JIM STONE a1 a1 Philosophy Department, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA 70148
Abstract
This essay is a revision of my earlier effort to overturn the prevailing
view that there is merely a ‘family resemblance’ between religions. A religion is a
system of practices rationalized by beliefs according to which the practices place the
practitioner in a relation-of-value to a supermundane reality so grand that it can
figure centrally in the satisfaction of substantial human needs. A ‘supermundane
reality’ is one that exceeds the mundane world revealed by sense perception. The
theory generates a useful taxonomy of practices and theories closely related to, but
substantially different from, religions.
