Year 10 - Religious education
Ninian Smart's dimensions
Belief: what is religion and does everyone understand it in the same way?
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit pupils will consider the term religion and ask: what does it mean? Does everyone see it as the same thing? Ninian Smart's dimensions will provide one way in which religion has been classified. A case study of Japan and ethical veganism offer opportunities to question what is meant.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to explain how Ninian Smart's dimensions of religion seeks to help us understand religion as a human phenomenon.
Key Notes
- Ninian Smart introduced the academic secular study of religion to the UK in the last century.
- He had a phenomenological approach to religion, studying how religion is lived and experienced by people.
- Rather than define religion, Smart came up with different dimensions of religion as ways to study it as a phenomenon.
- These dimensions are: ritual, mythical, doctrinal, ethical, social, experiential and material.
Vocabulary To Learn
- dimensions: for Smart, these are the different aspects or parts that make up a religion
- phenomenon: something which can be seen, observed, studied
- phenomenology: the study of what humans experience
- worldview: the term Ninian Smart preferred to use to refer to religious and secular ideologies
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- That Ninian Smart was aiming to define religion with his dimensions.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Ninian Smart introduced the academic secular study of religion to the UK in the last century. He had a phenomenological approach to religion, studying how religion is lived and experienced by people.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'dimensions'
for Smart, these are the different aspects or parts that make up a religion.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: That Ninian Smart was aiming to define religion with his dimensions. Correction: Ninian Smart was not hoping to define religion but to help those studying religion gather information about it.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 10 Religious education guide library.