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The Major Religions
Prof. T. Patrick Burke
Introduction
Seriousness and Frivolity
The Significance of Religion?
The spiritual dimension of human life.
Soul
Meaning
Analysis and Diagnosis
Hegel
Introduction, cont’d.
The Families of Religions
Indian: Hinduism, Buddhism, (Jainism),
Sikhism
The Self
Chinese: Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese
Buddhism
Nature
Semitic: Judaism, Christianity, Islam
God and Revelation
Introduction, cont’d.
Places of Worship
Belief and Action
Some Categories
Universal and Particular
Mystical and Ethical
Self- and Other-Power
Personal and Civil
Introduction, cont’d.
Value Judgements
The Phenomenological Approach
Current Debate: Commitment v.
Anthropology
Our Approach in this Course
Description, Suspension, Discussion
Gender and Class: Equality and the
Middle Class.
Introduction, cont’d
Test Questions:
Arrange the major religions in their
families.
What is meant by a “universal” religion?
What is meant by a religion of “selfliberation”?
What is the “phenomenological”
approach?
What are the reasons for and against
Part I: Religions of Indian
Origin
Hinduism
Buddhism
Jainism (not covered in this course)
Sikhism
Hinduism
The Spirit of Hinduism
The story of Narada and Vishnu
The Hindu View of Life
The presence of the divine
Pre-Vedic Religion: Harappa
Hinduism
Vedic Religion
The Aryans
The Vedas
Rig, Sama, Yajur, Atharva.
The Vedic Gods
Indra, Agni, Varuna, Rta
Sacrifice (yajna)
Brahman, the Power of the Sacrifice
Hinduism
The Upanishads
Brahman, the highest Reality
Nirguna Brahman
The Atman or Self
The Atman is identical with Brahman
The True Self and the Apparent Self
Hinduism, cont.
Monism
Reincarnation
The Law of Karma
The Cycle of Birth and Death
Moksha, Liberation
The Path of Sacred Knowledge,
Meditation and Asceticism
Hinduism, cont.
The Later Upanishads:
Personalization
Saguna Brahman: With Attributes
Ishvara, the Lord
Maya
Yoga
Hinduism, cont.
Classical Hinduism
The Epics, Maha-bharata, Ramayana
The Puranas
Vishnu and Shiva (and Brahma)
Shakti: the Goddess
Parvati, Durga, Kali
Yoni and lingam
Hinduism, cont.
Lakshmi
Sarasvati
Ganesha
Polytheism and Monotheism
Puja
Darshana
Hinduism, cont.
The Four Varnas, or Classes
The Aryan or Twice-born, the Sacred
Thread
Brahmins
Kshatriyas
Vaishyas
Sudras
Outcastes, Untouchables
Hinduism, cont.
The Many Jatis, or Castes
Restrictions on:
Food
Marriage
Occupation
Hinduism, cont.
The Four Ends of Man
Dharma, Caste Duty
Sadharana Dharma
Artha, Power
Kama, Pleasure
Moksha, Liberation
Hinduism, cont.
The Four Ashramas, or Stages of Life
Brahmacarin, the celibate student
Grihastha, the householder
Vanaprastha, the forest-dweller
Sannyasin
Sadhus
Hinduism, cont.
Bhakti Hinduism: The life of devotion
The Bhagavad-gita
Karma yoga
“Do the work for the sake of the
work…”
Bhakti, devotion to the Supreme Lord
Vishnu: Krishna and Rama
Shiva
Hinduism, cont.
Hindu Ethics:
Class and Caste Duties
Universal Duties
Ahimsa, non-violence
No doctrine of unjust war
But rules for conduct of war
Hinduism, cont.
Modern Developments
Gandhi
Non-violent protest, civil disobedience,
political independence (1947)
Class and Caste outlawed, but preserved
Partition: creation of Pakistan for Muslims
Rejection of Capitalism, and Return to it.
Hindutva: militant Hindu nationalism
Test, Hinduism
1. Identify: Indra, Agni, Varuna, Rta, Vishnu,
Shiva, Sarasvati, Kali.
2. Explain briefly what is meant by:
Brahman, Atman, maya, moksha,
samsara, yoga.
3. Summarize in one or two sentences the
worldview of the Upanishads.
4. What are the Four Ends of Man?
5. What are the Four Varnas?
Test, Hinduism, cont.
6. What is the chief message of the
Bhagavad-Gita?
Buddhism
The Mustard Seed
The Buddhist View of Life: Transience
"Do not cherish the unworthy desire that
the changeable might become
unchanging.“
Siddhartha Gautama of the Shakyas
The Four Passing Sights
The Great Going Forth
The Great Awakening
Buddhism, cont.
Theravada Buddhism
The Four Noble Truths
Dukkha: Suffering
Tanha: Craving
Nirvana: Extinction
Marga: The Path
Buddhism, cont.
The Eightfold Path
Right Understanding
Right Thought
Right Speech, Conduct, Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration
Buddhism, cont.
