For many people, perhaps most, the idea of studying religion brings to mind two things. First of all, it involves the study of a religion, often their own religion or at least some formally-named religion. The idea of studying religion as a general, universal concept seems rather alien.
Second studying a religion brings up the image of scholars reading and carefully examining religious texts, perhaps even in their “original” language and supplementing this with materials written by other scholars explaining the texts. While this approach may result in some interesting discussions and perhaps even some publications, there are a couple of problems. One of these problems is that it presupposes that all religions are based on sacred texts. In fact many of the more than 6,000 religions that exist today are based on oral traditions rather than written traditions. In some traditions, such as those of the ancient Druids, it is felt that sacred teachings are not to be written down.
Among some of today’s neo-pagan traditions, such as many Wiccan traditions, each of the participants writes their own book. Among Wiccans this is known as the Book of Shadows. In these traditions the quest for spiritual knowledge is personal and there are no overall sacred texts.
Another problem with studying religions, or a particular religion, through sacred texts is that it misses the human element. There is a great deal of difference between what people say and what they actually do; between what they are supposed to do and how they incorporate religion into their daily lives. The study of the Roman Catholic Christian tradition, for example, will find that there is a prohibition against the use of modern birth control. On the other hand, surveys of American Roman Catholic women show that most are either using birth control or have used it in the past.
In general, writings about modern Christianity seem to suggest that it is a monotheistic religion, dedicated to the worship of a single deity. However, an ethnographer studying a Catholic Christian village in Mexico will note that the people are often praying to, worshiping, and petitioning entities called “saints” which appear to have all of the attributes of gods and often resemble pre-Christian aboriginal deities. The ethnographic studies, which focus on human behavior rather than religious texts, suggest that the people are actually polytheistic.
In Islam, there are no prophets after Mohammad and thus divination in Muslim communities should be less possible. However, there is always a difference between the way written codes may describe a religion and what the people actually do. While the Malay in the village of Rusembilan, Thailand are Muslim, ethnographer Thomas Fraser, in his book Fisherman of South Thailand: The Malay Villagers, writes:
“While all events occur according to the will of Allah, and the attempt to foretell them is, strictly speaking prohibited, divination and the reading of omens is often an essential element in the planning of any important undertaking.”
The Muslims of the village feel no conflict between Islam and consulting shamans to see the future.
The study of documents such as the Christian Bible and the Qur’an and what theologians have written will provide a very different picture from a study based on the observations of “regular” people and how they incorporate religious rituals and beliefs into their daily lives. The study of religion from the perspective of the role it plays in the lives of people is often done as a part of the social sciences, such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, and human geography.
When human geographers and sociologists look at religion as a demographic variable, they often find that religion is like language: there are people who participate in more than one religious tradition. In Japan, for example, many people participate in both Shinto and Buddhist ceremonies. In China, many people consider themselves to be atheists, Buddhists, and Confucians who practice Taoist meditation. In North America, there are many Native Americans who consider themselves to be Christian and attend Christian church services, while participating in traditional Native ceremonies such as sweat lodge, vision quest, and Sun Dance.
When we look at how people in the modern world incorporate religion—belief systems and ceremonies—into their daily lives, we find that it is not uncommon for people to pick and choose from more than one religious tradition.