CRASH COURSE IN WORLD RELIGIONS
1. Self-Identities in Religion
This introductory presentation discusses self-identities in religion, including monotheism, henotheism, polytheism, non-theism, deism, agnosticism, and, finally, atheism.
Religion is difficult to define; it means different things to different people.
19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher, for example, defined religion as the feeling of absolute dependence. In the 20th century, Anglo-American philosopher Alfred North Whitehead thought that faith is what the individual does with his solitariness. "If you are never solitary," he said, "you are never religious."
In this mini-lecture, we define religion as a system of beliefs, norms, and institutions providing the ultimate explanations and how to live a life for an individual human being.
Primal religions (also called primitive, tribal, or indigenous sacred ways) are spiritual traditions of tribal people who transmit their teachings orally, live in harmony with their natural environment, and claim direct connection with spiritual reality.
Primal religions survive in all parts of the world – in Australia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, Africa, Siberia, among the Indians of North and South America.
These religions came from different material cultures, some of a high level. But despite many differences in historical and economic patterns, they have a lot in common. According to one theory, they were initially unified before the continents separated.
This mini-lecture aims to compare the concept of karma in Hinduism with the notion of karma in the West. By "West," I mean the Judeo-Christian tradition primarily.
In Sanskrit, karma means action. So, the Hindu notion of karma explains the consequences of one's actions, and it involves three things:
- It emphasizes personal responsibility.
- It extends beyond our present life and is related to the belief in reincarnation.
- And probably most important, it has only relative importance in the achievement of salvation.
Buddhism is the first world religion in recorded human history. Founded in the 5th century B.C. by Siddhārtha Gautama, also known as Shakyamuni (the sage of the tribe of the Shakyas) and the Buddha (the "enlightened one" or the "one who woke up" to the truth of life), Buddhism spread all over the globe and won millions of followers.
At the heart of Buddhist teachings are the so-called Four Noble Truths that the Buddha proclaimed in his first sermon after achieving the Enlightenment. Buddhists of all persuasions, branches, and sects believe in those truths as the foundation for their spiritual aspirations and practices.
The First Noble Truth states that all life is dukkha or impermanence and suffering. The Second Noble Truth says that we can know the causes of dukkha, which are explained in the doctrine of Dependent Origination. The Third Noble Truth states that there is a way out of dukkha, which is called Nirvana. The fourth Noble Truth says that the way to realize Nirvana is to follow the Noble Eightfold Path that comprises wisdom, morality, and mental training or discipline.
Scriptures represent a body of words or sentences that contain a coherent system of meaning such that the system has the power of salvation or spiritual liberation.
There are two types of scriptural texts – primary and secondary. Primary scriptures are texts that have absolute authority over the community of believers. Secondary scriptures are texts that are complementary to prior scriptural writings and form the sacred tradition of religions. They can add, clarify, or interpret but never contradict primary scriptures, at least in theory.
In this presentation, we briefly discuss the scriptural texts of two small-scale religions in India – Jainism and Sikhism.
This mini-lecture examines the origin and teachings of Confucianism and Daoism.
Both Confucianism and Daoism were conceived as philosophies of life. In the course of their evolution, both teachings, however, were turned into religions. This transformation happened for different reasons in Confucianism and Daoism.
When the Han dynasty (206 B.C. – 220 A.D.) finally unified China, Han Emperors adopted Confucianism as their state ideology and the basis for state education. Confucius himself was deified and presented as a celestial being that foreknew China's future unification and formulated the philosophical system that would later cement this unification.
As for Daoism, it was transformed into a religion as a reaction against the penetration of Buddhism into China in the 1st century A.D. Buddhism was seen by the Chinese as a threatening foreign influence, and they responded by creating their native religion of Daoism with its church, priesthood, and rituals.
In this presentation, we discuss some of the differences between Eastern and Western types of spirituality.
The first significant difference is evident, and it concerns the number of deities. Eastern religions are usually poly- or non-theistic. Western religions, in their turn, are monotheistic.
The second difference is about religious self-identity. In the West, a member of one religious community cannot be simultaneously part of another religion. In the East, however, dual and even multiple religious identities are possible. Here one is not forced to decide whether to be a Buddhist, Confucianist, Daoist, or Shinto but instead can opt to be all of them at the same time.
Ten Commandments are written down in the Book of Exodus 20:1-10.
They represent the general moral law that regulates the relationship between people and their God as well as the relations among the believers.
Most of the commandments are formulated as fundamental law, which is unconditional – without "ifs" or "buts." Also, most of the commandments are negative in form. They tell people what not to do instead of what to do because, in the Jewish tradition, positive law was considered enslaving.
Christianity is a truly global religion, with approximately one-third of humanity professing some form of Christian faith.
What distinguishes Christianity from other religions is the idea of perfect mediation between divinity and humanity.
According to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, God is one in essence (hence, Christian monotheism), and he manifests himself in three persons – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
According to this doctrine, Jesus Christ as the second person of the Trinity of God, the Son is unique, being both fully human and fully divine.
The main scriptural text of Islam is the Koran – a book of religious beliefs and laws. Koranic religious beliefs can be summarized as the six fundamentals of Islam. The foundation of Koranic law is known as the five pillars of Islam.
Six fundamentals of Islam include beliefs in God or Allah, his angels, his messengers, his books, his day of judgment, and the divine decree.
The five pillars of Islam include the profession of faith, obligatory prayer and fasting, almsgiving, and a pilgrimage to Mecca.
12. The Bahá’í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith was conceived in the second half of the 19th century in what is now Iran by the so-called "twin prophets" who are better known under their religious titles of the Bab ("Gate") and Bahá'u'lláh ("Glory of God" in Arabic).
Every religion has a core belief that describes the spirit of its teaching. In Christianity, it is the idea of universal love; in Buddhism – the notion of selflessness; in Islam – submission to God's will. The term that best describes the spirit of the Bahá'í teachings is that of unity. Bahá'ís speak of unity in various ways, but most importantly, they distinguish three levels of it – the unity of God, religions, and the global unity of humankind.
In this mini-lecture, I discuss my theory of religious cycles and its implications for religion's future.
According to my approach, religion is a semantic system that creates meanings whose origin is not available to ordinary humans. To preserve their original teachings and transmit them to the next generations, religions develop sacred scriptures and sacred traditions.
In the course of their evolution, religious systems go through several stages or phases – formative, orthodox, classical, reformist, critical, and post-critical. Also, they undergo two types of crises – structural and systemic.
A structural crisis is a crisis that challenges the sacred tradition and is usually resolved by the appearance of new divisions or denominations within the existing religions.
The systemic crisis of religion challenges its sacred scriptures. The establishment of new religious systems with their independent scriptural texts amid their mother-faiths usually resolve this crisis.
14. Humor and Religion
Now, after all your hard work, relax and enjoy an excellent religious joke of the week:
Why God Never Received Tenure at Any University
1. He only had one major publication.
2. It was in Hebrew.
3. It had no references.
4. It wasn't published in a refereed journal.
5. Some even doubt He wrote it Himself.
6. It may be true that He created the world, but what has He done since then?
7. His cooperative efforts have been quite limited.
8. The scientific community has had a hard time replicating His results.
9. He never applied to the Ethics Board for permission to use human subjects.
10. When one experiment went awry, He tried to cover it up by drowning the subjects.
11. When subjects didn't behave as predicted, He deleted them from the sample.
12. He rarely came to class, just told students to read the book.
13. Some say He had His son teach the class.
14. He expelled His first two students for learning.
15. Although there were only ten requirements, most students failed His tests.
16. His office hours were infrequent and usually held on a mountaintop.