Beginning the Journey
Ch. 1
So What?
Now What?
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What’s wrong with our world?
Is religion a major cause of evil in our world?
Does religion make the world a better place?
What can be done to make the world a better
place?
• Can religion be defined? Is its expression
limitless?
What is Religious Diversity (pgs. 7-8)
Majority Religion, by Country
Global Catholic Trends
• In 1910 66% of all Christians lived in Europe.
In 2010 only 25% lived in Europe.
• In 1910 only 9% (8.5 million) of Africans were
Christian. In 2010, 63% (516 million) are
Christian, which is an increase of 6000%.
• Sub-Saharan African alone makes up 24% of
the total global Christian population
Global Catholic Trends
• Nigeria today has more than twice as many
Protestants that Germany (the birthplace of
the Protestant Reformation)
• Brazil has more than twice as many Catholics
than Italy (headquarters of Roman
Catholicism)
• The United States is the largest Christian
nation in the world with 247 million
Christians.
Global Catholic Trends
• Ten Largest Catholic Countries: 1. Brazil=133
million; 2. Mexico=96 million; 3. Philippines=
76 million; 4. USA=74 million; 5. Italy=50
million; 6. Columbia=38 million; 7. France=37
million; 8. Poland=35 million; 9. Spain=34
million; 10. DR Congo=31 million
• Total World Catholic Population approx. 1.1
billion.
This is
Religious Diversity
Is there Religious Diversity in USA or
SA, TX?
• http://www.citydata.com/county/religion/Bexar-CountyTX.html
World Religions vs. World’s Religions
(pg. 8)
• Our study will encompass the world’s religions
but not all of them.
• World Religions implies an international
reality.
• This study will survey those traditions that
have influenced the world in a significant way.
• World Religions=the religions we will study.
• World’s Religions=all the religions in the
world!
So, what is Religion?
What a religion is? (pg. 9)
• From the Latin word
religio which means “to
bind.”
• People bound together
for something worthy of
reverence and respect.
• The increased
separation refers to….
• One does not simply define
religion.
Why Study World Religions? [pg. 10]
• To gain a clearer understanding of one’s own faith, which in
turn enables a person to be more committed to and thus
grow in his or her own religious tradition.
• To assist a person in being more open and accepting of
people who, on the surface, seem very different.
• To dispel fears and misunderstandings relating to persons
of other religious traditions.
• To gain a better insight into human beings by understanding
their religious activities.
• To gain a better understanding of the history of
humankind’s various civilizations, since religion is almost
always an important factor.
• To gain a better understanding of the various cultures
around the globe today.
• To learn from some of the world’s great sources of wisdom.
Nostra Aetate (Relation of the Church
to Non-Christian Religions)
• The Catholic Church rejects nothing which is
true and holy in these religions. She looks
with sincere respect upon those ways of
conduct and of life, those rules and teaching
which, though differing in many particulars for
what she holds and sets forth, nevertheless
often reflect a ray of that TRUTH which
enlightens all. (2)
– Quote found on pg. 11 of textbook.
The importance of dialogue (head) and
empathy (heart) (pg. 11)
• “Walk a mile in the
moccasins of another”
• Empathy means to
identify and understand
the situation of another.
• c : a discussion between
representatives of parties
to a conflict that is aimed
at resolution <a
constructive dialogue
between loggers and
environmentalists>
Significance of Vatican II (pgs. 12-16)
Nostra Aetate (Relation of the Church
to Non-Christian Religions)
• The Church therefore, exhorts her sons, that
through dialogue and collaboration with the
followers of other religions carried out with
prudence and love and in witness to the
Christian faith and life, they recognize,
preserve and promote the good things,
spiritual and moral, as well as the sociocultural values found among these men. (3)
Key Terms pgs. 12-16
• Liturgy-a definite set of
forms for public religious
worship, the official
public workshop of the
Church.
• Evangelization-from the
root word for “gospel,”
the “sharing of the good
news.”
• Witnessing-giving
testimony of one’s
religious faith to another.
• Ecumenism-the
movement that seeks the
union of all Christian
faiths and eventually the
unity of all peoples
throughout the world.
Cults vs. Sects
Difference? (not in textbook)
• Cult-an organization
characterized by mind control,
charismatic leadership,
deception, exclusivity,
alienation, exploitation and a
totalitarian worldview.
• Sect-a group adhering to a
distinctive doctrine or to a
leader. A small group of
people within a religion who
hold beliefs or practices which
are considered
unconventional.
Sacred Stories and Sacred Scriptures
(pgs. 17-18)
• Myths- traditional or
ancient stories that help
to provide a worldview
of a people by
explaining their
creation, customs, or
ideals.
Myth? Fact or Fiction
Assualt on belief…
Literalists?!
Assualt on belief…
Beliefs and Practices pgs. 19-20
• Catholicism (Precepts of
the Church)=
• Mass on Sundays and
Holy Days
• Eucharist at least once
during Easter Season
• Recon. At least once a
year
• Observe fasting and days
of abstinence
• Help with the needs of
the Church
• Islam (Pillars of Worship)
• Shahada=acknowledging
only one God and his
messenger
• Salat=performing ritual
prayer
• Zakat-alms to the poor
• Sawm-fasting in Ramadan
• Hajj-pilgrimage to Mecca
Sacred Time, Sacred Places and Spaces, and
Other Elements or Patterns (pgs. 21-22)
• READ THE TEXTBOOK!
The case for belief.
The case for unbelief.
Does Religion Matter? YES!
• It is by now a Sunday supplement commonplace that
the…modernization of the world is accompanied by a
spiritual malaise that has come to be called alienation…. At
its most fundamental level, the diagnosis of alienation is
based on the view that modernization forces upon us a
world that, although baptized as real by science, is
denuded of all humanly recognizable qualities; beauty and
ugliness, love and hate, passion and fulfillment, salvation
and damnation. It is not, of course being claimed that such
matters are not part of existential realities of human life. It
is rather that the scientific worldview makes it illegitimate
to speak of them as being “objectively” part of the world,
forcing us instead to define such evaluation and such
emotional experience as merely subjective projections of
people’s inner lives.
-Manfred Stanley, Sociologist
The Great Debate
Three inescapable problems for
Humanity!!!
• The Nature problem or
how to win food and
shelter from the
environment
• The Social problem or
how to get along with
one another.
• The Religious problem
or how to relate
themselves to the total
scheme of things.
Making Sense of 2 Competing
Worldviews
• Scientific Worldview
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–
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Scientific Method
Hypotheses
Theory
Ex. Big Bang Theory
Evolution
• The notion that the
scientific method can give
us proof to definitively
know something. Proof
stacked upon proof gives
us a huge edifice of
knowledge about our
world we refer to as the
Scientific Worldview.
• Traditional/Religious
Worldview
– World’s Religions
– Religion and Humanity
interrelated
– Ex. Sacraments
– 16 Documents of Second
Vatican Council
• Religious systems seek to
articulate a worldview
which help adherents
make sense of life and its
meaning. This worldview
attempts answer the
ultimate questions in life.
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=niaux+cave+art&ie=UTF8&ei=VascUuyQLOqisQT3y4G4Dg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg