Does the sacred make a difference? Category formation in comparative religion

Authors

• Veikko Anttonen University of Turku

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67241

Keywords:

Religion -- Definition, Religion -- Study, Holiness, Experience (Religion), Concepts, Methodology, Finnish language, Linguistics, Language and religion, Symbolism, Ritual -- Study

Abstract

When taken at face value, the sacred seems to be an unproblematic concept. Times, places, persons, animals and objects are classified as `sacred', because they have or have had a religious or spiritual significance for people in specific historical and social contexts. Religious traditions and their systems of signification are taken to explain why people have set aside specific things and considered them qualitatively different from other things. Deeming something as sacred means that it is disconnected from the category in social life in which similar things are classified and bestowed with special meaning and value. Sacredness of an object means that it stands in direct relationship to specific power-laden super-human entity by which members in a given culture mirror their self-consciousness or some aspects of it. A sanctuary for instance is a place that is set apart from the rest of the social space, because it is valued as a point of contact between man and the super-human agent worshipped by the local community.