Global

Chapter 9
Religions
 Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, the student will be able to:
• know the major religions of the world and their tenets
• understand Globalization and Religious Pluralism
• analyze religious conflict and violence
Definition of
Religion
 Definition of Religion
• Pioneer sociologist Émile Durkheim described it with the ethereal
statement that it consists of “things that surpass the limits of our
knowledge” (1915).
• He went on to elaborate: Religion is “a unified system of beliefs and
practices relative to sacred things, that is to say set apart and forbidden,
beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community,
called a church, all those who adhere to them” (1915).
 Definition of Religion
• Some people associate religion with places of worship (a synagogue or
church), others with a practice (confession or meditation), and still
others with a concept that guides their daily lives (like dharma or sin).
• All of these people can agree that religion is a system of beliefs,
values, and practices concerning what a person holds sacred or
considers to be spiritually significant.
 Major
Religions
• Christianity
• Hinduism
• Buddhism
• Islam
• Confucianism
• Taoism
 Major Religions: Christianity

• Christian Philosophy began as a Jewish Sect in Jerusalem

proclaiming Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah.
• After Constantine came into power, he established
Christianity as a quasi- official state religion of the Roman
Emprire in Ad 324.
 Major Religions: Christianity

• Despite the many different divisions and sects of Christianity,

most seem to agree, with some variations on the following:
God is the creator of all things; Jesus is the Messiah, Christ ,
son of God; human being is a sinner who requires redemption;
the Holy Trinity includes God the Father, God the Son and the
Holy Spirit; Christ came down to Earth to redeem mankind,
the soul is immortal.
 Major Religions: Hinduism

• It is the major religion in India.

• Hinduism is the world’s oldest religion, according to many scholars,
with roots and customs dating back more than 4,000 years.
• Today, with about 900 million followers, Hinduism is the third-largest
religion behind Christianity and Islam.
• Hinduism originated in the Indus River Valley about 4,500 years ago in
what is now modern-day northwest India and Pakistan.
 Major Religions: Hinduism

• Hindus believe in a divine power that can manifest

as different entities. Three main incarnations—
Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva—are sometimes
compared to the manifestations of the divine in the
Christian Trinity.
 Major Religions: Hinduism

• Multiple sacred texts, collectively called the Vedas, contain hymns and
rituals from ancient India and are mostly written in Sanskrit.
• Hindus generally believe in a set of principles called dharma, which refer
to one’s duty in the world that corresponds with “right” actions.
• Hindus also believe in karma, or the notion that spiritual ramifications of
one’s actions are balanced cyclically in this life or a future life
(reincarnation).
 Major Religions: Buddhism

• Buddhism is a faith that was founded by Siddhartha Gautama (“the

Buddha”) more than 2,500 years ago in India.
• With about 470 million followers, scholars consider Buddhism one of
the major world religions.
• Its practice has historically been most prominent in East and Southeast
Asia, but its influence is growing in the West.
• Many Buddhist ideas and philosophies overlap with those of other
faiths.
 Major Religions: Buddhism

• Followers of Buddhism don’t acknowledge a supreme god or deity. They

instead focus on achieving enlightenment—a state of inner peace and wisdom.
When followers reach this spiritual echelon, they’re said to have experienced
nirvana.
• The religion’s founder, Buddha, is considered an extraordinary man, but not a
god. The word Buddha means “enlightened.”
• The path to enlightenment is attained by utilizing morality, meditation and
wisdom. Buddhists often meditate because they believe it helps awaken truth.
 Major Religions: Buddhism

• Buddhists embrace the concepts of karma (the law of cause

and effect) and reincarnation (the continuous cycle of
rebirth).
• Followers of Buddhism can worship in temples or in their
own homes.
• Buddhist monks, or bhikkhus, follow a strict code of
conduct, which includes celibacy.
 Major Religions: Islam

• Muslims believe there is the one almighty God, named Allah, who is infinitely superior to
and transcendent from humankind.
• Allah is viewed as the creator of the universe and the source of all good and all evil.
• Everything that happens is Allah's will.
• He is a powerful and strict judge, who will be merciful toward followers depending on
the sufficiency of their life's good works and religious devotion.
• A follower's relationship with Allah is as a servant to Allah.
 Major Religions: Islam

