In religious studies, an ethnic religion is a

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...

belief A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to tak ...

associated with a particular

ethnic group An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

. Ethnic religions are often distinguished from universal religions, such as

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

, in which gaining converts is a primary objective and, therefore, are not limited in ethnic, national or racial scope.

Terminology

A number of alternative terms have been used instead of ''ethnic religion''. Another term that is often used is '' folk religion''. While ''ethnic religion'' and ''folk religion'' have overlapping uses, the latter term implies "the appropriation of religious beliefs and practices at a popular level." The term ''folk religion'' can therefore be used to speak of certain Chinese and African religions, but can also refer to popular expressions of more multi-national and institutionalized religions such as

Folk Christianity In religious studies and folkloristics, folk religion, popular religion, traditional religion or vernacular religion comprises various forms and expressions of religion that are distinct from the official doctrines and practices of organized rel ...

or Folk Islam. In Western contexts, a variety of terms are also employed. In the United States and Canada a popular alternative term has been '' nature religion''. Some neopagan movements, especially in Europe, have adopted ''ethnic religion'' as their preferred term, aligning themselves with ethnology. This notably includes the European Congress of Ethnic Religions, which chose its name after a day-long discussion in 1998, where the majority of the participants expressed that ''Pagan'' contained too many negative connotations and ''ethnic'' better described the root of their traditions in particular nations. In the English-language popular and scholarly discourse ''

Paganism Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. I ...

'', with a capital P, has become an accepted term.

Usage

Ethnic religion are defined as religions which are related to a particular ethnic group, and often seen as a defining part of that ethnicity's culture, language, and customs.

Diasporic A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews afte ...

groups often maintain ethnic religions as a means of maintaining a distinct ethnic identity such as the role of

African traditional religion The traditional beliefs and practices of African people are highly diverse beliefs that include various ethnic religions.Encyclopedia of African Religion (Sage, 2009) Molefi Kete Asante Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural ...

and

African diaspora religions African diaspora religions are a number of related Pagan beliefs that developed in the Americas in various nations of the Caribbean, Latin America and the Southern United States. They derive from Pagan traditional African religions with some influ ...

among the African diaspora in the Americas. Some ancient ethnic religions, such as those historically found in pre-modern Europe, have found new vitality in neopaganism. Moreover, non-ethnic religions, such as

, have been known to assume ethnic traits to an extent that they serve a role as an important ethnic identity marker, a notable example of this is the Serbian "Saint-Savianism" of the

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...

, and the religious and cultural heritage of

Syriac Christianity Syriac Christianity ( syr, ܡܫܝܚܝܘܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ / ''Mšiḥoyuṯo Suryoyto'' or ''Mšiḥāyūṯā Suryāytā'') is a distinctive branch of Eastern Christianity, whose formative theological writings and traditional liturgies are ex ...

branch of the Assyrian people.

List of ethnic religions

References

{{Religion topics Ethnology

Terminology

Usage

List of ethnic religions

See also

References