How cultures define the sacred in religion

Religion in culture involves social and cultural systems that relate people to supernatural, spiritual, or transcendent elements, sometimes through rituals, prayer, music, art, dance, or public service. The lessons answer how cultures define the sacred and help readers understand how religion takes shape in cultural life. They consider the ways sacred meaning connects with belief, practice, and everyday life.

2 articles, 1 book · about 1 hr 30 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   the role of religion in culture · Wikipedia · 60+ min read

   Sociologist Émile Durkheim defined religion as a "unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things". He said sacred things are "set apart and forbidden" and unite adherents into one moral community called a Church. Judaism has no precise equivalent of religion in Hebrew and does not clearly separate religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities. Its central concept, halakha, meaning the walk or path sometimes translated as law, guides religious practice and belief and many aspects of daily life.

2. Read
   

   "14.1A: The Nature of Religion" · socialsci.libretexts.org · 3 min read

   Emile Durkheim wrote that "a rock, a tree, a spring, a pebble, a piece of wood, a house, in a word, anything can be sacred," showing that sacred things are not limited to gods or spirits.

3. Book
   

   The Sacred and The Profane · Bookshop.org

   The Sacred and The Profane by Mircea Eliade traces manifestations of the sacred from primitive to modern times through space, time, nature, and the cosmos. Eliade argues that even people who consider their world completely profane remain unconsciously nourished by the memory of the sacred, and compares the total human experience of religious and nonreligious people.

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