RELIGION, RELIGIOUS

EXPERIENCES AND
SPIRITUALITY

GEC 205
▶ The English word “religion”
▶ derived from the middle English “religious”
▶ Came from the Old Fresh “religion”
▶ means “good faith” , “ritual”
▶ Latin word “religare”
▶ means “to the fast”, or “bind together”

DEFINITION OF TERMS
ETYMOLOGICAL MEANING
▶ Religionis belief in worship of or
obedience to a supernatural power or
powers considered to be divine or to
have control of human destiny, or any
formal or institutionalized expression of
such belief.

DEFINITION OF TERMS
REAL MEANING
▶ It is the attitude and feeling of one who believes in a
transcendent controlling power or powers.
▶ Chiefly Roman Catholic Church the way of life
determined by the vows or poverty, chastity, and
obedience entered upon by monks, friars, and nuns to
enter religion, something of overwhelming importance
to a person, archaic, the practice of sacred ritual
observances, or sacred rites and ceremonies.

DEFINITION OF TERMS
REAL MEANING
▶ Latin religio
▶ fear of the supernatural
▶ piety,
▶ Probably from religare
▶ to tie up,from re- + ligare to bind.

OLD FRENCH MEANING OF RELIGION

▶ According to cicero, meaning ‘to repeat, to
read again’
▶ Most likely, religionem
▶ to show respect for what is sacred) is an
organized system of beliefs and practices
revolving around, or leading to, a
transcendent spiritual experience.
▶ There is no culture recorded in human history
which has not practiced some form of religion.
RELIGION
(FROM THE LATIN RELIGIO)
MEANING ‘RESTRAINT’, OR RELEGERE
▶ isthe set of beliefs, feelings,
dogmas and practices that
define the relations between
human being and sacred of
divinity.

RELIGION
▶ Dogmas
▶ sacred books
▶ Rites
▶ Worship
▶ Sacrament
▶ moral prescription
▶ Interdicts/prohibitions

RELIGION IS DEFINED BY SPECIFIC

ELEMENTS OF A COMMUNITY OF
BELIEVERS:
▶ Developed starting from a
revelation based on the exemplary
history of a nation, of a prophet or a
wise man who taught an ideal of life

ORGANIZATION
THE MAJORITY OF RELIGIONS
POPULATION OF THE WORLD RELIGION AS
OF DECEMBER 2016
▶ Totalpopulation in the world
7.5 billions
▶ Thegreatest populated region
in Asia – 4.5 billion

GRAPH ANALYSIS
DECEMBER 2016
2.5 BILLIONS CHRISTIANS IN THE WORLD
(32% OF THE WORLD POPULATION)
1.6 BILLIONS MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD
 ▶ 92% go and attend to
mass occasionally
▶ 10% go and attend to
Mass every Sunday
▶ 1% Active members of
the Church

82 MILLION CATHOLICS IN THE

PHILIPPINES
DIFFERENT VIEWS ON
RELIGION AND
SPIRITUALITY
▶ Religion ‘is a human invention that centers on specific rituals and a set of
stories that outline a basic moral code and belief system.
▶ Religions often, but not necessarily, have a hierarchy of initiated, with those
further into the inner circle leading the rituals for the general populace.
▶ Spiritually ‘relates to the spirit or essential essence of humanity.
▶ People who say they are spiritual are working to grow and better this inner
force.
▶ Religious people are generally spiritual people as well, but spiritual people do
not necessarily have to be religious.
▶ They may work to attain a heightened spirituality through alternative
methods.

THE SPIRITUAL’S VIEW

▶ The defining characteristic of religion would be its rituals.
▶ Every religion asks certain things of its followers.
▶ It may be praying at certain times or the day or week.
▶ It may be eating or abstaining from certain food.
▶ It may be studying from the a specific text or learning
certain songs or chants.
▶ Spiritually is a little harder to recognize.
▶ Today, with the rise of new age philosophy, many people
try to attain a higher spiritual state through meditation,
chanting, prayer, or contemplation.

THE OUTSIDER’S VIEW

▶ Religion is as a social force for unity within a group.
▶ A religion is often referred to as a community of believers.
▶ It strives for uniformity of thought and action in its members.
▶ it provides these members with a community for spiritual and physical
support.
▶ Most religions have charitable arms that distribute food and clothing to
needy parishioners.
▶ Spiritually ‘is an individual phenomenon.
▶ The deist of the enlightenment may be the first large group to describe
themselves as spiritual but not religious.
▶ As secular society became more supportive through national unity and
social programs, the need to be belong to a religious group lessened.
▶ Many people prefer a more individual approach.

THE SOCIOLOGIST VIEW

RELIGIOUS WORLDVIEW:
▶ Is a philosophical worldview
▶ all of reality can be reduced to one “thing” or
“substance” this view is opposed to dualism (in which all
of reality is reducible to two substances
▶ e.g.., good and evil; light and darkness; form and
matter; body and soul and pluralism (all of reality is
comprised of multiple substances).
▶ In all of these philosophical views, this article uses the word
substance in a technical sense to mean “essence,” or its
“things-ishness;
▶ in other words, something in which properties remain.

MONISM
▶ The worship of or belief in multiple deities,
which are usually assembled into a
pantheon of gods and goddesses, along
with their own religions and rituals

POLYTHEISM
▶ There gods are distinguished by particular functions, and
often take on human characteristics.
▶ This was particularly true in ancient Greece and Rome.
▶ In other polytheistic cultures such as ancient Egypt, god
take on the form and characteristics of object found in
nature, including trees, sacred herbs, cattle, animals and
animal—human hybrids.

POLYTHEISM
▶ The religious belief that objects, places
and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual
essence

ANIMISM
▶ The result of an earlier belief in unclearly defined spirits, demons and other
supernatural forces.
▶ These belief systems are similar to animism, ancestors worship and
totemism (human have mystic relationship with spirit being – animal or
plant).
▶ However, in polytheism, these supernatural forces are personified and
organized into a cosmic family.
▶ This “family” becomes the nucleus of a particular culture’s belief system.
▶ The family of gods was used to explain natural phenomena and to
establish a culture’s role in the universe.
▶ The number of gods would expand as the culture’s belief system
developed, eventually resulting in a hierarchical system of deities, over
time, the lesser gods would diminish in stature or vanish altogether.

THE BELIEF IN MULTIPLE GODS

▶ Polytheism was wide spread in the ancient world.
▶ The Egyptians had a highly developed belief system that was based on multiple
gods.
▶ These gods were the cornerstone of Egyptian culture and still fascinate us
today.
▶ The ancient Greeks also had an complicated system of myths based on
multiple deities.
▶ The Greek gods often took on human forms and personalities, and in many
cases, directly interfered with human activities. When the roman empire
conquered the Greeks, the Romans assimilated much of the Greek polytheistic
culture.
▶ Over time, as rime's influence spread, it absorbed other gods from the other
cultures that it conquered.
▶ In addition to Egypt, Greece and Rome, polytheism was widespread in ancient
Asian, African, European and native American cultures.

POLYTHEISM – ANCIENT WORLD

▶ Polytheism still represents much of the world
today.
▶ Polytheism characterizes the beliefs of
Hinduism, Mahayana Buddhism,
Confucianism, Taoism and Shintoism in the
east, and also contemporary tribal religions in
Africa and the Americas.
▶ These religions are widely practiced
throughout the world and remain very
popular in their ancestral areas.

POLYTHEISM – MODERN WORLDS

▶ Defined as the belief in the existence of only one god that created the world, is
all-powerful and intervenes in the world. A broader definition of monotheism is the
belief in one god.

MONOTHEISM
▶ Belief in the existence of one god, or in the
oneness of Gods; as such, it is distinguished
from polytheism, the belief in the existence of
many gods, and from atheism, the belief that
there is no god.
▶ Monotheism characterizes the traditions of
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and elements
of the beliefs are discernible in numerous other
religions.

MONOTHEISM
▶ There exist no historical material to prove that
one system of belief is older than the other,
although many scholars hold that monotheism
is a higher form of religion and therefore
moreover, it is not the oneness of god is not
affirmed as the logical opposite of many gods
but as an expression of divine might and
power

MONOTHEISM AND POLYTHEISM

NUMERICAL CONTRAST (ONE AND MANY)
▶ Is the denial of or lack of beliefs in the existence of a god or gods.
▶ The term atheism comes from the Greek prefix a-
▶ meaning “without
▶ Greek word theos,
▶ meaning “deity.”
▶ The denial of god’s existence is also known as strong, or positive,
atheism, whereas the lack of belief in god is known as negative, or
weak, atheism.
▶ Although atheism is often contrasted with agnosticism, the view
that we cannot know whether a deity exist or not and should
therefore suspend belief, negative atheism is in the fact
compatible with agnosticism.

ATHEISM
▶ In the absence of belief in god, ethical goals must be determined by secular
(nonreligious) aims and concerns, human beings must take full responsibility for
their destiny, and death marks the end of a person’s existence.
▶ As of 1994 there were an estimated 240 million atheists around the world
comprising slightly more than 4 percent of the world’s population, including
those who profess atheism, skepticism, disbelief, or irreligion.
▶ The estimate of nonbelievers increases significantly, to about 21 percent of the
world’s population, if negative atheists are included.

ATHEISM
▶ From ancient times, people have at
times used atheism as a term of abuse
called for religious positions they
opposed.
▶ Thefirst Christians were called atheists
because they denied the existence of
the roman deities.

SCOPE OF ATHEISM
▶ Over time, several misunderstanding of atheism have arisen,
those atheists are immoral, that morality cannot be justified
without belief in God, and that life has no purpose without
belief in God.
▶ Yet there is no evidence that atheists are any less moral
than believers.
▶ Many systems of morality have been developed that do not
presuppose that existence of supernatural being.
▶ Moreover, the purpose of human life may be based on
secular goals, such as the betterment of humankind.

MORALITY OF ATHEIST
▶ The term atheism has been used more narrowly to refer to the
denial of theism in particular judeo-christian theism which asserts
the existence of an all-powerful , all knowing, all good personal
being.
▶ This being created the universe, takes an active interest in human
concerns, and guides his creatures through divine disclosure
known as revelation.
▶ The revealed nature of the bible and the Koran, and a religious
foundation for morality.

WESTERN SOCIETY
▶ It is not a characteristic of all religious.
▶ Some religions reject theism but are not entirely
atheistic.
▶ Although the theistic tradition is fully developed in
the bhagavad-Gita, the sacred text of Hinduism,
earlier Hindu writings known as the Upanishads
teach that Braham (ultimate reality) is impersonal.

