Mr Oslington's Studies of Religion Website - Characteristics of Religion

Four Characteristics of Religion

There are two kinds of definitions. Some categoreis of things are easy to distinguish from other categories because thre are clear rules that everything in a category must obey. In analytic philosophy, such a definition is described as a set of necessary and sufficient conditions. Take, for example, the definition of a square number. There are numerous "necessary" conditions for something to be a square number. It must, of course, be a number. It must also be an even number, and not a decimal. The number one, being the unit, is discounted. But those conditions are not "sufficient" for identifying even numbers. In this case, the sufficeint condition is that the number has an odd number of factors. Hence, the number eight, though it meets the "neccesary" conditions, lacks the "sufficient" condition and is not a square.

Can a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for religion be determined? Many have tried. The nineteenth-century French sociologist Émile Durkheim offered that "a religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things" with "beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them." There is much overlap here with the Four Characteristics of religion we will soon describe, but as a monothetic definition of the kind described above, it cannot hold water. For example, the language of a "unified" system of beliefs and practices is at odds with Hindu practice, which can just as easily be described as a family of religions (Vaishnavism, Shavism, Shaktism, etc.) with significant cultural overlap.

Consequently, a second type of definition is required for social science categories such as religion. This is a polythetic definition, where a series of common characteristics are outlined, and something "meets" a definition if it meets a sufficient proportion of those criteria. Such definitions are used in fields as wide-ranging as medicine, where a medical diagnosis of a condition like bipolar disorder requires the presence of at least four of a possible seven symptoms, or in political science, where the diverse manifestations of a phenomenon such as an "authoritarian regime" must be measured against a set of mutually agreed criteria.

The four characteristics of religion described below are central to the syllabus, but also widely used in scholarly writing on comparative religion. Must something meet all four criteria to be called a religion? This is difficult to say. The consensus seems to be that a "maybe" or an "in a sense" for one or perhaps two categories is okay, so long as there is a strong yes for the others. It is questionable, for example, whether Chinese religions such as Confucianism or Taoism always come with clear supernatural beliefs, even though they receive a thumping "yes" for Sacred Texts, Ethics, and Rituals.

Beliefs

Beliefs refer to the claims a tradition makes about divine beings, ultimate reality, or the structure of the world. These may be expressed as doctrinal statements, as in the Christian creeds, or through concise declarations such as the Jewish Shema or the Muslim shahāda. Notably, all these examples are Abrahamic religions, and coming up with clear "lists" of beliefs is often less central to Eastern traditions. The Hindu Upanishads contain reflections on the identity of the self and the absolute; certain Buddhist schools teach the impermanence of all conditioned things and the absence of a permanent self. Basic beliefs such as samsara or the cycle of death and rebirth are central "doctrine" in the Dharmic family. Other traditions, such as early Confucianism, articulate beliefs about Heaven and moral order rather than about personal deities. The extent to which Aboriginal Australian belief in the Dreaming constitutes a "belief" in a doctrinal manner analogous to Western faiths is a difficult question.

The shahāda in the Wazir Khan Mosque, Lahore, Pakistan.

Soon-to-be digitised Buddhist texts in the Sakya Monastery, Tibet.

Sacred Texts

Most religions possess texts, oral or written, regarded as authoritative. The Hebrew Bible includes laws, historical narratives, and prophetic writings. The Qur’an is recited and memorised in Arabic and is treated by Muslims as the revealed word of God. Hindu traditions preserve a wide range of sacred literature, from the liturgical Vedas to the philosophical Upanishads and the devotional narratives of the Bhagavata Purāṇa. Chinese traditions transmit the sayings of Confucius and associated commentaries. In many cases, sacred material circulates orally for long periods before being committed to writing, as with the Buddhist canon recorded in Sri Lanka or the ritual knowledge of various Indigenous communities. Whatever the form these sacred writings take, they are distinguished by attitudes of reverence, authority, and a focus on preservation rather than innovation within the community.

Ethics

Religions typically include ethical teachings that govern personal conduct and social life. The Torah contains detailed legal material concerning justice, worship, and communal responsibility. The Sermon on the Mount presents a distinctive moral vision focused on humility, purity, and reconciliation. Islamic jurisprudence develops rules for worship, commerce, and family life based on the Qur’an and the prophetic tradition. The Buddhist Eightfold Path prescribes right action and right livelihood as part of the path to liberation. In early Greek religion, moral obligations were intertwined with civic duties and respect for the gods, expressed through customary practice rather than codified law. These examples illustrate that religious ethics may be legal, philosophical, or customary, but they consistently provide guidance on how adherents ought to live.

A 2nd century BC Hebrew text of the Ten Commandments from the Nash Papyrus.

A riverside pyre prepared for a Hindu funeral.

Rites and Ceremonies

Westerners live in a world stipped of ritual, making the concept itself hard to understand, but for most people around the world, "ritual" of various kinds is central to social life. One example of "ritual" most people in the Commonwealth will be familiar with is the observance of a minute's silence on Rememberence Day. Clearly, not all rituals are necessarily religious, but all religions, to varying degrees, engage with rituals. Ancient Mesopotamian temples maintained daily offerings to the gods; Roman magistrates performed sacrifices before public business; Jewish communities celebrate festivals such as Passover and the Day of Atonement. Christian worship includes baptism and the Eucharist, preserved through liturgical forms that vary across traditions. Muslims perform the five daily prayers with prescribed recitations and gestures, and gather for the weekly congregational prayer. Hindu worship includes domestic and temple rituals in which offerings are made to the deity. Nevertheless, it is important to recognise an anti-ritualistic tradition can exist within a religion, especially within the Abrahamic faiths or certain schools of Buddhism, where rituals are thought to come at the expense of interior spirituality.

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