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Sat 28 Mar, 2015 03:07 am
Or refer to " rites, rituals, prayers, social institutions, holidays, etc."?
Context:
Clearly, religion cannot be reduced to a mere concatenation of religious beliefs. Every religion consists of rites, rituals, prayers, social institutions, holidays, etc., and these serve a wide variety of purposes, conscious and otherwise. However, religious belief - that is, the acceptance of secific historical and metaphysical propositions as being true!ais generally what rnders these enterprises relevant, or even comprehensible. I share with anthropologist Rodney Stark the view that belief precedes ritual and that a
practice like prayer is usually thought to be a genuine act of communication with a God (or gods). Religious adherents generally believe that they possess knowledge of sacred truths, and every faith provides a framework for interpreting experience so as to lend further credence to its doctrine.
@oristarA,
"These enterprises" refers to "rites, rituals, prayers, social institutions, holidays, etc".
Every religion consists of
rites, rituals, prayers, social institutions, holidays, etc., [...] religious belief -[...] renders
these enterprises relevant [...]
@contrex,
contrex wrote:
"These enterprises" refers to "rites, rituals, prayers, social institutions, holidays, etc".
Every religion consists of rites, rituals, prayers, social institutions, holidays, etc., [...] religious belief -[...] renders these enterprises relevant [...]
Thanks.
What surprises me is that "prayers, holidays..." could be called enterprises.
Is this a common usage?
In its widest sense "enterprise" means "something undertaken" or "activity". Its usage in your quoted text is a little old-fashioned but not wrong. Synonyms for "enterprise" from Oxford Dictionaries:
undertaking, endeavour, venture, pursuit, exercise, activity, operation, exploit, mission, deed, act, action, move, measure, task, business, affair, proceeding;
scheme, plan, plan of action, programme, campaign;
project, proposal, proposition, suggestion, idea, conception