Religion and its historical traditions
With the study of religion taking centre stage in the new AS and A-level specifications, understanding the historical context of religion is of increasing importance. Peter Manning guides you through the origins of the major world religions
For each religious faith community, there exists a conviction that it enables access to some kind of wisdom or ‘revealed’ truth about the nature of reality and how we should respond to life. While there is an immense diversity in religious belief and practice across and even within different religions, it is possible to group religions into three broad and distinct categories:
■ primal religious traditions
■ Indian religious traditions (Hinduism,
Buddhism and Sikhism)
■ Semitic religious traditions (Judaism,
Christianity and Islam)
Each broad tradition shares something of a common cultural and historical identity when compared to the other two traditions. In this article, we will explore what makes each broad tradition distinct from the others.
Primal religious traditions
The form religion takes in preliterate tribal societies is often called primal religion. Although the specifics of beliefs and religious rites can vary greatly, primal tribal religions share a generally similar world-view. A supernatural view of the world flows through most aspects favour and therefore protect life and the welfare of family and tribe. Over time it is argued that the gods gained more personal characteristics and the relationships between the gods became more complex. Eventually one God developed as more important than the rest of the pantheon of gods. This God was seen as the ultimate power and sustainer of everything else that existed. Out of polytheism there slowly developed a belief in the one true God: monotheism.
Problems with historical explanation
The historical explanation of religion, in providing a naturalistic explanation, necessarily excludes from the outset the possibility that religion, whether primal or canonical, might actually be connecting with spiritual realities beyond the physical world. Transcendent powers and the actual existence of God are rejected. It is within this context that the European Enlightenment has often seen religion as the immature strivings of humanity towards the rational scientific man of today.
This perspective chimes today with that of Richard Dawkins and the critiques of religion he offers. Religion is seen as a mistake that must now be resisted. Instead of false magic, modern man has science.
It is hard to deny that canonical religions have not been influenced by earlier primal religions. However, such a recognition does not necessarily lead to the assumption of an atheistic understanding of religion. To consider historical processes leaves open the possibility of transcendent powers working within, through and alongside them unless a reductionist view of religion has already been assumed. It is still possible that God, or transcendent powers, may act in history or be disclosed through religious experience. Moses, Jesus and Muhammad may be the means by which God is revealed and made known in this world through the divine laws and commands contained in the holy books.
The problem with any historical explanation of religion, as the British anthropologist Evans-Pritchard pointed out in the 1930s, is that we cannot prove it to be the case. The kind of historical evidence needed to establish naturalistic explanations of religion as true just does not exist. An alternative way of viewing the religious strivings of humanity might see in religion different stages, attempts or responses on the quest for spiritual wisdom or the ultimate truth.
Indian religious traditions
Indian religions include a diverse range of traditions. Nevertheless, Keith Ward (1994) has characterised the general approach as one of enlightened apprehension. Indian religions tend towards a more mystical sensibility with a focus on inner experience. It is holy men with special gifts or skills in meditation who gain access to a suprasensory realm beyond this physical world, to attain an awareness of the of community and individual life. Within the Western world a distinction is often made between the spiritual world and the natural world. However, within primal religions such a distinction makes no sense, as a holistic, almost organic view of reality is taken which intertwines the spiritual with the natural. In such a context religion is not something chosen or inherited, or just part of culture, but the heart and breath of life. Instead of the world being conceived as a detached, impersonal machine driven by the laws of natural causation, as in Western science, reality is perceived through relational and personal categories of thought. Everything that happens, from birth to death in the cycle of life, and the chaotic and often unpredictable behaviour of the forces of nature, are related to spiritual forces. Such spiritual powers are often expressed in personified ways, so that they become part of the agency and characteristics of spirits, ancestors or a myriad of gods striving for influence in the world. The Christian theologian Keith Ward has summed up the overarching cultural and belief focus found within primal religions by stating:
‘sensory reality is an appearance of an underlying suprasensory world whose character can be discerned by processes of mental purification and whose powers can be used for human well-being — fertility, good hunting, and health.’
Ward 1994,p.
The focus on fertility, hunting and good health within primal religions shows that much of their concern centres on issues of survival in an often challenging and uncertain world. In a world full of dangers, it becomes important in primal societies for a holy man, or shaman, to act as an intermediary between the spirit world and its suprasensory order of being and the rest of the tribal group. Through his insights, access to secret knowledge may be gained in order to help appease spiritual powers. Such disclosure may come through dreams, ecstatic visions or while in a trance-like state experiencing some kind of travels in the spirit world. In acting as a mediator of revelation, the shaman is providing the community with the hope and possibility of greater security and harmony in their relations with the natural world. In fulfilling such an important task for the primal society, the shamans help reinforce social structures and legitimise the beliefs and values of the primal society they are a part of. Religious authority within primal religions clearly rests with the shamans.
