Ideology

Definition: As used herein, Ideology refers to a complex of abstractions advocated and/or supported by one or more Organizations that seems to hang together and seems to explain Aspects of Reality to the Person who holds the complex in his or her mind at the moment. Commentary The Special Term, Ideology, is meant to be comprehensive and neutral. It is neutral in the sense that it is neither Desirable nor Undesirable. It is comprehensive in the sense that it covers all fields of knowledge and practice, including, for convenience only, the ideologies of churches and ministers. I am massively stretching the term. I am saying that nuclear physics, communism, capitalism, neoliberalism, and Lutheranism are all Ideologies. Note that for an ideology to be an Ideology in my sense of the word, it must be advocated and/or supported by a think tank, political party, university, church, or some other Organization(s). Private mental schemes about how the world works shared by a few people are not an Ideology about which we need to concern ourselves. Including "for convenience only, the ideologies of churches and ministers" means that, on the one hand, I acknowledge that many, if not most, Members of a given church may resent the teachings of their church being called an "ideology." On the other hand, the appropriateness of including church teachings in "Ideology" will make more sense if you consider that to the non-adherents of a given church, its teachings seem to be just another part of a man-made ideology. For more discussion, see Wikipedia's article on "ideology."