Culture and Religion: Is there a Link Between the Two?
Culture and Religion: Is there a Link Between the Two?

Summary/Abstract: The article aims at describing research into the relationship between culture and religion and presents current ideas how culture affects human behaviour and cross-cultural communication. The early research focused on the issues of interrelated culture and religion. The majority of researchers agreed that the interpretation of religious issues differed due to cultural diversity. In the past, researchers concentrated on the following issues: 1) analysis of the links between the cultures and the five most influential religions in the world: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism; 2) comparisons of key similarities and differences as well as rituals and practices of different religions including postures and gestures of believers; 3) the relationship between human beings and God(s). Nevertheless, it is believed that up to now the issues of links between culture and religion remain understudied and contradictory. Ongoing research into cultural issues is based on the iceberg model, which was designed and described by T. Hall in the previous century. It comprises visible and invisible elements that are learnt either sub consciously or consciously. This model remains up-to-date in the 21st century due to its ubiquity. The cultural dimensions theory that describes how culture affects the values of society members and how values are relevant to their behaviour has been recently developed by G. Hofstede, who argues that national culture imposes itself on human behaviour.

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