Influence on major world religions
The six largest world religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism are all predated by primal religions. These major world religions are often described as canonical religions because, unlike primal religions, there is a set of written texts, or holy books, which provide cultural identity and religious authority through the generations. Despite their canonical nature, it might be argued that the oldest of these religions developed out of the beliefs and rites of primal religions, with the other world religions forming out of the cultural fabric of earlier religions through the accidents of history and religious reforming movements.
When comparing the development of Judaism as an identifiable religion in the ancient near east to, for example, Canaanite religion, we can see that the religion of the Israelites found its identity in opposition to many of the common traits of primal religions. For its own part, Hinduism probably originated around 4,500 years ago in the Indus Valley civilisation of northwest India from earlier forms of primal religion.
To suggest that earlier primal religions explain the existence of canonical religions is to offer a historical explanation of religion. Such an approach has most often been linked to the Victorian anthropologists E. Tylor and J. Frazer. Both developed theories about religion by suggesting how each stage of religious development might be understood as part of a process of cultural and religious evolution.
Although inspired by Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory, it was the philosopher David Hume who first suggested this, in The Natural History of Religion (1757). Hume argued that the earliest type of religion involved the worship of many gods (polytheism). The motivation for worshipping the gods came from the need to tame the fear created by death, disease, natural disasters and the general unpredictability of life.
THE SIX LARGEST WORLD RELIGIONS OF JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM, HINDUISM, BUDDHISM AND SIKHISM ARE ALL PREDATED BY PRIMAL RELIGIONS.
Worship of the gods was an attempt to gain their underlying meaning and cycles of existence. The universal cosmic law that holds the universe together is sensed through meditative practices, and thus enlightenment is gained. The idea of dharma places in propositional form knowledge about the nature of reality. It is through such knowledge that humanity may find the means to achieve conformity with the cosmic law and thus fulfil its duty or role within the scheme of existence.
The idea of samsara, with its cycle of rebirth, plays a key part in understanding the nature of the universe for Indian religions. It is through this cycle of rebirth that the spiritual goal of unity of the soul with the being of ultimate reality is to be achieved. By removing desire and ignorance, an illusory individualistic concept of the self as an independent reality can be challenged. If everything that exists has an impermanent existence, an ascetic path to spirituality opens up as possessions and worldly status are seen as hollow shells in the pursuit of happiness or enlightenment. Instead a state of non-attachment to the things of the world opens the door on achieving and experiencing bliss and contentment.
Indian religions have a wide range of beliefs about God. A creator God who stands separate from the created world is not always the understanding given in Indian religions. Instead of a commitment to monotheism, Hinduism often portrays God in a more pantheistic light. Pantheism is the belief that God and the universe are to be identified with each other, as ways of referring to the same reality. Buddhism is a monistic religious tradition which often sees questions concerning the existence of God as irrelevant and a distraction to the spiritual quest for enlightenment. Monism rejects the idea of God and the universe being divine. However, monism does believe that everything that exists is part of an underlying unity of being. With these pantheistic and monistic approaches, Indian religions are often understood in terms of non-dualism.
Within Hinduism, avatars may represent personal understandings of divinity, special manifestations or vehicles through which the underlying reality of the suprasensory realm may be glimpsed and experienced. Avatars are not the fundamental reality itself, as ultimate reality is beyond distinctions between personal and non-personal. As a consequence, revelation is non-propositional and known through experience rather than in propositional truth statements. Non-activity and passivity through the experience of meditation is a key source of revelation. Miracles are understood to be examples of psychic powers in gifted spiritual holy men who are in step with the suprasensory order of being.
Semitic religious traditions
In contrast to Indian religions, we find in Semitic religions a strongly monotheistic tradition.
God is seen as the eternally existing creator of the universe. The reality of God stands apart from that of the world and thus a dualistic understanding of existence is affirmed. Semitic religions stress the personal nature of God, who is a willing, relating, speaking being who acts in human history. God makes his will known through chosen messengers, or prophets, who reveal the will of God. Semitic religions are therefore prophetic and focused on the spoken word as the vehicle of revelation. Semitic religions, in contrast to the non-propositional approach of Indian religions, are propositional in relation to revelation. Instead of meditation being a key way of engaging with God, as in Indian religions, prayer becomes much more important. Instead of experience, words and their meaning take centre stage.
The Semitic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam share a common heritage in the stories surrounding the life of the patriarch Abraham, and also in the role of the prophets developed within the religion and history of ancient Israel. With the ancient Hebrew prophets we get propositional claims to knowing the revelation of God’s word. A clear belief in a creator God is expressed. This God has a moral purpose for humanity. It is God who acts as both judge and saviour of humanity in a fallen and sinful world. It is through the prophets that the will of God is made known.
