Introduction to World Religions and Belief Systems

Defining Religion

What is Religion?

Re- to do again

Ligare- to bind or attach

Religare: to tread carefully

“We humans can tolerate suffering but we cannot tolerate meaninglessness.” Desmond Mpilo Tutu

Religion has always been and remains a powerful dimension of human experience.

Victor Frankl- a Holocaust survivor and existentialist psychotherapist points that “Being
Human”, always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself- be it a
meaning to fulfil, or another human being to encounter.

Homo religious is one way of describing the human being. Humans are religious by nature. They
seek patterns of meaning and action that are ultimately transformative. As such, religion is a
model of and a model for reality, as experienced by individuals in the context of social, natural,
and cosmic existence.

Religio-“conscientiousness” or “reverence”

Religare-to bind fast

Creed – credo- I believe

Code – norms of behaviour

Cult-cultus- worship

Deity-refer to god or goddess

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF RELIGIOUS WORLDVIEWS

1. Ways of dealing with people’s relationship to an unseen and transcendent realm of

existence, usually inhabited by spirits, deities, demons, and ancestors;
2. A set of myths or stories about this unseen world and rituals to commune with it or
appease it;
3. A system of organized rituals celebrated in holy places by consecrated persons and
embodied in sacred texts;
4. Statements about life beyond death, either as survival in some shadowy world of the
dead, in some version of heaven and hell, or through reincarnation;
5. A code of ethical behaviour or moral order;and
 6. Large followings, either currently or at some time in the past.

Religious Struggle

Human finitude and temporality and the hope of conviction of some reality that is infinite and
eternal

Content of Religions

Worship- is a key component of most religious traditions

Communal/personal

Rituals

Worship-myths and symbols

Ethical Living- is a result for the practice of worship. If in worship, one relates to the Divine.

Dogmatic Teaching- part of many religious traditions

Religion and boundaries

Soteriology

Most heavy debated issue in the study of religion

Exclusivist religious claims that it holds the absolute truth

Inclusivist claims that it holds absolute truth

Truth is the ultimate inclusion of everyone

Pluralist grants the validity to its own religious truth claims and to the claims of others

THE STUDY OF RELIGION

Theology is a one way of engaging in a formal study of a particular religious tradition. The term
theology originated from the Christian tradition and is rooted in two Greek words, theos
meaning “god” and logos, “word”- the verbal expression of transcendent reality.

Religious study are another way of engaging in an academic study of religion and differ from
theology in a number of ways.

Philosophy of religion, as the philosophical study of the nature and meaning of religion, consists
in analyzing religious concepts, beliefs, and practices or religious adherents.

Psychology of religion attempts to explain religious behaviour by making use of current theories
in psychology.
Sociology of religion describes religious phenomena in terms of their function in human
societies.

Religious anthropology studies the cultural significance of religious experiences, ideas, and
institutions.

RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY

Spirituality is a phenomenon related to religion. Religion and Spirituality were formerly linked,
as can be seen in one dictionary definition of the term spirituality as “the quality or state of
being concerned with religion or religious matters.”

However, nowadays, it is more common for people to consider spirituality as being distinct and
separate from each other. Some people describe themselves as being spiritual but not
necessarily religious. Conversely, there are those who are religious but not spiritual.

Spirituality is about a person’s beliefs, values, and behaviour, while religious is about the
person’s involvement with a religious tradition and institution.

John Macquarrie – a Scottish theologian who describes that dynamic mode of being called
spirit as a capacity for going out of oneself and beyond oneself…..the more man goes out from
himself or goes beyond himself, the truly human,…on the other hand, the more he turns inward
and encloses himself in self-interest, the less human does he become.

THE MAJOR WORLD RELIGIONS

Religions from India (Hindu Dharma and Buddhism),

East Asia (Daoism, Confucianism, and Shinto)

Middle East (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam)

Daoism and Confucianism emerged in Chinam while Shinto comes from japan.

Judaism was the first to evolve among the religions that began in the Middle East.

Monotheistic religions, that is, believing in the existence of only one supreme God.

Polytheistic-acknowledging the existence of multiple dieties

Nontheistic-they do not make explicit mention of any personal deity.

RELIGION: Blessing or a CURSE?

God’s voice is the call of transcendence that challenges us to go further, to do more, to try harder, to change our
lives, to venture out in the new areas and into the unknown..God is out there calling us to move beyond the system,
beyond sin, beyond suffering, beyond our narrow and limited ideas of what is possible –Albert Nolan

The Roman Catholic Church is one of the world’s largest enduring institutions, and has
undoubtedly made a lasting global impact and will likely continue doing so.
RELIGION BECOMES A CURSE

1. Religion helps ensure group security.

2. Religion helps build and strengthen the individual sense of self as being worthy and
competent.
3. Religion helps reduce personal suffering, for self or others.

WHEN RELIGION BECOMES A BLESSING

1. Encounters with the Sacred/Transcendent as personal experiences that stimulate

reflection, creativity, and ethical behaviour.
2. Commitment to an ethic of compassion.
3. Emotional postures of resilience.
4. Emphasis on prioritizing the well-being of individuals, whether oneself or others, over
the ends of a religious group.