ABSTRACT
Some people view religions as personal and private. One cannot study what is private, however, only report about it. But religions in a worldly setting form communities of the faithful. They are public, shared, and there to be studied in the setting of society. Religious communities form cultural systems with an ethos or a way of life, an ethics or worldview, and a theory of the origin and character of the community or an ethnos. The religious system holds together because each of its parts answers questions about the purpose of that community and its calling.
