The Different Characteristics Of The Eight Elements Of Religion

Elements of religion

Religion refers to obligatory beliefs accompanies by a number of practices that involve objects that make up the belief. The word religion came from a Latin word religio that means awe for gods and believing in proper rituals. The dictionary defines religion as a system of belief involving worship of God or gods, and involves rituals, prayer and moral code (Hexham, 2011). What is commonly accepted as religion involves various characteristics and elements. These include; belief system, community, central myths, rituals, an ethical system, emotional experiences, material expressions of religion and sacredness. Most religions therefore have some of these elements.

The eight elements have different characteristics which can be used to define religion. These are:

1) A belief system;

For instance, Christians compose songs and sing religious sings, go to pray and the church, have religious paintings of Jesus Christ, his disciples, Mary, mother of Jesus, and other paintings about important people in the Christian religion. There is a clear distinction between ordinary and sacred objects in Christianity. The Bible, church and Christian religious leaders are considered sacred in Christianity. Catholics also consider rosary, statutes and incense as sacred (Raiser, 2014).

All the eight elements of religion form the basis of Christian beliefs with each element defining some characteristics of Christianity. However, some elements have more weight than others. For instance, the bible which is a holy book in Christianity is a major element as Christians are expected to read and study the bible in order to follow the ways of God and righteousness. Christians are too much attached to the sacred and Christianity involves striving to remain in contact with the sacred. By having believing and sticking to the Christian moral codes, the believer gets more attached to the sacred (Hexham,