THEISM
▶ Reject even the pantheistic aspects of
Hinduism that equate God with the universe.
▶ These religions, do reject a theistic God
believed to have created the universe.
▶ Religions are atheistic in the narrow sense of
rejecting theism.

POSITIVE ATHEISTS
▶ In the western intellectual world, nonbelief in the existence of God
is a widespread phenomenon with a long and distinguished history.
▶ Philosophers of the ancient world such as Lucretius were non
believers.
▶ Even in the middle Ages (5th century to 15th century) there were
currents of thought that questioned theist assumptions including
skepticism the doctrine that true knowledge is impossible, and
naturalism, the belief that only natural forces control the world.

HISTORY
▶ Expressions of nonbelief also are found in classics of
western literature , including the writings of English poets
Percy Shelley and Lord Byron; English novelist Thomas
Hardy; French philosophers Voltaire and Jean Paul
Sartre; Russian author Ivan Turgenev, and American
writers mark twain and Upton Sinclair ,

SEVERAL LEADING THINKERS OF THE

ENLIGHTEN (1700-1789)
▶ Themost articulate and best known
atheists and critics of religion were
German philosophers Ludwig
Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Arthur
Schopenhauer, and Friedrich
Nietzsche.

19TH CENTURY
▶ British
philosopher Bertrand
Russell, Austrian psychoanalyst
Sigmund Freud, and Sartre are
among the most influential
atheists

TH
20 CENTURY
▶Atheistsjustify their
philosophical position in
several different ways.

CRITICISMS OF THEISM
▶ Refuting typical theists argument from design, the
ontological argument, and the argument from
religious experience.
▶ Assert that any statement about God is meaningless,
because attributes such as all-knowing and all
powerful cannot be comprehended by the human
mind.

NEGATIVE ATHEISTS
▶ Defend
their position by arguing that the
concept of God is inconsistent.
▶ They question, for example, whether a
God who is all knowing can also be all
good and how a God who lacks bodily
existence can be all knowing.

POSITIVE ATHEISTS
▶ Some positive atheists have maintained that the existence of evil
makes the existence of God doubtful.
▶ In particular, atheists assert that theism does not provide an
adequate explanation for the existence of seemingly gratuitous
evil, such as the suffering of an innocent children.
▶ Theists commonly defend the existence of evil by claiming the God
desires that human beings have the freedom to choose between
good and evil,

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

▶ God allows pain and suffering to build
human character fail, in turn to explain why
there was suffering among animals before
human beings evolved and why human
character could not be developed with less
suffering than occurs in the world.
▶ For atheists, a better explanation for the
presence of evil in the world is that God
does not exist.

ARGUMENT
▶ Atheists have also criticized historical evidence used to support belief in the
major theistic religions.
▶ For example, atheists have argued that a lack of evidence and doubt on
important doctrines of Christianity, such as the virgin birth and the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
▶ Events are said to represent miracles, atheists assert that extremely strong
evidence is necessary to support their occurrence.
▶ Weak evidences

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE
▶ Atheism is primarily a reaction to, or a rejection of, religious
belief, and thus does not determine other philosophical
beliefs.
▶ Atheisms sometimes been associated with the
philosophical ideas of materialism, which holds that only
matter exists; communism , which asserts that religion
impedes human progress; and rationalism, which
emphasizes analytic reasoning over other sources of
knowledge .

DIVERSITY IN ATHEISM
▶ Some atheists have opposed communism and some have
rejected materialism.
▶ Although all contemporary materialists are atheists, the
ancient Greek materialist Epicurus believed the gods were
made of matter in the form of atoms.
▶ Rationalists such as French philosopher Rene Descartes have
believed in God, whereas atheists such as Sartre are not
considered to be rationalist.

THERE IS NO NECESSARY CONNECTION

BETWEEN ATHEISM AND THESE POSITIONS
▶ Aretwo terms that are often
confused when it comes to their
study.

RELIGION AND THEOLOGY

▶ Isbased on faith and beliefs when it
comes to the acceptance of
superhuman powers in the form of
god and gods.

RELIGION
▶ The study of theistic thought.
▶ Thisis especially true of
Christianity .
▶ Theism is the acceptance of the
presence of God or supreme
Being.

THEOLOGY
▶ Religiousfacts and thoughts should have
been established in the first place for the
subject of theology to develop.
▶ Theology is in fact based on religion.
▶ Itis a system of theistic especially Christian
religion.

THEOLOGY WORKS ON RELIGION

▶ Theology deals with the
rational analysis of a
religious faith.

RELIGION DOES NOT DEAL WITH ANY

SORT OF RATIONAL ANALYSIS
▶ Religious leaders work with the idea of
establishing certain concepts and truths about
the existence of God and the so called
superhuman powers.
▶ The idea of establishing proofs rationally and
analyzing the so called religious truths already
established by religious leaders.

THEOLOGICAL LEADERS
▶ Religion deals also with the custom and
manners followed by a certain community
or society when it comes to practicing any
particular belief or faith.
▶ Theology does not deal with the customs
and manners followed by a community or
society but it only tries to examine and
critically analyze the principles laid in any
give religion 

RELIGION – THEOLOGY
▶ Both the branches of religion and theology have
their own leaders.
▶ The religious leaders establish religious truths
whereas theological leaders establish analytical
truths.

LEADERS
▶ These are all the knowledge of the existence of
God.
▶ The philosophy of religion addresses not only the
perennial question, “is there a God?” but also the
question if there is, then “what is he like?” and
most important of all, “what does that mean for
us?”
▶ These are questions that everyone should ask
themselves at some point in their lives.

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
▶ The ontological argument,
▶ claims to prove the existence of a perfect being;
▶ The cosmological argument
▶ declares to prove the existence of a necessary or external creator;
▶ The theological argument
▶ purports to prove the existence of a creator concerned with humanity .

IF THERE IS A GOD, THEN WHAT IS HE LIKE?

▶ Many of these arguments seek to exploit a
perceived incoherence in the traditional
doctrines concerning god’s nature, raising
questions as to how those doctrines are best
formulated.

THE ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF

GOD
▶ ” then how can he also be forgiving?” for
instance, has led to theists to understand both
God’s justice and his forgiveness in ways that
can be reconciled.
▶ The challenge if God is all knowing , then how
ca n our choices be free has prompted a similar
approach to divine omniscience and human
freedom.

THE CHALLENGE IF GOD IS JUST

▶ No less than the arguments for theism
influence the way the theists conceive of
God, so contribute to the project of
answering the question if there is God, then
what is he like?

THE ARGUMENTS FOR ATHEISM

▶ It is covered less explicitly by this survey of the
philosophy of religion.
▶ What follows is admittedly an over simplification
but is an accurate representation of common
responses to this question.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR US?

▶ If it is accepted in all of its details are clear
enough:
▶ if God exists then we were created for a purpose;
we are valued and loved.
▶ If God exists then we also have an incentive not to
mention a moral duty, to fulfill this purpose; our
eternal fate hangs on whether we follow God, as
we were created to, or rebel against his authority.

THE IMPLICATIONS OF CLASSICAL

THEISM
▶ It is often felt of restrict our freedom, but to do so
not because we are unimportant but rather
because we are important and so have a duty
of care to ourselves and to others.
▶ Theism thus affirms our value even as it
constrains our freedom.

CLASSICAL THEISM
▶ Probably, exerts pressure in the opposite
direction; it affirms our freedom but, it is
often thought, threatens to compromise
our value.
▶ In general, those who have lacked belief
in a next life have thought that this
makes our choices in this life all the more
important.

ATHEISM
▶ Thoughtthat the absence of a divine
creator who defines who we are gives us
absolute freedom to define ourselves.
▶ Because there is no God, there is no
god-given human nature, and so each of
us is, in a sense his own creator.
▶ We are free to be who we want to be.

SARTRE
▶ It has been associated with a negative view
of human value.
▶ If we were not placed here on purpose, but
are the accidental product of random
processes, and if we cam from the dust and
will return to it, then in what sense are we
important?

ATHEISM HAS ALSO RIGHTLY OR

WRONGLY
▶ Atheists can, how we got there.
▶ Theycan thus affirms that we are special
despite our gloomy origins.
▶ Or they can, on other hand accept that we
have no special value, but argue that it is
better to reconcile oneself to this fact that it
is to deceive oneself with religious belief

TWO WAYS TO RESPOND TO THIS

QUESTION
▶ Thetime spent answering them is time well
spent.
▶ Religious
belief or unbelief underpins the
way the we live our lives.
▶ The more clarity and confidence we have
in our beliefs on these issues, the better.

IN CONCLUSIONS
▶ Do you believe in God? Why?
▶ Explain the difference between monotheism and
polytheism.
▶ What is the difference between religion and theology?
▶ Differentiate between religion and spirituality?
▶ How can you convince atheist that God exist?

QUIZ – ESSAY ( 1 PAGE TYPE WRITTEN)

▶How world
religions Began
▶ Biblical
▶ then God said, “let us
make man in our image, in
our likeness… so God
created man in his own
image, in the image of God
he created him; male and
female he created tem.

HOW WORLD RELIGIONS BEGAN

▶ God blessed them… then God said, I give
you every seed-bearing plant on the face of
the whole earth and every tree that has fruit
with seed in it. they will be yours for food, the
Lord God took the man and put him in the
garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

CREATION STORY
GENESIS 1:26-29
▶ The Lord God commanded the man, you are free
to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must
not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and
evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.
▶ The Lord God said, “it is not Good for the man to
be alone.
▶ I will make a helper suitable for him”.

CREATION STORY
GENESIS 1:26-29
▶ So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a
deep sleep; and while he was sleeping he took one
of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with
flesh.
▶ Then the Lord God who made a woman from the
rib had taken out of the man, and he brought her
to the man. The man said, "this is now bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh ; shall be called
woman, for she was taken out of man”.

CREATION STORY
GENESIS 1:26-29
▶ Now the serpent was craftier than any of the wild animals
the Lord God had made.
▶ He said to the women, “did God really say, “you must not
eat from any tree in the garden”, the women said to the
serpent, "we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but
God did say,” you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in
the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you
will die” “you will not surely die” the serpent said to the
woman, “for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes
will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good
and evil.

