Transcript Ethnic Religion

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Religion, is a personal
or institutionalized
system of worship and
of faith in the sacred
& divine
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People care deeply about their religion
and draw from their religion their core
values & beliefs
Some religions are actually designed to
appeal to people throughout the world &
others are limited to a certain area
Most religions require exclusive adherence
 Ethnic
 Universalizing
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Appeal to people
everywhere
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Has meaning in particular
place only.
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Unknown source.
•
Individual founder
(prophet)
•
Content focused on place
and landscape of origin.
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Message diffused
widely (missionaries)
•
Followers highly
clustered.
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Followers distributed
widely.
•
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Holidays based on
events in founder’s life.
Holidays based on local
climate and agricultural
practice.
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Universalizing:
▪ Buddhism
▪ Christian
▪ Islam
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Ethnic:
▪ Judaism
▪ Hindu
▪ Shinto
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Tribal:
▪ Animism
▪ Shamanism
World Patterns
Christian
Islam
Hindu
Buddhism
Judaism
Secular
1970
933 m
503 m
458 m
180 m
14 m
2002
2.0 b
1.3 b
900 m
360 m
14 m
850 m
Measure of affiliation
More than ½ world population adheres
to universalizing religions
CHRISTIANITY
ISLAM
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2 billion adherents
make it most practiced
in the world.
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Originated in Bethlehem
(8-4 BC) and Jerusalem
(AD 30) with Jesus
Christ.
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Spread by missionaries
and the Roman Empire
(Constantine A.D. 313).
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.
Amen.
Buddha – the teacher
Dharma – the teachings
Sangha – the community
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Born Siddhartha Gautama – of noble caste in India,
563 B.C.E.
Raised in great luxury to be a king
Empathy for the suffering of others; at age 29 rejected
the life of luxury to seek enlightenment and the solution
to suffering
Followed a strict lifestyle for six years
Rejected this extreme, sat in meditation, achieved
Nirvana – an awakening to the truth about life,
becoming a Buddha, the “Awakened One”at the age
of 35
Spent the remaining 45 years of his life teaching others
how to achieve the peace of mind he had achieved
The Four Noble Truths:
 To live is to suffer
 The cause of suffering is self-centered desire &
attachments
 The solution is to eliminate desire and
attachment, thus achieving Nirvana (“extinction”)
 The way to Nirvana is through the “Eight-Fold
Path”
Wisdom:
•Right understanding
•Right motivation
Moral discipline:
•Right speech
Mental discipline:
•Right action
•Right effort
•Right livelihood
•Right mindfulness
•Right meditation
The “Great Vehicle”
 Developed first century C.E.
 Found in Northern Asia (China, Japan, etc.)
 Devotional – seek guidance from Bodhisattvas
(“wise beings”) & heavenly Buddhas (kwan Yin,
Amida, etc.)
 Focus on compassion
 Goal is to become a bodhisattva and assist others
toward enlightenment (the “Bodhisattva Ideal”)
Over the past two centuries, especially since the
later half of the 20th century, Buddhism has made
inroads into the Western world through…
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Immigration of Asian peoples who have brought their
diverse forms of Buddhism to the West
Western followers who tend to adopt meditation practices
and the philosophy rather than more devotional forms of
Buddhism
 Many such western followers remain within their own
faith traditions, finding Buddhism to be a complement to
rather than in conflict with other religions
The two groups remain independent of one another
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1 billion + adherents
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Originated in Saudi
Arabia (Mecca and
Medina) around AD 600.
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Spread originally by
Muslim armies to N.
Africa, and the Near
East.
