Religion and Concept Formation: Transcending Eurocentrism

Abstract

Eurocentrism influences our understanding of certain phenomena, particularly when concepts developed in the Euroamerican context are applied outside of that context. This may result in the distortion of our understanding of the phenomena that they are applied to. The problem can be illustrated by recourse to the example of the concept of religion. The term religion is derived from the Latin religio. For centuries since the emergence and rise of Christianity, religio or religion referred to the religion of Christianity. Its usage began to change in the 18th century when philosophers and others used the term to refer to beliefs other than Christianity. This is where the problem arose. The use of the term religion for belief systems other than Christianity led to a cognitive process in which these beliefs were implicitly or explicitly compared with Christianity, resulting in some distortion of reality. This distortion has been referred to as the intellectual or cultural Christianization of these other belief systems in which there is a “loss of meaning”. This is the phenomenon in which the characteristics of Christianity guide and shape discussions of the other “religions”. This can be understood as a specific type or mode of Eurocentrism in the humanities and social sciences in which European categories derived from Christendom exert a form of intellectual hegemony over thinking and research on other religions.