religion

plural religions

1. uncountableBelief in a spiritual or metaphysical reality (often including at least one deity), accompanied by practices or rituals pertaining to the belief.

   Holonyms: cosmology, ontology, epistemology, philosophy

   4 more examples

   My brother tends to value religion, but my sister not as much.

   Most books on the philosophy of religion try to begin with a precise definition of what its essence consists of. […] I shall not be pedantic enough to enumerate any of them to you now. Meanwhile the very fact that they are so many and so different from one another is enough to prove that the word “religion” cannot stand for any single principle or essence, but is rather a collective name.

   1902, William James, “Lecture 2”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC

   Phallicism was, therefore, at the root of all religion, and was definitely the opponent of evil and darkness.

   1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 160

   Religion is not identical with spirituality; rather, religion is the form spirituality takes in a civilization; it is not so much the opiate of the masses as it is the antidote for the poisons of civilization.

   1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 103

   Synonyms: theism, faith, belief · Antonyms: nonreligion, nonreligiousness, nonbelief, unbelief, irreligion, irreligiousness, atheism, antitheism

2. countableA particular system of such belief, and the rituals and practices proper to it.

   Near-synonyms: credo, creed

   5 more examples

   Holonyms: cosmology, ontology, epistemology, philosophy

   Islam is a major religion, particularly in North Africa and Southwest Asia.

   Mormonism is a new religion, while Zoroastrianism is an old one.

   Ignorant and ſuperſtitious wretches meaſure the actions of letterd and philoſophical men by the tattle of their nurſes or illiterate parents and companions, or by the faſhion of the country: and people of differing religions judge and condemn each other by their own tenents; when both of them cannot be in the right, and it is well if either of them are.

   1722, William Wollaston, “Sect. V. Truths relating to the Deity. Of his exiſtence, perfection, providence, &c.”, in The Religion of Nature Delineated, page 81

   “It is the duty of a high priestess to instruct, to interpret—according to the creed that others, wiser than herself, have laid down; but there is nothing in the creed which says that she must believe. The more one knows of one’s religion the less one believes—no one living knows more of mine than I.”

   1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 184

   Synonyms: faith, credo, creed

3. uncountableThe way of life committed to by monks and nuns.

   The monk entered religion when he was 20 years of age.

4. informaluncountableRituals and actions associated with religious beliefs, but considered apart from them.

   Jack's spiritual, but he's not really into religion.

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   I think some Christians would love Jesus more if they weren't so stuck in religion.

   Synonyms: superstition

5. countableAny practice to which someone or some group is seriously devoted.

   At this point, Star Trek has really become a religion.

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   'Religion can't exist without mystery, especially science, the newest religion.'

   1985, Joan Morrison, Share House Blues, Boolarong Publications, page 97

6. obsoleteuncountableFaithfulness to a given principle; conscientiousness.First known use 16th–17th c.

   Oh with what religion doe I respect and observe the same!

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 8, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

present singular third person religions · participle present religioning · participle past religioned · past religioned

1. Engage in religious practice.

   Religious practice and action (“religioning”) can be liberating, and can connect displaced people with the spirits of home.

   2015, Alexander Horstmann, Jin-Heon Jung, Building Noah’s Ark for Migrants, Refugees, and Religious Communities, →ISBN, page 13

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   On the scales below, circle the one ( + ) or (-) number which best represents your situation on both the belief and practice dimensions for each of the traditional and nontraditional forms of religioning.

   1978, Military Chaplains' Review, page 70

   A similar caution is made by Nye when he calls for a re-evaluation of the category of religion in relationship to theory and method, suggesting that this category: be reconstructed in terms of practice theory as religious practice or religioning.

   2013, Monica R. Miller, Religion and Hip Hop, →ISBN, page 74

2. Indoctrinate into a specific religion.

   “What do you do, Donnigan? Spend all yer time religioning yer young?”

   2007, Janette Oke, A Bride for Donnigan, →ISBN, page 225

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   To men whose minds are thus religioned, tied back to gods that never advance, there can never be any such word as progress

   1890, John R. Kelso, Deity analyzed: In six lectures - Page 37

3. To make sacred or symbolic; sanctify.

   If queer Jews, Muslims and Christians are engaged in queering their religions, they are also engaged in what might becalled 'religioning' the queer.

   2013, Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip, Stephen Hunt, The Ashgate Research Companion to Contemporary Religion and Sexuality, →ISBN

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   The discussion of diet and health raises the question of the importance of discussing vegetarianism in relation to the contemporary religioning of health; as Ross remarks, 'health has replaced sexuality as the new privileged discourse of bodily truth and inner essence'.

   1994, Timothy Morton, Shelley and the Revolution in Taste, →ISBN, page 238

   The ideas expressed above challenge us to continuously rupture and interrupt racialized, classed, gendered, religioned and sexualized norms that inhere between and within institutions, understandings of bodies and our Selves.

   2011, Andrew O'Shea, Pedagogy, Oppression and Transformation in a 'Post-Critical' Climate, p 116