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1.) There is no god worthy of worship
except the one God, the source of all
creation, and Muhammad is the messenger
of God
2.) Prayer five times a day
3.) A Muslim gives generously to charity
4.) A Muslim fasts during the month of
Ramadan, as an act of self-purification
5.) If physically and financially able, a
Muslim makes a pilgrimage to Mecca
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Appeals to people
primarily in one
group
24 % of the world’s
population
 Hinduism
 Judaism
•
900 million +
adherents primarily
in India & Nepal
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Hinduism is an
ancient term for the
complex and diverse
set of religious
beliefs practiced
around the Indus
River. (Pakistan)
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Ancient practices
 Reincarnation
 Bathing in rivers
▪ Ganges
 Yoga
▪ philosophy advocating
and prescribing a
course of physical and
mental disciplines
 Karma
▪ Action seen as brining
upon oneself inevitable
results
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Monotheistic
 One god is Brahman
(universal soul) and
other gods in the
religion are expressions
of Brahman
▪ 68%
Vaishanavism~Vishnu, a
loving god reincarnated as
Krishna
▪ 27% adhere to Sivaism,
dedicated to Siva, a
protective & destructive
god
▪ Shaktism, a form of
worship dedicated to the
female consorts
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Not centrally
organized
 Karma & Reincarnation
▪ All beings have living
souls & are arranged in a
hierarchy & the ideal is to
escape reincarnation
through union with
Brahman
▪ If you mistreat an animal
in this life, you may be
that animal in a future
▪ Vegetarianism
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Diffusion: began in the western part of
India& moved to Southeast Asia; however,
Islam & Christianity took over
 Exception: Bali
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Holy Places
 Tirtha, a pilgrimage to a physical feature or
shrine based on hierarchy
▪ Ganges in the Himalayas because Siva lives there & it
is made from Siva’s hair
▪ Local mountain important to local population
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Hindu Temples
 Religion practices
take place at home
 Temples are built to
house shrines to
particular gods
 Size and frequency
depend on local
preferences &
resources
 Maintained by local
individuals
Sikhism is a combination
of Hinduism & Islam
 Jainism teaches that
violence of any is wrong
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Traditional faiths are
Buddhism, Daoism, &
Confucianism
 Daoism
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 Based on the teachings of
Laozi 604-531 B.C.
 Path to true happiness is
living in a harmonious
relationship with the natural
world. The “right way” or
Dao
Confucianism, a
philosophy based on a
collection of teachings of
Confucius, called
Analects.
 Confucius (551-479 B.C.)
believed that society
functioned best if
everyone respected the
laws & behaved according
to his or her position.
 Honor ancestors
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Everything has its beauty but not everyone
sees it.
 Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.
 I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do
and I understand.
 It does not matter how slowly you go so long
as you do not stop.
 Respect yourself and others will respect you.
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Substantial role in
Western culture
 Jesus was a Jew &
Muhammad traced his
ancestry to Abraham
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Canaan, Palestine,
Jerusalem
 Abraham (patriarch
Judaism) traveled from
Iraq along the Fertile
Crescent to Canaan
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Monotheism
 “Chosen People” lived
by the 10
Commandments
“The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your
country, your people and your father's
household and go to the land I will show
you. I will make you into a great nation and I
will bless you; I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing. I will bless those
who bless you, and whoever curses you I
will curse; and all peoples on earth will be
blessed through you."
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Diaspora, the
scattering of the
Jews to countries
outside of Palestine
by the Romans
 North Africa & Asia
▪ Adopted other cultural
characteristics but
retained their religion
▪ European Jews, forced to
live in ghettos, a
neighborhood set up by
law to only inhabit Jews
▪ Holocaust 15% v. 90%
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Self-sufficient and interaction among
communities is confined to little more than
loose cooperation and shared ideas
 Hinduism
 Judaism
 Islam
 Protestant Denominations
▪ Baptist & the United Church of Christ
▪ Presbyterian
▪ Presbytery & synod
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Has a well defined
geographic structure
and organizes
territory into local
administrative units
 Roman Catholic
Church
 Later Day Saints
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Hierarchy
Density of Parishes
 Western & Southern Europe Concentrated
 Latin America Dispersed
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U.S. Southwest & Large Urban Areas
 Low density of parishes & dioceses compared
to the population
▪ New local administration needed and resources are
scare
▪ Population is dwindling in inner cities & rural areas
▪ Maintaining services is expensive
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Mormons exercise
strong organization of
landscape
Utah
 Wards -750 people
 Stakes- 5,000 people
 Board& President are
constantly changing
borders
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Relationship with humans & nature
Cosmogony, a set of religious beliefs
concerning the origin of the universe
Ethnic Religions
 Events in the physical environment
 Confucianism & Daoism
▪ Yin Force is associated with earth, darkness, female,
cold, depth, passivity, & death
▪ Yang Force, heaven, light, male, heat, height, activity,
and light
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Yin & Yang forces
interact with each
other to achieve
balance & harmony,
but they are in
constant state of
change.
