INTRO TO WORLD RELIGIONS AND BELIEF SYSTEMS

Module-1: Definition of Terms

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to an order of
existence. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to
life or to explain the origin of life or the universe.
Another definition, it is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems and worldviews that relate
humanity to spirituality and sometimes, to moral values.
The typical definition of religion is “belief in, or the worship of a god or gods” or “the service and worship of God or
the supernatural”
Edward Burnett Tylor defined religion as simply, “the belief in spiritual beings.”
Emile Durkheim, in his seminar book, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, defined religion as ‘unified systems
of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things’. By sacred things, he meant things “set apart and forbidden - beliefs
and practices which unite one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.”
Peter Mandaville and Paul James defined religion as:
“a relatively-bounded system of beliefs, symbols and practices that addresses the nature of existence, and in which
communion with others an Otherness is lived as if both takes in and spiritually transcends socially grounded ontologies
of time, space, embodiment and knowing.”
In his book, The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James defined religion as “the feelings, acts and
experiences of individual he may consider divine.”
Frederick Ferré defined religion as “one way of valuing most comprehensively and intensively.”
Similarly, for the theologian Paul Tillich, faith is “the state of being ultimately concerned”, which “is itself religion.
Religion is the substance, the ground, and the depth of man’s spiritual life.”
Friedrich Shleiermacher in the late 18th century defined religion as “a feeling of absolute dependence.”
Hegel defined religion as the “Divine Spirit becoming conscious of Himself through the finite spirit.”
When religion is seen interms of “sacred”, “divine”, intensive “valuing”, or “ultimate concern”, then it is possible to
understand why scientific findings and philosophical criticisms do not necessarily disturb its adherents.
Religion have a powerful role in shaping ideas of social justice and legitimacy, and also in responding to perceptions of
injustice and illegitimacy. One reason the religions are often so powerful in war or peace is that they carry the
archetypes, images and symbols of meaning and identity that inform people’s thoughts and actions at deep, often
unconscious levels.
THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF RELIGION
Every religion has certain elements. Some of the elements are as follows:
1. Belief in Supernatural Powers
Every religion believs in the existence of some supernatural powers or forces. They consider this powers as formless.
This unseeen power influences every aspect of human life.
2. Belief in the Holy or Sacred
Constitute as the heart of Religion. The concept of holy and sacred is a mental construct. They are symbols – not
visible. They symbolize both the unseen and tangible things.
3. Systems of Rituals
Rituals are the practical side of religion. Behavior performed by the individual or group of individuals with reference to
a supernatural power. They sometimes manifest in the form of ceremony or festival. (A ritual includes varieties of
behavior such as wearing of special types of cloth, reciting prayers, hymns, taking birth in holy rivers, singing, dancing,
crawling, fasting etc.)
4. Sinful Acts
Followers of a certain religion encourage sacred acts and insist to avoid indulging in sinful activities. Obedience to
religious principles is believed to read good results while sinful acts result to suffering or disaster.
5. The Method of Salvation
Almost all religions consider salvation as the ultimate goal of life. They have their own explanation regarding the
method of salvation.
6. Mode of Worship
The followers of different religions either worship the supernatural power in the form of statue of a formless manner.
Worshippers differ from each other in motor activities.
7. Liturgy and Ideology
Different religions practice public relations rites and rituals in fixed form and they also have specific ideology.
8. Place of Worship
Each religion has a definite place of worship.
BELIEF SYSTEM
Beliefs constitutes the base of our life, the land in which we live. All our conduct, including our intellectual life,
depends on the system of our authentic beliefs.
Societies were founded, develop, degenerate and die based on their belief systems. Belief systems are the stories that we
tell ourselves to define our personal sense of reality. Every human being has a belief system that he utilizes, and it is
through this mechanism that individuals, “make sense” of the world around them.
Belief systems are sets of beliefs reinforced by culture, theology and experience as to how the world works.
WORLD VIEW
Sometimes referred to as belief system but the known world view is more of a theology of the world.
It is a mental model of reality – a framework of ideas and attitudes about the world, ourselves, and life, a comprehensive
system of beliefs. World view is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the
entirety of the individual or society’s knowledge and point of view.
Some Theologian World Views
1. All is One (Monistic)
Monism is a philosophical, cosmological and metaphysical stand which proposes an ultimate unity of all things, and
that all seeming differences, distinctions, divisions and separations are ultimately only apparent of partial aspects of an
ultimate whole.
It’s theological stance, “all is one, that there are no fundamental divisions and that a unified set of laws underlie all of
nature. The universe at the deepest level of analysis, is then one thing or composed of one fundamental kind of stuff.”
 2. Many Gods (Polytheistic)
