Studies on the Core of Religion Leading to the De-identification of Religion

Document Type : Original Research

Author
Alireza Shojaeizand
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
10.30497/prr.2026.247923.1988
Abstract
Study on the core of religion can be considered one of the necessary and beneficial steps in the direction of subject identification. A movement that, if continued and placed on the right path, could be effective in moderating and correcting the prevailing reductionist approaches and help to repair and strengthen various fields of study of religion. However, this endeavor, stemming from its roots in Christianity and modern West, took a course that was at odds with its original purposes. Rather than distinguishing it from similar categories and emphasizing the aspects of distinction, it promoted the de-identification of religions. Continuing this trend not only deprives objectivity from studies of religion, but also disregards the significant distinctions among religions, leading to the weakening and eventual extinction of the knowledge that it has fed on and from which it has gained its credibility. Another consequence of persisting in this trend is a change in purposes, moving from a position of understanding religion to a kind of constructing religion.
Keywords
core of religion
religious experience
reductionism
understanding religion
constructing religion
Subjects
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