FALL OF MAN
 FIRST SIN

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree

was good for food and pleasing to the eyen
and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took
some and ate eat.
She also gave some to her husband, who was
with her, and he ate it.
▶ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and
they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig
leaves together and made coverings for
themselves.

FIRST SIN
▶ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of
the Lord God as he was walking in the garden
in the cool of the day, and they hid from the
Lord God among the trees of the garden.
▶ But the lord God called to the man, “where
are you?” he answered. “ I heard you in the
garden, and I was Afraid because I was
naked; so I hid” (genesis 3:1-10)

FIRST SIN
FALL OF MAN
▶ Man separated from God because of
disobedience, man sinned against God.
▶ Because of separation, man longing to
be with God, man wanted to have
fellowship with God again.

SIN OF DISOBEDIENCE
 SIN OF DISOBEDIENCE
IN THE TOWER OF BABEL
the time of separation man made the
tower of Babel (because of the longing
of the deity) the first man made religion
to reach God.
Man did not make it God frustrated
them, because religion will help people
to know God but it is not the way to
God.
 GOD’S LOVE
The almighty God knew that man
can do nothing with his concern on
his separation with God.
The Bible recorded in the book of
John 3:16
“for God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son
that whosoever believe in him
shall not perish but have
everlasting life.”
▶ Thealmighty and loving God made a
remedy and solution to the problem to
restore man unto him.
▶ He
sent his only Son Jesus Christ to save
man from his sin.

GOD’S LOVE EXPLANATION

▶ Jesus Christ died on the cross for
the remission of sin, the scripture
says in Roman 5:8”…
▶ while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us, “the death
of Jesus Christ on the cross is
the solution of God to save
man from their sins and to
restore man unto him.
▶ Religions help people to know
God Jesus Christ gave his life to
restore man unto God.

LOVE OF GOD IN THE CROSS

GROUP OF THEORIES ON THE
ORIGIN OF RELIGION
▶ According to David Barrett et al, editors
of the “World Christian Encyclopedia:
▶ Religionwas typically based on
revelation from one or more deties ---
mainly gods and goddesses.

FAITH-BASED THEORY
▶ The Dominican priest Ayala F.
▶ theway in which the word “faith” is used
by the person who poses the question is
quite different in science and in religious
beliefs.

FAITH-BASED THEORY
▶ All scientific constructs or so-called theories are constructs of
the mind.
▶ Scientific theories, what we do is to formulate them in such a
way that they can be used to make predictions about the
states of affairs in the real world.
▶ And then we do confirm or corroborate the theories by
making those observations or experiments. that deal with
predictions derived from the theories.

FAITH-BASED THEORY
▶ Anthropologists,evolutionary biologists, and
other researchers have reached a near
consensus that humans of the species homo
sapiens evolved from a species of proto human
walk upright, and had an opposing thumb and
little finger.

SECULAR-BASED THEORY
LOOKING BACK AT HUMAN BIOCULTURAL
AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION
▶ Their internal brain structure represented a
major advance over those of previous animals
in terms of its flexibility, its ability to reason, and
its ability to plan for the future.
▶ Thisgave proto humans an improved ability to
pass on their accumulated knowledge to their
descendants, to form more advanced
societies, and ultimately to create religions.

SECULAR-BASED THEORY
 HOMO SAPIENS

▶ Appeared 50,000 years ago

▶ It was characterized as the modern human
▶ Theyhave a domed skull, chin, small
eyebrows and a rather undersized skeleton.
▶ Nobody knows with accuracy how the first religions
evolved.
▶ By the time that writing had developed, many religions
had been in place for many millennia and the details of
their origins had been forgotten.
▶ However, there is speculation that the first religions were a
response to human fear.
▶ They were created to give people a feeling of security in
an insecure world, and a feeling of control over the
environment where there was little control.

SECULAR-BASED
THEORY OF RELIGION
▶ The developing abilities of proto-humans were
a double-edge sword on the other hand,
people aided their chances of surviving in a
cruel and unpredictable world.
▶ They helped each successive generation of
proto-humans to build upon the knowledge
base of their ancestors.
▶ This increased mental ability led to a terrifying
piece of knowledge: personal morality.
▶ For the first time, individual proto-humans on earth
became aware that their life was transient; they
would die at some point in their future.
▶ This knowledge can produce an intolerable
emotional drain.
▶ During their evolution from proto-human to full
human, they developed questions about
themselves and their environment.
▶ What controlled the seasonal cycles of nature,
the daily motion of the sun, the motion of the
stars, the passing of the season etc?
▶ What controlled their environments, what or who
caused floods rainy, dry spells, storms etc?
▶ What controls fertility of the tribes its
domesticated animals, and its crops?
▶ What system of morality is needed to best
promote the stability of the tribe?
▶ Living in pre-scientific society, people had no ways to
resolve these questions.
▶ Even today , with all of our scientific advances, we still
debate about the second last question, and still have no
way of reaching a consensus on the last.
▶ But he needs for answers (particularly to the last question)
were so important that some response were required,
even if they were merely based on hunches/premonition.

AND ABOVE ALL, WHAT HAPPENS TO A

PERSON AFTER THEY DIE?
▶ Some people within the tribe started to invent
answers based on their personal guesses.
▶ Thus developed ; the first religious belief system,
the first priesthood, the first set of rituals, to
appease the Goddess, other rituals to control
fertility and other aspects of the environment, a
set of moral truths to govern human behavior.

PEOPLE GUEST
▶ Thisformed of an oral tradition which was
disseminated among the members of the tribe
and was taught to each new generation.
▶ Much later, after writing was developed, the
beliefs were generally recorded in written
form.
▶A major loss of flexibility resulted.
▶ Oraltraditions can evolve over time; written
documents tend to be more permanent.
▶ The
beliefs systems were based on
impression, the various religions that
developed in different areas of the world
were, and remain, all different.
▶ Because the followers of most religious considered their beliefs to
be derived directly from God, they cannot be easily changed.
▶ Inter religious compromise is difficult or impossible.
▶ Religious texts are often ambiguous, divisions developed within
religions.
▶ Different denominations, schools, or traditions have derived
different meaning from the same religious texts.
▶ The foundations for millennia of inter-religious and intra-religious
conflict.

THEIR TEACHINGS WERE IN CONFLICT WITH

EACH OTHER
▶ The first organized religions appear to have been
based on fertility.
▶ They were focused on the worship of the great
Earth Goddess.
▶ Religion evolved to include male Gods who were
gradually given increased importance by the
priests.
▶ This development may have been caused by
developing knowledge of the male’s involvement
in the process of reproduction.

EVOLUTION OF RELIGION
▶ Most religions teach that they were directly
revealed by their deity/deities to humanity and
are unrelated to other world religions.
▶ There is considerable historical evidence from
ancient times that religions in the area from
India to middle East shared many religious
scriptures which contain concepts or passages
taken from Egyptian, Babylonian and other
nearby pagan religions.
▶ Many of the events in the life of Jesus as
recorded in the Christian Scriptures (New
Testaments) appear to have been derived from
earlier Hinduism and Pagan religious sources.
▶ Religions were originally based on the particular
beliefs of their founders and prophets.
▶ There are few points of similarity among the
various spiritual paths:
▶ Agnosticism
▶ Monism
▶ Animism ▶ Monotheism
▶ Atheism ▶ Panentheism
▶ Deism ▶ Pantheism
▶ Duotheism ▶ Polytheism
▶ Henotheism ▶ Trinitarianism

IN TERMS OF THEIR BELIEF ABOUT SUPERNATURAL

BEINGS(S), VARIOUS FAITH TRADITIONS HAVE
TAUGHT
THE VIEW OR BELIEF THAT THE EXISTENCE OF
GOD, OF THE DIVINE OR THE SUPERNATURAL IS
UNKNOWN OR UNKNOWABLE
THE VIEW THAT "HUMAN REASON IS INCAPABLE
OF PROVIDING SUFFICIENT RATIONAL
GROUNDS TO JUSTIFY EITHER THE BELIEF THAT
GOD EXISTS OR THE BELIEF THAT GOD DOES
NOT EXIST."

Agnosticism
THE PHILOSOPHICAL POSITION AND
RATIONALISTIC THEOLOGY THAT
GENERALLY REJECTS REVELATION AS A
SOURCE OF DIVINE KNOWLEDGE, AND
ASSERTS THAT EMPIRICAL REASON AND
OBSERVATION OF THE NATURAL WORLD
Deism
▶ Belief in the existence of two deities.
This often refers to the belief in a god
and goddess of roughly equal power

DUOTHEISM
▶ Theworship of a single, supreme god
while not denying the existence or
possible existence of other lower deities.

HENOTHEISM
▶ Thebelief that the divine intersects
every part of the universe and also
extends beyond space and time

PANENTHEISM
▶ Thedoctrine that the universe
conceived of as a whole is God and,
conversely, that there is no God but the
combined substance, forces, and laws
that are manifested in the existing
universe.
▶ The universe is god itself ‘all is god”

PANTHEISM
▶ TheChristian doctrine of the Trinity defines one
God existing in three coequal, coeternal,
consubstantial divine persons: God the Father,
God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
▶ Three
distinct persons sharing one
homoousion.
▶ In
this context, the three persons define who
God is, while the one essence defines what
God
TRINITARIANISM
▶ Strong atheists teach that no deity exists. Hinduism teaches
that over 100 million deities exists.
▶ Even among those religions that believe in a God or Gods,
they teach that the God(s) have very different attributes.
▶ Even within Christianity the largest religion in the world; there
are approximately 35,000 faith groups teaching different
beliefs about God, humanity and the rest of the universe.
▶ It is obvious from these conflicting ideas about deities that
only one faith group can be correct.
▶ Few agreements, exists among the
world’s religions about religious
beliefs, sacred ritual, organizational
structure, optimum family structure,
limits on sexual behavior, sexual
orientation, the roles of women and
men, other moral topics, the
afterlife, etc.
▶ Most religions in the world particularly
their conservative wings—minimize
the roles of women and denigrate
sexual minorities, like lesbian, gays,
and transgender individuals.
ALL RELIGIOUS SHARE AN ETHIC OF
RECIPROCITY, LIKE THE GOLDEN RULE
TO TREAT OTHERS AS WE WOULD WISH TO BE
TREATED.
▶ Religions’ traditional teachings
in the area of science differ
greatly from each other and
from the findings of scientists.
▶ Examples from Judaism and Christianity are:
how the universe was formed, where rainbows
came from; whether the world-wide flood
actually happened; taking animals; the sun
standing still in the sky, the cause of epilepsy,
deafness, blindness and mental illness; vaginal
conception, demonic possession, walking on
water, resurrection from the death ascension
into the sky, etc.
▶ Some observers believe that modern-day religions
remain largely a response to human fear.
▶ Their main function is to provide their followers with
a feeling of a security while living in a dangerous
environment in which a person can be injured ,
killed or murdered at any time due to natural
causes, accidents or human hatred and
intolerance.

