Session 1
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Definition
Universality
Perceptions of Divine – Relation to the World
Perceptions of Divine – Number of Deities
Primal Religions – Characteristics
Conclusions
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Latin word “religio” – respect for sacred,
religious scruple, awe
“Feelings, acts and experiences of individual
men in their solitude, so far as they
apprehend themselves to stand in relation to
whatever they may consider divine.” – William
James, The Variety of Religious Experiences
(1902)
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Cultural system of behaviors and practices,
world views, ethics, and social organization
that relate humanity to an order of existence
– Religions of the World (1993)
Set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature,
and purpose of the universe, especially when
considered as the creation of a superhuman
agency or agencies, usually involving
devotional and ritual observances, and often
containing a moral code governing conduct
of human affairs (BBC)
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“Ultimate Reality” – Paul Tillich
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Historically, an almost universal phenomenon
Inspires passion, creativity, and vision
Promotion of societal virtues such as justice,
love and hope
Dark Side – spawned violence, prejudice,
persecution and destruction, violation of
human rights in name of religion
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Theism
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God imminent in the world yet transcends the
world
Personally and actively involved in created order
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, some sects of
Hinduism
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Pantheism
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God and physical universe are one
Common in primal religions, those that involved
nature or animal worship
Taoism, Wicca, some sects of Hinduism
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Nontheism
◦ Whether God exists does not matter
◦ Emphasis on spirituality leaving the divine out of
equation
◦ Buddhism
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Polytheism
◦ Often unspecified number of gods, demigods and
other deities
◦ Most common form of religion in ancient world
◦ Hindu Dharma and Wiccan practices
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Dualism or Ditheism
◦ Belief in two equal Gods
◦ Dichotomy of good and evil
◦ Zoroastrianism
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Monotheism
◦ Only one God
◦ Judaism, Christianity and Islam
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Atheism
◦ Belief that there is no God, divine entity. or
Supreme Being
◦ Technically not a religion
◦ Often with ethical dimensions
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Definition – “being first in time” or “the
original member of the group”
Misunderstood as primitive or savage
Simpler answers to big questions such as –
How is life created?, Where did the world
come from?, What happens after we die?
Native American and traditional African
religions most documented
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Animism
◦ From Greek word anima – “spirit,” “breath,” “air,” or
“life”
◦ Every single thing, whether animate or inanimate, is
endowed with a soul – animals, insects, plants,
rocks, air, water, etc.
◦ All things in nature deserve respect – dependence
on environment for survival – e.g. Native American
practice of offering prayer or offering to spirit of
animal after killed in hunt
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Magic/Divination
◦ Priest or shaman to control nature or evil to
enemies
◦ Shamans read and interpreted signs commonly
used divination to predict future, e.g. – examining
entrails of sacrificed animals, studying bird flights
and interpreting pattern of cracks in a tortoise shell
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Religious Taboos
◦ Actions that should be avoided
◦ Touching the dead
◦ Avoiding menstruating women –sometimes women
lived separately from men during this period
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Myth
◦ Creation stories
◦ Universal expressions of early man’s relationship to
the divine and the world
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Rituals
◦ Sacrifice
◦ Placate spirits, including gods, dead ancestors and
demons
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Ancestor Veneration
◦ Dead lived on in some form and could bring either
good or harm to the living
◦ Sacrifices of food, drink or even blankets to
deceased relatives to create positive energy
between world of living and of the dead
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Universality of Religion
Variety of Perceptions of the Divine
◦ Relation to the World – Theism, Pantheism,
Nontheism
◦ Relation to number of deities – Polytheism,
Dualism, Monotheism or Atheism
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Primal Religions – some characteristics live on
in Higher Religions