Cultural Religion Versus Scholarly Religion

If you explain a set of beliefs to a large crowd, you can be assured that in the absence of the expert they will form conclusions and opinions about their new religion that you didn't want them to form. So, is the 'religion' best described in terms of the beliefs and practices of the bulk of believers, or as the scholarly beliefs of the experts at the top? When the top priests disagree with the guys on the ground, which set of beliefs and practices is the 'real' religion? The problems involving the tussle between popular cultural forms of religion (low-brow religion) and intellectual faith (high-brow), have concerned scholars throughout history₁ and made the discussions about religion complicated and sometimes conflictory.

1. Cultural Religion, Scholarly Religion
   1. Culture Infuses Religion and is Often Independent and Resistant to Change
   2. Examples from Ancient Babylon to the Christian Present
   3. What Seems New is Often Old Practices in a New Context
2. Who Should Define a Religion?
   1. The Grassroots Practitioners Should Define the Religion
   2. Religions Need Protecting From Grassroots' Naivity
   3. The Experts and Clerics Should Guard the Religion
   4. The Experts and Clerics Probably Shouldn't After All
   5. Pragmatism: Defining Religions According to What is Useful
3. Soka Gakkai: All Believers Excommunicated by the Shoshu Priesthood
4. The Indomitable Market of Magic, Versus Religious Professionals
   1. Magic as a Grassroots Phenomenon
   2. Western European Christianity Went Too High-Brow
5. Conclusions
6. Links