INTRODUCTION TO WORLD

RELIGIONS AND BELIEF SYSTEMS

Jose Ramil E. Enteria
Speaker/Facilitator
OBJECTIVES:
 After the sessions, the participants will be able to:

 know and understand, in a general sense, the different

major world religions and belief systems

 make an outline of their plan for teaching World

Religions based on the curriculum guide
 Let me begin by sharing you this story, (supposed to
ask for something but was given another.. an
analogy of my being the resource speaker instead
of anyone else (replacement lang))
“Being human always points , and is directed to
something, or someone, other than oneself – be it a
meaning to fulfill or another human being to
encounter. The more one forgets himself – by
giving himself to a cause to serve or another person
to love – the more human he is and the more he
actualizes himself.”

- Viktor Frankl
COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF RELIGIOUS
WORLD VIEWS
 Ways of dealing with people’s relationship to an
unseen & transcendent realm of existence, usually
inhabited by spirits, deities, demons & ancestors

 A set of myths or stories about this unseen world &

rituals to commune with or to appease it

 A system of organized rituals celebrated in holy

persons & embodied in sacred texts
COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF RELIGIOUS
WORLD VIEWS
 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

 A code of ethical behavior or moral order; and

 Large following, either currently or at some time in

the past
 SPIRITUALITY – the human being’s “capacity for
self-transcendence in relation to the Absolute,”
which involves a search for the meaning & ultimate
value of one’s life

 THEOLOGY – is the formal, systematic attempt to

give a rational explanation of the beliefs and
practices of a religious institution & of the religious
experiences of its adherents
 PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION – the philosophical
study of the nature & meaning of religion, consists
in analyzing religious concepts, beliefs, & practices
of religious adherents

“one can be religious without being spiritual; or one

can be spiritual without being religious”
GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGINS OF WORLD
RELIGIONS
 Major world religions that we know today, have
roots in Asia, in particular India, East Asia & the
Middle East

 INDIA – Hindu Dharma/Hinduism, Buddhism

 EAST ASIA – Daoism/Taoism, Confucianism,

Shinto

 MIDDLE EAST – Judaism, Christianity Islam

RELIGION: CURSE OR BLESSING?
 According to pychiatrist James L. Griffith, there are
3 related purposes that religion serves:

1.Religion helps ensure group security

2.It helps build and strengthen the individual sense

of self as being worthy & competent

3.It helps reduce personal suffering for self & others

RELIGION AS A CURSE
 Religious adherents becoming morally blind
because of a misguided sense of religious group
loyalty

Example: The willingness of religious people to cover up for

– and even defend – the crimes of their supposedly
divinely-anointed officials

 Fostering hatred toward those outside one’s own

religious group, because moral contempt for
nonbelieving outsiders generates in-group
camaraderie through a sense of purpose & power
RELIGION AS A BLESSING
 Encounters with the Sacred/Transcendent as
personal experiences that stimulate reflection,
creativity, and ethical behavior

 Commitment to an ethic of compassion

 Emotional postures of resilience

 Emphasis on prioritizing the well-being of

individuals, whether onelself or others, over the
needs of a religious group
 How do we judge whether the practice of religion is
a blessing or a curse?

 The practice of a religious faith should help make a

person become someone who is secure, grateful,
welcoming, caring (for others or of oneself), and hopeful

 Confusion, helplessness, despair, detachment, isolation,

and resentment due to religious practice are warning
signs of an unhealthy & dysfunctional spirituality
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
(EXODUS 20: 2-17, NRSV)
 2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 
 3 you shall have no other gods before me. 
 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in
the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that
is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth. 
 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them;
for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing
children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and
the fourth generation of those who reject me, 
 6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth
generation of those who love me and keep my
commandments. 
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
(EXODUS 20: 2-17, NRSV)
 7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the
Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who
misuses his name. 
 8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 
 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 
 10But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God;
you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter,
your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien
resident in your towns. 
 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day;
therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and
consecrated it. 
 12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days
may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving
you. 
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
(EXODUS 20: 2-17, NRSV)

 13 You shall not murder. 

 14 You shall not commit adultery. 

 15 You shall not steal. 

 16 You shall not bear false witness against your

neighbor. 
 17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you
shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or
female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that
belongs to your neighbor. 
ORIGINS OF JUDAISM
 Judaism traces its heritage to the divine covenant
made betweenAdonai and their ancestor Abraham
who migrated from Mesopotamia nearly 4,000
years ago & ended up settling in Canaan

 Adonai promised Abraham a great name, numerous

descendants, & a land of their own (Gen 12)
SACRED TEXTS OF JUDAISM
 Torah
 Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

 Nevi’im
 Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings)
 Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Twelve
Prophets)

