World Religions paper Due 6/11
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Esposito-WorldReligionsToday6e-Chapter9PowerPoint.pptx1
Lecture Outline Chapter 9
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Most new religious movements start out as reforms within a larger, established religious tradition
Mormonism
Arose during extreme sectarian diversity of nineteenth-century Christianity
Founder Joseph Smith—discovery of a revelation first given to Native Americans
Continuing of the revelation given in the Bible
Links biblical religion to the history of an indigenous population
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Most new religious movements start out as reforms within a larger, established religious tradition
Nation of Islam
Founded by Elijah Muhammad early twentieth century
Taught black supremacy and separatism
Transformations can be traced through Malcolm X, Wallace Muhammad, Louis Farrakhan
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Civil religion
Reintroduces religion under the disguise of indigenous cultural history and tradition
Gives authority to secular political social orders
Common trait: adoption of traditional religious ideas such as sacrifice, prophet, sacred center, etc.
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Civil religion
China: enormously successful civil religion of the Communist party
Mao—sage leader of the nation
United States: “city on a hill” called by God to be a model for all nations
George Washington—“father” of the country
Abraham Lincoln—“savior”
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New age religions
Rooted in Romantic movement of devotio moderna
Personal emotional experiences of transformation
Express human need for transformative experience
Deemphasize rationality
Two new age models of religious meaning: apocalyptic and astrological
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Wicca: resurgence of goddess worship
Traced to England 1940s—Gerald Gardener
Two students bring practice to America 1960s
Wiccans see the world ordered by sacred forces accessed through ritual magic
Follows ancient Celtic agricultural cycles of festivals for seasons of year
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Scientology, twentieth century
Comparable to modern international business
Breaks linkage of the authority of “science” with Christianity
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Transcendental Meditation
Example of Asian religion moving West
Adapts itself to the very bureaucracy it protested
Very popular
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Unification Church in Korea
Reflects pattern of eastward migration of biblical apocalyptic traditions
Interpretation of Bible
Presents fourfold foundation to be followed for proper social order
God on top, the male and female as equals, children on bottom
Followers consider founder Sun Myung Moon as new Messiah
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Aum Shinrikyo, apocalyptic new age cult in Japan
Integrates Shinto beliefs with Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism
Grew quickly; appealed to university-educated professionals
Global notoriety and terrorist status in 1995 with Tokyo subway gassing
Founder Asahara arrested, sentenced to death
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Postmodernism and global ethics
Globalism
Diverse spiritual heritages of the human race become common inheritance of all
Modernist forms of new age religion have privatized religious quest as quest for perfection of self
Postmodern forms of new age religion work for social change to better society, plus maintain importance of personal transformation
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“Passing over” and “coming back”
Great postmodern spiritual adventure
“Pass over” into another’s religion and culture, come to see world through other’s eyes
“Come back” to our own religion and culture enriched with new insights
Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr.
Build bridges of understanding
Find unity in diversity between people of diverse religions and cultures
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Parable of the man clinging to the vine
Old, universal story found in almost all world’s religions
Suggests process leading to globalization may have started much earlier than thought
Postmodern global ethic
Gandhi and King as models
Nonviolence is essential to the survival of humanity
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