Religions of the World

video growth of religions https://youtu.be/AvFl6UBZLv4

Relative size of World religions

• The circle graph: http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-map-world-religions-2012-4

Study of Religion

http://studyreligion.org/what/index.html

Why study religion

• Religion has always been with us
• Religion is studied by an energetic academic field
• The study of religion leads in many directions

Chapters 3-4 Sacred Quest

Important terms from these chapters

An example of the sacred

https://youtu.be/nrG5Yuwpapc

3 patterns of understanding the appearance of the sacred

• Prophetic (stress on belief, society, and morality—all centered on revelation) Moses. Mohammed. A prophet is a person who receives a revelation that deals with historical life of community.
• Sacramental (stress on sacred objects and ritual as vehicles for the sacred), Jesus. The presence of sacred through an aspect of material reality or objects; stresses role of priests.
• Mystical (stress on states of consciousness, feeling, and experience) the Buddha. Emphasis on a state of being or consciousness, such as enlightenment or contact with God.

4 media shaped by 3 patterns

these 3 patterns shape how one understands the 4 types of sacred media:

• person—prophet (prophetic), God incarnate (sacramental), and sage (mystical),
• objects—texts (prophetic), bread, wine & material objects (sacramental), breathing & tea (mystical)
• time—linear/historical (prophetic) v. cyclical (often mystical) [sacramental can be either]
• space—places of revelations, places of worship, stupa, and nature (note how all 3 patterns apply)

5 Concepts

• Manifest — to show, reveal, or make known
• Hierophany — a revelation of the holy,
• Prophet [one who speaks with the authority of another]: one who speaks with the authority of God or the sacred; a spokesperson for the sacred based upon a received revelation or contact with the sacred.
• Sacrament a sign and instrument of the sacred; a sign that causes or makes effective the reality to which it points
• Cosmology worldview; an account of the meaning and order of the universe and the relationships between its different parts.