RELIGIONS IN THE PRESENT WORLD

▶ “ religion is primarily a search for security and not a search for truth.
▶ Religion is what we so often use to bank the fires of our anxiety.
▶ That is why religion tends toward becoming excessive, neurotic, controlling and
even evil.
▶ That is why a religious government is always a cruel government.
▶ People need to understand the questioning, and doubting are healthy, human
activities to be encouraged not to be feared.
▶ Certainty is a vice not a virtue.
▶ Insecurity is will encourage each of these activities.
▶ A sick and fearful religious system will seek to remove them.”

JOHN SHELBY SPONG BISHOP OF THE

EPISCOPAL CHURCH
▶ Religion was indistinguishable from what
is known as ‘mythology’ in the present
day and consisted of regular ritual
based on a belief in higher supernatural
entities who created and continued to
maintain the world and surrounding
cosmos.

RELIGION IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

▶ Mortals suppose that the gods are born and have clothes
and voices and shapes like their own.
▶ But if oxen, horses and lions had hands or could paint with
their hands and fashion works as men do, horses would
paint horse like images of gods and oxen-oxen like ones,
and each would fashion bodies like their own.
▶ The Ethiopians consider the gods flat-nosed and black; the
Thracians blue-eyed and red haired.

THE GREEK PHILOSOPHER XENOPHANES OF

COLOPHON (C.570-478 BCE)
▶ Among gods and men the greatest, not at all like
mortals in body or mind” but he was in the
minority.
▶ Monotheism did not make sense to the ancient
people aside from the visionaries and prophets of
Judaism.
▶ Most people, at least as far as can be discerned
from the written and archaeological record,
believed in many gods each of whom had a
special sphere of influence.
XENOPHANES BELIEVED THERE WAS “ONE GOD
▶ There is not just one other person who provides for one’s needs; one interacts with
many different kinds of people in order to achieve wholeness and maintain a living,
in the course of one’s life in the present day one will interact with one’s parents,
siblings, teachers, friends, lovers, employers, doctors, gas station, attendants,
plumbers, politicians, veterinarians, and so on.
▶ No one single person can fill all these roles or supply all of a individual’s needs-just
as it was in ancient times.
▶ In this same way, the ancient people felt that no single god could possibly take
care of all the needs of an individual.
▶ Just as one would not go to a god of war with a problem concerning love.
▶ If one were suffering heart break, one went to the goddess of love; if one wanted
to win at combat, only then would one consult in the god of war.

IN ONE’S PERSONAL LIFE

 O D S O F T H E
THE M A NY G
T H E A NC I E N T
E LI G I O NS O F
R I L LE D
WORLD F U L F
▶ The many Gods of the religions of the ancient
world fulfilled this function as specialists in their
respective areas.
▶ In some cultures a certain god or goddesses would
become so popular that he o she would transcend
the cultural understanding of multiplicity and
assume a position so powerful and all-
encompassing as almost transform a polytheistic
culture into henotheism.

THIS FUNCTIOS AS SPECIALISTS IN

THEIR RESPECTIVE AREAS
▶ The worship of many gods, henotheism
means the worship of one god in many
forms.
▶ This shift in understanding was extremely rare
in the ancient world and the goddess isis of
egypy is probably the only example of
complete ascendancy of a deity from
one-among-many to the supreme creator
and sustainer of the universe.

POLYTHEISM
▶ They
practiced some form of religion but
where the religion began cannot be
pinpointed with any certainty.
▶ The argument over whether mesapotamian
religion inspired that of the Egyptians has
gone on for over a century now and is no
closer to being resolved than when it began.

ANCIENT CULTURE
 DIVERSITY OF CULTURE

▶ It is most probable the every culture developed its own belief

in supernatural entities to explain natural phenomenon ( day
and night the seasons) or to help make sense of their lives and
the uncertain state humans find themselves in daily.
▶ The cultural exchange to attempt tracing the origins of
religion.
▶ It does not seem a very worthwhile use of one’s time when it
seems fairly clear that the religious impulse is simply a part of
human condition and different cultures in different parts of
world could have come to the same conclusions about the
meaning of life independently.
THE QUEEN OF THE
NIGHT
RECONSTRUCTION
 ▶ As with many cultural advancements and
inventions, the “cradle of civilization”
Mesopotamia has been cited as the
birthplace of religion.
▶ When religion developed in Mesopotamia
is unknown but the first written records of
religious practice date c. 3500 BCE from
summer.
RELIGION IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA
 MESOPOTAMIAN RELIGIOUS

▶ Belief held that human beings were co-workers with

the gods and labored with them and for them to
hold back the forces of chaos which had been
checked by the supreme deities at the beginning of
time.
▶ Order was created out of chaos by the gods and
one of the most popular myths illustrating this
principle told of the great god Marduk who
defeated Tiamat and the forces of chaos to create
the world.
▶ Despite the Gods apparent victory, there was no guarantee
that the forces of chaos might not recover their strength and
over turn the orderly, creation of the gods.
▶ Gods and human alike were involved in the perpetual
struggle to restrain the powers of chaos, and they each had
their own role to play in this dramatic battle.
▶ The responsibility of the dwellers of Mesopotamian cities was
to provide the gods with everything they needed to run the
world.

HISTORIAN D. BRENDAN NAGLE WRITES:

▶ The claim of some historians that the Mesopotamians were
slaves to their gods is untenable because it is quite clear that
the people understood their position as co-workers.
▶ The gods repaid humans for theirs service by taking care of
their daily needs in life ( such as supplying them with beer, the
drink of the gods) and maintaining the world in which they
lived.

HUMANS CREATION
▶ These gods intimately knew the needs of
the people because they were not distant
entities who live in the heavens but dwelt
in homes on earth built for them by their
people; these homes were the templates
which were raised in every Mesopotamian
city.

GOD AS PROVIDER
▶ It was dominated by the
towering ziggurat, were
considered the literal homes
of the gods and their statues
were fed, bathed and
clothed daily as the priests
and priestesses cared for
them as one would a king or
queen.

TEMPLE MULTIPARTS
▶ Marduk
▶ His statue was carried out
of his temple during the
festival honoring him and
carried through the city of
Babylon so that he could
appropriate its beauty
while enjoying the fresh air
and sunshine.

STATUE OF GOD
▶ Inana
▶ A powerful deity who was greatly priestesses
cared for her statue and temple faithfully.
▶ Innana is considered one the earliest
examples of the dying and reviving god figure
who goes down into the underworld and
returns to life, bringing fertility and abundance
to the land.
▶ She was so popular worship spread across all
of Mesopotamia from the southern region of
summer.

STATUE OF GOD
▶ The temples were the center of the city’s life throughout Mesopotamian history from
the akkadia empire (c. 2334-2150 BCE) to the Assyrian (c.1813-612 BCE) and
afterwards.
▶ The temple served in multiple capacities; the clergy dispensed grain and surplus goods
to the poor, counseled those in need , provided medical services, and sponsored the
grand festivals which honored the gods.
▶ Although the gods took great care of humans while they lived, the Mesopotamian
afterlife was a dreary underworld, located beneath the far mountains, where souls
drank stale water from puddles and ate dust for eternity in the “land of no return” this
bleak view of their eternal home was markedly different from that of the Egyptians.

TEMPLE
▶ Egyptian religion was similar to Mesopotamian belief, however in that
human beings were co-workers with the gods to maintain order.
▶ The principle of harmony(known to the Egyptians as ma’at) was of the
highest importance in Egyptian life (and in afterlife) and their religion was
fully integrated into every aspect of existence.
▶ Egyptian religion was a combination of magic, mythology, science,
medicine, psychiatry , spiritualism , herbology , as well as the modern
understanding of religion as belief in higher power and a life after death.
▶ The Gods were the friends of human beings and sought only the best for
them home to enjoy when their lives on earth were done.

EGYPTIAN RELIGION
▶ It come from around 3400 BCE in the predynastic period of
Egypt (6000-3150 BCE) deities such as isis, Osiris, Ptah Hathor,
atum, set, Nepthys, and horus were already established as
potent forces to be recognized fairly early on.
▶ The Egyptian creation myth is similar to the beginning of the
Mesopotamian story in that,originaly, there was on chaotic
slow –swirling water.

THE FIRST WRITTEN RECORDS OF RELIGIOUS

PRACTICE IN EGYPT
EGYPTIAN GODS
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN GODS
AND GODDESSES
▶ For all ancient people, the world was filled with
mystery.
▶ The world around them was unknowable and
frightening.
▶ The ancient Egyptian gods and
goddesses represented aspects of the
Egyptians’ natural and “supernatural”
surroundings and helped them understand its
many aspects.

AMMUT
▶ Were more powerful than human beings but not as
powerful as gods.
▶ They were usually immortal, could be in more than one
place at a time, and could affect the world as well as
people in supernatural ways.
▶ But there were certain limits to their powers and they
were neither all-powerful nor all knowing. 

DEMONS
▶ Among demons, this is the most important figure  – the
Devourer of the Dead – part crocodile, part lioness, and
part hippopotamus.
▶ She was often shown near the scales on which the hearts
of the dead were weighed against the feather of Truth.
She devoured the hearts of those whose wicked deeds in
life made them unfit to enter the afterlife. 

AMMUT
▶ Another important demon,
(sometimes called Apophis) was
the enemy of the sun god in his
daily cycle through the cosmos,
and is depicted as a colossal
snake.

APEPI
▶ Most Egyptian gods represented one
principle aspect of the world
▶ Thephysical form taken on by the various
Egyptian gods was usually a combination of
human and animal, and many were
associated with one or more animal species

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN GODS AND

GODDESSES
 ▶ Nut was the mother of Osiris, Isis,
Seth, and Nephythys, Nut is usually
shown in human form; her
elongated body symbolizing the sky.
▶ Each limb represents a cardinal
point as her body stretches over the
earth.
▶ Nut swallowed the setting sun (Ra)
each evening and gave birth to him
each morning.

