Religions of the world



Religions of the world

Ninth edition – Preface Summary

Preface:

According to Woodward, Mark R. - religion of the World- Ninth Edition’s book is based on how the world altered after the occurrences of September 11, 200; therefore, the book is projected to the understanding of other’s people’s cultures and believes. Based on past studies and knowledge of Hopfe, Lewis M. while expend extended periods researching, living and working with cultures like, Buddhism and Muslim, Chinese and others, he has been able to introduce us to new variants of established traditions, “including the version of Islam promoted by Usama bin Laden and his associates”.

Introduction Overview:

The Ninth edition introduction reveals the significant importance of religions of the world. Although religion is a personal matter and it should not matter to others, the fact that we need to distinguish that there are other types of religions other than our own is something that concern us all. Being able to identify people’s religions is a very important task in our fast pace society, since that is “sometimes” the only way to comprehend and respect their behavior, since we do not have to empathize with it. In order for us to understand history, it is also imperative that we study and understand religion, since people’s behaviors has been always based on a certain religion pattern thought-out history. The grate value of religions studies is becoming more and more important since other cultures are no more distant than our own neighbors are. For the citizens of the twenty first century, where we are experiencing such a fast and growing global economy and political changes is should be a priority to be aware of the diversity of the world religions. Particularly in our country, where immigration laws welcome and help so many people from different backgrounds and religions, the awareness of the fact that our neighbors, coworkers, schoolmates, and significant others may have some kind of believes that needs to be acknowledge and respected in order for us to intermingle with people and keep peace in our world.

A Definition of Religion:

A definition of religion as a definition is almost impossible to present, there are hundreds of different religions and many different variants since humanity exists. Although, religion could be a common word used to describe people’s believes and behaviors still is too broad to give a definition since all kinds of religions might be based on the same principles, these principles might have different definitions and meanings from a religion to another; therefore the importance of been selective when studying a religion’s subject. As Williams James said on his book The Varieties of Religious Experience, we should learn that the hole concept of religion is too large for anyone definition to fit, instead, religion should be seen as collective name.

The Universality of Religion:

Anywhere where people is found, there are traces of religion; ancient constructions, altars, scripts, paints and many others will inform the impact of religion that existed in the particular place where a civilization was found, since they all point towards our religious nature. Ended there is no other phenomenon that has been constantly transmitted from society to society since human kind existed.

Theories of the origin of religions

Some say that religion developed based on the weak and ignorance of human being about the forces of the nature that surrounded then, others, say because there was the need for protection and therefore a God to whom we could pray for protection and support. Another theory is that religion is based on a combination of philological fears and needs, also to give meaning to social institution and encourage social solidarity. However, the theory for those who are religious themselves is that God revealed religion and religious trust to humans beings at some point during their development. However, a few of the more outstanding and enduring theories are;

Animistic theories:

According to Edward Burnett Taylor an English ethnologist, and the most outstanding exponent of the animistic theory; “primitive” people believed that souls were to be found mot only in people but also in all forms of nature like wind, water, volcanoes, rocks, mountains and even the air itself, for them they all were alive and with spirits of all kinds which could be helpful or harmful to humans and could be easily offended or flattered. Therefore it became a necessity for the ancestors to pray for these spirits and offer them sacrifices to appease then and avoid offending them. Another significant exponent of the Animistic theory was Bishop R. H. Codrington, whose studies were based during his work as a Christian missionary to Melanesia-he studied their language and culture and although he agreed with Tailor’s theory, he was more concern with what native people said about their own religions, and by taking the Melanesian word “mana” to the basis of religion and this word is defined as supernatural power that belonged to the region of the unseen. Codrington’s theory is that all “primitive people had began their religion with an awareness of such a force, based on his language studies.

The Nature -Worship theory:

This theory is based on an Oxford’s Professor, Max Muller, whose interest were mythology and the religions of India. From his studies, he was convinced that people first developed their religions from their observations of the forces of the nature. “Primitive” people identified the forces in nature, personified then, created myths to describe their activities and eventually developed pantheons and religions around them.

