ABSTRACT
The success and function of Maoism as a practical belief-system, or ideology, can be illuminated from the fires which consumed the fabric of nineteenth century China. Since Mao is playing in the same league as Confucius, the Buddha and Lao tse, one may well ask whether what he offers, somewhat forcibly, to China, is a religion. Roughly there are three main approaches to the definition of religion. One is by content, another by formal characteristics, and the third is by existential significance. A religion can be seen as a mixture of people and beliefs. Or perhaps more correctly the practices and feelings and beliefs of people. It is of course vital to recognize that a religion has a special concern for the existential, and flourishes partly to the degree to which it can cope with and express basic human feelings and worries.
