The Real Nature of Religion

The rise of militant atheism in the West coupled with the resurgence of Islam has left many people confused as to the true nature of religion. As Bynum points out, “though religion contains theology, it is more than theology. It concerns ethics and morality, but is more than ethics and morality. It ponders cosmology and man’s place in the totality of creation, but it is more than cosmology. Religion often involves ritual and veneration for tradition, but it is more than ritual and tradition. All of these things contain and support religion, but they are not religion; they constitute the forms of religion,” only.

Bynum makes the point that religious experience is at the heart of all religion and attempts to explain and describe the true nature of this experience. She also explores how the lack of religious understanding contributes to our present moral confusion and general societal decline. She believes that only through a revival of religious awareness will the Western world attain the necessary confidence to confront and contain Islam as well as to revive its civilization.