Principle of yin &
yang applies to the
creation &
transformation of
all natural features.
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Christianity & Islam,
God created the
universe
 A religious person can
serve God by cultivating
the land & making
productive use of the
natural features
 God is more powerful
than the laws of nature
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Christians
 Believe the Earth was given by God to humanity to
finish the task of creation.
▪ Support large scale development
▪ Natural disasters preventable
▪ Punishment from God
Islam
 Representatives of God
 Reflecting the attributes of God in their deeds
▪ Growing Food or Improving the Land
 God alone is responsible for the Earth’s creation
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Ethnic Religions
 Ethnic religions are clustered
because their holidays
celebrate the physical
environment
 Celebration of seasons
▪ Pray for favorable conditions or
give thanks for past conditions
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Holidays based on
events of the
agricultural calendar
in Israel
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Autumn(time of hope
and worry )
 Crops are planted
 Rosh Hashanah (New
Year)
 Yom Kippur (Day of
Atonement)
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Sukkot, celebrates the final gathering of fruits
▪ Shelter that occupied the Jews as they were wondering in the
wilderness
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Passover, farmers offer God the 1st fruits of
Spring
▪ Liberation of Jews from Egypt
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Shavuot(Feast of Weeks), comes at the end of
grain harvest
▪ Date Moses received the Ten Commandments
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Israel utilizes the Lunar
Calendar
 Moon has a mystical quality
because it varies
 “New Moon” marks a new
month
 Lunar month is 29 days/350
in a year
 Adds an extra month 7/19
years
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Either of two times of the year when the
sun is at its greatest distance from the
celestial equator. The summer solstice in
the Northern Hemisphere occurs about
June 21, when the sun is in the zenith at
the tropic of Cancer; the winter solstice
occurs about December 21, when the sun is
over the tropic of Capricorn. The summer
solstice is the longest day of the year and
the winter solstice is the shortest
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Fundamentalism - a process that is leading to
increasingly large groups of people who claim
there is only one way to interpret worship.
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Taliban V. Western Values
 Gained power in Afghanistan in
1996
 “Religious Students”
 Imposed strict laws based on
their interpretation of the Koran
(Ministry for the Promotion of
Virtue and the Prevention of
Vice)
 U.S overthrew the Taliban in
2001
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Hinduism Vs. Social Equality
 Rigid Caste System
 “Untouchables lack many rights,
including access to healthcare & face
economic hardship
 Indian government legally abolished
the Untouchable Caste
 Quotas to encourage government
participation
 Brahmins
– Priests, Teachers, Judges;
usually don’t own land therefore need other
castes to work the land and provide for
them
 Kshatriyas – Warriors
 (landowners)
 Vaisyas
Farmers
and Rulers
– Skilled Traders, Merchants,
 Sudras
– Unskilled Workers—Laborers
and Craft workers
 Below these four castes are people who
belong to no caste
 Untouchables
God
 Concept
– Outcastes, Children of
of pollution…the most pure at the
top (Brahmins) and the most polluted at
the bottom (Untouchables)
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Republic of Ireland 92% Roman Catholic
Northern Ireland (UK) 58% Protestant, 42% Roman
Catholic
1801, became part of the United Kingdom
1840s, mass migration due to environmental and
economic problems, bloody confrontations
Republic created in 1949 (North stayed with the
UK)
Catholics discriminated
IRA
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Can secular society exist alongside
traditional and fundamentalist religious
sects and states?
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Should fundamentalist groups and their
actions be considered a human rights
violation or a complex cultural tradition
that Westerners simply don't understand?