Polytheism refers to the worship of or belief in more than one deity. The emergence of this view, in a sociological
perspective, has been attributed to the desire to pacify uncontrollable forces of nature, the need for supernatural moral
sanctions, and the attempt to justify specialization and class distinction.
It also involves the idea of adopting human forms and features of divinities, as in the human passions and behavior of
the Roman and Greek Deities.
Not all polytheist worships all gods equally. Some are ‘henotheists’, that is, specializing in the veneration of one
specific deity. Others are ‘kathenotheists’, that is worshiping different gods or goddesses at different times.
3. One God (Monotheistic)
The belief in one single God: the belief that there is only one God.
The Oxford Dictionary at the Christian Church defines it as the belief in one personal and transcendent God. Within
theism, monotheism is opposed to polytheism and pantheism (the belief that God is everything) The term monotheism
came from the Greek monos meaning single and theos meaning ‘god’. Christian tradition holds that monotheism was
the original religion of humanity, but was lost after the fall of man or after the first couple transgressed the will of the
single Omnipotent God.
Some Christian groups believe that the doctrine of the Trinity is incompatible with monotheism. Thus, reject
Trinitarianism. The trinity is the belief that God is one God in three persons: God the father, God the son (Jesus) and
God the Holy Spirit.
“1 Corinthians 8:6, the holy scriptures of Christianity emphatically advocate monotheism, as it unambiguously
teachers, “yet for us there is one God, the Father.”
4. No God (Atheistic)
Stands for the disbelief, denial of, or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods. The term comes from the Greek
prefix ‘a-’, meaning ‘without’, and the Greek word ‘theos’ which means ‘god.’
Atheistic worldview rejects any supernatural origin of the universe, an afterlife, the authority of the so-called Holy
Scriptures and any theological foundation of morality.
Atheism, as a worldview, is essentially related to naturalism and materialism, and is seen as very much compatible with
Evolutionism and Darwinism.
Naturalism is a belief system that discards all spiritual and supernatural explanations of the world and
affirms nature as the totality of reality.
Materialism refers to the philosophical doctrine that physical matter is the only ultimate reality.
Darwinism, the advocacy of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, and evolutionism, the belief in the theory of
evolution by natural selection, are fundamentally related.
Evolutionists claim that the existence of all life is explained by natural selection which for them is a “blind,
unconscious, no purpose, no mind, no vision, no foresight, no sight at all, automatic process.” In other words, all life
allegedly originated through intrinsically directionless series of processes as opposed to the planned and decisive
creation by God.
SPIRITUALITY
Spirituality may refer to almost any kind of meaningful activity such as personal gravity or blissful experiences. It may
also refer to a process of reformation of the personality.
Etymologically, the term spirit means “animating or vital principle in man and animals.” is it derived from the Old
French spirit which comes from the Latin word spiritus (soul, courage, vigor, breath) and is related to spirare (to
breath)
Spirituality is a universal human experience – something that touches us all. People may describe a spiritual experience
as sacred or transcendent or simply a deep sense of aliveness and interconnected ness.
ELEMENTS OF SPIRITUALITY
1. Prayer
Prayer is talking over one’s life with God. The goal of true prayer is to look at life through God’s eyes. Prayer makes us
patient, compassionate toward others and peaceful most of all.
2. Intimacy
Intimacy means more than proximity; it means sharing the depths of self with another. To be intimate is to be
completely honest about oneself.
3. Forgiveness
The hardest person to forgive is ourselves. There are only two practical methods for getting over our own blunders:
forgetting and forgiving. Forgetting means mentally shoveling dirt on painful incidents so it no longer haunts our self-
image. However, this method often verges on repression.
A better way is forgiving. This means looking directly at the harm we have done and praying about it until we can see it
as humbling us down from our pinnacle of self-importance so that God can fill us with His own selfless love. In this
way, the more we are forgiven, the more of God’s love there is in us.
4. Work
For work to be truly Christian, the worker must be creative. The creative worker is goal-oriented; not haphazard, sets
aside time to think about the implications of one’s work. One must try to bring order out of chaos.
5. Hospitality
Hospitality is an attitude of attentiveness that makes the one encountered feel valued. By spending time with someone,
listening to him, or her, we affirm that he/she is more than an object. We make him/her feel as a cherished member of
the human community, instead of an intruder.
6. Networking
Networking is forming associations in order to meet human needs. So long as the project is pursued prayerfully,
enthusiastically and with tolerance for the truth of opposing viewpoints, it fulfills the second Christian commandment
love your neighbor as yourself.
7. Play
Is the imaginative construction of one segment of reality. Play is much more than diversion or exercise. It is creativity in
preliminary form, the fore-runner of authentic change.
THEOLOGY
Is a systematic and rational study of concept of god and of the nature of religious rules. This is acquired by completing
specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or seminary or school of divinity.
Augustine of Hippo defined the Latin equivalent, theologia, as a reasoning or discussion concerning the deity.

Richard Hooker defined theology as “the science of things divine.”