RELIGIOUS STUDIES: A TOOL FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
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2012-07
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Abstract
The word “religion” probably derives from the Latin root religio: Meaning to blind together, to bind
fast, or fasten up that, which might otherwise fall apart. It was used sparingly in antiquity in several
forms but its meaning in contemporary critical usage derives from the Enlightenment.Hence, the word
“religion” is a translation of the Latin religio and is related to another word religio, which carries the
meaning of chaining, or fastening or holding back. Thus religion binds people together.
An acceptable definition has been framed over the years but with one deficiency or the other.A survey
of existing definition reveals many interpretations. The Encyclopedia of philosophy defines “religion
as the belief in an ever living God that is, in a Divine mind and Will ruling the Universe and holding
moral relations with mankind” (Martinean 1967).
Religion is the recognition that all things are manifestations of a power transcends our knowledge
(Sponcer 1964). “Religion is rather an attempt to experience the complete reality of goodness through
every aspect of our being” (Bradley 1967).
“A man’s religion is the expression of his ultimate attitude to the universe, the summed- up meaning
and purport of his consciousness of things.” (Caird 1967).
“Religion is ethics heightened, enkindled, lit up by feeling” (Arnold 1965) worthy that most of these
definitions stress one aspect or another of religion to the exclusion of others. Thus, Martinean and
Spencer represent religion as some sort of beliefs or other cognitive state. Bradley and Arnold express
it as a kind of moral attitude and activity and while Taggart and Tickle (1965:9) sees it as a certain
kind of feeling.
In a nutshell, Encyclopedia Britannica defines religions as “a particular system or a set of system in
which doctrine, rituals, sentiments and other similar elements are inter connected” (Henry 1992:509).
In its general and comprehensive connotation, however, the word religion depicts man‟s relation to
that which he regards as holy, whether the holy being is super natural or even personal to the
individual concerned.To the vast majority of Nigerians, however the term religion is always associated
with the existence of a deity who assumes different names or nomenclatures in different parts of the
country and among different groups and communities (Balogun 1978:50).
For purpose of this paper, therefore religion is the system by which man recognizes the existence of a
super human controller of the universe, the recognition God as an object of worship, love and
obedience, which ultimately leads to practical piety and morality.