The studyofreligion Arise Roby

SCIENCE OF WORLD RELIGIONS
ARISE TRAINING & RESEARCH CENTER

A. Religion—from Latin “religio”
1. Originally seems to referred to as “fear” or
reverence for the gods—later to the rites offered to
them
2. Confusion as to where word originates
a. “relegere”--to gather things together”
or “to pass over things repeatedly”
b. “religare”--to bind things together”—
emphasize communal aspect—draws people into
religious rites, practice and belief

 A. The study of religions seemingly originated
with the Greeks
 1. Herodotus—father of history—took seriously the
chronology of the past
 2. Epicurus—a radical critic of religion and sought to
catalog and explain the sense of the sacred
 3. Stoics—believed there was a common
denominator of sacred behind all religion

 B. Romans studied religion
 1. Cicero—concerned with the word “religion” and
was first to use the term
 2. Seneca,Tacitus, and Julius Caesar all interested in
the study
 3. After Christianity emerged study of different
religions was neglected since the church was more
concerned with its own mission and survival

 C. Confrontation with Islam
 1. Islam rapid expansion
 2. Crusades

 D. The Modern Mission Movement
 WithWilliam Carey in 1792

 E. The New Empiricism and Rationalism
 1. Deists and philosophers such as Hume,
Rousseau, andVoltaire discussed the problem of
“natural religion”
 2. Max Mueller wrote an essay on comparative
mythology—he found the origin of myths in
natural phenomena

Criteria for the Study of
World Religions

 A. Objectivity—students of religion must
observe facts as objectively as possible
 1. One must consider sacred texts and historical
manifestations of the faith
 2. It is important not to pre-judge another
religious perspective

 B. AThorough Grounding
 1. Must have knowledge of history, psychology,
philosophy, sociology, and theology in order to
come to the essence of different religions
 2. Such facts are necessary for intelligent
comparisons and discussions

 C. Proper Criteria
 One must have the responsibility to establish a
criteria for judgment based on fact, not value
judgments

 Distinguishing between fact and value
 1. A factual judgment asserts that is or is so
 2. A value judgment asserts that something
ought to be

THE STUDY OF RELIGION

 A. Animism
 EdwardTylor—founder of modern
anthropology
 A type of consciousness in animate and
inanimate objects

B. Fear
C. Rabbi Brown
 Anicent humanity was
insecure because of the
forces of nature
 Suggested Gen. 1:1 should
have read
 “in the beginning was fear”
 Lucretius offered this as
explanation of origin of
religion
 “We fear what we do not
know”

C. Totemism—Durkheim
Worship of ancestors
Religion arose out of fear for loved ones
Tribe was the family enlarged
Religion is identified with society

 D. High God Revelation—Wilhelm Schmidt
 Rooted against evolution view of religion
 Believed most ancient people had a belief in a
higher being

Definitions of Religion

 A. Religion as a phenomenon looked on as
universal—Eliade’s concept of the
 “sense of the sacred”

 B. Anti-Rationalistic Definitions
 1. Lucretius—an anti-rational, coercive force
 2. Reinanch—a sum of scruples which impede the
free exercise of our faculties
 3. Marx—a pathological manifestation of
protective forces, deviation caused by ignorance
of natural causes and their effects

 C. Intellectual Definition
 Max Mueller wrote that religion is a mental factor
independent of sense and reason to apprehend
the infinite in different names

 D. Emotional Definitions
 1. Schleiermacher saw the essence of religion as an
emotion and consists of feelings of absolute
dependence
 2. McTaggert said religion is best described as an
emotion resting in conviction of harmony between
ourselves and the universe at large

 E. Religion as Morality
 Immanuel Kant saw religion as the recognitions of
our duties as divine commands, the driving force
of the sacred is morality, e.g., tabu, holiness

 F. Psychological Definition
 William James said that religion comes from the
feelings and experiences and individual people

 G. Religion as UltimateValuation—PaulTillich’s ultimate concern
 1. Ultimate concern has priority in the system of concerns
which constitutes a personality or a culture—it gives meaning
and purpose to human life
 2. Ultimate concern is pervasive—spread over the totality of
existence
 3. Ultimate concern is concerned with the holy—Rudolph Otto
saw holiness as a special and unique experience. He coined the
phrase numinous, from Latin meaning divinity, god, or spirit—
refers to a special feeling of aweness or fear
 4. Ultimate concern has to do with the expression and
communication of religious experience—religious experience
takes place through symbolic words, objects, and actions
 5. Ultimate Concern is both lived and celebrated---celebrated
through liturgy and mythology—lived out in the religious
expressions influencing all factors of life

