ABSTRACT
Religion is the acting out of a vision of personal identity and human community. Religion is primarily a conversion to the sense of the sacred. The roots of religion are so numerous, the weight of their influence in individual lives so varied, and the forms of rational intention so endless, that uniformity of product is impossible. The religious drive cuts across all phases of human life. Religion is the final secret of an individual’s or a society’s life, the set of keys to its intimate identity, priorities, purposes. The religious drive is dynamic, unifying, comprehensive and ultimate. The religious impulse, in particular, tends to veer off either in the direction of the sensual orgies of fertility rites and ecstasy and overpowering concreteness, or in the direction of decency, control, will power, and cold reason. Religion is often made to supply reinforcement to a cultural status quo.