 Ketuvim
 Psalm, Proverbs, Job, Songof Songs, Ruth,
Lamentations, Qoheleth/Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel,
Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles
STORY OF SAMSON (JUDGES 16)
 1 Once Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute
and went in to her. 
 2 The Gazites were told, "Samson has come here." So they
circled around and lay in wait for him all night at the city
gate. They kept quiet all night, thinking, "Let us wait until
the light of the morning; then we will kill him." 
 3 But Samson lay only until midnight. Then at midnight he
rose up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two
posts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his
shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that is in
front of Hebron. 
 4 After this he fell in love with a woman in the valley of
Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 
 5 The lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her, "
Coax him, and find out what makes his strength so great,
and how we may overpower him, so that we may bind him
in order to subdue him; and we will each give you eleven
hundred pieces of silver." 
STORY OF SAMSON (JUDGES 16)
 6 So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me what makes
your strength so great, and how you could be bound, so
that one could subdue you." 
 7 Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh
bowstrings that are not dried out, then I shall become
weak, and be like anyone else." 
 8 Then the lords of the Philistines brought her seven
fresh bowstrings that had not dried out, and she bound
him with them. 
 9While men were lying in wait in an inner chamber, she
said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But
he snapped the bowstrings, as a strand of fiber snaps
when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength
was not known. 
 10 Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have mocked me
and told me lies; please tell me how you could be bound."
 
STORY OF SAMSON (JUDGES 16)
 11 He said to her, "If they bind me with new ropes that have not been
used, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else." 
 12 So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, "
The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" (The men lying in wait were in an
inner chamber.) But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread. 
 13 Then Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have mocked me and
told me lies; tell me how you could be bound." He said to her, "If you
weave the seven locks of my head with the web and make it tight with
the pin, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else." 
 14 So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove
them into the web, and made them tight with the pin. Then she said to
him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he awoke from his
sleep, and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web. 
 15 Then she said to him, "How can you say, "I love you,' when your heart
is not with me? You have mocked me three times now and have not told
me what makes your strength so great." 
STORY OF SAMSON (JUDGES 16)
 16 Finally, after she had nagged him with her words day after day, and
pestered him, he was tired to death. 
 17 So he told her his whole secret, and said to her, "A razor has never
come upon my head; for I have been a nazirite to God from my mother's
womb. If my head were shaved, then my strength would leave me; I
would become weak, and be like anyone else." 
 18 When Delilah realized that he had told her his whole secret, she sent
and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, "This time come up, for he
has told his whole secret to me." Then the lords of the Philistines came
up to her, and brought the money in their hands. 
 19 She let him fall asleep on her lap; and she called a man, and had him
shave off the seven locks of his head. He began to weaken, and his
strength left him. 
 20 Then she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" When he
awoke from his sleep, he thought, "I will go out as at other times, and
shake myself free." But he did not know that the Lord had left him. 
STORY OF SAMSON (JUDGES 16)
 21 So the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought
him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles; and he ground at
the mill in the prison. 
 22 But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. 
 23 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to
their god Dagon, and to rejoice; for they said, "Our god has given Samson
our enemy into our hand." 
 24 When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, "Our
god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who
has killed many of us." 
 25 And when their hearts were merry, they said, "Call Samson, and let
him entertain us." So they called Samson out of the prison, and he
performed for them. They made him stand between the pillars; 
 26 and Samson said to the attendant who held him by the hand, "Let me
feel the pillars on which the house rests, so that I may lean against them."
 
STORY OF SAMSON (JUDGES 16)
 27 Now the house was full of men and women; all the lords of the
Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about three thousand
men and women, who looked on while Samson performed. 
 28 Then Samson called to the Lord and said, "Lord God, remember me
and strengthen me only this once, O God, so that with this one act of
revenge I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes."
 29 And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house
rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one
and his left hand on the other. 
 30 Then Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." He strained with
all his might; and the house fell on the lords and all the people who were
in it. So those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed
during his life. 
 31 Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and
brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb
of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.
A HINDU STORY OF CREATION
HYMN XC. Puruṣa .