NUT, SHU AND GEB

▶ Shu was the husband of
Tefnut and the father of
Nut and Geb.
▶ Geb was the father of
▶ He and his wife were the
first gods created by Osiris, Isis, Seth, and
Atum. Nephythys, and was a
▶ Shu was the god of the air
god without a cult.
and sunlight or, more ▶ As an Earth god he
precisely, dry air and his was associated with
wife represented fertility and it was
moisture.
believed that
▶ He was normally earthquakes were the
depicted as a man
wearing a headdress in
laughter of Geb.
the form of a plume,
which is also the
hieroglyph for his name.

SHU AND GEB

▶ Amun was the chief Theban deity
whose power grew as the city of
Thebes grew from an unimportant
village, in the old Kingdom, to a
powerful metropolis in the Middle
and New Kingdoms.
▶ He rose to become the patron of
the Theban pharaohs and was
eventually combined with sun god

AMUN
▶ Protector of the Dead
Anubis is shown as a
jackal-headed man, or as a
jackal.
▶ He was closely associated with
mummification and as
protector of the dead.

ANUBIS
▶ Atum had intended nut as his bride but she fell in love with geb.
▶ Angry high away from geb on the earth, although the lovers were
separated during the day, they came together at night ang Nut bore
three sons, Osiris, set and Horuse and two daughthers isis and nephthys ,
orisis as eldest was announced as lord of all the earth when he was born
and was given his sister isis as a wife.
▶ Set, consumed by jealousy hated his brother and killed him to assume
the throne. Isis then embalmed her husband’s body and, with powerful
charms, resurrected Osiris who returned from the dead to bring life to
the people of Egypt.
▶ Osiris later served as the supreme judge of the souls of the dead I the
Hall of truth and, by weighing the heart of the soul in balances, decided
who was granted eternal life.
▶ The Egyptian afterlife was known as the field of reeds and was a
mirror-image of life on earth down to one’s favorite tree and stream
and dog.
▶ Those one loved on life would either be waiting when one arrived or
would follow after.
▶ The Egyptians viewed earthly existence as simply one part of an
eternal journey and were so concerned about passing easily to the
next phase that they created their elaborate tombs (the pyramid)
temples and funerary inscriptions (the pyramid texts,the book of the
dead) to help the soul’s passage from this world to the next .
▶ The gods cared for one after death just as they had in life from the
beginning of time.
▶ An ancient Egyptian understood that, from the brith to death and
even after death, the universe had been ordered by the gods and
everyone had a place in that order,
▶ The world’s oldest religion still being practiced today; Hinduism (known to
adherents as sanatan dharma eternal order) although often viewed as a
polytheistic faith,
▶ Hinduism is actually henotheistic.
▶ There is only one supreme god in Hinduism, brahm a and all other deities
are his aspects and reflections.
▶ Since brahma, is too immense a concept for the human mind to
comprehend, he presents himself in the many different versions of himself
which people recognize as deisties such as Vishnu, shiva and the many
others.
▶ The hindu scriptures numbers the gods at 330 million and these rangers
from those who were know at a national level (such as Krishna) to lesser
known local deities.

RELIGION IN INDIA & CHINA

▶ the primary understanding of Hinduism is that
there is an order to the universe and every
individual has a specific place in that order.
▶ Each person on the planet has a duty (dharma)
which only they can perform. If one acts right
(karma) in the performance of that duty, then one
is rewarded by moving closer to the supreme
being and eventually becoming one with God; if
one does not , then one is reincarnated as many
times as it takes to finally understand how to live
and draw closer to union with the supreme soul.
▶ In Buddhism, however, one is not seeking union
with a god but with one’s higher nature as one
leaves behind the illusions of the world which
generate suffering and cloud the mind with the
fear of loss an death.
▶ Buddhism became so popular that it traveled from
india to china where it enjoyed equal success.

BRIHADISHVARRA TEMPLE, TANJAVUR

▶ In ancient china, religion is thought to have developed
as early as c.4500 BCE as evidenced by deisgns on
ceramics found at the Neolithic site of Banpo Village.
▶ This early belief structure may have been a mix of
animism and mythology as these images include
recognizable animals and dragons by the time of the
Xia Dynasty (2070-1600 BCE) ther were many
anthromorphic gods worshipped with a chief god,
shangti, presiding over all. This belief continued, with
modification, during the period of the shang dynasty
(1600-1046 BCE) which developed the practice of
ancestor worship.
GHOST FESTIVAL, CHINA
▶ Remembrance of the dead, and the part they still play in
the lives of those on earth, was an important component of
all ancient religions including the belief system of the Maya.
The gods were involved in every aspect of the life of the
Maya.
▶ As with other cultures, there were many different deities
(over 250) all of whom had their own special sphere of
influence. They controlled the weather, the harvest, they
dictated one’s mate, presided over every birth, and were
present at one’s death. The Mayan afterlife was similar to
the Mesopotamian in that it was a dark and constantly
under threat of attack or deception by the demon lords
who inhabited the underworld (known as Xibalba or
Metnal).

RELIGION IN MESOAMERICA
▶ The fearful of the journey through Xibalba
was such a potent cultural force that the
Maya are the only known ancient culture to
honor a goddess of suicide
(named Ixtab) because suicides were
thought to by-pass Xibalba and go straight
to paradise (as did those who died in
childbirth or n battle).
▶ The Maya believed in the cyclical nature of
life, that all things which seem to die simply
transformed, and considered human life just
another part of the natural progression after
life and feared the very unnatural possibility
that the dead could return to haunt the
living.
 ▶ The Maize god is a dying-and-reviving god figure in the
form of Hun Hunahpu who was killed by the Lords of
Xibalba, brought back to life by his sons, the Hero Twins,
and emerges from the underworld as corn. The “Tonsured”
Maize god or “Foliated” Maize god are common images
found in Maya iconography.
▶ He is always pictured as eternally young and handsome
with an elongated head like a corncob, long, flowing hair
like corn silk, and ornamented with jade to symbolize the
corn stalk.

▶ He was considered so important by the Maya that

mothers would bind the heads of their young sons to flatten
the forehead and elongate their heads to resemble him.

MAIZE GOD - HUN HUNAHPU AND MAYA

 ▶ The Maize god remained an important deity to
the Maya even when eclipsed by the greatest
and most popular of the gods Gucumatz (also
known as Kukulcan and Quetzalcoatl) whose
great pyramid at Chichen Itza is still visited by
millions of people every year in the present day.
▶ On the twin equinoxes of every year the sun
casts a shadow on the stairs of the pyramid
structure which seems to resemble a great
serpent descending from the top to bottom; this
is thought to be the great Kukulcan returning
from the heavens to earth to impart his blessings.
Even today, people gather at Chichen Itza to
witness this event at the equinoxes and to
remember the past and hope for the future.

KUKULCAN AND QUETZALCOAT

▶ The Greeks, believed in many gods who often cared for their human charges but, just as
often, pursued their own pleasure.
▶ The capricious nature of the gods may have contributed to the development of
philosophy in Greece as philosophy can only develop in a culture where religion is not
providing for the people’s spiritual needs.
▶ Plato consistently criticized the Greek concept of the gods and Critias claimed they
were simply created by men to control other men.
▶ Xenophanes, as noted above, claimed the Greek view was completely wrong and God
was unimaginable. Still, to the majority of the Greeks – and central to the function of
society – the gods were to be honored and so were those who passed over into their
realm. Just because a person was no longer living on earth did not mean that person
was to be forgotten any more than one would forget to honor the invisible gods.

GREEK & ROMAN RELIGION

▶ In the ancient Greek world, religion was personal,
direct, and present in all areas of life.
▶ With formal ritual which included animal sacrifices
and libations, myths to explain the origins of
mankind and give the Gods a human face,
temples which dominated the urban landscape,
city festivals and national sporting and artistic
competitions religion was never far from the mind of
an ancient Greek.
The Greeks consulted the gods on matters ranging from affairs of state
to personal decisions regarding love, marriage, or one’s job.

An ancient story tells of how the writer Xenophon (430-c.354 BCE) went
to Socrates asking whether the philosopher thought he should join the
army of Cyrus the Younger on campaign to Persia.

Instead of asking his original question, Xenophon asked the god of

Delphi. Which of the many gods was best o court favor with to ensure a
successful venture and safe return. He appears to have gotten the
correct answer since he survived since he survived the disastrous
campaign of Cyrus and not only returned to Athens but saved the bulk
of the army.
▶ Aphrodite
▶ Goddess of beauty, love,
desire, and pleasure
▶ She was also a lover to Adonis
and Anchises, to whom she
bore Aeneas. She is usually
depicted as a naked or
semi-nude beautiful woman.

GREEK GODS
▶ God of music, arts, knowledge,
healing, plague, prophecy, poetry,
manly beauty, and archery.
▶ He is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the
twin brother of Artemis.
▶ Both Apollo and Artemis use a bow
and arrow.
▶ Apollo is depicted as young, beardless,
handsome and athletic. In myth, he
can be cruel and destructive, and his
love affairs are rarely happy.

APOLLO
▶ God of war, bloodshed, and violence.
▶ The son of Zeus and Hera, he was
depicted as a beardless youth, either
nude with a helmet and spear or
sword, or as an armed warrior
▶ He generally represents the chaos of
war in contrast to Athena, a goddess
of military strategy and skill

ARES
▶ Virgin goddess of the hunt, wilderness,
animals, young girls, childbirth, and
plague.
▶ She is the daughter of Zeus and Leto,
and twin sister of Apollo.
▶ In art she is often depicted as a young
woman dressed in a short knee-length
chiton and equipped with a hunting
bow and a quiver of arrows

ARTEMIS
▶ Goddess of reason, wisdom, intelligence, skill,
peace, warfare, battle strategy, and handicrafts.
▶ She is depicted as being crowned with a crested
helm, armed with shield and spear, and wearing
the aegis over a long dress.
▶ She is the patron of the city Athens (from which
she takes her name) and is attributed to various
inventions in arts and literature. Her symbol is the
olive tree

ATHENA
▶ Goddess of grain, agriculture, harvest,
growth, and nourishment.
▶ Demeter, whose Roman counterpart is
Ceres, is a daughter of Cronus and Rhea,
and was swallowed and then repeat by
her father.
▶ She is a sister of Zeus,

DEMETER
▶ God of wine, fruitfulness, parties,
festivals, madness, chaos,
drunkenness, vegetation, ecstasy,
and the theater.
▶ His attributes include the thyrsus, a
drinking cup, the grape vine, and a
crown of ivy.

