"What we study when we study religion is one mode of constructing worlds of meaning, worlds within which [human beings] find themselves and in which they choose to dwell. What we study is the passion and drama of man [and woman] discovering the truth of what it is to be human. History is the framework within whose perimeter those human expressions, activities and intentionalities that we call 'religious' occur. Religion is the quest, within the bounds of the human, historical condition, for the power to manipulate and negotiate one's 'situation' so as to have 'space' in which to meaningfully dwell. It is the power to relate ones domain to the plurality of environmental and social spheres in such a way as to guarantee the conviction that ones existence 'matters'. Religion is a distinctive mode of human creativity, a creativity which both discovers limits and creates limits for humane existence. What we study when we study religion is the variety of attempts to map, construct and inhabit such positions of power through the use of myths, rituals and experiences of transformation."
Jonathan Z. Smith, 1978: 290 - 291
Map is not Territory: Studies in the History of Religions
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