Transcript Chapter 6 Religion and Religious Landscape

Chapter 6: Religion
What is a religion?
Religion
• A set of beliefs
– existence of a higher power, spirits or god
– an explanation of the origins and purpose
of humans and their role on earth
– Which involves rituals, festivals, rites of
passage and space (religious landscapes)
Main Types of Religion
• Universalizing Religion: attempts to appeal to all
people, not just those living in a particular
location.
• Ethnic Religions: concentrated spatial
distribution whose principles are likely based on
physical characteristics of a particular location.
• Monotheism: existence of only one god.
• Polytheism: existence of many gods.
How do Universalizing and
Ethnic Religions Differ?
Universalizing
Ethnic
•Appeal to people everywhere •Appeal to a smaller group of
people living in one place.
•Individual founder (prophet)
•Unknown source.
•Message diffused widely
•Content focused on place and
(missionaries)
landscape of origin.
•Followers distributed widely.
•Followers highly clustered.
•Holidays based on events in
•Holidays based on local climate
founder’s life.
and agricultural practice.
Holy Places reflect the Religious Beliefs
Ethnic religions
• rooted in a distinctive
physical environment
Universal religions
• holy places are associated
with the founder’s life.
•
•
For example:
– Hindu - The Ganges River
in India.
– Hindu - Himalayas Mt.
Kalias in Nepal.
For example:
– Christian - The city of
Jerusalem
– Muslim - The city of Mecca
– Buddhist- Locations of
important events in
Buddha's life.
Major World Religions
• Ethnic Religions
– Hinduism
– Judaism
– all Animistic Religions
• No specific founder
• limited diffusion / no missionaries
Major World Religions
• Universalizing Religions
– Christianity
– Islam
– Buddhism
• Traced to actions and teaching of a man
• Diffused from specific hearths by
followers / missionaries
How Did These Religions
Diffuse to Where They Are?
Islam
Christianity
•Traveling merchants
go to North Africa
•Sea routes to Indonesia and
Philippines introduced Islam.
•Missionaries
•Alliance with
powerful communist
countries.
Buddhist
•Early believers spread
ideas to the Roman
Empire.
•Monks travel into China,
Tibet and Southeast Asia.
• European Colonization
spreads Christianity
worldwide.
•Ocean trading routes to
China brought Buddhism.
•Missionaries
•Alliance with
technologically powerful
western world & capitalism.
•Missionaries
•Powerful kingdom of
Magadhan Empire helped
establish religion.
Religious Divisions
• Branch: A large and fundamental
division within a religion.
• Denomination: A division within a
branch of a religion.
• Sect: A relatively small denominational
group that has broken away from an
established church.