DIONYSUS
▶ King of the underworld and
the dead. God of wealth.
▶ Hisattributes are the drinking
horn or cornucopia, key,
sceptre, and the
three-headed dog Cerberus.

HADES
▶ God of fire, metalworking, and
crafts.
▶ The son of Zeus and Hera
▶ He was usually depicted as a
bearded, crippled man with
hammer, tongs, and anvil, and
sometimes riding a donkey

HEPHAESTUS
▶ Queen of the gods, and
goddess of marriage,
women, childbirth, heirs,
kings, and empires

HERA
▶ God of boundaries, travel,
communication, trade, language, thieves
and writing.
▶ Hermes was also responsible for
protecting livestock and presided over
the spheres associated with fertility, music,
luck, and deception
▶ Hermes is the messenger of the gods, and
a psychopomp who leads the souls of the
dead into the afterlife

HERMES
▶ Virgin
goddess of the hearth,
home, and chastity.
▶ Sheis a daughter of Rhea and
Cronus, and a sister of Zeus.

HESTIA
 ▶ God of the sea, rivers, floods, droughts,
and earthquakes.
▶ He is a son of Cronus and Rhea, and the
brother of Zeus and Hades.
▶ He rules one of the three realms of the
universe, as king of the sea and the
waters.

POSEIDON
 ▶ King of the gods, ruler of Mount
Olympus, and god of the sky,
weather, thunder, lightning, law,
order, and justice.
▶ He is the youngest son of Cronus and
Rhea.
▶ He overthrew Cronus and gained the
sovereignty of heaven for himself.

ZEUS
 ▶ Master of the gods

ROMAN GODS - JUPITER

 MARS – GOD OF WAR
JUNO – WIFE OF JUPITER
VENUS – GOODESS OF LOVE AND BEAUTY
MINERVA – GODDESS OF WISDOM
NEPTUNE – POWERFUL GOD OF THE SEA
CERES – GODESS OF THE HARVEST
 VULCAN – GOD OF UNDERWORLD
DIANA – GODESS OF HUNTING AND MOON
BACCHUS – GOD OF WINE AND PARTYING
MERCURY – MESSENGER OG GOD
▶ The Roman religion most likely began as a kind of animism and
developed as they came into contact with other cultures.
▶ The Greeks had the most significant impact on Roman religion and
many of the Roman gods are simply Greek deities with Roman
names and slightly altered attributes.
▶ In Rome, the worship of the gods was intimately tied to affairs of
state and the stability of the society was thought to rest o how well
the people revered the gods and participated in the rituals which
honored them.
▶ The Vestal Virgins are one famous example of this belief in that these
women were counted on to maintain the vows they had taken and
perform their duties responsibly in order to continually honor Vesta
and all the goddess gave to the people.

TEMPLE OF HERA, SELINUS

▶ Although the Romans had imported their primary gods
from Greece, once the Roman religion was established
and linked to the welfare of the state, no foreign gods
were welcomed.
▶ When worship of the popular Egyptian goddess Isis were
brought to Rome, Emperor Augustus forbade any temples
to be built in her honor or public rites observe in her worship
because he felt such attention paid to a foreign deity
would undermine the authority of the government and
established religion beliefs.
▶ To the Romans, the gods had created everything
according to their will and maintained the universe in the
best way possible and a human being was obligated to
show them honor for their gifts.
▶ This was true not only for the ‘major’ gods of the Roman pantheon
but also for the spirits of the home.
▶ One was expected to be thankful for their efforts and remember
them upon entering or leaving one’s house.
▶ Statues of the penates were taken out of the cupboard and set on
the table during meals to honor them and sacrifices were left by the
hearth for their enjoyment.
▶ If one were diligent and appreciating their efforts, one was rewarded
with continued health and happiness and, if one forgot them, one
suffered for such ingratitude.
▶ Although the religions of other cultures did not have precisely these
same kind of spirits, the recognition of spirits of place – and especially
the home – was common.
▶ Similarities in Ancient Religion & Their Continuance
▶ The religions of the ancient world shared many of the same
patterns with each other even though the cultures may
never have had any contact with each other.
▶ The spiritual iconography of the Mayan and the Egyptian
pyramids has been recognized since the Maya were first
brought to the world’s attention by John Lloyd Stephens and
Frederick Catherwood in the 19th century CE but the actual
belief structures, stories, and most significant figures in
ancient mythology are remarkably similar from culture to
culture.
▶ In every culture one finds the same pattern, or very similar
patterns, which the people found resonant and which
gave vitality to their beliefs.
▶ These patterns include the existence of many gods who
take a personal interest in the lives of people; creation by a
supernatural entity who speaks it, fashions it, or commands
it into existence; other supernatural beings emanating from
the first and greatest one; a supernatural explanation for
the creation of earth and human beings; a relationship
between the created humans and their creator god
requiring worship and sacrifice.

EVERY RELIGION HAS CREATED ITS OWN GOD IN ITS OWN

IMAGE AND RESEMBLANCE.
▶ This theme of life- after death and life coming from
death and, of course, the judgement after death,
gained greatest fame through the Evangelical efforts of
St. Paul who spread the word of God specially the
death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ throughout
ancient Palestine, Asia Minor, Greece and Rome (c.
42-62 CE). Paul’s vision of the figure of Jesus, the
anointed Son of God who dies to redeem humanity,
was drawn from the earlier belief systems and informed
the understanding of the scribes who would write the
books which make up the Bible.
▶ The religion of Christianity made standard
a belief in afterlife ad set up an organized
set of rituals by which an adherent could
gain everlasting life. In doing so, the early
Christians were simply following in the
footsteps of the Egyptians, the Sumerians,
the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the
Romans all of whom had their own stylized
rituals for the worship of their gods.
AFTER THE CHRISTIANS, THE MUSLIM INTERPRETERS OF THE KORAN
INSTITUTED THEIR OWN RITUALS FOR UNDERSTANDING THE SUPREME
DEITY WHICH, THOUGH VASTLY DIFFERENT IN FORM FROM THOSE OF
CHRISTIANITY, JUDAIS, OR ANY OF THE OLDER ‘PAGAN’ RELIGIONS,
SERVED THE SAME PURPOSE AS THE RITUALS ONCE PRACTICE IN
WORSHIP OF THE EGYPTIAN GODDESS HATHOR OVER FIVE
THOUSAND YEARS AGO: TO LEND HUMAN BEINGS THE
UNDERSTANDING THAT THEY ARE NOT ALONE IN THEIR STRUGGLES,
SUFFERING AND TRIUMPHS, THAT THEY CAN RESTRAIN THEIR BASER
URGES, AND THAT DEATH IS NOT THE END OF EXISTENCE. THE
RELIGIONS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD PROVIDED ANSWERS TO
PEOPLE’S QUESTIONS ABOUT LIFE AND DEATH AND, IN THIS REGARD,
ARE NO DIFFERENT THAN THOSE FAITHS PRACTICED IN THE WORLD
TODAY.
PHILIPPINE RELIGION
BEFORE THE COLONIZATION OF THE SPANIARDS
▶ Ourancestors firmly believe the
goddesses and worship the spirits
such as the Anitos and Diwatas.
▶ Theyare very superstitious that they
give meanings and have their
peculiar own interpretations on
most occurrences.

PHILIPPINES BELIEF
BEFORE THE SPANISH ERA;
GODDESSES
WORSHIP OF SPIRIT
- Bathala / Maykapal =
- Anito
Tagalog - Mangalo
- Laon = Visayans - Diwata
- Cabunian = Ilocanos
POLYTHEISM (2nd Deities) ANIMISM
- Kaptan - Crow
- Manguayen - Crocodile
- Sisiburanin
SUPERSTITION
- Lalabon
- aswang
- Varangao
- magtatangal
- Sipada
- magagaway

BELIEFS OF THE NATIVES

▶ PRIESTESSES ▶ The GENESIS OF THE
- Sonat WORLD
- Katalonan – Baybaylan - origin of man
or Baylan - future life
- Panataohan

BELIEFS OF THE NATIVES

THE BIRTH OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE
PHILIPPINES
DISCOVERY OF THE PHILIPPINES
▶ Mo-yi or Mo-I –Chinese
▶ Islas de San Lazaro – Magellan
▶ Filipinas – Ruy Lopez de Villalobos (King Philip II)
▶ Manila Peral of the Orient – Fr. Juan J. Delgado
▶ Pearl of Orient Seas – Rizal in Mi Ultimo Adios
▶ Philippine Islands – American colonial era
▶ Republic of the Philippines – after the recognition of its independence in 1946
▶ Rizaline Republic – Artemio Ricarte
▶ Maharlika (proposed by Ferdinand Marcos)

THE ARCHIPELAGOS NAME

▶ Spanish name: Fernando Magallanes
▶ Portuguese name: Fernão Magalhãnes

FERDINAND MAGELLAN
▶ Magellan was a Portuguese subject who offered his service to King Charles I of
Spain
▶ He was a veteran of the Portuguese campaigns in Africa and Malacca (Malaysia).
▶ King Immanuel of Portugal instead of rewarding him ignored his achievements and
cut his pension.
▶ Magellan renounced his Portuguese citizenship and with the help of his father in
law Diego Barbosa and the scholar Ruy de Faleiro, was able to convince King
Charles I that the Moluccas (Indonesia) was on the Spanish side of the separation
line as drawn in the treaty of Tordesillas
▶ The spice islands (Moluccas) could be reached by sailing westward from Europe.

THE MAGELLAN EXPEDITION

▶ King Charles I agreed to send an expedition
▶ September 1519 – Signing of agreement.
▶ 5 ships of Magellan’s voyage
▶ Santiago
▶  Victoria
▶  San Antonio
▶  Trinidad
▶ Concepcion
▶ Out of the 265 crew members 2/3 was Spanish and the rest were foreign sailors

▶   Antonio Pigafetta historian

MAGELLAN’S NEW ROUTE TO THE EAST

▶ March 16, 1521
▶ He sighted the mountains of
Samar
▶ March 17, 1521 he ordered his
men to land at Homonhon, an
islet to get fresh provisions and
rest his men.

