LEGITIMIZING RELIGION’S PLACE IN UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN PERSON: AN EVIDENTIAL APPROACH TO INTERPRETING THE MEANINGFUL ROLE OF SACRED PLAY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32351/rca.v1.2.17
Keywords:
Religion, sacred play, anthropology, psychology, human constitution, soul, mankind, communityAbstract
Religion on a more institutional level and spirituality in a more personally existential way is not a respecter of socio-economic status, limited to whether or not a country is developed, or fickle about where it takes root geographically. Even the “New Atheism” movement complies with pseudo-doctrines, proves zealous for deeply-rooted beliefs, and has even started meeting in what are called atheist “mega-churches.” It would seem that human beings are inclined to the phenomenon of organized religion and/or “sacred play” no matter what their backgrounds are or what historical localization they claim.
Though religion, theology, and the claims therein should be weighty in discussions concerning the human person, often these sciences are dismissed as secondary or even unnecessary. However, more are admitting that to understand mankind in general and the individual in particular, one must incorporate what these discussions afford. As Haslina Ibrahim (2008) rightly acknowledges, “to fully understand man, it is vital that we reconcile the study of religions with other sciences that fall under the study of humanities.”
To this end, this argument will build an evidential case for the pervasiveness of sacred play and call readers to understand something of its legitimacy in discussions of the human person. This will be accomplished by building a compendium of characteristics witnessed in the human person that are generally observed among social scientists and then connecting these both individually and collectively to the phenomenon of sacred play.
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