Taxonomies and Mythopoeia

A Taxonomies for Religions Post

While trying to find ways to frame my understanding of different religions, and different individuals’ religion, is a worthwhile activity in itself, I would be lying if I claimed that my primary motivation was anthropological or psychological. Rather, I’ve primarily been imagining that this project would be useful for writing fiction: in a realist context, for creating a plausible variety of plausible religious characters (including those who believe themselves irreligious*); in a fantastic context, for creating a plausible variety of plausible religious characters and for creating a plausible variety of plausible fictional religions. If you write or worldbuild for any other reason, I suspect it might also be useful to you; the place where I can imagine this happening the most for the most people would be when playing D&D or some other tabletop RPG.

This post is here for you if you plan on using this series to make a D&D character.**

Depending on your learning style, you may want to skip down and peruse the questions themselves before reading the explanation, or you may want to read the explanation first so you better understand what you’re looking at.

Of course whatever game you are playing is probably going to have its own religious world built into it, with gods and suchlike for you to worship. These may even be rolled into its class system. For the purposes of mechanics it makes sense to start with what the game and the DM give you, but most RPGs I’ve encountered, including D&D, don’t delve much into the religious worldviews each sect or religion follows. You don’t get much sense of what it’s like to worship Bahamut or Tiamat or Lolth. That’s where the ideas I’ve been working with might come in handy.

Now, unfortunately, the sets of questions I’m about to ask you of your character are enormous. You may not want to do this much work for one facet of your character’s personality. (Of course, if you’re really invested in your character you might want to after all, but most people probably don’t). So you’ll need to trim it down according to the amount of work you want to put into it. But this might be a good thing: of the posts I’ve written so far, there might perhaps only be two or three that really seemed useful to you or got your attention, so it might make sense to focus on the associated questions.

And yes, I said sets of questions. From what I can tell, for a very thorough character-creation you’ll need to ask the first set of questions three times and the second set once. The first set of questions addresses a religious community; the second set addresses a religious person. But religious communities are often like a set of Matryoshka dolls set one in another: there is the religion writ large (say, Christianity) and there is a denomination, sect, or other internal division (say, Roman Catholicism) and then there is a particular group of people (say, St. Mark’s parish on UBC campus). Even this is a bit clumsy, of course, since you could say that Canadian Roman Catholicism is different from Brazilian Roman Catholicism, or West Coast Roman Catholicism different from East Coast Roman Catholicism. Or, less geography and more ethos, Pre-Vatican II Catholicism is different from Post-Vatican II Catholicism. But let’s go with three levels (religion, sect, community) for the first set of questions and one level for the second set (the individual). But that’s the thorough method: I recommend that you choose which levels and questions your complete according to what’s most useful to you at the time. You can always return to this post if you want to flesh your character out even further.

But why specify all of these layers in the first place? Well, first, you can talk about some broad strokes with a level of certainty but in order to get details that are useful for character creation you might need to drill down to increasingly local levels. Second, you might get different or opposite answers at different levels. There might be a religion that tends to be upwards in focus (a prophetic religion), but it might have a minority movement within it that tends to be more inwards in focus (a sage religion), while one of that movement’s temples might be more in line with its local community and focus slightly more outward than the other temples (a shamanic religion). And your character, coming from that religion, might be more sympathetic to any of those strains, but the fact that the temple they come from differs from the movement, which differs from the religion at large, might change how they approach other members of their religion. Indeed, it’s important to note that your character might be a black sheep in their community—maybe they’re relieved and excited to get out into the world and try to find new ways of approaching the gods, or maybe they’ve learned to be defensive, secretive, or argumentative about their religious beliefs because they are used to being the odd one out. These questions can help you figure that out.

I’ve included a short version down at the bottom, if you want to see an example/avoid making your own. I’m sure it says as much about me as it would about any character I made.

The First Set (Religion, Sect, Community)

What are this religion’s teachings? (Creed)

What are this religion’s behavioural norms? (Code)

How does this religion worship? (Cult)

How do members of this religion organize? (Community)

What stories does this religion tell? (Central Myth)

How many gods does this religion teach exist, and what are they like? (see the related post for some, but only some, of the possibilities)

What is this religion’s history?

How large is this religion?

How many different sects does this religion have, and what makes them different?

What major taboos does this religion observe?

What are this religion’s marriages like?

What are this religion’s coming of age rites like?

What are this religion’s funerals, or responses to death, like?

What problem does this religion see in the world? (ex. sin, chaos, artificiality, suffering)

What solution does this religion offer for that problem? (ex. salvation, propriety, flourishing, awakening)

What techniques does this religion offer to help practitioners achieve that solution? (ex. prayer, etiquette, physical disciplines, meditation)

What exemplars does this religion offer to show practitioners how to follow those techniques and achieve that solution? (ex. saints, noblemen, heroes, gurus)

Is this religion focused mostly upward (prophets/priests), inward (sages/gurus), or outward (shamans)?

How large of a role do clergy play in this religion?

Do religious authorities in this religion gain their authority from their knowledge of tradition (priests) or through apparent revelation (prophets and shamans)?

Do people turn to this religion on a mostly calendrical basis (priests) or according to needs that arise (prophets and shamans)?

Is this religion mostly a force for change in society (prophets), or a force maintaining the status quo (priests)?

What is this religion’s ultimate concern?

Does this religion contain a mechanism for/tradition of self-criticism?

Is this religion more likely to experience the holy in what is (ontological faith) or in what ought to be (moral faith)?

