Abstract
Popular religion reflects the lived and unstructured religion of subordinated groups and is a term which has developed mainly in contrast to institutionalised, established, and/or official religion which has a rationalised, codified, and written down theology. This entry will first detail what popular religion is, and will argue that it is mainly a term in dichotomy with the religion of the dominant group which is part of the established religion, although popular religion can have other denotations in other contexts. Because of this dichotomous position, the characteristic of popular religion will change from place and time depending on the established religion they live with in co-existence. This entry will then discuss this dichotomy and argue that although the blurring between established and popular religion was somehow clearer in pre and modern times, the case is even more muddy in today’s postmodern society.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The World's Religions: Continuities and Transformations |
Editors | Peter B. (Peter Bernard) Clarke, Peter Beyer |
Place of Publication | U.K. |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 479-492 |
Number of pages | 14 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780415397254 |
Publication status | Published - 2009 |