To be cited as:

Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The
Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.

Conceptual Analysis of
Religion and Religious Pluralism

Dr. Shanker Thapa

Religion: A Dialectical Approach:

Religion as such is a way of life. It has important role in setting the course of a
civilization. In traditional societies individuals have been clearly and ambiguously identified
where high degree of unity and integration is laid upon the institutional structure of religion.
In the pluralistic societies, identity becomes more ambiguous because continuity of
socialization is undermined along with its clarity.1

It is rather logical to start the introductory part of this article with definitions of
religion and religious pluralism because it largely intends to deal with conceptual aspect of
religion, religious pluralism and religious minority culture. It also deals with the
secularization process as well. Therefore, it starts with materialistic interpretation of religion.
The evolutionists, positivists and socialist reformers of the Marxian kind viewed religion as
irrelevant to progress. Marx's understanding of religion is sporadic and complex in nature 2It
is also related to the Marxist concept of alienation, which is an aspect of Marxian dialectics 3
According to it, a specialized division of labour makes man to forget that he himself
externalizes his inner potentialities towards his products. Those products are regarded as
object and thus, alienated from oneself. For Marx, religion was always a form of alienation
because religious belief involves the attribution of mystical entities of capabilities or powers
that are in fact possessed by man. It, obviously means that man projects in inner capabilities
around him. Those projections are separated from the individual and finally mystified itself. 4
The reification has been considered as the extreme case of alienation. So, religion as a reified
consciousness is resulted from the theory of alienation. Thus, Karl Marx has interpreted
religion on the basis of theory of alienation. In fact, the scholars like Mercea Aliade viewed
1 Peter Berger, "Social Mobility and Personal Identity", European Journal of Sociology, Vol. 5,
1964, 331-344 ; Kim Choung Suh, Religious Pluralism and the Concept of Religious Revalorization : A
Study in the Thought of Mircea Eliade and Peter, L. Berger, (Ph.D. Dissertation : U.C. Santa Barbara 1993,
pp.69-70.
2 Comstock, W. Richard, "The Marxist Critique of Religion, A Persisting Ambiguity", Journal of the
American Academy of Religion, xliv, 1976, pp.337.
3 Merlan, P., "Alienation of Marx's Political Economy and Philosophy", in M. Natanson (ed.),
Phenomenology and Social Reality, The Hague, Nijhoff, 1970, p.201.
4 Easton, L. and Guddat, K., Writings of Young Marx on Philosophy and Society , New York,
Doubleday, 1967, pp.165-166.

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 To be cited as:
Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The
Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.

that religion is always understood in terms of the sacred, and sacred for him, is first of all, an
ontological phenomenon. Thus, it is ontologically explained to revalorize something
religiously.

Religious belief is something which is attributed to make life meaningful and deals
with disparities between expectations and actual experience. The issue of defining religion in
sociological perspective has been dominated by the conception of Emile Durkheim. He
defines religion as-

"A unified system of belief and practices relative to sacred things, that is to
say, things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices Which unite into one single
moral community called a church ... all those who adhere them" 5

E.B.Taylor, a prominent anthropologist has proposed a minimum definition of religion

in this way -

By requiring in this definition the belief in a supreme deity or of judgment

after death, the adoration of idols or practices of sacrifice, or other partially
diffused doctrines or rites, no doubt many tribes may be excluded from the
category of religious. But such narrow definition has the fault of identifying
religion rather with particular development than with the deeper motive
which underlines them. It seems best to fall back at once on his essential
source and simply to claim, as a minimum definition of religion, the belief in
spiritual being. 6

This definition could provide at least one base line for an interactionist approach to
culturally defined divine human encounters7 Melford Spiro also took an explicit defense to
Taylor's definition of religion. He viewed that Durkheim's insistence on sacred has confused
the cross cultural applicability of concepts8.

The definition of religion in terms of spiritual being has not, there by lost its cross
cultural applicability. Mythological belief systems without statements about gods become
either interesting cases in their own right or points of contrast for belief system which are, in

5 Durkheim Emile, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, London, George Allen and Unwin,
1976, p- 47.
6 Taylor, E.B., Primitive Culture, Vol. I, London, J Murray and company, 1891, p- 499.
7 Bryan S. Turner, Weber and Islam, London, Rouletge and Kegan Paul, 1974, p- 45.
8 Spiro, Melford, "Religion: Problem of Definition and Explanation", in M. Banton (ed.),
Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religions, London, 1966, p- 85-126.

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 To be cited as:
Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The
Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.

terms of our definition incontrovertibly religious. As Spiro claims - the belief in super human
beings and in their power to assist or to harm approaches universal distribution and his belief
is the core variable which ought to be designated by any definition of religion.9

Therefore, the actual religious behaviour of human society is claimed in this

definition and a notion that the God is still powerful, is a vital component to take into
account. However, the phrases such as ‘harmonization of God’ and ‘marketization of religion’
are such themes which are very famous among sociologists of religion. One more definition
is given here for better understanding of the dialectic approach of Karl Marx and his way of
analysis of religion. He differed with the views of Hegel and Feuerbach. His approach saw it
as a reflection of the corrupt world in which men are estranged. He took religion as a reversed
world. The struggle against religion is therefore, mediately the fight against the other world,
of which religion is the spiritual aroma. For Marx, religion is an ideological expression of the
contradictions in the human relationship and therefore, the criticism unmasks the problems at
the root of social relations.10

Karl Marx's reduction of religious consciousness to a mere superstructure reflection is

less than convincing. His emphasis on the social relations of production as the infrastructure
determinant of human praxis overlooks the impact of revelation as a subjectively autonomous
and casual domain of action. Otto Maduro, a neo-Marxist emphasizes three factors on the
status of religion.11

1 Religion is not merely a passive effect of social relations of production. But it is an

active element of social dynamics conditioned by social process.