The theory of the original monotheism:

The theory of Original Monotheism:

A different approach to the origin of religion was presented by Wilhelm Schmidt, he began his career of linguistic of New Guinea and then all of the Oceania. Schmidt, came to disagree with animistic theories of Taylor and others. He noted that all of the hunter-gatherer cultures he had studied and which were the oldest form of human society to be observed, held a common believe in a distant hide God, who had created the world and went away until one day to judge the world on the basis of its morality. Although the predominant form of religion for these “primitives” was animism or polytheism, there was always the believe that there had had been a great God above all others. Schmidt, inferred that primitive society were originally monotheistic, but because of the worship pf one God was difficult, religion was corrupted into polytheism or animism.

The Magic Theory:

The magic theory was presented by James George Frazer, who did not personally studied contemporary basic religions but constructed his theories by studding the reports of anthropologists, colonial officials, ancient writers and missionaries. He taught that humankind had gone through three phases of development regarding the spirit world. First people had attempted to control the world of nature by magic when humans realized that they could not control the world of nature by magic then the tried a second stage o development-religion-whose- premised seemed to be that nature could be implore to cooperate. When religion failed then humankind tried a third phase, science, in which a more rational understanding of nature is operative.

Theories of religion as projections of human needs:

There are several theories of religions as projections of human needs, Ludwing Feuerbach I some of his books mentions that religions were essentially projections of the whishes of humanity, also as a dream or fantasy that expressed the situation of humankind. According to Feuerback, people fell helpless when facing the challenges of live by themselves and therefore they seek the superpower protections to help them overcome their problems. He also infers that humanity is not created in the image of God, but God is created in the image of idealized humanity. Another theory was the one presented by Karl Max, who saw the origin and development of religion in terms of his personal view of history and the economic and social struggles between classes. He also said that man makes religion, religion does not make man. The founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, saw religion as guilt that men supposedly feel in hating their fathers, based on the ancient Greek myth of Oedipus a pattern of human experience, who through a long series of events, killed his father and married his mother. Because of this subconscious and hatred guilt, Freud believed that humans project I the sky a great father image called God. He also said the religions ideas are “illusions”, fulfillments of the oldest, strongest and most urgent wishes of humankind. He also stated that the truly healthy and mature person is content to stand along and face the problems of life himself without relaying in a God or religions.

Types of religions:

There are undoubtedly more unknown that kwon religions, since history only cover 5000 years of the million years of human life on earth. These religions are group into four categories:

1. Basic Religions, this term is generally applied to the religions of contemporary people whose religious ideas are not preserved in writing and prehistoric people about whom we know little. This category embraces a great varietyof believes and practices, including animism, totemism and polytheism.

2. Four of the great religions of the world were originated in India: Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. India remains the home of Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Buddhism is now found in other Asian nations, such as China, Japan, Korea, Viet Nan, Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand. The basic believe of these religions is that there are many Gods, except for Sikhism, taking its believe from one God from Islam, and that one person may lead many lives through a system of reincarnation

3. Religions originated in Japan: Taoism, Confucianism, and Shinto. Taoism and Confucianism, they have in common the believe in many Gods and include the worship of nature, worship or veneration of ancestors, and in the case of Shinto a reverence for the nation itself.

4. Religions originated in the middle east: Include Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Baha’I. All believe in the supreme creator God, and that each person lives only one earthly live. Christianity and Islam has been two of the great missionary religions of the world, number in the billions and found all over the glove.

• Study questions: List several advantages of a knowledge of the differing religious viewpoints of the world.

-Be aware of the religion that a person may practice is very important, since there are so many different religions and all of them have different believes, it is very important to :

-Acknowledge people’s religions.

-Be aware of their behavior, since we do want to offend them.

-Being able to sympathize with other behaviors since we do have to conduct the same kind of believes.

Define Religion:

A definition of religion is almost impossible to present since there are many different religions and variants since humanity exists. Although religion could be a common word to describe people’s believes and behaviors, still it is to broad to define this term. The principals of religion may be the same for all religions, the definitions to these principals may vary from religion to religion, and therefore we are unable to define religion with a unique definition.

Name several major theories of religion;

Animistic theories, the magic theory, the worship of nature, projections of human needs, and monotheism.

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