THE IDEA OF SAMSARA, WITH ITS CYCLE OF REBIRTH, PLAYS A KEY PART IN UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE FOR INDIAN RELIGIONS.
Appeals to God
In the world of the ancient Hebrew religion, we find in Canaanite religion and other religious traditions of the time a belief in polytheism, with many gods at war with each other and humans as the playthings of the gods. There is also a belief in the localised powers and spirits of shamanistic rituals akin to primal religions. In contrast to the human sacrifice, ritual prostitution and reliance on magic within near eastern fertility religions, we have in the Hebrew tradition the proclamation of a universal truth revolving around a creator God who rejects these practices.
However, some of the shamanistic practices can still be found in the lives of some key actors within the Hebraic tradition. For example, Saul, as the first king of the Israelites, relied on the practice of prolonged ecstatic trance-like states to gain access to prophetic revelation.
Such reliance on shamanistic practices faded into the background as the prophetic tradition within the Hebrew religion developed. To replace the previous reliance on personal ecstatic experience, the prophets increasingly rely on appeals to God as an actor in history.
An earlier historical revelation is appealed to, through which the nature and will of God has already been made known. So, within Judaism, the Exodus event and the provision of the Law to Moses become key markers of religious identity around which relationships with God are organised. The Exodus event also serves to authenticate the earlier Abrahamic covenant by which the Hebrews have become the chosen people of God with a promised land in view. In as much as they upheld the ancient histories and revelations, they were judged to be acting as agents of divine authority and blessing.
The message of the prophets proclaimed that a personal God who created everything existed. It was this God alone that was worthy of worship. This basis gives Semitic religions a tendency towards exclusivism which sees other religions as a mistake. The revelation of God can only truly be found within its own particular religious tradition. This tendency becomes more keenly pronounced in Christianity and Islam. Keith Ward states that in Semitic religions the:
‘prophetic religion stands for the transcendence of personal, ethical, and individual life, over against the reduction of human personhood to the rhythms of time and nature, and the ritual control of fate and fertility which the nature religions seemed to stress. ’
Ward 1994, p. 1 02
The history of Semitic religions
It is through history that revelation is disclosed within the Semitic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Within Judaism we find the emphasis is on the giving of the Torah to Moses and the ministry of the prophets in ancient Israel. For Christianity, the breaking into history of the divine Word in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is stressed, as God makes himself incarnate in this world. In Islam, the eternal pre-existent words of God are imparted to his prophet Muhammad. These words now form the Qur’an. In each of the Semitic religions we find a strong notion of the purposeful action of God towards the world, moving humanity towards its future consummation and perfection.
Within Semitic religions, God made an ordered and good creation that has become corrupted by human sin and rebellion against God. Some theological traditions within Christianity and Islam stress the imperfection of the world as a place of suffering, as a test from God or veil of soul making, through which holiness is given its chance to develop and shine by the choices we make during our lives. Each Semitic religion offers different ways of resolving the disordered relationships between God and humanity. Judaism puts the focus on living an ethical life towards God and others. Christianity stresses the need to find salvation in recognising Jesus as God incarnate, restoring our relationship to God. Islam emphasises the need to submit to the will of God.
There is a respective concern within each tradition for the way in which the lives of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad disclose the divine will, law and commands. Miracles are viewed as events that witness the breaking into this world of God or his agents to direct creation towards its end goal, and also to the overcoming of evil. The world cannot heal itself and needs a transcendent and eternally existing God to lead creation towards its future destiny. Such a God is to be related to primarily through prayer and the contemplation of his word in the holy text (Torah, Bible or Qur’an). Those who acknowledge the existence of God and seek to incorporate his wisdom into their lives may develop a life of loving devotion to God and his will.
The Semitic religions can be seen as involving the ongoing persuasive influence of God towards humanity. Revelation is about encountering God or his will, whether originating in experience or the written word of holy texts, and generating a personal response to that encounter.
Understanding revelation as propositional has played a greater part in Semitic religions than the non-propositional perspective. Semitic traditions have most often been understood to see revelation as the conveying of information to human beings by God through speaking, through verbal and personal modes of communication, which establish objective truths.
Exploring further
Semitic and Indian traditions have clear differences from each other, as well as from primal religions. How each of the religions should relate to each other and perceive the spirituality or truths of the other religions is a key issue for us, living in the pluralistic society that we do. While we cannot tackle the issues surrounding religious pluralism in this article, through a keener understanding of the main differences between the religious traditions you will be able to explore more effectively the issues surrounding religious pluralism and the nature of religions.
SEMITIC AND INDIAN TRADITIONS HAVE CLEAR DIFFERENCES FROM EACH OTHER, AS WELL AS FROM PRIMAL RELIGIONS.
References
Ward, K. (1994) Religion and Revelation, Oxford University Press.