2 Religion is not always a subordinate element within social processes. It may often
play an important part in the birth and consolidation of a particular social structure;
and

3 Religion is not necessarily a functional, reproductive or conservative factor in the

society; it is often one of the main available channels to bring about a social
revolution.

Religious Pluralism:
9 Ibid, p- 94
10 Marx, K., "Thesis on Feuerbach'", in Karl Marx and F. Engels, On Religions, Moscow, Progress
Publisher, n.d., pp. 41-42.
11 Maduro, Otto, "New Marxist Approach To the Relative Autonomy of Religion", Sociological
Analysis, Vol. 38, No.4, 1977, p - 366 -

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 To be cited as:
Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The
Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.

The religious pluralism, in fact, has greater importance in the existence and identity of
a particular religious group. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the conceptual aspect of
religious pluralism. It further helps to analyze religious identity. The term is usually referred
to as the coexistence of heterogeneous situations in a competitive situation. It has usually
been applied only to those cases in which different religious groups are tolerated by the state
and then those religions are engage in free competition with each other.12 Now, it may be
concluded that here pluralism is referred to as the existence of the heterogeneous groups.
Peter Berger has used the term pluralism to indicate heterogeneous situation in connection
with independent groups, their world views etc. Because there are diverse factors of
heterogeneity, the notion of rivals engaging in competition are also diverse. Considering his
concerns, four major rival relationships can be taken into account in terms of factors of
heterogeneity.13

1. Non-religious (sociologism Vs psychologism, historicism).

2. Extra-religious-(religion Vs nationalism).

3. Intra-religious (Protestant Vs Catholicism, Baptist Vs Presbyterian

4. Inter-religious (Christianity Vs Buddhism / Hinduism Vs Islam)

These types of rival relationships stand at the core of religious pluralism. Thus,
Berger's understanding of pluralism can be analyzed in this quadruple conceptual paradigm.
Even from the non-religious sociological views, it shows aspects of pluralism such as
modernization, the role differentiation by technological production, polarization of public and
14
private sector, the disintegration of plausibility structures etc. In the extra religious (socio-
religious) aspect, the dimensions are the problem of secularization, religion-state
relationship.15 The intra-religious dimension (denominational and parochial) includes the
ecumenical aspects of pluralism derived from the marketized situation of religious
institutions.16 Berger further emphasizes inter religious dimension or the comparative religion

12 A. Berger, Peter, The Sacred Canopy-Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion, New York,
Doubleday, 1967, pp. 135
B- Berger, P. and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of
Knowledge, New York, Doubleday, 1966, p-125
13 Kim, f.n. no.1, pp. 64-94
14 Berger, P., Brigitte, Berger and Hansfried Kellner, The Homeless Mind: Modernization and
Consciousness, New York, Random House, 1973, pp. 109-115.
15 Berger, f. n. no 12A, pp. 127 and 155
16 Berger, P., "Social Mobility and Personal Identity", European Journal of Sociology, Vol. 5, 1964,
pp. 77-93

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 To be cited as:
Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The
Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.

in which major aspects are noted as - paganization or dechristianization. In the contexts of

Muslims, it can be mentioned as deIslamization .17

Similar, terminology may be the socialized version of religion for new religious
movements. It can be further elaborated in the analysis of religion in connection with
modernism or post-modernism. The details of pluralism of religion and its theoretical analysis
help us to understand different aspect of a religion. Therefore, pluralism as such is explained
in more detail because it is more or less concerned with identity of individual or a group. But
individual role in the society is fragmented by division of life into various sectors. The public
role of individuals is coexistent with their works. However, this phenomenon of dual role of
individuals demands to rationalize it. The identity of an individual as a religious unit within
the particular religious boundary does not remain as a personal one. Since such an identity is
tied with the identity of entire society as a religious group, it is however not personal but
impersonal and anonymous. In the societies where higher emphasis is laid upon the unity,
integration, confinement within the religio-cultural boundary in an orthodox way, the
community as a whole is continuously identified in its entirety. Thus, the individual members
are also identified continuously and unambiguously as a social unit. For an instance, the
Muslim minority in an orthodox neighbourhood always find their own identity and
institutionalization process very perfect and unambiguous. However only changes in the
traditional life pattern based on sacred religious scriptures and growing pace of cultural
assimilation brings changes in the perception of religious identity. As the result, it becomes
ambiguous. These kinds of changes make the new identity differentiated from the traditional
one. It is a process that makes identity of a religious group to be changed gradually. However,
it should be noted that the identity frame changes among the same group of minorities living
in different geographical regions. But there is certain relationship between identity and
individualization of religion. The uncertainty of one's own public religion makes a man to
18
pursue private religion. Thus, this type of individualization has something to do with
common identity.

At the moment, the major religions or several other smaller groups within a religion
is also characterized by voluntary adherence and mutual competition among religious
institutions or the smaller groups. In fact, it is the marketization of religious institutions for

17 Thapa, S., "Some Aspects of Muslim Minority and Problem of Identification", A Research Report
submitted to the Research Division, T.U., Kathmandu, 1997, pp. 46-48
18 Kim, f. n. no 1, pp- 71-72.

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 To be cited as:
Thapa, Shanker, 'Conceptual Analysis of Religion and Religious Pluralism', Anweshan (The
Research), PG Campus Biratnagar, Nepal, 2061 V.S.

voluntary followers. In this case, it is not authoritatively imposed but comes to be operated by

the logic of the market economics. This kind of activities also has significant impact on faith
as well as identity behaviour of the adherents or other major or minor religious groups as
well.

Prof. Dr. Shanker Thapa

Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Email: drsthapa5721@yahoo.com