How Am I Defining "Religion" at the Outset?

5:03 AM Friday.

I have recently started reading the second edition of Understanding World Religions, having gratefully consumed the first edition during the spring of 2019 while incarcerated in the mental health unit of the Albany county jail. Thank God for the jail librarian. Perhaps it is no wonder I now seem to have it in mind that I should undertake a critical teaching of this text. It feels like this will eventually require me to produce a YouTube PowerPoint lecture series. But I don't think I am mentally strong enough to attempt that in 2026. So, in the meantime, I will see what preliminary ground I can cover with my notes on this blog.  

In a separate post, I will address the Preface of Understanding World Religions in light of the original first paragraph of Nostra Aetate.

In this post, I just want to very quickly set forth my opening definition of "religion" for a future course titled "Introduction to World Religion." I am defining religion as the integrated acts of praying, reading, writing and consulting with spiritual mentors in order to bind a people together under a common law.

This is just a very crude opening definition. It is subject to change as I get farther along in my interaction with the second edition of Understanding World Religions and with the writings of other authors (teachers) on the subject.

End 6:11 AM.