ARRIVAL IN THE PHILIPPINES

▶ Then he proceeded to Limasawa (southern
Leyte) another islet ruled by Rajah Kolambu and
his brother sealed their friendship with the
Sanduguan.
▶ The first recorded blood compact between
Filipinos and Spaniards

HOMONHON TO LIMASAWA
▶ Easter Sunday March 31, 1521
▶ Magellan ordered Fr. Pedro de Valderama an Augustinian Fray to
celebrate mass near the seashore.
▶ The first Christian mass celebrated in the Philippines
▶ After planting of a large wooden cross on the top of hill overlooking the
sea
▶ Magellan named the Islands “Archipelago of Saint Lazarus” (ISLAS DE
SAN LAZARO)
▶ Took procession of the same in the name of Spain

FIRST MASS
MAGELLAN’S CROSS
▶ When food and other provisions were not sufficient in Lamasawa, Magellan
ordered his men to explore the nearby areas
▶ They heard about the flourishing island of Cebu
▶ With the help of Kolambu, Magellan using his men landed in Cebu in April 7,
1521.
▶ He befriended Rajah Humabon, the native ruler and had blood compact with
him.
▶ Magellan ordered the celebration of another mass on April 14, 1521.
▶ He convinced Humabon and his wife and about 800 Cebuanos to be
converted to Christianity.

THE BATTLE OF MACTAN

▶ The nearby island of Mactan two chieftains
were quarreling:
▶ Lapu-lapu
▶ Sula

LAPU-LAPU
 ▶ Lapu-lapu

▶ Sula ▶ Refuseto
▶ Requested Magellan recognized
to help him defeat his Spanish
enemy sovereignty

FUED OF LAPU-LAPU AND SULA

▶ Magellan took the request of Sula as an opportunity to show
Spanish invincibility/unbeatable in battle
▶ Dawn of April 28, 1521
▶ Magellan and 60 of his men in steel clad armor and followed by
about 1,000 Cebuano warriors in 30 boats, sailed to Mactan
▶ Confident Spanish fighting ability, Magellan did not allow
Cebuanos to participate in melee/fight.
▶ With Magellan soldiers, he walked ashore and attacked
Lapu-lapu and his men

BATTLE BEGINS
▶ Magellan found it too late that he underestimated the
fighting ability and brave defense of the native warriors
▶ The Spaniards were badly beaten and were forced to
return to their boats
▶ Magellan fell mortally wounded and was speared
repeatedly by the Mactan warriors
▶ Magellan met his death in the shores of the heroic Malay
warrior, Lapu-lapu (the first Filipino hero)

BATTLE OF LAPU-LAPU AND

MAGELLAN
▶ (1) Hindi siya nagpadala ng tauhan upang suriin ang
lugar
▶ (2) binalaan niya ang kalaban na aatake siya
▶ (3) pumayag siyang mas maraming tribo ang lumaban
sa kanyang mga tauhan.

MAY TATLONG DAHILAN KUNG BAKIT NATALO SI

MAGELLAN LABAN KAY LAPU-LAPU:
▶ After the humiliating defeat of the Spaniards in the Battle of Mactan inflicted by
Lapu-lapu and his warriors, the Cebuanos, the allies/partners of the Spaniards
began to show hatred of Spanish power.
▶ Adding to this the Spaniards became abusive by robbing the natives and
raping some Cebuanas.
▶ Rajah Humabon gave a banquet for the Spaniards with the intention of finishing
off all his guests.
▶ The Cebuanos were able to massacre only some of them
▶ The survivors fled to their ships and left.

SIGNIFICANT OF MAGELLAN EXPEDITION

▶ The success of the voyage covered the way for the financing of 5
successive expeditions to the Orient
▶ Laoisa
▶ Cabot
▶ Saavedra
▶ Villalobos
▶ Legazpi
▶ The first four expeditions were dismal failures; they neither reached the
Philippines nor succeeded in colonizing the country.
▶ The only historical importance of the Ruy Lopez de Villalobos expedition
was the fact that it gave the name “Las Islas Filipinas” to our archipelago in
honor to Prince Philip of Austurias (Later King Phillip II of Spain)

SUCCESS OF THE VOYAGE

When Who Ship(s) Where

Trinidad, San Antonio,

Visayas (Eastern
1521 Ferdinand Magellan Concepcion, Santiago and
Samar, Homonhon,Limasawa, Cebu)
Victoria

Santa María de la Victoria,

García Jofre de Loaísa Espiritu Santo, Anunciada, San
1525 Surigao, Islands of Visayas and Mindanao
Loaysa’s expedition Gabriel, Santa María del Parral,
San Lesmes and Santiago

Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón

1527 3 unknown ships Mindanao
Cabot’s expedition

Santiago, Jorge, San Antonio,

Ruy López de Villalobos Visayas (Eastern Samar Leyte), Mindanao
1543 San Cristóbal, San Martín, and
Villalobos expedition (Saranggani)
San Juan

Miguel López de Legazpi San Pedro, San Pablo, San

1564 Almost entire Philippines
Legaspi’s expedition Juan and San Lucas
RUY LÓPEZ DE VILLALOBOS
(CA. 1500 – APRIL 4, 1544)
▶ Ruy Lopez de Villalobos started his expedition to the Philippines from
Barra de Navidad, New Spain or Nueva España (now Mexico).
▶ He was the brother-in-law of Antonio de Mendoza, then viceroy of
New Spain, who appointed him to commander the expedition.
▶ Villalobos reached Mindanao on February 2 of the following year, the
first Spaniard to make explorations in that Island.

NOVEMBER 1, 1542
▶ It was he who bestowed upon these islands the name in
honor of the Crown-prince, Don Felipe of Spain, who later
became King Felipe II.
▶ He conferred this appellation sometime in 1543.
▶ Pablo Pastells, S.J., said that the name "Felipinas" was
confirmed by King Felipe II in a decree dated at Villadolid,
Spain and directed to the (by now) viceroy (representative
of Spain – for auditing/checking of Governor General) of
Nueva España, Don Luis de Velasco, on September 24, 1559.

"FELIPINAS"
 ▶ Born
▶ November 30, 1498
Ordizia, Gipuzkoa, Crown
of Castile
▶ Died
▶ June 3, 1568 (aged 69)
Mexico City, New Spain
▶ Nationality

▶ Basque, Castilian (state)

▶ Occupation
▶ Explorer, friar.

ANDRÉS DE URDANETA Y CERAIN

▶ As a navigator he achieved in 1536 the "second" world
circumnavigation (after the first one led by Ferdinand
Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano and their crew in
1522).
▶ Urdaneta discovered and plotted a path across the Pacific
from the Philippines to Acapulco in the Viceroyalty of New
Spain (present day Mexico) used by the Manila galleons,
which came to be known as "Urdaneta's route."
▶ He was considered as "protector of the Indians" for his
treatment of the Filipino natives; also Cebu and the
Philippines' first prelate.

FRIAR ANDRÉS DE URDANETA, OSA

▶ Urdaneta founded the first churches in the Philippines, the St. Vitales Church and the
Basilica del Santo Niño; he served as the first prelate of the Church in Cebu.
▶ After spending some time in the islands, Legazpi determined to remain and sent
Urdaneta back for the purpose of finding a better return route and to obtain help
from New Spain for the Philippine colony. (For the problem of sailing east across the
Pacific, which Urdaneta solved, see Manila Galleon and Volta do Mar.)
▶ Urdaneta set sail from San Miguel (the island of Cebu), on June 1, 1565 and was
obliged to sail as far as 38 degrees North latitude to obtain favourable winds. With
the voyage in trouble, Urdaneta had to assume command himself.
▶ The ship reached the port of Acapulco, on October 8, 1565, having traveled 12,000
miles (20,000 km) in 130 days.
▶ Fourteen of the crew had died; only Urdaneta and Felipe de Salcedo, nephew of
López de Legazpi, had strength enough to cast the anchors.
▶ 3 years after the succession of Philip II to the Spanish throne, the
king ordered the Victory of Mexico to prepare an expedition to
the Orient.
▶ One of the principal objectives of this expedition was to survey
the trade in spices and discover a new return trade route from
east to Mexico (Philip had direct instruction to colonize the
Philippines even if he knew it belonged to Portuguese possessions)

THE LEGAZPI EXPEDITION

MIGUEL LOPEZ DE LEGAZPI
▶ April 27, 1565
▶ Legazpi and his men arrived at Cebu harbor but confronted by the Cebuanos
▶ A conflict developed but the Spanish forced expanded ground, greatly aided
by their guns and firearms.
▶ The Cebuanos move backed to the hills but not after destroying all their houses
to the ground.
▶ When the smoke of the battle cleared the air, a Spanish soldier found an
unburned image of the infant Jesus which Magellan gave Humabon’s wife 44
years ago

ST
1 SPANISH SETTLEMENT
STO NINO DE CEBU
▶ Legaspi
tried a policy of attraction by inviting
the Cebuanos to come down from the
mountains and rebuild their houses
▶ Withthe help of native mediators Rajah
Tupaz the chief of Cebu and his men
convinced of Legazpi’s sincerity and
returned to their homes.
▶ TheCebuanos entered into a TREATY OF
FRIENDSHIP with Legazpi.
▶ 1. Promise of loyalty to the King of Spain and the Spaniards
by the Cebuanos
▶ 2. Mutual protection of Cebuanos and Spaniards from
enemies
▶ 3. When a Filipino committed a crime against a Spaniard,
he was to be tried by the Spanish court, whereas when a
Spanish committed a crime against a Filipino, the Spaniards
was turned over to the Spanish authorities
▶ The conclusion of this treaty signaled the start of the
recognition of Spanish sovereignty.

TREATY OF FRIENDSHIP
PROVISION AND AGREEMENT
▶ With the signing of the peace treaty, Legazpi then proceed to
establish a settlement in Cebu.
▶ It was triangular in form with two sides facing the sea and the third
facing the land.
▶ A strong post with a fort was erected
▶ San Miguel the first named the settlement but later on renamed it as
City of the Most Holy Name in honor of the undamaged image of
infant Jesus
▶ 1565 the founding of Cebu made the oldest city in the Philippines.
▶ Busy in Christianization process
▶ They build church and converted many
Cebuanos to their faith
▶ They performed marriage of Rajah Tupaz’s niece
Jandulaman (baptized with a Christian name
Isabela) to the one of the crewmembers of
Legazpi
▶ The first Christian marriage solemnized in the
Philippines
AUGUSTINIANS PRIESTS
▶ Legazpi faced several problems in Cebu
▶ Shortage of food
▶ Growing impatience of his men
▶ Some of his men refuse to work and cooperate
▶ Fortunately for Legazpi a rebellion among his men was
successfully terminated
▶ The ringleader was executed and the rest were
pardoned.