Is this religion more likely to offer experiences of the holy in a sacred object (sacramental faith) or to encourage looking beyond the concrete and trying to find the holy within yourself (mystical faith)?

Is this religion more likely to explain religious morality as pervasive religious laws (juristic faith), as social etiquette (conventional faith), or as obedience to a more abstract sense of justice (ethical faith)?

Do members of this religion usually think of religion more as a set of rules one ought to strictly obey or as a set of universal principles one tries to apply in one’s time and place?

Do members of this religion usually think of religion more as a set of answers to the questions people have about the universe, or more as a set of questions the universe/the gods demand people to answer about themselves?

Do members of this religion usually think of religion more as an ethical philosophy (either a set of rules or a universal principle), a set of questions (asked either by the believer or by the universe/the gods), or as a voice of comfort for the living?

Which obstacle to love is this religion better designed to address: the Fear of Death, the Experience of the Absurd, or both?

Does this religion encourage denying or facing that obstacle to love?

Does this religion tend to be threatened by other worldviews or is it hospitable to outsiders?

Does this religion encourage wakefulness?

Is the theology of this religion more modernist or traditionalist, in Fesser’s sense? (Fesser’s idea of these terms is pretty specific and not exactly intuitive, so if you’re not familiar with them you should probably just skip this question.)

Which of Scott McCloud’s four campfires governs this religion most (circle all that apply)? Classicist, Animist, Formalist, Iconoclast

The Second Set (The Individual)

How much does your character agree with his or her religion, sect, or community about its teachings and ways of doing things?

What problem or trouble continually and pervasively distresses your character? (ex. inevitable death, personal suffering, uncertainty) This is your character’s obsessio.

What gives solace or strength to your character in the face of their obsessio? (ex. belief in salvation, belief in justice, family, fellowship) This is your character’s epiphania.

Does this character turn to religion to focus upward (prophets/priests), inward (sages/gurus), or outward (shamans)?

How often, or to what extent, does this character rely on or turn to clergy?

Is this character more likely to respect authority that comes from knowledge of tradition (priests) or from apparent revelation (prophets and shamans)?

Does this character turn to religion mostly on a calendrical basis (priests) or mostly according to needs that arise (prophets and shamans)?

Does this character expect religion to be a force for change in society (prophets) or a force maintaining the status quo (priests)?

What is this character’s ultimate concern/about what is this character ultimately concerned?

Is this character willing to challenge their religion’s symbols and theology?

Is this character more likely to experience the holy in what is (ontological faith) or in what ought to be (moral faith)?

Is this character more likely to experience the holy in a sacred object (sacramental faith) or are they more likely to look beyond the concrete and try to find the holy within themselves (mystical faith)?

Is this character more likely to find religious morality in pervasive religious laws (juristic faith), in social etiquette (conventional faith), or in obedience to a more abstract sense of justice (ethical faith)?

Does this character think of religion more as a set of rules one ought to strictly obey or as a set of universal principles one tries to apply in one’s time and place?

Does this character think of religion more as a set of answers to the questions people have about the universe, or more as a set of questions the universe/the gods demand people to answer about themselves?

Does this character think of religion more as an ethical philosophy (either a set of rules or a universal principle), a set of questions (asked either by the believer or by the universe/the gods), or as a voice of comfort for the living?

What is this character’s primary obstacle to love: Fear of Death or Experience of the Absurd?

Does this character mostly use their religion to face or deny this obstacle?

Is this character mostly threatened by people who challenge their worldview, or are they hospitable to these people?

Is this character trying to achieve wakefulness?

Is this character more of a modernist or a traditionalist, in Fesser’s sense? (Fesser’s idea of these terms is pretty specific and not exactly intuitive, so if you’re not familiar with them you should probably just skip this question.)

Which fictional genre would be best for communicating this character’s worldview?

Which of Scott McCloud’s four campfires attract this character most (circle all that apply)? Classicist, Animist, Formalist, Iconoclast

As I said, make yourself a shorter version by selecting the questions you care about. Here would be the sort of shorter version I might use:

For each question, note whether and, if so, how the character differs from her religious community, religious sect, and religion in general on this matter.
1. What is the character’s obsessio? What is the character’s epiphania?

2. Does this character expect to find the divine/holy/sacred/spiritual on high, offering revelation, or within themselves, awaiting meditation, or around them, requiring negotiation?

3. Is this character willing and able to engage in prophetic self-criticism, in Tillich’s sense?

4. Does this character mostly experience the holy in what is or what ought to be? Is their faith more sacramental or mystical, or juristic, conventional, or ethical?

5. Does this character think of religion more as a set of rules one ought to strictly obey or as a set of universal principles one tries to apply in one’s time and place?
6. Does this character primarily fear death or the Absurd, and do they deny or face this fear?

7. Is this character mostly threatened by people who challenge their worldview, or are they hospitable to these people?

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*Which is not to say that all irreligious people are unknowingly religious by all or even most useful definitions of religion, but simply that some irreligious people are unknowingly religious by some or most useful definitions of religion. Again, there's a whole other series of posts in what counts as a religion.
**To forestall the complaints I’m sure I’d get if over a dozen people read this post: I do not imagine D&D to be the ultimate, a typical, or even a decent example of mythopoeia (the creation, or in technical terms the sub-creation, of a mythology or myth). While I suspect that real mythopoeia is possible in tabletop role-playing, I doubt the medium encourages anything like the Legendarium. It doesn’t need to. But, as far as mythopoeia goes, D&D is the closest most people are likely to get very often, besides of course the creation of their own worldview. This topic might be worth its own discussion.

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