Abstract
There are as many definitions of religion as there are scholars. These definitions often reflect the scholar’s disciplinary orientation. There is, therefore, no unanimous agreement among scholars on the definition of religion. The same can be said of the concept of law. Any attempt to define law is likely to reveal the philosophical and/or ideological leaning of the author, which has historically been polarized into two major camps: advocates of the natural law doctrine and proponents of legal positivism. By contrast, there is almost unanimous agreement among scholars that religion and law are instruments of social control. However, while some thinkers, such as Marx and Lenin, emphasize the negative impacts of religion and law on society, others highlight their positive contributions.
Against this backdrop, this paper undertakes a comparative analysis of religion and law in order to examine the different ways in which they influence and regulate human activities within society. It observes that, as instruments of social control, religion and law both diverge and converge in directing the affairs of citizens. The study argues that religion and law exert both positive and negative influences on society. Nevertheless, because they remain enduring institutions, greater attention should be given to their positive contributions. Rather than serving as instruments of dehumanization, religion and law should function as tools for the promotion of human dignity and the enhancement of society.
Keywords: Religion, Law, Positive Law, Natural Law, Society, Social Control
Authors:
Benedict Chukwuemeka Okpata, PhD
Philosophy Unit
Department of General Studies
University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences
Umuagwo, Imo State, Nigeria
benedict.okpata@uaes.edu.ng