Realm of Religion: Criteria of Understanding Religion

This paper is about one of the inner aspects of the realm of religion; that’s, it discusses on the question whether the criteria of understanding religions should be based on the religions texts. There can be mentioned two viewpoints in this regard: the viewpoint that considers the criteria as components inside the religions, and the one that regards them as elements outside the religions. Presenting these two points of view, the author investigates into the proofs of each viewpoint. At the end, he shows some examples of the influences of the two viewpoints on the discussions related to the theoretical religion.