![]() ![]() The gods play a merely subsidiary role, for example, in most phases of Theravada (“Way of the Elders”) Buddhism. But objections have been brought against all these attempts, either because the rich variety of religions makes it easy to find counterexamples or because the element cited as central is in some religions peripheral. Attempts have been made to find a distinctive ingredient in all religions, such as the numinous, or spiritual, experience, the contrast between the sacred and the profane, and the belief in one or more gods. ![]() Nature and significance The essence of religion and the context of religious beliefs, practices, and institutionsĮven a commonly accepted definition of religion has proved difficult to establish, though not for lack of trying. Another reason is that questions about the origins and functions of religion have often been conflated with questions about the truth of religion, and this has led to controversies that tend to hinder the development of common concepts, methodologies, and problems. One of the many reasons for this failure is that each discipline enlisted to study religion has its own distinctive methods and topics, and scholars often disagree about how to resolve the inevitable conflicts between these different intellectual perspectives. No consensus among scholars concerning the best way to study religion has developed, however. The study of religion emerged as a formal discipline during the 19th century, when the methods and approaches of history, philology, literary criticism, psychology, anthropology, sociology, economics, and other fields were brought to bear on the task of determining the history, origins, and functions of religion. Study of religion, attempt to understand the various aspects of religion, especially through the use of other intellectual disciplines.
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