Материал: The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion by John Hinnells

Glossaryâ 591â

Religion, minimal definition ofâ costly behaviour or ideas or sets of costly behaviours or ideas that are legitimated by claims to the authority of superhuman agents provide necessary (if insufficient) attributes for analytically stipulating data that might be termed ‘religious’ .

Religiongeschichteâ comparative historical study of various religious traditions.

Religionswissenschaftâ a loan-word from the German language designating in a broad and general way the scientific study of religions and religious phenomena.

Religious authorityâ the ability to influence or enforce, arising from office, knowledge or expertise.

Religious environmentalismâ response to the environmental crisis by religions of the world, including theological, institutional, political, and ritual developments.

Religious geographyâ a branch of theology and religious studies in which scholars examine the effect of place, landscape and the environment on religious ideas and practices.

Religious historyâ study of religious life in the past in its social, political, and cultural context on the basis of rigorous objective analysis of primary sources.

Religious mappingâ locating and surveying the presence of religions within a designated area and examining their manifestations, interconnections, functions and representations.

Religious pluralismâ a term used with a variety of connotations to refer to the diversity of religious forms, but in a normative sense applied particularly to the philosophical position, espoused by John Hick which claims that all religions are equally valid paths to the same divine reality.

Religious studiesâ academic inquiry into questions such as the essence and origin of religion, its description and function, its language and the relation between religions, undertaken with a concern for academic autonomy from theological confession.

Ritualâ an action, which is usually public but which can also be private, that is prescribed and that cannot be altered in any way.

S

Sacralizationâ to make something sacred, or imbue it with sacred character, such as a ruler or system of governance.

Sacred spaceâ space produced by a process of ritualization or sacralization; a place deemed to be imbued with special meaning, power and ritual significance; the study of sacred space has been an important sub-field within the study of religions, associated especially with Mircea Eliade and Jonathan Z. Smith.

Scriptural reasoningâ an open-ended practice of prayerful reading and dialogical reasoning by scholars, exegetes, commentators from the three Abrahamic traditions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Scriptureâ the privileged text(s) of a religious community.

592â Glossary

Sectâ ‘sect’ has been applied by sociologists to breakaway groups from established religious organizations and to religious groups with high boundaries that offer exclusive paths to salvation. Because the term accumulated negative connotations, ‘new religious movement’ is now more commonly used by scholars.

Secularizationâ a sociological concept embodying various ideas about trends in human society that include the alleged marginalization of religious influences in the political and cultural spheres and/or the decline of individual religious belief and practice.

Secular spaceâ often associated with the public realm of government and civil society, as opposed to the private domain of the individual, family and religious organizations; space claimed by secularists and, at times, contested by religious bodies.

Semioticsâ the study of signs, the way meaning is constructed and conveyed in systems of social communication.

Senses of scriptureâ varieties of interpretative (especially non-literal) procedures applied to sacred texts.

Shamanismâ a complex of ritual practices and symbols – stemming from Siberia, butÂfound also in Central and East Asia and among native peoples in the Americas – centred on the mediatory figure of the shaman who is believed to be able to communicate with and travel to the spirit world for the purposes of healing communities.

Social Darwinismâ an attempt to adapt Darwin’s theory of natural selection to social processes. This attempt, especially popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, supposed that competition drives social evolution and that the strongest or fittest will survive. It was used to justify, among other ideologies, military conquest, colonialism, slavery, unregulated capitalism, and eugenics.

Soteriologyâ the Christian doctrine of salvation – the theological category within which the relationship of Christianity to other religions has traditionally been conceived.

Spatial study of religionâ examining religion and religions through a spatial lens; applying a spatial approach or methodology to the study of religion.

Spatial turnâ scholarly trend from the late 1960s onwards in which the concept of ‘space’ was redefined and reappropriated by social and cultural theorists, such as Foucault and Lefebvre, and radical geographers, such as Harvey, Massey and Soja.

Special agent ritualâ a form of religious ritual in which a superhuman agent occupies the role of actor. Typically, a participant serves as the patient of such a ritual only once.

Special patient ritualâ a form of religious ritual in which a superhuman agent is the recipient of the ritual actions. A participant serving in such a ritual typically participates in these rituals more than once.

Spirit possessionâ concept that religious practitioners may be possessed by spirits and deities – wittingly or unwittingly – to enable communication with the spirit world, and eventually healing,Âas well asÂspiritual and social transformation.

Substantificationâ the making of something into a substance or essence; the process of making something appear given with reality rather than constructed in history or through language.

Superegoâ a term invented by Freud to name the agency within the mind that accomplishes self-observation, judgements of conscience, and the formation and maintenance of ideals.

594â Glossary

W

Westoxificationâ this idea, first popularized during the Iranian Revolution of 1979, refers to the processes of cultural, military and political influence exerted by the West on nonWestern (specifically Islamic) societies, which are seen as polluting and ‘toxic’ for the integrity and independence of those societies and the values they seek to uphold. The term probably originated in Iran, where in Farsi it is gharbzadegi. Jalal Al-e Ahmad is sometimes credited with coining or popularizing it.

WisdomÂâ a wide-ranging term which may embrace describing, understanding, explaining, knowing and deciding, not only regarding matters of empirical fact but also regarding values, norms, beliefs and the shaping of lives, communities and institutions.

Z

Zionismâ a modern movement and ideology of Jewish nationalism and political liberation, founded as a result of increased anti-Semitism in Europe and Russia in the late nineteenth century.

Zoroasterâ the priestly prophet who revealed God’s teachings in Zoroastrianism. He lived approximately in the thirteenth century bce in north-east Iran.

Zoroastrianismâ the religion of Zoroaster who lived in North East Iran probably in the thirteenth century bce. It teaches that God (Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord) created the world perfect but it is assaulted by evil (Angra Mainyu, the Destructive Spirit) with suffering, misery and death. It is an important human duty to fight evil and protect the Good Creation. Traditionally it taught there will be a last great conflict between good and evil when good will triumph, the dead will be raised and all dwell with God in a perfect existence.