Popular Religion

There is no single definition of what constitutes ‘Popular Religion’. Some scholars have defined it as rural in contrast to urban forms of religion, the religion of the peasant in contrast to that of the ruling classes; or, in a variation of this definition, the religion of the masses as contrasted with that of the intellectual or sophisticated classes. If, however, popular religion is seen in contrast to ‘official’ religion, the latter defined as religion founded on authoritative documents and propagated and maintained by religious specialists, priests or hierarchy, then the term ‘popular’ can apply to any layperson, whether peasant or ruling-class, who adopts beliefs and practices which may be at odds with the religious specialist's views. The term has been extended in some contexts to describe ‘civil religion’, by which is meant the general religious and cultural ethos generated by the elites or governing classes whereby loyalty to the state (and, conversely, disloyalty) is defined by certain moral and attitudinal norms. Popular religion can also mean the religion of ethnic or minority groups located in a context of a major and dominant religion. The term can also be applied to esoteric beliefs and practices, some of which may be only marginally identified as religious, for instance the practice of and belief in A strology or other such pseudo-scientific practices.

From A New Dictionary of Religions, edited by John R. Hinnells (Oxford: Bl;ackwell, 1995), from Blackwewell Reference Online.  DOI:  0.1111b.9780631181392.1995.x.