Abstract

BEYER, Peter. Defining religion in cross-national perspective: identity and difference in official conceptions. Alteridades [online]. 2006, vol.16, n.32, pp.11-27. ISSN 2448-850X.

Within sociology of religion, the debate in regards to the way in which religion should be defined has followed a quite consistent course. The thing such discussions have in common has been -historically and internationally- the possibility of agreeing on one definition, which is able to cover all those social phenomena that observers believe should be considered as religion. Nevertheless, when using it as category of social observation, there is a risk of distorting reality, fact that leads towards the need of distinguishing religion from individual faith as well as from orientalist projection. This work attempts to conceive religion as an institutionally differentiated social domain in order to clarify those social aspects, which define it as such. By placing religion as an idea and a social structure of European modernity as well as a non-European parallel appropriation, this paper examines the development of the “official” conception of religion within diverse countries or regions particularly considering the semantic and institutional aspects. Thus, through the analysis of five representative cases worldwide, this work offers a direct path to get to what actually counts as religion.

Keywords : religion; individual faith; orientalist projection; institutionally differentiated social domain; official conception of religion.

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