Three Types of Religious
Experience

 A. Cosmic Religion—one in which there is
found a plurality of religious objects or gods;
it is polytheistic. The many gods are
associated with nature and/or culture.
Prehistoric and folk religions are examples of
this type

 B. Acosmic Religion—one in which is found
the religious object beyond the common
secular world of nature and society—usually
emphasizes the One.
 Hinduism and transcendental monism are
examples

 C. Historical Religion—one in which is found
the religious object beyond and within the
common world—sees history as linear—
examples are Judaism, Christanity, and Islam

Religion of Pre-Historic
Humanity

A. Concept of religion is believed to have began in
the Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic) with the
Neanderthals (100,000-25,000 years ago)
1. Deliberate and meticulous care of burying
dead, with ceremony
2. The dead were buried in a “fetal” position—
a “return to the womb”

3. Example of burial in Monte Cicero (Italy)
a. Bones of deer, horse, hyena, elephant, and
lion were on the floor and heaped up around the
walls in piles
b. On the floor beneath the cranaium were two
fractured metacarpals of an ox and of a deer
c. The skull showed signs of having received
a fatal blow on the right side of the temple

d. At its base the portion connecting the braid with
the spinal cord had been cut away after death,
probably to extract the brain
e. The site appeared be a place in which the body
was deposited ceremonially in a cave used for ritual
purposes as a sacred ossuary

4. Another example of a ritual burial is in Bavaria
a. A nest of 27 human skulls were found in a group
embedded in red ochre, the skulls looking westward
b. A few yards away was a second identical group of six
skulls—some of these the cervical vertebrae were still
attached and from their condition the heads must have
been severed from the body after death with flint
knives

c. Those skulls in the center were tightly packed
together and crushed—it seems that they had been
added one by one from time to time
d. Twenty of the skulls were of children
ornamented with snail shells; nine were of women
with necklaces of deer teeth, and four were of adult
males

B. Cro-Magnons (25,000-10,000 years ago)—more
developed
1. First “idols” found were of female
deities—shows interest in fertility; the
concept of the “mother goddess” beginning to
appear as a fecundity motif

 2. From drawings, it appears the concept of
symphatic magic was being conceived
3. Throughout other burial sites, certain shells
(cowrie) were shaped in the form of a portal
through which a child enters the world
4. During this time there was a widespread
custom of placing ochreous powder on the body:
red was the color of life and placing the red
ochre on the body suggests a belief in a “life to
come”

5. One anthropologist believes the painting of the body with
the red ochre was the first “mummification” and an attempt
to make the body “servicable” again
6. Some burial spots could suggest that the living were
making offerings to the dead out of a fear and awe of them

C. Mesolithic Period (Middle Stone Age, 10,000-7,000 years
ago
1. This age was a transitional age which saw the
vanishing of the ice sheet and a gradual shift from
nomadic to village life
2. In one grave site in Brittany were found a great
ossuary with ten burial sites, including the remains of 23
individuals.
a. The bodies were crouched in shallow
trench caves near the hearths accompanied
by implements, perforated shell necklaces, and
braclets
b. The bodies were covered with red ochre
and stone slabs
c. It appeared that the bodies were clothed
where they were interred

3. In Denmark there was a continuation of extended
burial in earth graves defined by a small ring of small stones
around the body and covered with a large earth mound
known as dyssers or dolmans

D. The Neolithic (New Stone Age, 7000-3000 years ago
1. This age is characterized by several great
changes
a. Early forms of agriculture, with active
tilling of the soil
b. Domestication of animals and their
gathering into flocks and herds
c. Advances in the arts of pottery, plaiting,
weaving, and sewing
d. Establishment of settled communities with
an accompanying growth of population
e. The invention of the wheeled card
f. The first surgery

2. Religion also being radically transformed
a. The Mother Goddess or Great Goddess of
earlier hunting culture became associated
with creation and regeneration
b. Female divine power went beyond the
animal models of birthing and nurture to the
watering, tending, and protecting of the
whole world of vegetation
c. Studies of Old Europe (Balkans) reveal a
pantheon of mostly female deities
subsequently obscured, but not fully
displaced by later Indo-Aryan patriarchal and
gender-polarized views.

