ABSTRACT
Religion is often perceived as a mainly or even totally conservative force. That is, religion seems-or claims-to establish an order of things and a system of meaning and morality that is settled and closed once and for all and to sustain and guarantee that order and system against all threats and innovations. It might be more accurate to say that part of the ideology of religion, of its self-perception and self-representation, is that it is conservative and “given.” Critical to the legitimating function of religion is its assertion of the “really real,” that which has not changed and cannot change, at least since it was set down in the paradigmatic acts of the past. Continuity with this past, and a human moral obligation to be faithful to this past and to perpetuate its models of life, lie near the heart of religion.
