Interpreting The Sacred By William E. Paden

In “Interpreting the Sacred,” William E. Paden does not answer the what is religion question, in fact he does the opposite. Paden challenges the reader to ask why IS religion and to question how one can even define religion. It was an interesting read that discussed the difficulties in studying religion, and the challenges we all face with religion in our everyday lives. Paden poses the idea that our individual worldviews and lives shape religion, not just in the sense of how we ourselves interpret our own religions, but also how we define religion, culture, and society. Chapter 1 discusses the lens that we all view religion through. Our upbringing, our culture, our geographical situation on the map; they all shape how we view the world around us. He even goes so far to say that our worldview is what defines the world religion. When I, for example, think of “religion” as a whole, I think of bending on your knees praying, worshiping a sacred text, and a big God in the sky that has a long white beard and a white robe. I also tend to see religion and the religious as sheep who follow others simply because they promise salvation, without agency to make …show more content…
Paden uses the example of the dog. If you se a dog across the street, it is either your dog or it is not. You cannot simultaneously own and not own the dog (this isn 't a cat that can simultaneously be dead and alive, cats are a lot cuter). This then would suggest that plurality cannot exist either, you cannot be simultaneously Christian and not, you are not Schrodinger 's Theist. However, religion is not a dog. It is not a physical object that we can fathom or put into words. We cannot look across the street and see Jesus and determine whether he is a savior or a prophet. Religion is too personal, too cultural, too metaphysical to define in such easy