 23.3-4 (1996)〕〔Neil McMullin. ''Buddhism and the State in Sixteenth-Century Japan''. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1984.〕 There is no precise equivalent of "religion" in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities.〔Hershel Edelheit, Abraham J. Edelheit, (History of Zionism: A Handbook and Dictionary ), p.3, citing Solomon Zeitlin, ''The Jews. Race, Nation, or Religion?'' ( Philadelphia: Dropsie College Press, 1936).〕 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 daily life. The use of other terms, such as obedience to God or Islam are likewise grounded in particular histories and vocabularies.〔Colin Turner. ''Islam without Allah?'' New York: Routledge, 2000. pp. 11-12.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Religion」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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