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W. C. Smith's The Meaning And End Of Religion

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In the book, The Meaning and End of Religion, W.C. Smith analyzes the problems and redefines the concept of religion. As a term which has been conflicted to say the least, W.C. Smith offers a variety of arguments of this conflict along with solutions to remedy this situation. By elaborating on one of his arguments as well as analyzing his approach to religion from my own, will “religion” be considered problematic both as a term and as a conceptual category.

Smith presents five “categories” that need to be explored for a more modern approach. “Some modern investigators have thought to strip the phenomena of any transcendent reference, to explain by explaining away. Yet their explanations, however persuasive each one might sound at first, have …show more content…
These “categories,” which Smith lays out, provide some insight into religion as a phenomenon in our modern world.

Smith describes the overall problem that these “categories” have with understanding religion. “On these, then, and on other scores it has been easy for studies of the religious quality of man’s life and the religious aspect of his history to fall short of adequacy.” These problems create an issue, in the interpretation and study of the phenomena known as religion in stagnant proportions.

The outlining of these five things gives us some insight into religion as a phenomenon in our modern world. The study as well as the interpretation of religion has been challenging. Differing views from different people—such as philosophers, historians, believers (in the religion) as well as psychologists or sociologists—based on these five such factors, highlight religion as such a phenomena that can be proven as challenging, constantly changing, and …show more content…
“My own suggestion is that the word, and the concepts, should be dropped…I suggest that the term ‘religion’ is confusing, unnecessary, and distorting.” He goes on to explain how: “I have become strongly convinced that the vitality of personal faith, on the one hand, and, on the other hand (quite separately), progress in understanding…of the traditions of other people throughout history and throughout the world, are both seriously blocked by our attempt to conceptualize what is involved in each case in terms of (a) religion.” The reasoning that Smith lays out in rethinking “religion” is similar to the understanding of what this writer thought about religion.

Throughout history, before and after being labelled “religion,” religion has been a problem. Defining “religion” is a hard concept to define. By defining this term, it becomes a restraint upon which interpretation becomes quite limited. The term, religion, became synonymous with a particular set of practices and traditions that was said to be considered good. However, there are many religions out there. Each religion with differing practices and beliefs, with each religion having very different interpretations of their religious

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