I have to admit that I was very threatened when I first saw that this was the prompt I was assigned to blog about today. Although we at Notre Dame mention religion almost every day, I still cannot provide a clear definition of it or fully comprehend it—if it’s even meant to be comprehended. However, in today’s reading Marty attempts to boil down the complexity of religion to six straightforward qualities: 1. Religion grasps people and demands complete expressions of loyalty, 2. Religion focuses on our ultimate concern, 3. Religion builds community, 4. Religion appeals to myth and symbol, 5. Religion is enforced through rites and ceremonies, and lastly 6. Religion demands certain behaviors from its adherents. However, the confusion of what religion truly is emerges when Marty highlights that all these five qualities of religion are also found within political sphere and advocates. So what differentiates politics from religion? Religion, unlike politics, seeks to answer truths about the human condition or the world around us that science or facts cannot explain. Although the end goal of politics is to reach answers that can be implemented into policy, religion simply seeks a better understanding of ourselves, not our role the international or national politcal sphere but our role and meaning in life. Even though politics does meet the five qualities of religion, but it also answers so much more and less. This is a search for understanding that religion recognizes is never-ending. Never can we reach total self revelation but we can gain insight in attempting to do so. There are no definites but belief drives us towards further exploration and to know religion is to know oneself: it is ultimately self revelation. The practice it isn’t unreasonable despite requiring faith–to have faith is to reason the most. Religion ultimately is important in our own intellectual lives filling a space of restlessness and questioning: it allows a community of people to reflect upon our own unanswerable questions to better understand ourselves through myth and symbol, both essential to religion as simple facts could not reveal any truth as deeply.
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Ciara Fitter's Blog 
Ciara, I appreciated your analysis of the relations between politics and religion. I particularly found your comment about how religion takes politics further and “seeks to answer truths about the human condition” very interesting and insightful. Prior to reading this article, I did not see the connection between religion and politics, but just as you mentioned, the five pillars Marty speaks of illustrates the connection between the two fields. I do wonder, however, if we will ever be able to obtain a universal definition for religion?
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I also found the question very intimidating. I have been going to catholic school my entire life and still did not have a clear definition. I think it is interesting that you state that religion helps us find a better understanding of ourselves. Doesn’t philosophy do the same thing?
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I loved your commentary on the connection between politics and religion — the phrase “not our role the international or national political sphere but our role and meaning in life” I think perfectly contrast and likens the two! You also mention how religion recognizes the never-ending search for understanding. Would you agree that this could also be a point of similarity between politics and religion? I often see politics, its conversations, and the issues it tries to address as seeming to never end. Maybe both religion and politics never cease to look for answers, and both try to understand the greater purpose of the people and the greater community.
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