Rels 205 Lecture 3.1
Religious Traditions
Lecture Outline for Part One of Rels 205.01
Week 1
Lecture 1 What is “Religion”?
Lecture 2 Studying “Religion”
Week 2
Lecture 1 Ritual and the Study of Religion
Lecture 2 Religious and Secular Traditions
Week 3
Lecture 1 Religious Traditions
Lecture 2 Institutions
Week 4
Lecture 1 The Meaning of Myth
Lecture 2 Sacred Sentiments
Week 5
Lecture 1 Changing Worldviews
Lecture 2 Review
Week 6 Reading Week
Week 7
Lecture 1 First in class test
Identified with a Tradition
Tradition
“Tradition: that which is handed down or passed on from
the past as distinct from modern ideas and theories.”
Great and Little Traditions
Robert Redfield (1897-1958)
Little traditions
Experiential
Oral
Great traditions
Intellectual
Written
Great and Little Traditions II
Little tradition
African religion
Great tradition
Catholicism
World Religions 1905
Sikhism 10,000,000
Judaism 10,000,000
Buddhism 50,000,000
African 157,000,000
Islam 205,000,000
Hinduism 210,000,000
Confucian 240,000,000
Christianity 520,000,000
World Religions 2005
Mormons 10,000,000
Jews 14,000,000
Sikhs 23,000,000
African 100,000,000
Buddhism 374,000,000
Chinese religions 394,000,000
Hinduism 9.000,000
Islam 1.2 billion
Christianity 2.1 billion
Christianity 2.1 billion
Major Religious Traditions
Primal Traditions
Yogic Traditions
Abramic Traditions
Primal Experiences
Primal experiences
are fundamental
spiritual experiences
that shape our sense
of the sacred
Ancestral Religions
Ancestral religions are religions that are directly based
on primal experiences involving things like the
ancestors and healing.
Primal Experiences and Ancestral
Traditions
Primal Traditions
African Religions
Confucianism
Native American Traditions
Shamanism
New Religions
Revitalization Movements
Primal
Experiences
Dreams
Visions
Prophecies
Healings
Revelations
Miracles
Voices
Ghosts
Yogic Religions
Yogic religions are spiritual
traditions based on the
practice of one of the many
forms of yoga. Yogic
doctrines include: karma, the
wheel of existence, and some
form of transmigration or
reincarnation.
Yoga
In the West yoga is
associated with physical
exercises and particular
postures used in meditation.
Actually yoga is a Sanskrit
term meaning “to yoke” and is
used to describe various
processes of spiritual
discipline or harnessing of
physical and mental powers
to attain self-control and
ultimate enlightenment.
Yogic Traditions
Early Indian
religions and
Indus valley
culture.
Hindu Traditions
Jain Traditions
Buddhist Traditions
Major Yogic Traditions
Yoga
Hindu
Jain
Buddhist
Hindu Traditions
Indus valley religion
Early Hindu religion
Philosophical Schools
Religions of devotion
Bhakti
Vedanta etc..
Hara Krishna etc.
The Hindu Tradition
Buddhist Tradition
Early Buddhism
Hinayana
Mahayana
Pure Land
Zen
Nicheren
Buddhism
Abramic Religions
Abramic religions trace their
ancestry to the patriarch
Abraham. The major religions
in this grouping are Christianity,
Islam and Judaism.
Major Abramic Traditions
Hebrew Religion
Christianity
Judaism
Islam
Abramic Religious Tradition
Christianity
Hebrew
Religion
T
R
A
N
S
I
T
I
O
N
Islam
African and other Judaisms
Judaism
BC
70
+
70-250AD 250-700AD
CE
7
Modernity
1785
Jewish Religious Traditions
BC
70-25 250-900
900-1700 CE
1700-Present AD
African and other Judaisms
Hebrew
Religion
T
R
A
N
S
I
T
I
O
N
Reformed
Talmudic
Judaism
Classical
Judaism
Orthodox
Hasidic
Ethnic
7
Z
I
O
N
I
S
M
C19 - Present
Judaism
The Christian Tradition
0-400
1500
1965 AD
Coptic, Syriac, Indian, and other smaller traditions
E
A
R
L
Y
C
H
U
R
C
H
Eastern Orthodoxy – Greek, Russian, etc.