1. A THOUSAND heads hath Puruṣa, a thousand eyes, a

thousand feet.
On every side pervading earth he fills a space ten fingers wide.
2 This Puruṣa is all that yet hath been and all that is to be;
The Lord of Immortality which waxes greater still by food.
3 So mighty is his greatness; yea, greater than this is Puruṣa.
All creatures are one-fourth of him, three-fourths eternal life in
heaven.
4 With three-fourths Puruṣa went up: one-fourth of him again
was here.
Thence he strode out to every side over what cats not and what
cats.
5 From him Virāj was born; again Puruṣa from Virāj was born.
As soon as he was born he spread eastward and westward o’er
the earth.
A HINDU STORY OF CREATION
 6 When Gods prepared the sacrifice with Puruṣa as their offering,
Its oil was spring, the holy gift was autumn; summer was the wood.
7 They balmed as victim on the grass Puruṣa born in earliest time.
With him the Deities and all Sādhyas and Ṛṣis sacrificed.
8 From that great general sacrifice the dripping fat was gathered up.
He formed the creatures of-the air, and animals both wild and tame.
9 From that great general sacrifice Ṛcas and Sāma-hymns were born:
Therefrom were spells and charms produced; the Yajus had its birth
from it.
10 From it were horses born, from it all cattle with two rows of teeth:
From it were generated kine, from it the goats and sheep were born.
11 When they divided Puruṣa how many portions did they make?
What do they call his mouth, his arms? What do they call his thighs and
feet?
A HINDU STORY OF CREATION
 12 The Brahman was his mouth, of both his arms was the
Rājanya made.
His thighs became the Vaiśya, from his feet the Śūdra was
produced.
13 The Moon was gendered from his mind, and from his eye the
Sun had birth;
Indra and Agni from his mouth were born, and Vāyu from his
breath.
14 Forth from his navel came mid-air the sky was fashioned
from his head
Earth from his feet, and from his car the regions. Thus they
formed the worlds.
15 Seven fencing-sticks had he, thrice seven layers of fuel were
prepared,
When the Gods, offering sacrifice, bound, as their victim, Puruṣa.
16 Gods, sacrificing, sacrificed the victim these were the earliest
holy ordinances.
The Mighty Ones attained the height of heaven, there where the
Sādhyas, Gods of old, are dwelling.
MAJOR DIVISIONS IN JUDAISM
 Orthodox Judaism – modern but dogmatic
expression of Judaism, which believes that Torah in
Tanakh &
both its written and oral forms – the
Talmud – were received directly from God &
consequently permits no modification

 Conservative Judaism – it seeks to integrate the

best of tradition with the best of modernity &
believes that “integrating the Jewish tradition with
our own contemporary culture is the best way to
create a vibrant & meaningful form of Judaism for
ourselves & our descendants”
MAJOR DIVISIONS IN JUDAISM
 Reform Judaism – more accommodating & holds
that Judaism & its tradition should be updated &
made compatible with contemporary culture.

 first to permit the use of vernacular language in worship

& the ordination of women as rabbis

 assert that Jewish law may be outdated & needs to

undergo critical evaluation & renewal
JEWISH COMMUNITY
 The Synagogue served as a house of prayer, of
study, and of the people

 The Torah was to be read regularly to the people,

explained, interpreted, & studied w/c demanded
teachers rather than priests

 Most Jewish congregation today are led &

ministered to by an ordained rabbi, a religious
professional who is more a teacher than a priest.
ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY
 Christianity traces its origins from Jesus of
Nazareth(Jesus means “Adonai is salvation)

 Started as a Jewish sect, later on followers were

calledChristians (Acts 11:26)
MAJOR DIVISIONS IN CHRISTIANITY
 Roman Catholicism – broadly refers to a certain
variety of Christian communities led by bishops
who believe themselves to be in continuity w/ the
original universal church founded by the apostles
chosen by Jesus

 EasternOrthodoxy – “othodox,” conforming to the

Christian tradition of belief and practice as
presented in the creeds of the primitive Church

 Protestantism– popularly understood as one

protesting against the errors of the RCC
SACRED TEXTS
 Bible – Old Testament & New Testament

 The Christian Sacred Scriptures is a combination of

the Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures (from
Judaism) & New Testament
ORIGINS OF ISLAM
Islam traces its origins fromMuhammad (worthy of
praise) who was born around the year 570 C.E. into
the clan of Hashim of the Quraysh tribe

 Muhammad was visited by an angel (Gabriel)

 Frequently received divine revelations, & would

memorize the messages fromAllah , which later on,
would be written by his companions on leaves,
stones, bones, or parchments – later on became
Qur’an
the
SACRED TEXTS OF ISLAM
 Qur’an – divided in 114 portions called surahs ,
arranged in descending order of length

Surahs contain approximately 6,000 verses called

ayat
MAJOR DIVISIONS OF ISLAM
 Sunni – “custom/tradition” of the prophet
Muhammad as recorded in the collections of
ahadith
 they are committed to following the Qur’an & the ahadith
 this tradition highlights the role of Islam in politics;
sharia (Islamic law) as a standard for a broad range of
social issues, such as business, marriage, divorce,
inheritance, & others

 Shi’a – the Muslims who supported Ali ibn AbiTalib

MUSLIM UNDERSTANDING OF GOD
 They call their God Allah – one diety who is
complete, eternal, undivided, and unchanging

 Allah created the universe out of nothing, sustains

it, & will judge it.

 Human beings – the summit of creation, created by

Allah to obey & serve him

 Allah has 99 names, e.g., Al-Malik – the king