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One modern academic theory of religion, social constructionism, says that religion is a modern concept that suggests all spiritual practice and worship follows a model similar to the Abrahamic religions as an orientation system that helps to interpret reality and define human beings, [6] and thus believes that religion, as a concept, has been ...
James had relatively little interest in the legitimacy or illegitimacy of religious experiences. Further, despite James' examples being almost exclusively drawn from Christianity, he did not mean to limit his ideas to any single religion. Religious experiences are something that people sometimes have, under certain conditions.
James distinguished between institutional religion and personal religion. Institutional religion refers to the religious group or organization, and plays an important part in a society's culture. Personal religion, in which the individual has mystical experience, can be experienced regardless of the culture.
Religion in Territories of Canada: Northwest Territories • Nunavut • Yukon Greenland • Saint Pierre and Miquelon United States Alabama • Alaska • Arizona
Many scholars of religion have resisted efforts to challenge the paradigm, [22] and as of 2016 was reported as still being widespread in university introductory courses to the study of religion. [23] Many instructors feel that explaining the critique of the world religions paradigm to undergraduate students would be difficult, as the critique ...
Comparative religion is the branch of the study of religions with the systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices, themes and impacts (including migration) of the world's religions. In general the comparative study of religion yields a deeper understanding of the fundamental philosophical concerns of religion such as ethics ...
The worship of all gods of every religion has been conceived as a form of pantheism, but such a system is more akin to Omnism. [24] Pantheist belief does not recognize a distinct personal god, [25] anthropomorphic or otherwise, but instead characterizes a broad range of doctrines differing in forms of relationships between reality and divinity ...
In the preface to the published version of "The Will to Believe" James offers a different argument for the way in which the evidence for religion depends upon our belief. There he contends that it is through the failure or thriving of communities of religious believers that we come to have evidence of the truth of their religious beliefs.