Concept

World religions

Overview

World religions is a socially-constructed category in the study of religion that demarcates religions deemed to have been especially large, internationally widespread, or influential in the development of human societies. It typically consists of the "big five" religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. These are often juxtaposed against categories such as folk religions, Indigenous religions, and new religious movements (NRMs).

The concept was proposed by German sociologist Max Weber in 1915, and appears to have been based on earlier work by the pioneering religious studies scholar Cornelis Tiele (1877; see §History section below). The "world religions" paradigm was developed in the United Kingdom during the 1960s, pioneered by scholars of religion such as Ninian Smart. It was intended to broaden the study of religion beyond its focus on Christianity by including other large religious traditions. The paradigm is often used for undergraduate study of religion. The emphasis on viewing these religious movements as distinct and mutually exclusive has also had a wider impact on the categorisation of religion—for instance in censuses.

Since the late 20th century, the paradigm has faced critique by scholars of religion such as Jonathan Z. Smith, who have argued that the world religions paradigm is inappropriate because it takes the Protestant branch of Nicene Christianity as the model for "religion"; that it is encumbered by discourses on modernity, including power relations in modern society; that it encourages an uncritical understanding of religion; and that it judges what religions should be considered "major". Others have argued that it remains useful in the classroom, so long as students are made aware that it is a socially-constructed category.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where World religions is discussed.

These are in complete accord as regards their universal, humanistic tendency, but are just as different in content as is a Buddhistic pagoda from a Gothic cathedral. As a matter of fact, these world religions are also cultural religions. Back of each of them is a rich culture, with characteristics peculiar to itself, even though its basal elements are universally human.
Wilhelm Max Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
a chapter is titled for it; states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
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This division of the world into two domains, the one containing all that is sacred, the other all that is profane, is the distinctive trait of religious thought; the beliefs, myths, dogmas and legends are either representations or systems of representations which express the nature of sacred things, the virtues and powers which are attributed to them, or their relations with each other and with profane things. But…
Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
states what it is
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It is a somnambulism which intensifies rather than abolishes the contrast between what is desired and what must be accepted. It offers itself ultimately rather as a refuge from reality than a control of it, and its development as an institution has turned on the creation and use of devices to make this escape feasible. For religion, therefore, the perception that the actual world, whatever its history, is now _not_…
John Dewey, Creative Intelligence
states what it is
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No one man, no limited society of men, and no one epoch can think of everything at once. Accordingly for the sake of eliciting the various impacts of science upon thought, the topic has been treated historically. In this retrospect I have kept in mind that the ultimate issue of the whole story is the patent dissolution of the comfortable scheme of scientific materialism which has dominated the three centuries under…
Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the modern world
states what it is
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Religion, considered in relation to society, which is either general or particular, may also be divided into two kinds: the religion of man, and that of the citizen. The first, which has neither temples, nor altars, nor rites, and is confined to the purely internal cult of the supreme God and the eternal obligations of morality, is the religion of the Gospel pure and simple, the…
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The social contract & discourses
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Related ideas

Place in the tradition

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