Generalizations of
Tribal Religions
A. Traditional—no written language exists
B. Naturalistic framework of reference—biological
drives
C. Spontaneous—response to stimuli, irrational

Broad
Generalizations
A. Primitive religion is monistic—no dualism
B. A sense of absolute interdependence of all things
C. Interdependence maintained by infallible rigid authority
D. Religion serves to maintain social harmony and stability
E. No opposites among tribal people—everything and
everybody complementary

Characteristics of
Religion in Primal
Cultures

A. Awe before the Sacred
1. Rudolf Otto inThe Ideal of the Holy, bases the
experience of the holy upon an encounter with a
mysterium tremendum et fascinosum, and found it in all
religions—the degree of the sense of the awe or holy
various tremendously with each group
2. In most primitive societies the sacred possesses a
special significance and cannot be handled lightly
3. Objects and persons can have this “awe” within them

B. Expressions of anxiety in ritual
1. When there is a sense of the sacred, anxiety
occurs and will cause “action”
2.This “action” takes the form of special deeds and
words
3. Such anxiety is the basis of all religious ritual

C. Ritual and Expectancy
1. Some rituals are expectant in nature
2. They presuppose a causal efficacy
3. They are performed to bring health, offspring,
productivity of the soil, fertility of cattle, et al
4. Other rites occur at specific times for specific
purposes
a. Rites of passage—connected with birth,
name giving, initiation, betrothal, marriage,
death, etc
b. The elevation to tribal leadership or
kingship

D. Myth and Ritual
1. The making of myth is common in all human
cultures
2. Myths help to answer questions as to the origin of
actions or beliefs
3. Cosmogonic or “creation” myths help to explain the
origin of existence
4. An etiological myth is one that explains how
things have come to be as they are now
5. The quasi-historical myth is the elaboration of an
original happening, usually involving a hero or
pioneer figure

E. Types of magic
1. Magic may be loosely defined as an endeavor
through utterance of set words, or the performance of set
acts, or both, to control or bend the powers of the world to
one’s will
2. Sympathetic magic (James Frazer) takes an
imitative form based upon analogy
a. It assumes that look-alikes act alike, or,
more significantly, that like influences or even
produces like
b. Thus, if one imitates the looks and actions
of a person or an animal (or even a
thundercloud), one can induce a like and
desired action in the imitated being or object

3. Outcomes of magic are considered to be:
a. Productive—Cro-Magnon hunting magic
(painting) was a type of imitative magic
b. Aversive—one can use magic to hurt one’s
enemies by imitating a harmful act upon an
image of a person
c. Contagious—things conjoined and then
separated still are connected—thus severed
hair or fingernails retain a magical sympathy
with the person to whom they belong

4. Methods of control of magic
a. Fetishism—refers to any resort to a
presumed power in inanimate objects—
includes objects which have power innate in
them
b. Shamanism—refers to the conjuring of
spirits into or out of human beings by one who
is similarly spirit-possessed

F. Prayer
1. Prayers in preliterate societies are generally
formal and structured
2. Where the gods are anthropormorphic, formal
prayers generally include elements found in more
literate societies; namely, adoration, confession of
wrongdoing, and promise of atonement, thanksgiving
in grateful recognition of past favors, and supplication or
petitions of a more or less specific kind

G. Divination
1. A means to by-pass prayer
2. It aims at immediate knowledge of the intentions
or dispositions of the spiritual powers
3. Usually there is a connection between divination
and shamanism

H. Belief in Mana (Used by Codrington)
1. Mana is a Melanesian term widely used to
designate a widespread, although not universal, belief
in occult force of indwelling supernatural power
distinct from spirits
2. The term refers to an experienced presence of a
powerful but silent force

I. Animism
1. An acceptance that all sorts of motionless objects
as well as living and moving creatures have souls or
spirits in them
2. Identified with E. B.Tylor, who wrote that all
nature is possessed, pervaded, crowded with spiritual
beings

J. Veneration and worship of powers
1. Worship can take three modes
a. Sometimes an object itself is worshipped
as living and active, heavily charged with
mana
b. Sometimes the object is nor worshipped
for itself, but for the spirit or soul lodged in it
c. Sometimes the object is a symbol of the
reality which is worshipped
2. Veneration and awe are “short” of worship

