Identity In Religion

Superior Essays
This research is going to be focused on how a person’s religion is the source that affects the choices an individual will make that changes their identity. As will be discussed later on, religion is more than just following a set of doctrines and principles in order to reach some kind of Heaven, Jannah, Paradise, or Higher Place after one dies. William James describes a person’s religion as a “religion [that] has been made for him by others, communicated to him by tradition, determined to fixed forms by imitation, and retained by habit” (20). It is more of a belief in a Savior or Deity and the desire to follow them out of love, reverence, and awe of them. Because of that respect, it causes the individual to have the desire to serve them in …show more content…
Although the rooted identity tends to always stay with someone, the created identity, which is the one they actually choose, is what changes their identity. Choosing different paths in life builds and structures the person’s identity. Deciding whether to act on a certain subject, or to think in a certain way sets precedents that molds their identity. Forming an identity entails the establishment of opposites and certainty depends on the continual clarification of one’s differences (Durrani 224). This refers back to the created identity. Without having an opposite of something, there is really no understanding what that thing then really is. For example, without the sense that something is a dog, one cannot know that something else is then a cat. There would be no comparison. The way a dog acts, thinks, and is perceived by people is different than a cat. The same thing goes for identity since “[m]an is not only a mystery unto himself but he is ever confronted with a host of perplexing questions and puzzles” (Iheanacho 82). Without establishing what one is not, there would be little knowing as to who one is. Those opposites are how it is understood who one …show more content…
However, because nationalism is about difference, the imagined community cannot be all-inclusive” (Durrani 218). Social identity, or national identity, relates one’s identity to a community or group of people. Depending on the type of community, religion can either boost or burden how one is seen socially. If the community is not a religious type of group, then being religious could ostracize that individual from others. On the other hand, if the community is already religious, being religious can then strengthen the bond between members of that group. How one is seen socially is then dependent on a few things. “[N]ational identity requires identification with a particular geographical place” (Durrani 229) as well as the type of people. It would be non-existent if one was completely isolated and away from everybody. This research has already discussed the differences between rooted and created identities. This being said, religion is not its own identity, it incorporates itself into the already formed identity. Thus, it changes one’s identity. The only difference is that it molds and shapes it into something new and improved. “Although citizens may strive to maintain their individual identities in a number of areas,… being spiritual is fundamental to being a citizen and therefore is not another identity” (Gates 306). Citizenship is crucial to how

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