RELIGION

Importance of practice and belief in the study of religion



Importance of practice and belief in the study of religion

Study of religion is an essential discipline for the identification and investigation process regarding the boundary questions related to death and the purpose of the life. It provides an opportunity to the people to analyze and understand the in depth concepts regarding the rituals and beliefs and the practices provided in the religious studies. The focus on beliefs as well as practice is enhanced in the religious studies because they are interdependent and determine the spirit of the religion (Pate & Bondi, 1992). The beliefs determine the association of person with the specific religion whereas; the practice of the beliefs determines the identity of a person that they belong to a specific religion. However, religion does not require a person to be recognized as stereotypes or to be recognized as the people that can be seems as practicing a specific religion. It requires practice because of the realization of the concepts integrated in the sayings and teachings provided by the religion (Glock, 1962). It has been observed from the religious studies that wisdom in a religion and spirituality cannot be learned from believing in the teachings only but to implement those onto oneself in order to fully integrate into the religion. The power of the religion and its beliefs lies in the feelings and thoughts along with the affective and cognitive dimensions of life that are combined in a single religion. This paper discusses the importance of practice and beliefs in the study of a religion. It focuses on both the aspects including beliefs and practice because they determine the identity of a person and their association with a religion (Koenig, 1998).

The world views of a person are greatly influenced by the religion he or she practices and in which they believe. Thus, beliefs and practices are simultaneous to each other while determining the world views. The religious dimensions can be divided into six dimensions according to the world view. These dimensions helps in the analysis of the importance of beliefs along with practicing them while studying and applying a religion. According to Smart (1996), the world views of a person can be divided into six dimension based upon the religious studies. The model presented by Smart (1996) is useful in identifying the world views and the diversity in a religion based upon their beliefs and practices. However, there is not a single dimension in any religion because of the complexity of the nature and its understanding. Most of the religion holds more than one dimension in doer to understand the beliefs and the world views. The different writers in academics and religious studies analyze the world view from different dimensions or a single dimension (Pargament, 2001). However, they tend to incorporate the aspects of one of each dimension to some extent in their analysis.

The first dimension described by Smart (1996) is the experiential dimension that is achieved through the ...