K. Recognition of a Supreme Being
1. Great debate as to whether primal peoples had a
belief in a supreme being
2. It is rather common to find a belief in a deity up in the
sky or at a great distance from the earth
3. Daily activities did not include such a high deity
4. The great deity usually was the creator of the more
popular deities

L. Taboo-Tabu
1. Taboos are prohibitions applied to things,
persons, and actions because they are considered
sacred, dangerous, or socially forbidden
2. Many taboos are due to fear based on mana;
others may reflect the dread of pollution

M. Purification rites
1. Ceremonies of purification and cleansing are due
to the belief of taboos or the impurity of a certain
person or object
2. In some cases, purification rites are used for the
motive of purifying oneself for future ritual
3. Purification rites may take the form of fasting,
abstention from sex, ablutions, et al

N. Sacrifices and gifts
1. Sacrifice usually entails the giving up or
destruction (e.g., burning) of something, animate or
inanimate, human, animal, or vegetable in order to
cause it to pass from human possession to that of the
divine
2. Original sacrifices seem to have involved animal
and/or human sacrifices, because the spirits as well
as humans need the vitality and strength present in
life and blood
3. Sacrifice may be performed to seek reconciliation
with a divinity
4. Sacrifice may be performed to placate the gods;
thus considered to be propitiatory

O. Attitudes toward the dead
1. In many ancient societies, there developed a view
that the dead may cause injury to the living
2. Thus, some kind of actions or words may be
performed to prevent such interference

P. Totemism
1. A very common characteristic of primal religions
recognize the existence of a more or less intimate
relationship between certain human groups or
particular individuals and classes or species of
animals, plant, or inanimate object in nature
2. This recognition results in special social grouping
and special rituals unique to that social grouping
3. If an animal is the totem, the group is forbidden to
eat the animal except in special cases
4. By eating the animal, the group takes on the
power of that particular animal

African Religion

I. No way to really discuss as one category since
differences are so great—we can look at a few
recurring themes
A. Transcendence
1. Names and expressions of
divinities vary greatly
2. But there does seem to be a
general belief that there exists a kind
of a supreme being who has control
over the lesser spirits

3. The first observations that
African religion was simply forms
of primitive polytheism does not
seem to bear out
4. The supreme being is
described in various ways—as a
beneficent being, a father or
mother, or as a holy god
5. Popular religion seems to be
polytheistic; these beings seem to be
representatives or servants of the higher
god

6. Like most religions, there are
creation stories

B. Stages on Life’s way—one’s life is
dominated by rituals—rites of passage
1.Birth—children are important—
naming ceremonies is important
ceremony, accomplished in a
variety of ways
2. Initiation—the coming of age,
assumption of responsibilities
of adulthood

3. Marriage—very important and
intricate
4. Death—serious and somewhat
fearful experience; there is
general belief in a life after death;
reincarnation believed by some

C. Religious roles
1. Includes prophets, shamans,
sacred kings, traditional medicine
men
2. They have means of
foreseeing the future
3. Oracles are important
4. The priest is important; uses
established ritual forms which
relate human life to transcendent
life
5. King is important feature

Native American
Religion

A. Like African religions, there is great variety
1. Differences between gatherers and
farmers
2. The latter celebrate the cycle of the
agricultural year
3. Many hunter-gatherers have stories of a
transformer of trickster who set things in
motion
4. For farmers the creator is not a person,
but a power in the sky

B. RecurringThemes
1. Transcendence
a. There exists in all persons and
objects a mystifying spirit—called
mana by Melanesians
b. Many do not have concept of a
single high god

c. Paul Radin notes two aspects
of this high god
(a) the supreme deity is just
and rational but remote
(b) the transformer who is
not always fair, but actively
intervene in human life;
there also exists great
number of other
spirits—good and bad

C. Stages on Life’s way
1. Birth—naming ceremony is
extremely important
2. Initiation
a. A vision quest for boys
and sometimes for girls
b. Usually accomplished by
sending them into
wilderness, usually sees a
supernatural visitor, that
becomes major divinity of the
person

3. Marriage—intricate—no single pattern—
many see in women a mysterious power
4. Death—usually takes on form of fear
and avoidance—contact with corpse leads to
separation or isolation

D. Religious roles—emphasis on shaman,
medicine man and priest—priests lead in
established rituals, no vision necessary

The studyofreligion Arise Roby

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