Summary - Year 11-12 Studies of Religion 2Unit 2013-4



Summary

The global distribution of the five major religious traditions

• Investigate statistical data of the current global distribution of the 5 major religious traditions

Buddhism

• Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama in approximately 500 BCE

• Buddhism began as an offshoot of its mother religion, Hinduism

• Buddhism began in the Ganges Plain

• King Asoka sent out missionaries to spread the word of the Buddha in the 5 th century BCE which resulted in the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia, Burma and Sri Lanka

• From the 3 rd to the 5 th century CE Mahayana Buddhism became firmly rooted in China

• In the 4 th century CE Mahayana Buddhism spread to Korea

• In the 5 th century CE Mahayana Buddhism spread to Japan

• In the 8 th century CE Buddhism spread to Tibet

• By 1500 CE Buddhism had spread to Mongolia

• Today Mahayana Buddhism is mainly located in Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Tibet, Vietnam and in some parts of India and Russia

• Today Theravada Buddhism is mainly located in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka and Thailand

• Buddhism is steadily growing from a small base in Western countries

• The 10 largest national populations of Buddhism are: (in descending order) China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, India, South Korea and Taiwan

Christianity

• During the life of Jesus of Nazareth, (founder of Christianity) and in the immediate aftermath of his death the Jesus movement was largely restricted to the Roman province of Palestine and to the immediate surrounding areas

• Paul of Tarsus ( Saint Paul), who is typically regarded as the second founder of Christianity, assisted Christianity to move out of its Judaic-Palestinian confines by formalising the religion, and providing Christianity with an infrastructure

• Christianity grew as an underground movement that faced intermittent persecution in the Roman Empire up to the 4 th century CE

• Under the patronage of Emperor Constantine, Christianity became a state religion in the 4 th century

• As a result of this, Christianity began to thrive and grow rapidly in the Roman Empire

• The Great Schism of 1054 formalised a division between Western Christianity and Eastern Orthodoxy

• Christianity became the dominant religion in Europe during the Middle Ages as a result of missionaries who were sent out to convert local European tribes who were seen as barbaric

• The Reformation of the 16 th century, split Western Christianity into the Catholic Church and the Protestant Churches

• The age of European colonisation from the 15 th century onwards saw the spread of Christianity to Asia, Africa and North America

• Christianity is the largest religion in the world today

• The 10 largest national populations of Christianity are: (in descending order) USA, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, China, Russia, India, Nigeria, Germany and Zaire/Congo

• There is a clear trend in the recent development of Christianity which points to its steady decline in the Western world and its rapid growth in Asia, Africa and Latin America

Hinduism

• Hinduism began in the Punjab region 4000 years ago

• The vast majority of the Hindu's in the world are found in India and surrounding areas

• The 10 largest national populations of Hinduism are: (in descending order) India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Malaysia, USA, South Africa and Burma (Myanmar)

• Hinduism is largely restricted to the Indian sub-continent

• Hindus are generally located in the Indian subcontinent because Hinduism is largely dependant upon the Indian cultural environment for its existence

• Another reason as to why Hinduism is largely restricted to the Indian subcontinent is that Hinduism lacks the doctrine of self propagation, unlike the other major religious traditions

• Furthermore, the diverse nature of Hinduism works against the possibility of its spreading easily with a single recognisable doctrine

Islam

• Islam was founded by the Prophet Muhammad in 622 CE in Madinah

• Within a century or two of its establishment, Islam had spread to Palestine, Syria, Persia, Damascus, Persia, Jerusalem, Caesarea, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain which it dominated until the Middle Ages

• The Crusades which occurred between the 11 th and 13 th centuries facilitated the spread of Islam into Europe

• By the 10 th century CE, Islam had moved into Western Africa, China and India

• By the 14 th century CE, Islam was firmly cemented in Indonesia and Malaysia

• During the 19 th century, as a result of the efforts of missionaries, more people were converted to Islam on the African continent

• Many Muslims were resettled to Western countries such as the US and the UK in the post World War II period

• Islam is the fastest growing religion of the five major world religions today

• Islam is the second largest religion in the world today

• Islam is remaining strong in its traditional areas such as Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and is also growing steadily in Western countries

• The 10 largest national populations of Muslims are: Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria and Morocco

Judaism

• Jewish history is marked by a series of persecutions and exiles

• From the time it began to the Middle Ages, as a result of centuries of persecution the Jewish people came to be scattered across Europe and the Middle East

• Many Jews migrated to the US in the 20 th century

• During World War II, Hitler's Nazi Party sought to destroy the Jewish population of Europe

• As a result of this attempted genocide, known as the holocaust, approximately 6 million European Jews died

• In 1948 the United Nations sponsored the reformation of the Jewish state of Israel in Palestinian territories

• It is often difficult to obtain precise figures about the numbers of Jews living in any given area

• This is because Jews fear religious persecution and hence are reluctant to divulge their religious identity

Identify and account for the location of major Jewish communities in the world today. (5 marks) - 150 words

The 3 major global regions where significant numbers of Jews are located are: the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. The US and Israel are the two largest centres of Jews in the world. Many Jews are also located in Europe , in the countries of France , Britain and Germany.

Many Jews are located in Europe as a result of the early Jewish history of persecutions by groups such as the Romans, the Babylonians, and the Assyrians who sent the Jews into exile. The 10 largest national populations of Jews in the world are: (in ascending numerical order): USA, Israel, France, Argentina, Palestine, Canada, Brazil, Britain, Russia and Germany.

There are a significant number of Jews in the US because during the 20 th century the US permitted a large number of Jews to migrate there, and granted them American citizenship. The reason behind the large number of Jews in Israel is that Judaism started in the ancient land of Israel, which was known in the past , as the Promised Land of Canaan. Following the genocide of Jews by Hitler's Nazi Party in World War II the United Nations assisted to set up a Jewish homeland in this ancient land of Canaan in1948. The establishment of a Jewish home state greatly assisted to increase the global population of Jews.

HOMEWORK

Identify and account for the location of one major religious traditions largest communities in the world today. (5 marks)

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