Here is your Essay on Relationship between Religion and Politics !
Religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendent quality, that give meaning to the practitioner’s experiences of life through reference to a higher power, God or gods, or ultimate truth. It may be expressed through prayer, ritual, meditation, music and art, among other things.
It may focus on specific supernatural, metaphysical, and moral claims about reality (the cosmos and human nature) which may yield a set of religious laws, ethics, and a particular life-style. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and religious experience.
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The term “religion” refers to both the personal practices related to communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction. “Religion” is sometimes used interchangeably with “faith” or “belief system,” but it is more socially defined than personal convictions, and it entails specific behaviors, respectively. The development of religion has taken many forms in various cultures. It considers psychological and social roots, along with origins and historical development.
In the frame of western religious thought, religions present a common quality, the “hallmark of patriarchal religious thought”: the division of the world in two comprehensive domains, one sacred, the other profane. Religion is often described as a communal system for the coherence of belief focusing on a system of thought, unseen being, person, or object, that is considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine, or of the highest truth.
Moral codes, practices, values, institutions, tradition, rituals, and scriptures are often traditionally associated with the core belief, and these may have some overlap with concepts in secular philosophy. Religion is also often described as a “way of life” or a life stance.
Politics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. It consists of ‘social relations involving authority or power” and refers to the regulation of a political unit, and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy.
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However, there is not an academic consensus on the precise definition of “politics” and what is consider as political and what is not. Max Weber defined politics as the struggle for power. “Politics” ultimately comes from the Greek word “polis” meaning state or city. “Politikos” describes anything concerning the state or city affairs. In Latin, this was “politicus” and in French “politique”. Thus it became “politics” in Middle English
Social Significance of Religion:
According to the Sociologists, Religion is as one institution in a complex web of institutions that form a society. One of the major consequences of Religion is to strengthen ties among believers! According to some critics, Religion often becomes more important as a source! Of social identity than as a source of belief and practices that deal with the sacred.
There are may people who participate in Religion, more to find a place. In society rather than due to their convictions. Consequently, one often finds that Churches, temples, mosques and synagogues often become social centres. Religion serves also as a rallying point the groups mobile themselves towards a cause around it.
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Violent conflicts may take place due to presence of different Religions in the same society. Persecution of Religious groups throughout history is well known. Religious wars wrecked both East and West. Christians clashed with Muslims and Catholics with Protestants and so on. In India million became refugees in the partition conflict between Muslim and Hindus. For years Jews and Arabs have fought bloody battles in the Middle East Religion is very often a vehicle of expression, a form of identity, around which a group gathers either to muster more power for itself or any such similar cause.