Religion

It seems to us that the time has not yet come to give an exact definition of the very essence of religion. It is very possible that the lack of clarity of the concept of religion is due to a large extent insufficient study of the history of religions. Until now, scientific researchers have not been able to distinguish from the overwhelming mass of religious beliefs, from the infinite variety of religious forms, the main grain that would pass through all the religions of both cultural and uncultured peoples. Our limited understanding of the essence of religious life reaches such a point that we cannot say for sure whether faith in the deity or in higher unknown forces is the main and necessary element in religion. This question arises naturally in view of the fact that in the original Buddhism, which is generally recognized as a religious system, the doctrine of the gods is completely absent. On the other hand, the difficulty of defining religion precisely is due to the fact that the so-called psychology of religion has not yet been sufficiently studied. In what needs of the human spirit religion is rooted, what constitutes its psychological basis, in what relation religious feeling stands to other manifestations of the human spirit-these are the fundamental questions, without an exact clarification of which it is hardly possible to give a completely satisfactory definition of religion.

Therefore, we prefer to refrain from defining religion in its very essence and root. For the historian of religions, it is sufficient to distinguish from a number of other phenomena of human life the group of phenomena that assimilates the name of religious. It is precisely those manifestations of the human spirit in words, actions, customs, and institutions in which man’s faith in the supersensible and his desire to place himself in a certain relation to this supersensible world that belong to the domain of religion.

In order to make our science more definite, we think it necessary to point out that the word “religion” is used in two ways. On the one hand, this word denotes a certain mental state or experience of an individual, and on the other – the sum of beliefs, rituals and institutions that exist in this or that people and related to the supersensible world. In the first case, the phenomenon is individual or subjective, and in the second-objective and in some respects social. It is clear that in studying the history of the religions of various peoples, one can only mean religion in the latter sense. What forms religion took in the consciousness and life of one or another people, how these forms changed and developed – these are the questions that are subject to study by our science.