Roman Catholicism
1965
Charismatic Movement
1520
Nestorians etc.
Protestantism
African and other Christian Movements
Christian Fundamentalism
Mainline Churches
Eastern Orthodoxies
The Islamic Tradition
BM 571-632
700- 765
900
1750
1889
1967 AD
Wahhabis Saudi Arabia
Sunni Islam – Egypt, Turkey
Early Islam
Muhammad
(571-632)
Kharijtes - Yemen and Oman
Shiite Islam – Iran -Khomeni
Qarmatins - Tunisia Egypt
Ismaili Shia Islam () Aga Kahn
Druzes 10th C Lebanon Israel
Ahamadiya India
Islam
The Yogic-Islamic Traditions
Yogic Religions
Sikhism (1500) Punjab, India
Bahai (1844) Iran
Subud (1933) Java
Islamic Traditions
The Canadian Situation
Canadian Religious Affiliation 1881-2001
30000000
25000000
20000000
15000000
10000000
5000000
0
P
C
N
E
Y
J
M
P = Population
C = Western Christian
N = Nones ?
E = Eastern Christian
Y = Yogic: Buddhist+Hindu+Sikh
M = Islam
Blue = 1991; Brown = 1981; Green = 1881
CND Religious Affiliation as % of Population
1991 &1891
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1991
1891
Christian
None
Other
Eastern Christian-Muslim Affiliation 1991
600000
500000
400000
300000
200000
100000
0
Red = Eastern Christian
Green = Muslim
Millennialism
Millennium = 1,000 years
Revelation 20, n.b. vs. 2
Millennialism defined
Any religious movement that hopes for salvation that is:
(a)collective, to be enjoyed by all the faithful as a group;
(b) terrestrial, to be realized on this earth;
(c) imminent, to come soon and suddenly;
(d) total, to transform life on earth completely;
(e) miraculous, to be brought about by, or with the help of,
supernatural agencies.
A New Heaven and a New
Earth
Paradise on Earth
Revelation 21:1-4
Restoration
Millennial Movements
Christian – “End of the world is nigh”
Buddhist – Maitraya
Islamic – Madhi
Millennial Types
Post-millennialism
A-millennialism
Pre-millennialism
Traditional Eschatology Post-Millenialism
Eschatology = study of the last things
Post-Millenialism = Christ returns after the millennium
Key Post- Millennial Ideas
1) Preach gospel of the Kingdom of God
2) Establish the Kingdom
3) World is getting better
4) Christ returns at the end of time
5) The Church is the new Israel
A- Millennialism
Key A-Millennial Ideas
1) All doctrines must be based on clear Biblical statements.
2) The Bible uses many different forms of language
e.g. poetic, historical, prophetic, prose, etc.
3) The Bible teaches Christ will return.
4) The Bible teaches Christians to live in the expectation
of Christ’s return.
5) There are no clear teachings about when Christ will
return or how this is going to take place.
Pre-Millennialism
Pre-Millennial = Christ returns before the Millennium
Key Pre-Millennial Ideas
1) Preach the gospel of salvation
2) Save souls
3) World is getting worse
4) Christ’s return is imminent
5) The State of Israel fulfils Biblical prophecy
Pre-millennialism - Origins
Plymouth Brethren
John Nelson Darby’s
(1800-1882)
Dispensationalism
Judge C. I. Schofield (1843-1921)
Schofield Reference Bible (1909)
Dispensationalism
Schofield’s Scheme
Christian Zionism by Don Lewis
and