Skip to content

Two Concepts and One Memory. An Attempt to Reconsider Religion and Culture in the Light of Memory

MetadataDetails
Publication Date2015-09-01
JournalDOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)
AuthorsStanisław Obirek
InstitutionsUniversity of Warsaw

Already in 1964 Wilfred Cantwell Smith wrote that: ā€œthe term ā€˜religion’ is confusing, unnecessary, and distortingā€. Since then many new definitions for ā€˜religion’ were elaborated. In 2012 Jared Diamond not only reminded sixteen of them, but also proposed two new definitions. The multiplicity of definitions for ā€˜culture’ is well known. In the recent anthropological reflection the basic concepts of Western civilization underwent a dramatically transformations. This is true also for religion and culture and found a specific culmination in the theory elaborated by Clifford Geertz, who saw religion as a cultural system. The aim of this paper is to reconsider these two concepts in the light of the notion of memory. The contribution by Maurice Halbwachs who indicated a close link between religion and memory has to be included and also more recent analysis by Jan and Aleida Assmann, particularly their emphasis on cultural memory.