Introduction To World Religions And Belief Systems 1t1o58

Introduction to World Religions and Belief Systems By: Kelvin Paul B. Panuncio

Subject Description: The course explores the main tenets and practices of major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and Shintoism. It aims to help learners understand the historical contexts of nine religions, appreciate their uniqueness and similarities and promote mutual understanding among believers of different faiths. They are expected to

What is Religion? Religion is the set of beliefs, feelings, dogmas and practices that define the relations between human being and sacred or divinity. A given religion is defined by specific elements of a community of believers: dogmas, sacred books, rites, worship, sacrament, moral prescription, interdicts, organization. The majority of religions have developed starting from a revelation based on the

A religion may be defined with its three great characteristics: Believes and religious practices • The religious feeling i.e. faith • Unity in a community of those who share the same faith: the Church. It is what differentiates religion from magic. • The study of disappeared or existing religions shows the universal character of this phenomenon and a very large variety in the ritual doctrines and practices. One generally distinguishes the religions called primitive or animists, the Oriental religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Confucianism, Taoism...) and the religions monotheists derived from the Bible (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). Christianity has itself given birth to several religions

Etymology • The word religion is derived from Latin "religio" (what attaches or retains, moral bond, anxiety of self-consciousness, scruple) used by the Romans, before Jesus Christ, to indicate the worship of the demons. The origin of "religio" is debated since antiquity. Cicero said it comes from "relegere" (to read again, to re-examine carefully, to gather) in the meaning "to carefully consider the things related to the worship of gods".Later, Lucretius, Lactancius and Tertullianus see its origin in "religare" (to connect) to refer "the bond of piety that binds to God". Initially used for Christianity, the use of the word religion gradually extended to all the forms of social demonstration in connection with sacred.

Brief historical of the rational interpretation of religion

• For Aristotle (384-322 BC), the science of theology has for subject the "separate" beings of matter and the "motionless engines" that make movement possible to any thing. This science of divine or metaphysics searches to know the first principles and causes of the things of this world. The thought of Aristotle will be until the end of Middle Ages the base

• The rationalism of the 17th century professed the autonomy of reason, compared with faith, for the search of truth. Descartes (1596-1650) wanted always to reconcile the interests of science with those of religion. By writing "God or nature" Spinoza (1632-1677) identified divinity with the "whole" of the real world, contrary to the traditional religious anthropomorphism that makes with God a creator, distinct from world, acting according to an aim. He defended the independence of the religious powers and the political one and the freedom to

• The philosophical atheism of "The century of Light" (Helvetius, Holbach, Diderot, La Mettrie...) caused a strong hostility towards religions, their dogmas and their revelations. It proposed a materialist explanation of world. Religions were regarded as frauds to the profit of social and political interests.  Kant (1724-1804) in "Critique of Pure Reason" made vain the search for ontological proof of God's existence. As for all questions of metaphysics, God is no more a subject of knowledge, but comes under belief. God is a transcendental idea of reason. In the 19th century, Feuerbach (1804-1872), Marx (1818-1883), Nietzsche (1844-1900) saw in religion a manifestation of ignorance and credulity, an illusion. God is only an outward manifestation of the major man's aspirations out human being. For Marx, the social frustration is the cause of religious alienation by projecting the human ideal in the imaginary world. Religion has a soothing and narcotic effect ("opium of the people") compared with the miserable reality. Therefore, religion is an illusory solution and not a real solution to the difficulties and the sufferings of life. Nietzsche imputd the harmful and morbid effects of the religious society to the obsession of sin.

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At the beginning of the 20th century, Freud (1856-1939) stated that religion is an obsessional neurosis of humanity in which God is the mental picture of the father under the protection of which man places himself. To part from God ("the murder of the father") is one of the inexorable phases of the human development. The sociological approach of religion considers that this one does not solely consist of the irrational expression of conscience or a primitive stage of the human development, but is an essential characteristic of society. For Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), religion is a manifestation of society former to each man and is an expression of its standards and values. For Max Weber (1864-1920), the religious practices are founded on the charisma, quality extraordinary of an important person that says to be send by God or that is become an example for many people. All these analyses are interesting and give different lights from religion. Nevertheless, they are inevitably reducing taking into

Recitation “A person who is spiritual but not religious and a person who is religious but not spiritual.”

Differentiate religion from: a. Spirituality b. Theology c. Philosophy of Religion Differentiate between religion as humans’ way to God, theology as a study of God’s way to humans and philosophy as a reflection of humans’ lived experience of God

Infer that: A. belief system or worldview is a particular way of ordering the realities of one’s world. B. Religion is the pursuit of transformation guided by a sacred belief system. C. Spirituality is one’s integrative view of life. It involves a quest for the meaning and ultimate value of life as opposed to an instrumentalist or materialistic attitude to life.

The elements of religion are: (a) reflects an effort to elevate their whole self to a higher dimension of existence, (b) a framework of transcendent beliefs, (c) text or scriptures, (d) rituals, and (e) sacred spaces (e.g., church, temple, mosque, synagogue).

Understanding the worldview of each of the world’s major religions is critical in appreciating their rituals and practices. These worldviews are: All is one (Monistic) 1. Many Gods (Polytheistic) 2. One God (Monotheistic) 3. No God (Atheistic)

The elements of spirituality are: (a) holistic (fully integrated view to life), (b) quest for meaning (including the purpose of life), (c) quest for the sacred (beliefs about God),

Seatwork Prepare character sketches of a person who is spiritual but not religious and a person who is religious but not spiritual