contemporary arts week 1 (

What is Religion?

Religion is a universal human experience that is very difficult to define. However, Webster’s Dictionary (p. 1134, 1988) defines religion as:

1) “Belief in a divine or superhuman power or powers to be obeyed and worshiped as the creators and rulers of the universe” and “expression of such a belief in conduct and ritual.”

2) “Any specific system of belief and worship, often involving a code of ethics and a philosophy.”

A good working definition of religion is presented by Vincent Mulago, who speaks about the “primacy of religion:”

Religion supports the psychological and sociological equilibrium of the people; it enables people to understand and value themselves, to put things into perspective, to accept certain situations in life, and to control anguish. In essence, religion provides the ability to overcome the duality between the visible and invisible worlds, and unification between the two is achieved (459).

According to the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Religion (p. 3008, 1979), the comparative study of religion includes “a comprehensive understanding of religion as a phenomenon of mankind.” A comparative study of religion can be defined as a comprehensive study of human beliefs, attitudes, ideas and practices of religion in various cultures.

The common elements among religions:

Sacred rituals

Sacrifices as a form of worship

Prayers

Sacred places and objects

Holy days to observe

A body of literature containing the mythological, scriptural, or historical interpretations) transmitted by their oral and/or written traditions.

An ethic—rules to live by.

Practices such as meditation and/or contemplation including yoga

Sacred truths and belief in those truths

Charismatic leaders: Prophet, high priest, Guru, Jesus, and the Buddha

At times, there are some elements of magic

Another common element is faith: acceptance of a religion is based on faith and not the weight of any evidence leading to logical conclusions.

St. Augustine, a philosopher and theologian of the fifth century AD. And speaking of his faith in Christianity, he said “Credo ut Intelligium”—I believe in order to understand.

Note: all statements about God or gods are statements of belief. Even the assertion that there is no God (atheism) is also a statement of belief.

According to Compton’s Encyclopedia (CD Rom, 1997):, belief [faith] is the key to religion and also the chief problem

If, like the sciences, religions were a form of knowledge, then its teachings would have to be supported by visible evidence that could be examined by everyone. There would then be widespread acceptance of it as knowledge as there is in math or science. But there can be no evidence, as science understands the term, such as a supreme being who created the universe. Nor can there be any evidence of life after death. These and other beliefs are not open to verification; they are matters of faith. In other words, one trusts that they are true, and they seem to give valid explanations to fundamental questions.

All religions attempt to give answers to basic questions such as:

Where did the world come from? (Regarding some kind of creation and/or a creator)

2. What is the meaning or purpose of human life? (The big question!)

3. Why do people die and where do people go after death? (Spirit or soul and a spiritual realm)

4. Why is there evil in the world? (Sources of evil)

5. How should people behave in this world? (Human morality)

Thus, a universal feature of religion is that it attempts to provide a sense of meaning or purpose. Religions help people to make sense of the world in which they live and deepen one’s knowledge of the self in relation to a higher power.

In order to comprehend the various dimensions of the major religious traditions is to consider this: Each has a mythological dimension of wisdom, which offers another way of knowing.

The Seven Dimensions of Religion (Smart, Ninian. The World’s Religions: Old Traditions and Modern Transformations. Melbourne: Cambridge

University Press, 1997, pp. 12-21).

The Practical and Ritual Dimension: generally speaking, every tradition has some

definitive practices to which its believers adhere to such as rituals associated with

worship of deities, sacrifices to the gods, preaching, offering prayers, practice of

meditation and so forth.

2. The Experiential or Emotional Dimension: there is both an experiential and emotional dimension that human beings encounter as a result of experiencing visions, conversions, being born again, etc associated with religious practices. For example, there is mystery and awe associated with being in a sacred place or touching and seeing sacred objects; there is the joy that comes from feeling the love of one’s deity; sensations engendered from hope, and feelings of gratitude for favors received. Music and dance are sometimes associated with religious rituals and they too engender emotions. In addition, fear of a deity’s wrath due to some particular wrongdoing also generates the emotions of fear, humility, shame or guilt.

3. The Narrative or Mythic Dimension: represents the telling of the stories inherent in a particular religion. These include creation stories, tales of good and evil, historical events. Some narratives emerge in within as oral tradition and are from the written and both have the element of authority.

Understanding mythology:

Before any of our sciences were established such as astronomy and astrophysics, the beginnings of the world and its people were explained by mythology—a way of thinking about the past. Myths are the stories depicting the origins of the world, its people and events. The word myth is often mistakenly understood to mean fiction. However, mythological stories were not entirely fictitious or what literally happened. Rather, as Mircea Eliade, a historian of religion, says: “That behind the [myth’] explanation there is a reality that cannot be seen and examined.”

Types of myths:

There are creation myths, which varied a great deal among ancient people.

In the book of Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve is a creation myth. Genesis tells us how God created the world in seven days, and about our ancestors Adam and Eve, the first man and woman.

Myths of the gods: polytheism refers to belief in many gods, some higher and some lesser gods. Monotheism is a belief in one god; such is the faith of Judaism and Islam, and technically, Christianity.

Myths regarding an afterlife: where we go after death.

Sun and Moon myths are common among North American Indian tribes and in Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Egypt.

Hero myths refer to superhuman individuals and common among most ancient cultures. Jesus was a superhuman figure in Christianity.

Ancient myths had a function for they answered certain questions such as: where did the world come from? What are the gods like? How did humanity originate? Mythologies first began with an oral tradition handed down from generation to generation and much later, passed down via a written narrative, or what we call sacred scriptures.

The Doctrinal and Philosophical Dimension: Doctrines hold certain religious truths and the philosophical holds a worldview of society in which the religious tradition inhabits. In Christianity the life of Jesus, his death followed by his resurrection, and his assent into the kingdom of heaven can be categorized as religious doctrines. The philosophical dimension refers to the tradition’s worldview, that is, wisdom or knowledge within the traditions and these may include the nature of the universe, knowledge handed down from the sages, and principles for the conduct of life.

The Ethical and Legal Dimension: What moral values does a certain religion reveal? What laws are upheld which shape the religious and political life of the culture? In the West, the Ten Commandments serve as ethical values or moral norms. The Torah is the law within Judaism. In Buddhism there are certain universal binding precepts to follow.

The Social and Institutional Dimension: How does a religion work among the people? What is the relation between a religion and society at large? Sometimes the social aspect of a worldview is simply identical with society itself, as in small groups or tribes. In contemporary Christianity there are several main-line denominations and smaller sects as well. In the US, we have a democratic society with a plurality of religions. The social dimensions of religion include not only the mass of persons but also its charismatic leaders.

7. The Material Dimension: This refers to temples, churches, shrines, works of art, and other material creations such as icons and statutes associated with a particular religion. Then there are the natural features of the world having sacred meanings such as the rivers Ganges and Jordan, Mt. Sinai, the city of Jerusalem just to name a few.

Today, our neighbors, co-workers, even our in-laws, may be people who were raised with and embrace a religious tradition very different from our own. Yet we don’t have to convert to or adopt a religion in order to comprehend its value, but we do need to understand that: “All belief systems share the goal of tying people back to something behind the surface of life—a greater reality, which lives beyond, or invisibly infuses the world that we perceive from our five senses” (Living Religions, 1). Thus, what you should gleam from this course comes from the words of Huston Smith who said: “the final reason for understanding religion is intrinsic—it is to enjoy the wider angle of vision” that world religions offer (The World’s Religions, p. 7).