Religion Can Bring a Culture Together Essay

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Introduction

According to the ‘Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion’ (1980), the term religion can be well considered as

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.. an institution with a recognized body of communicants who gather together regularly for worship, and accept a set of doctrines offering some means of relating the individual to what is taken to be the ultimate nature of reality.

On the other hand, the concept of Cultures is well accepted by Carther Vaughn Findley and John Alexander Rothney (2006), as ‘systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest
’.(14) These are the social norms that get together and are interrelated in the formation of a society or community in particular. As per the western trend of religious thought, the concept of religion is very much a part of having unique and common characteristic qualities. It is the representational identity of a particular area or region. In the peripheral understanding of culture, the concept of religion is very much a part of the communal system to bring in a kind of coherence in the system of belief in a particular community. The ideas are all related to the cultural representation of supernatural beliefs, sacred and metaphysical entities, divine and the ultimate provision for the highest truth. TReligionis the determining factor of the moral and ethical codes of culture. It is the determining factor related to the various practices, and valuable rituals that create a kind of institutionalization in a society and that leads to the culture among the people of the particular society.

Religion and western culture

The analytical viewpoint as has been forwarded by Christopher Dawson, in his ‘Religion and the Rise of Western Culture’ there are two most important things that he insisted on. These are the subjects related to the origin of Europe, on the one hand, and the concentrated religious roots understanding culture and religion of Western culture, on the other. The interpretive ideas are all related to the magisterial sweep as has been adopted by Toynbee. It is in concern to the one who is often compared in this relevant context. The attempt as has been made by Dawson is in bringing up the notion of medieval Christendom in the Western culture. It is here that the understanding of religion and culture are made interrelated in the formation of the western culture.

This is a kind of interrelation that brings in the role of religion as a vital ingredient in the formation of unifying culture in a society. According to T.S. Eliot, in his ‘Notes Towards a Definition of Culture’ the matters related to the formation of civilization and culture are very much the results of the evolutionary rituals and religions as gets observed by the population of a particular geographical area. For the perceptive identification as has been forwarded by Eliot, it is the development of a culture that must be categorized amidst the organic. It is not something that can be very much consciously guided for a particular culture. For him, it is a means of forming a culture that is very much structured with the transformations forwarded by the drastic changes that come in thfollow-upup of a particular religion. Culture cannot be limited. To go with the thoughts of Dowson; Eliot very promptly considers that culture is a kind of unification that leads to the changes and transformations in the rituals and the religion as a whole. For Eliot, culture is always independent and undergoes the system of unification and diversification with respect to religious sects, regions, and various social classes that exist within the population.

Christopher Dawson, in the II and the III chapters of his “Religion and the Rise of Western Culture”; made some predominant declarations. His attempt and understandings were all over the issues related to the unification of the western culture over the domain of the religious beliefs that are being forwarded from generations. In Chapter II, The Religious Origins of Western Church: The Church and the Barbarians, the interpretation is being done from the brave travels from the past sixth-century Irish monks, and are forwarded to the ultimate grand synthesis initiated by St. Thomas Aquinas of the 13th century. In Chapter III, The Monks of the West and the Formation of the Western Culture, Dawson shows the abundant and the elaborate entity of the spiritual movements related to St. Molua’s statement for the economic basis on the monastic life. The context is very much a part of the stability in service as got bestowed upon God. The demonstrative legacy is described to be found in the heritage of cathedrals, along with the Gregorian chant. The derivatives are also very much in elaboration with the participations and initiations led by Giotto and Dante in western culture.

In Chapter II, The Religious Origins of Western Church: The Church and the Barbarians, and Chapter III, The Monks of the West and the Formation of the Western Culture, there is the elaborative illustrations as has been forwarded by Christopher Dowson are also very much similar to the ideas forwarded by Josef Pieper in his ‘Leisure, the Basis of Culture’. In Chapter II, there are eminent descriptions related to the identification of the Christian World during the session of the Dark Ages. The references are made regarding the stronger forces of barbarism that were predominant and were very much negative to the social context. The descriptions were given regarding the persuasion of the Roman Culture that was having the essence of considering temperaments and the possession of vivid accounts of impression. The descriptions were all relevant to liturgical poetry. The aspects of analysis are also determined through the Confessions of St. Augustine. The descriptions are profound. The archaic ritual orders are well emphasized and there are many aspects of making them integral to the growth of Roman social structure. The sacred history of man’s creation gets governed in the process of adopting history.

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Matthew Arnold, on the other hand, is considered to be the exponent of culture through religious anarchy. It was in his ‘Culture and Anarchy’ “Culture […] is a study of perfection”. For him, it is the exclusiveness of culture that seeks the classes in the religious periphery. Arnold demonstrated that it is the spine of culture that pursuits for total perfection in a population. Chapter III makes this the major aspect of the study. In this Chapter, Dawson makes a clear description of the autonomous Christian culture that was centering on monasteries and was permeating the Church as the center for the influence of educational and religious consciousness among people. The Celtic Monasticism and the Benedictines are made well-structured comparatives for the process of spreading education and learning activities during the declination of the Byzantine Empire.

Conclusion

Eventually an attempt over the study of “Notes Toward the Definition of Culture” by T.S. Eliot, “Leisure: The Basis of Culture” by Josef Pieper, “Culture and Anarchy” by Matthew Arnold, “Religion and the Rise of Western Culture” by Christopher Dawson and “The Triumph of the Therapeutic” by Philip Reiff; the understanding and the importance of religion in the unification of culture in a society becomes inevitable. The elaborative understanding of the II and the III chapters of “Religion and the Rise of Western Culture” by Christopher Dawson; very distinctly determine that religion and culture are the means for the determination of a particular lifestyle in a community. It is the means through which there is an amalgamation of arts, core beliefs, and all kinds of institutions of marinating the population of a particular geographical area. Both religion and culture get passed down from one generation to the generation.

In Chapter II, The Religious Origins of Western Church: The Church and the Barbariansup, and Chapter III, The Monks of the West and the Formation of the Western Culture, declares that Culture stands as the way of maintaining life for the whole society; religion is the process for making of systematically structured for proper unification. All the codes related to the rituals, manners, law, ethics, morality, games, religion, language, outfits, and systems of believing a unified culture through artistic means; are the result of the interdependence of religion and culture.

Works cited

  1. Findley, Carther Vaughn and John Alexander Rothney, ‘Twentieth-century World’, 6th edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2006
  2. Reese, W.L. ‘Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion: Eastern and Western Thought’, (1980) p. 488
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IvyPanda. (2021) 'Religion Can Bring a Culture Together'. 11 October.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Religion Can Bring a Culture Together." October 11, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/religion-can-bring-a-culture-together/.

1. IvyPanda. "Religion Can Bring a Culture Together." October 11, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/religion-can-bring-a-culture-together/.


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IvyPanda. "Religion Can Bring a Culture Together." October 11, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/religion-can-bring-a-culture-together/.

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