PANAY THE 2ND SETTLEMENT

▶ Upon Salcedo’s return to Panay he reported to Legazpi about the
prosperity of Manila
▶ A Muslim kingdom ruled by Rajah Sulayman
▶ 1570 Legazpi sent an expedition commanded by Martin de Goiti
(Legazpi’s Marshall) and Salcedo
▶ The expeditionary force was composed of 120 Spaniards and 600
Visayan fighters
▶ Salcedo explored the Bonbon River in Batangas
▶ In Taal Salcedo was wounded in the leg in a combat in which the
Batanguenos were badly beaten by the Spaniards
▶ Goiti and Salcedo proceed to Manila by the sea.

ST
1 CONQUEST OF MANILA
▶ Fascinated by the news about Manila and elated because of his designation
by the King of Spain at Captain General (Governador General) Legazpi
decided to colonize Manila
▶ A bigger expedition of 280 Spaniards and 600 Visayans was gathered and they
left Panay to Manila in the middle of 1571
▶ Rajah Sulayman and his uncle Lakandula, the king of Tondo realized the futility
of resisting Spanish power
▶ lakandula welcomed Legazpi peacefully at manila Bay
▶ 2nd conquest of Manila was a bloodless affairs the Spaniards landed without a
fight
▶ May 19, 1571 Legaspi claimed Manila in the name of Spain

THE FOUNDING OF MANILA

 CHURCH AS TOOL OF PACIFICATION

▶ Spanish colonization served both God and Spanish monarch

▶ The concept became the basis of the union of the church and state during the
Spanish period
▶ The religious order that accomplished the conquistadors played a very important role
in the pacification process
▶ They used variety of techniques to gain native agree to conversion and relocation
▶ Once resettled the natives become part of settlement complex (poblacion) in which
the church served as its center
▶ The Christianization and the resettlement process facilitated closer administrative
control and supervision of the natives
▶ The missionary convinced the local rulers and their families to move to
resettlement complex so that they might set an example to others
▶ These native chiefs were then bestowed special privileges seemingly to preserve
their traditional authority over their barangays, but still under the directions and
control of the Spanish authorities
▶ The Spanish conquest was achieved with both the Sword and the Cross by armed
pacification and by the religious conversion.
▶ Apostolic works or RELIGIOUS
ORDERS
- 1565 AGUSTINIANS ▶ DIOCESES
▶ Manila (Archdiocese)
- 1578 FRANCISCANS
▶ Cebu
- 1581 JESUITS
▶ Nueva Caseres
- 1587 DOMINICANS
▶ Segovia
- 1606 RECOLLETOS
▶ Jaro

DISCOVERY OF THE
PHILIPPINESDISCOVERY OF THE PHILIPPINES
▶ The Philippine proudly boasts to be the only Christian nation in Asia.
▶ More than 56 percent of the population is Roman Catholic, 6 percent belong to
various nationalized Christian cults, and another 32 percent belong to over 100
Protestant denominations. In addition to the Christian majority, there is a vigorous 4
percent Muslim minority, concentrated on the southern islands of Mindanao, Sulu,
and Palawan.

RELIGION IN THE PHILIPPINES

▶ Scattered in isolated mountainous regions, the remaining 2
percent follow non-Western, indigenous beliefs and
practices.
▶ The Chinese minority, although statistically insignificant has
been culturally influential in coloring Filipino Catholicism
with many of the beliefs and practices of Buddhism, Taoism,
and Confucianism.
▶ Thepre-Hispanic belief system of Filipinos
consisted of a pantheon of gods, spirits,
creatures, and men that guarded the
streams, fields, trees, mountains, forests, and
houses.
▶ who created earth and man, was superior to these
other gods and spirits.
▶ Regular sacrifices and prayers were offered to
placate these deities and spirits—some of which
were benevolent, some malevolent.
▶ Wood and metal images represented ancestral
spirits, and no distinction was made between the
spirits and their physical symbol.
▶ Reward or punishment after death was dependent
upon behavior in this life.

BATHALA
▶ Anyone who had reputed power over the
supernatural and natural was automatically
elevated to a position of prominence.
▶ Every village had its share of shamans and priests
who competitively plied their talents and carried
on ritual curing.
▶ Many gained renown for their ability to develop
anting-anting, a charm guaranteed to make a
person invincible in the face of human enemies.
▶ Other sorcerers concocted love potions or
produced amulets that made their owners invisible.
▶ Upon this indigenous religious base two foreign religions
were introduced – Islam and Christianity – and a process
of cultural adaptation and synthesis began that is still
evolving.
▶ Spain introduced Christianity to the Philippines in 1565 with
the arrival of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. Earlier, beginning in
1350, Islam had been spreading northward from Indonesia
into the Philippine archipelago.
▶ By the time the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, Islam
was firmly established on Mindanao and Sulu and had
outposts on Cebu and Luzon.
▶ The highest and most politically integrated culture on the
islands and, given more time, would probably had unified
the entire archipelago.
▶ Carrying on their historical tradition of expelling the Jews
and the Moros [Moors] from Spain (a commitment to
eliminating any non-Christians)

THE MUSLIM AREAS

▶ The dispersed of the Muslims from Luzon and the
Visayan islands and began the process of
Christianization.
▶ Dominance over the Muslims on Mindanao and
Sulu, however, was never achieved during three
centuries of Spanish rule.

LEGASPI DISPERSED THE MUSLIM

▶ The first half of this century the Muslims never totally pacified
during the so-called “Moro Wars”.
▶ Since independence, particularly in the last decade, there
has been resistance by large segments of the Muslim
population to national integration.
▶ Many feel, with just cause, that integration amounts to
cultural and psychological genocide.
▶ For over 10 years the Moro National Liberation Front has
been waging a war of secession against the Marcos
government.

AMERICAN RULE
▶ While Islam was contained in the southern islands,
Spain conquered and converted the remainder of
the islands to Hispanic Christianity.
▶ The Spanish seldom had to resort to military force to
win over converts, instead the impressive display of
pomp and circumstance, clerical garb, images,
prayers, and liturgy attracted the rural populace
▶ To protect the population from Muslim slave
raiders, the people were resettled from isolated
dispersed hamlets and brought “debajo de las
companas” (under the bells) , into Spanish
organized pueblos.
▶ This set a pattern that is evident in modern Philippine
Christian towns.
▶ These pueblos had both civil and ecclesiastical
authority; the dominant power during the Spanish
period was in the hands of the parish priest.

ACTION TAKEN
▶ The church, situated on a central plaza, became the locus of town
life. Masses, confessions, baptism, funerals, marriages punctuated the
tedium of everyday routines.
▶ The church calendar set the pace and rhythm of daily life according
to fiesta and liturgical seasons.
▶ Market place and cockfight pits sprang up near church walls.
▶ Gossip and goods were exchanged and villagers found “Both
Restraint and release under the bells”
▶ The results of Catholicism were mixed – ranging from a deep
theological understanding by the educated elite to a more superficial
understanding by the rural and urban masses.

CHURCH RITUALS
▶ It is commonly referred to as combining a surface
veneer of Christian monotheism and dogma with
indigenous animism.
▶ It may manifest itself in farmers seeking religious
blessings on the rice seed before planting or in the
placement of a bamboo across at the comer of a
rice fields to prevent damage by insects.
▶ It may also take the form of a folk healer using
Roman Catholic symbols and liturgy mixed with
pre-hispanic rituals.

FILIPINO FOLK CHRISTIANITY

▶ When the United States took over the Philippines in the
first half of the country, the Justifications for colonizing
were to Christianize and democratize.
▶ The feeling was that these goals could be achieved
only through mass education (up until then education
was reserved for a small elite.)
▶ Most of the teachers who went to the Philippines were
Protestants, many were eve Protestant ministers.

AMERICAN PERIOD
▶ There was a strong prejudice among some of these
teachers against Catholics.
▶ Since this Protestants group instituted and controlled
the system of public education in the Philippines
during the American colonial period, it exerted a
strong influence.
▶ Subsequently the balance has shifted to reflect
much stronger influence by the Catholic majority.
▶ During the period of armed rebellion against Spain, a
nationalized church was organized under Gregorio
Aglipay, who was made “Spiritualhead of the Nation
Under Arms.”
▶ Spanish bishops were deposed and and arrested, and
church property was turned over to the Aglipayans.
▶ In the early part of the 20th Century, the numbers of
Aglipayans peaked at 25 to 33 percent of the population.
▶ Today, they have declined to about 5% and are
associated with the Protestant Episcopal Church of the
United States.

AGLIPAY
▶ Another dynamic nationalized Christian sect is the
Iglesia ni Kristo begun around 1914 and founded
by Felix Manalo Ysagun.

IGLESIA NI CRISTO
▶ There have been a proliferation of Rizalist sects, claiming the martyred
hero of Philippine Nationalism, Jose B. Rizal as the second son of God
and are the incarnation of Christ.
▶ Leaders of these sects themselves often claim to be reincarnations of
rizal, mary, or leaders of the revolution; claim that the apocalypse is at
hand for non-believers; and claim that one can find salvation and
heaven by joining the group.
▶ These groups range from the Colorums of the 1920s and 1930s to the
sophisticated P.B.M.A (Philippine Benevolent Missionary Assosciation,
headed by Ruben Ecleo).
▶ Most of those who follow these cults are the poor, dispossessed and
dislocated and feel alienated from the Catholic Church.

RIZALIST
▶ The current challenge to the supremacy of the
Catholic church comes from a variety of small sects –
from the fundamentalist Christian groups, such as
Jehovah’s witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists, to
the Iglesia ni Kristo and Rizalists.
▶ The Roman Catholics suffer from a lack of
personnel (the priest to people ratio is exceedingly
low) putting them at a disadvantage in gaining
and maintaining popular support.
▶ The Catholic Church is seeking to meet this
challenge by establishing an increasingly native
clergy and by engaging in programs geared to
social action and human rights among the rural
and urban poor.

SCARCITY OF PRIEST
▶ In many cases, this activity has led to friction
between the church and the Marcos
government resulting in arrests of Priests nuns,
and lay people on charges of subversion In the
“war of souls” this may be a necessary sacrifice.
▶ At present the largest growing religious sector
fails within the province of these smaller, grass
roots sects; but only time will tell where the
percentages will finally rest.

MARCOS REGINE
▶ Organized religion also known as institutional
religion, is religion in which belief systems and rituals
are systematically arranged and formally
established

INSTITUTIONAL RELIGION