The anatomy of religions
What we can learn from traditional religions, and what needs to change
Religions are treasure troves of social technologies.
From the functionalist view argued in the previous piece, traditional religions are extremely interesting when it comes to how they create social coherence. We are less interested in the specific content, but rather in the functions which successfully tied together societies in the past. Thousands of years of cultural evolution have created beautiful and effective systems.
Religions across cultures share the following key ingredients:
Canonical narratives
Moral framework & ethical compass
Practices and rituals
When we think of religions, we first think about myths and holy books. All religions also contain rules on how to live, as well as practices and rituals. All of these pieces work together as an integrated system of stories, norms, beliefs and practices. In this piece, I’m noting some recurring and seemingly well-working patterns. All of these are fundamental building blocks for the potential religion of tomorrow.
Narrative: Mythos, Logos & Pathos
Religions all have a shared narrative, a story about the human and its role in the Cosmos. It is recounted in canonised scriptures, embedded into art, architecture and artefacts. The work of Alexander Bard provides a helpful framework in dividing religious narrative into three distinct forms: Logos, Mythos, and Pathos. Logical narrative aims to tell a story about how the world works, whereas mythical narrative weaves meaning through analogy, and pathic narrative expresses subconscious drives.
All three forms of narrative seem to tie together society along different dimensions of meaning. Logos address reason and the analytic mind. Mythos provides templates for our emotional and social dimensions. Pathos connects to the body and subconscious drives. The three forms of narrative work together as a system and interact with one another. See the table below for a summary.
Mythos, to some degree, is the centrepiece of a religion, providing the framing for the other narratives and aspects. A key myth present in most religions is the origin’s story of the world. This metaphysical story situates humans in a larger Cosmos and provides a teleology in which humans have a distinct role to play. The myth weaves its story from alpha to omega, from Brahma humming to Shiva dancing, from Genesis to the Apocalypse.
Assemblages and eternal stories
Even in the religions “of the book”, the respective holy book is usually a collection of different texts, ranging from moral commandments to poetic expression. There isn’t a single narrative. Rather, many interweaving stories about topics as diverse as the meaning of life, the proper way to prepare food, or why that one day of the weekend is so special. Assemblages of narratives. Both the bible and the buddhist sutras are a wild mix of allegories, dialogues, poems, etc.
As diverse as their form may seem, we can also note recurring formal patterns within mythical narratives. For instance, the infamous Monomyth or Hero’s Journey, now often weaponized by marketeers, does indeed appear over and over again.
Meaning at multiple levels
Another notable feature of religions is that their myths and practices contain meaning at multiple levels. Even within a strictly defined canon, the holy texts can be understood in different ways, e.g. either literally or allegorically. Sometimes, an apparent story can also be understood as practice instruction to modulate subjective states. It’s as if the prophets were leaving breadcrumbs for people to reenact the states that produced the later reified prophecies in the first place. This layering of meanings is usually pointed at with the distinction between exoteric, esoteric, and mystical understanding of religions (from the outer to the inner layers of the onion below).
Moral framework and ethical compass
From the 10 commandments to the Buddhist five precepts, a moral framework always seems part of the textual canon. This moral framework often appears as a compact list and comes across crystal clear and logical. Functionally, this may have carved out boundaries of the social space shared by everyone. In order to fulfil that function, the form of the list makes sense since it is easily shareable while being protected against misinterpretation. It provides clear guidelines for behaviour, especially by prohibiting certain behaviour.
However, how to act within these boundaries can’t be defined as clearly. The ethics of every single situation and decision are different, and religions seem to acknowledge that by complementing the moral framework with an ethical compass that is constructed much more loosely: In order to assist in deliberating on individual cases, the allegory is often employed. The prophet or sage in the story can be taken as a model and his actions are described in multiple situations in order. If those are internalised sufficiently, a corresponding ethical compass may emerge that helps emulate the great sages of the past (at least in theory).
Psycho-technologies and ecologies of practices
Narratives are not enough to shape human subjectivity and behaviour. Religion, in order to be effective, needs to be able to change people’s lives on a much deeper and more embodied level. This is where John Vervaeke's terms of "psycho-technologies" and "ecologies of practices" are helpful. Psycho-technologies are the tools that a religion uses to change the way its followers think and feel. From chanting and prayer, contemplation, to the various forms of meditation. Similarly, movement practices from yoga to ecstatic dance.
Ritual, on the other hand, can be thought of as a collective psycho-technology. It is more aimed towards integrating Pathos. The book “The disappearance of Ritual” by Byung-Chul Han discusses how ritual makes time “inhabitable”, and weaves structure and meaning into our lives.
It is important to note that practices and rituals don’t work in isolation, but rather as ecologies of practices. Systems of psycho-technologies, not a single practice. Only if the whole system is engaged with regularly, and likely under the guidance of a competent teacher, can they create a deeply embodied experience of the religion that can transform lives. Over time, these changes can lead to real transformation in the way someone relates to themselves, others, and the world around them. Needless to say, traditional religions very rarely achieve this nowadays but we can still see the remnants of these powerful tools in the texts.
When it comes to their form, most ecologies of practices combine personal, interpersonal, and collective practices. They also act on multiple levels, e.g. mind (attention/awareness system, relevance realization, etc.), body (movement practices), and soul (emotional practices, ensoulment). The simple taxonomy below uses some of these distinctions to classify psycho-technologies into 9 categories. An effective ecology of practice would probably combine practices out of each of the categories. Note that each of these categories just contains a few examples, which could be further subdivided. We are really just scratching the surface with this brief overview.
Recurring patterns
Besides the structures and functions common to most religions, certain ideas are also conspicuously widespread across major faiths. Different packages, same content, again and again. Here is an incomplete list of some prominent recurring ideas:
Multiple different centres of intelligence (e.g. brain, heart, gut; 6-8 chakras, etc.)
4 elements: fire, water, earth, air (+ space)
3 different realms (physical, astral, causal; Buddhist trikaya, etc.)
2 opposing forces dynamic (Ying-Yang; masculine-feminine; eros-thanatos, etc.)
Whether or not these ideas closely describe an underlying reality is besides the point. They have been useful across different cultures and times and that in itself makes them interesting.
Transcend and Include
We should not accept any of these structures or ideas wholesale (might as well convert to one of the traditional religions in that case). As rich as their gifts and learnings may be, organised religions all have the tendency to become fundamentalist and literalist over time. As the original divine spark provided by its prophets gets canonised and institutionalised, it is increasingly disconnected from lived reality and inevitably becomes corrupted by power structures. From guru scandals to institutionalised abuse, the reliance on formal authority often leads to corruption.
Another fundamental flaw of traditional religions is their universalist aspiration in combination with dogma. This inevitably causes war between different religions - there can only be one Truth. As long as they hold on to a claim to truth that is both universal and exclusionary, religions can’t lead to much else than an eternal replay of the story of Cain and Abel. However, a watered-down Perennialism is not the answer either. In order to fit into people’s lives and create meaningful social cohesion, a religion needs to connect to local lived realities.
The task at hand is to decidedly reject the toxic tendencies of religions (dogma and institutionalized power structures) while exapting their social functions in a way that works for a specific time and place.
In a forthcoming piece, I’ll suggest how existing traditional concepts (with Christianity as an example) could be updated to avoid their pitfalls while still preserving their social function.