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Alteridades
versión On-line ISSN 2448-850Xversión impresa ISSN 0188-7017
Alteridades vol.16 no.32 Ciudad de México jul./dic. 2006
Dossier
Definir la religión desde una perspectiva internacional: identidad y diferencia en las concepciones oficiales*
Defining religion in cross-national perspective: identity and difference in official conceptions
** Investigador y profesor titular, Departamento de Estudios Clásicos y Religiosos, Universidad de Ottawa, Laurier Avenue East, Ottawa, Ontario, Canadá K1N 6N5. peter.beyer@uottawa.ca
En el seno de la sociología de la religión, las discusiones en torno a cómo definir la religión han seguido una trayectoria bastante consistente; su denominador común ha sido, histórica e internacionalmente, la posibilidad de acordar una sola definición capaz de abarcar todos aquellos fenómenos sociales que los observadores piensan deben ser considerados como religión. No obstante, al utilizarla como categoría de observación social, se advierte el riesgo de distorsionar la realidad, de lo cual se desprende la necesidad de distinguir la religión de la fe individual y de la proyección orientalista. En el presente artículo se propone concebir a la religión como un ámbito social institucionalmente diferenciado, a fin de dilucidar aquellos aspectos sociales que la definen como tal. Tras ubicar a la religión como idea y estructura social de la modernidad europea, e identificar la paralela apropiación no europea de la misma, se examina el desarrollo de las concepciones “oficiales” de religión en diversos países o regiones, atendiendo en particular los aspectos semántico e institucional. Así, mediante el examen de cinco casos representativos en el plano internacional, se ofrece un modo directo de llegar a lo que realmente se considera o no como religión.
Palabras clave: religión; fe individual; proyección orientalista; ámbito social institucionalmente diferenciado; concepciones oficiales de religión
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.
Key words: religion; individual faith; orientalist projection; institutionally differentiated social domain; official conception of religion
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Notas
* Primer capítulo del libro editado por Arthur L. Greil y David G. Bromley, Defining Religion: Investigating the Boundaries Between the Sacred and Secular Religion and the Social Order, vol. 10, Elsevier Science, Londres, 2003, pp. 163-188. Traducción de Víctor Manuel Cuchí Espada y revisión de Mariana Orozco Ramírez.
Este es un artículo publicado en acceso abierto bajo una licencia Creative Commons