The Ten Precepts
Five and Five
Monks and Laity
The Three Jewels
Buddhist Theory
Impermanence, Anicca
No Self, Anatta
Buddhism, cont.
The Five Aggregates
Matter
Sensations
Perception
Mental Formations
Consciousness
Buddhism, cont.
The Doctrine of Dependent Origination
Rebirth
The Many Buddhas
Buddhism, cont.
Mahayana Buddhism
The Bodhisattva
Nirvana and Samsara
The Eternal Buddha
Emptiness, Sunyata
Grace v. Merit
Meditation
Buddhism, cont.
Devotional Buddhism
Some Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara, Maitreya
The Threefold Body of the Buddha
The historical Buddha
Faith
The Sangha
Festivals
Buddhism, cont.
Buddhist Ethics
Compassion for suffering
Care for life, including commerce
Rejection of justice, just war.
Modern Developments
Little affected by science, democracy,
capitalism
Neo-Buddhism
Religions of Chinese Origin
Harmony with Nature
Human Nature: Confucianism
Cosmic Nature: Taoism
Buddha Nature and Cosmic Nature:
Chinese
Buddhism
Traditional Chinese Religion
Spirit: Sacrifice offered to spirits of ancestors
by the son.
Civil religion, for the good of the community.
rather than personal.
A function of the head of the community:
father, king (son of ancestors).
Nearest thing to a priesthood: the ju, the
learned.
Traditional Chinese Religion
Shang Dynasty, 1500-1100 BC.
Aristocracy and peasantry.
Ancestors
Spirits: kuei and shen.
Gods: the T’u Ti
the celestial administration;
once human beings.
Traditional Chinese Religion
Shang dynasty cont.
Ti.
Divination.
Ritual, Li.
Power, Te.
Traditional Chinese Religion
Chou Dynasty, 1100-500 BC.
Shang Ti, the high God.
Heaven, T’ien.
The Mandate of Heaven, T’ien Ming.
Virtue, Te.
Filial piety, Hsiao.
The Son of Heaven, T’ien Tzu.
Traditional Chinese Religion
Period of the Warring States, 500-221 BC.
Calamities
Shang Ti, replaced by Heaven, T’ien.
The Five Classics:
Changes
History
Poetry
Ritual
Spring and Autumn Annals.
Confucianism
Confucius and the Tiger
The Confucian View of Life: Humanheartedness.
K’ung Fu Tzu, 552-479 BC.
Poor but well educated.
Teachings compiled by his followers.
Response to barbarization: virtue,
character.
Confucianism, cont.
The Four Books:
Analects
The Doctrine of the Mean
The Great Learning
Mencius
Heaven
The Goodness of Human Nature
Confucianism, cont.
Tao, the Way
Chun-tzu, the Noble Man
Ren, Human-heartedness
I, Justice
Hsiao and T’i, Filial Piety and Brotherly
Love
The Five Relationships
Li, the Rules of Good Behavior
Confucianism, cont.
Shu, Treat others as you wish to be treated.
Chung, Conscientiousness
Te, the Power of Virtue
Ho, harmony
The Mean
The Rectification of Names
Theory of Government: the Person of the
Ruler
Confucianism, cont.
The Destiny of Man
Yang and Yin
Modern Developments:
Banned under Communism on Mainland
Maintained in Taiwan, Hong Kong,
Singapore
Can it foster democracy?
Can it foster free markets?
Taoism
The Spirit of Taoism: Who knows what is
‘good’?
Harmony with Cosmic Nature.
Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu
Tao, the Way of Nature
Wu, Non-being, Emptiness
Spontaneity
Impartial, not humane
Taoism, cont.
The Relativity of Values
Our ordinary values are conventional,
and relative to their opposites. Beauty implies
ugliness.
The cosmos does not share our human values.
Wu Wei: Inactive Action.
The Man of Tao
Government should be minimal.
Taoism and the arts.
Taoism, cont.
Other forms of Taoism:
In addition to Philosophical Taoism,
there is also Popular Taoism,
which aims to produce health, wealth and
long life through rituals.
Chinese Buddhism
The Spirit of Chinese Buddhism
Paradox
The Chinese Buddhist View of Life:
Personal Religion
A Fusion of Indian Buddhism and Taoism
The place of the Tao is taken by the
Buddhanature.
Meditational and Devotional
Chinese Buddhism
Meditational: Ch’an (Zen in Japan)
Meditation is the path to enlightenment.
The Buddha and the Lotus
Bodhidharma
Seeking the Buddha in One’s Own Heart
A Special Transmission outside the
Scriptures
No Dependence on Words or Letters
Chinese Buddhism
Meditation: Overcoming the sense of
individual
identity distinct from the
world.
Seeing our innermost nature as the
Buddhanature.
Sudden vs. Gradual Enlightenment
Lin Chi
Shock therapy, kung an (koan).
Tsao Tung Reason and argument
Chinese Buddhism
Enlightenment not our doing.
