Literary notes about religious (AI summary)
The term "religious" in literature is employed with remarkable versatility, serving not only to indicate matters of worship and ritual but also to evoke social, moral, and cultural dimensions of human life. In some texts, it designates intrinsic, almost sacred qualities found in objects or symbols—as seen when Durkheim underscores the totemic nature of certain artifacts ([1])—while in others it delineates personal piety and heartfelt devotion, as when a character reflects on her own early religious feelings ([2]) or is described by her earnest habit ([3]). Authors also use the adjective to critique or examine institutional and communal practices; for instance, discussions on religious disputes or the interplay between religious duties and political ideologies highlight its broader societal implications ([4], [5]). Whether referring to collective rituals ([6], [7]), moral virtues ([8]), or even metaphorically to qualities that transcend the spiritual realm ([9]), "religious" functions as a multifaceted descriptor that enriches literary exploration of belief, identity, and the human condition ([10], [11]).
- So the churinga, the nurtunja and the waninga owe their religious nature solely to the fact that they bear the totemic emblem.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - “When I was a girl, I thought I was religious; I used to love God and prayer.
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - I found the fair nun dressed in her religious habit, and lying on the small bed.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - Mr. Whittier early saw that woman's only protection against religious and social tyranny, could [Pg 84] be found in political equality.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - The close of the seventeenth century and beginning of the eighteenth was marked by a change of ground in the sphere of religious controversy.
— from The Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems by Alexander Pope - The whole day was given up to religious exercises and to exposition of the 85 Scriptures [242] .
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon by J. B. Lightfoot - The religious rite of "fasting" was practiced by each Savior.
— from The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors; Or, Christianity Before Christ by Kersey Graves - Both ladies are endowed with EVERY MORAL AND RELIGIOUS VIRTUE.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray - It pretended to exist by the religious virtue of knowledge.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence - All religious powers do not emanate from divine personalities, and there are relations of cult which have other objects than uniting man to a deity.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - Is it paradoxical to say that the Buddhists are "religious atheists?"
— from The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji by William Elliot Griffis
