The Four Categories That Make Religions Whole

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The Four Categories that Make Religions Whole

There are many interesting aspects of religion and studying them can be difficult. However, when studying a religious tradition, there are four categories defined by William Paden that are useful to use to gain a better insight of the religion. The four categories used to analyze a religious tradition are: myth, ritual, gods and systems of purity. Each category has a specific purpose in order to better understand a religious tradition. All four categories are related to one another and fundamental to better understand a religious tradition. As a religious studies student the utilization of these categories is necessary to gain the most insight about religious traditions. The first

It is important to understand ritual because followers do not just read or recite myths but rather attempt to be more connected to the sacred with the use of ritual. Ritual is the structuring of action and time of a religion’s followers to become more connected to the sacred. That is to say that when followers perform rituals their actions are disciplined and often occur at specific times to become more connected to the sacred. To be aware of this and knowledgeable of ritual’s purpose will allow one to observe ritual in a more purposeful objective point of view. Moreover, if one were to observe several rituals after reading that specific religion’s myth it would be quite apparent that ritual relied on myth. In other words, rituals are established in myth and myth provides instructions as to how to perform rituals. These instructions also often order time, meaning that myth instructs its followers as to when to perform the rituals and the duration of the rituals. Therefore, knowing that myth is the foundation of ritual and that it structures the process of ritual, it allows those studying religion to find the deeper meaning of the ritual and to have a greater appreciation of the technique used to help the followers connect to the their

The category, gods, can be defined as “any super being that humans religiously engage.”. These super beings can vary in location, when they exist, if they are male or female, if they are demonic or not, the amount of power they possess and if they are visible. The variation of the gods’ qualities are important to understand because not all religions have the same gods or one god. Rather, these gods belong to different religions with distinct characteristics that separate them from other religions. It is also necessary to note that the gods reside in specific locations, relative to their communities that inhabit those locations. For example, a river god will most likely reside in the river, to which fishermen will likely worship the river god. Just as gods belong to particular groups of people, these communities worship the gods in particular ways such as: petition, service, obedience, and atonement. These are specific techniques that are developed from the knowledge about appeasing the gods. This knowledge is created by the sacred written or oral stories about the gods and what appease them, also known as part of myth. The category of gods somewhat indirectly created myth, because without the gods, myth would lose its sacredness. In addition to this, rituals are performed are often done to appease or become more connected to the gods, but if gods are absent there would be no purpose of