Islamic Civilization Essay

Fitzgerald argues strongly that the study of religion does not improve our understanding of societies, but labels them into the structures we associate with Western Christianity. He also argues that religion is not a distinctive phenomenon and should not have its own analytical category. He raises the question of whether or not there is a systematic way of distinguishing between the secular and the non-secular. He also raises the question of whether or not there is a fixed definition of the term religion, if that term is imbued in Western Christian bias, and the confusions that result in this analytically empty but ideologically loaded term. This term is used in so many different contexts that it has no clear meaning. Fitzgerald says that “the word ‘religion’ is analytically redundant and even misleading” (Fitzgerald 5), because religion refers to a “belief in gods or the supernatural” (Fitzgerald 5), and it was of “traditional European usage” (5). Fitzgerald claims that people have “self-consciously attempted to transform the meaning of religion…and extend it as a cross-cultural category” (Fitzgerald 5). The problem is that people have been incorrectly labeling cross-cultural categories under one term ‘religion,’ that imbues Western Christian views that do not accurately reflect the principles of many cultures. According to Fitzgerald, “working with the blurred and yet ideologically loaded concept of ‘religion’ as a starting point can confuse and impoverish analysis…encourage the uncritical imposition of Judaeo-Christian assumptions on non-western data, and generally maximize our chances of misunderstanding.” This means that explaining Islam to someone, for example, under the category ‘religion’ will imbue Western bias, as the concept of religion now generally reflects Christian view, therefore will misconstrue data about Islam.