• Though a Muslim honors several prophets, Muhammad is considered the last prophet and his words and
lifestyle are that person's authority.
• To be a Muslim, one must follow five religious duties:
1. Repeat a creed about Allah and Muhammad (Shahada)
2. Recite certain prayers in Arabic five times a day (Salat)
3. Give to the needy (Zakat)
4. One month each year, fast from food, drink, sex and smoking from sunrise to sunset; (Sawm)
5. Pilgrimage once in one's lifetime to worship at a shrine in Mecca. At death -- based on one's faithfulness to
these duties -- a Muslim hopes to enter Paradise. If not, they will be eternally punished in hell. (Hajj)
 Major Religions: Islam

• For many people, Islam matches their expectations about religion and deity.
• Islam teaches that there is one supreme deity, who is worshiped through good
deeds and disciplined religious rituals.
• After death a person is rewarded or punished according to their religious
devotion.
• Muslims believe that giving up one’s life for Allah is a sure way of entering
Paradise.
 Major Religions: Confucianism

• Confucianism was the official religion of China from 200 B.C.E. until it was
officially abolished when communist leadership discouraged religious practice
in 1949.
• The religion was developed by Kung Fu-Tzu (Confucius), who lived in the
sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E. An extraordinary teacher, his lessons—which
were about self-discipline, respect for authority and tradition, and jen (the kind
treatment of every person)—were collected in a book called the Analects.
 Major Religions: Confucianism

• Some religious scholars consider Confucianism more of a social system than a

religion because it focuses on sharing wisdom about moral practices but
doesn’t involve any type of specific worship; nor does it have formal objects.
• In fact, its teachings were developed in context of problems of social anarchy
and a near-complete deterioration of social cohesion.
• Dissatisfied with the social solutions put forth, Kung Fu-Tzu developed his
own model of religious morality to help guide society (Smith 1991).
 Major Religions: Taoism

• In Taoism, the purpose of life is inner peace and harmony. Tao is

usually translated as “way” or “path.”
• The founder of the religion is generally recognized to be a man named
Laozi, who lived sometime in the sixth century B.C.E. in China.
• Taoist beliefs emphasize the virtues of compassion and moderation.
 Major Religions: Taoism

• The central concept of tao can be understood to describe a spiritual reality, the order
of the universe, or the way of modern life in harmony with the former two.
• The ying-yang symbol and the concept of polar forces are central Taoist ideas
(Smith 1991).
• Some scholars have compared this Chinese tradition to its Confucian counterpart by
saying that “whereas Confucianism is concerned with day-to-day rules of conduct,
Taoism is concerned with a more spiritual level of being” (Feng and English 1972).
Globalization
and Religious
Pluralism
 Globalization and Religious Pluralism

• Globalization brings a culture of pluralism, meaning

religions “with overlapping but distinctive ethics and
interests” interact with one another.
• Essentially, the world’s leading religious traditions teach
values such as human dignity, equality, freedom, peace, and
solidarity.
 Religions,
Conflict and
Violence
 Religions, Conflict and Violence

• "Violence" is a very broad concept that is difficult to define

since it is used on both human and non-human objects.
• Furthermore, the term can denote a wide variety of
experiences such as blood shedding, physical harm, forcing
against personal freedom, passionate conduct or language,
or emotions such as fury and passion.
 Religions, Conflict and Violence

• Religious violence is a term that covers phenomena where religion is either the
subject or the object of violent behavior.
• Religious violence is violence that is motivated by, or in reaction to, religious
precepts, texts, or the doctrines of a target or an attacker.
• It includes violence against religious institutions, people, objects, or events.
• Religious violence does not exclusively refer to acts which are committed by
religious groups, instead, includes acts which are committed against religious
groups.
 Religions, Conflict and Violence

• Religious extremists can contribute to conflict escalation.

• They see radical measures as necessary to fulfilling God's wishes.
• Fundamentalists of any religion tend to take a Manichean view of the
world. If the world is a struggle between good and evil, it is hard to
justify compromising with the devil.
• Any sign of moderation can be decried as selling out, more
importantly, of abandoning God's will.