No objective change.
Spontaneity and the arts.
Devotional Chinese Buddhism
Far greater numbers
The Pure Land
Kuan Yin
Religions of Semitic Origin
Judaism, Christianity, Islam
God
Personal, all-powerful, -knowing, -good.
Creation
Revelation, in writing
Judgement
Israelite Religion
Spirit: David, Uriah, Nathan
Origins: Unification of hill tribes.
Captivity in Egypt? Exodus?
Torah in Babylon
Ethical Monotheism
Civil religion, for this world
The Law
Israelite Religion
God and Creation
Initial henotheism
Pluralistic, not monistic
Salvific History
Beginning, middle, end
The Covenant
The Law of Moses
Israelite Religion
The Torah
Sacrifice, purification
Civil law
Priests
Prophets
Sin and punishment
Jeremiah: individual instead of collective
responsibility
Israelite Religion
538 B.C.: Incorporation into the Persian
Empire
Zoroastrianism
Battle between Good and Evil
Judgement, Paradise and hell, Angels
The Messiah to come
Diaspora
Israelite Religion
The Synagogue System
Study, prayer
The Oral Torah
Israelite Religion
Religious Diversity
Sadducees, traditional pre-Persian beliefs
civil religion, sacrifices
Pharisees, Persian: personal religion
Scribes of both (> Rabbis)
Essenes, monastic
Imminent Messianism
Zealots
Rabbinic Judaism
The Story of Rabbi Eisik
The Revolts of 70, 135 AD.
Diaspora, Roman Citizenship
Elimination of Diversity
Christianization of the Roman Empire
Constantine, Theodosius
Changed political circumstances of the Jewish
people
The Oral Law, Fences, > Talmud
Mishnah + Gemara
Enlargement of Torah
Rabbinic Judaism
Transformation of Jewish religion
End of sacrifices
End of special law enforcement
Festivals now religious
Temple replaced by Synagogue and
Family
Continuities
Pharisaic conception of universal God
Traditional Faith
Rabbinic Judaism
An Ethnic Religion
The Holy Days
Sabbath
Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Sukkot
Hanuka
Purim
Passover (Pesach)
Pentecost (Shavuot)
Rabbinic Judaism
Rites of Passage
Circumcision
Bar Mitzvah
Shiva and Sheloshim
Kashrut
Tallit, Tefillin, Mezuzah, Kippah
The Divine Name: Yahweh and Adonai
Rabbinic Judaism
Kabbalah
Hasidism
Branches of Modern Judaism
Orthodox
Reformed
Conservative
Reconstructionist
Rabbinic Judaism
Ashkenazim and Sephardim
The Holocaust
The Land of Israel
Conflict with Palestinians
Jewish Ethics
Orthodox: Halakhah
Others: Socialist, “Liberal”
Neo-conservatives
Islam
600, 622 A.D.
The Spirit of Islam: Voice of the Muezzin
Languages: Urdu, from India, and Arabic
View of Life: God, Submission, Salvation
Before Islam: polytheism, spirits, jinn
Allah the high but not only God
Christianity, Judaism
hanifs
Islam
Mohammed 570-632
Mecca
Travel to Damascus
Revelations (see Hadith)
Koran
Hegira, 622
Medina
Islam
The Return to Mecca, 630
The Death of Mohammed, 632
Expansion of Islam into Persian, Roman
Empires
The Status of Mohammed: Seal of the
Prophets
Sunna (custom) and Hadith (report)
Islam
Doctrines of Islam:
One God: There is no God but Allah
Angels, jinn
Correction of text: not precisely “fallen”
Prophets and Scriptures
Islam views itself as the original religion
Resurrection and Judgement
Predestination
Islam
Shari’ah: the Law
The Five Pillars of Islam
Shahadah: confession of Faith
Salat: public prayer
Zakat: almsgiving
Sawm: fasting
Hajj: pilgrimage to Mecca
Islam
Jihad, internal and external
Polytheists: conversion or death
People of the Book, tolerated: Jews,
Christians, Hindus, Zoroastrians.
Ritual Impurity
Circumcision
The Organization of Islam: Ulama
Islam
Islam and Society: union of religion and
politics
Sunni and Shiite: the problem of the
succession, and so of authority. Abu
Bakr v. Ali
Shiite Islam: the redemptive sacrifice of
Husayn,
10th of Muharram
saviorism, philosophy
Sufism
Christianity
An Incident in the Temple
The Christian View of Life
Two Roots
Jewish Monotheism
The Graeco-Roman world
The Humanity of God
God as Father
Christianity
The Jewish Community in Jesus’ Time
Pharisees
Universal God
Future Life
Oral Law
Sadducees
God of the Jewish People
Prosperity of the Jewish People in this
life.
Christianity
Scribes
Scholars of the law
of both Pharisees and Sadducees
Essenes
A monastic movement, sort of
Common property
Zealots
Political revolutionaries, in Galilee (the
north).
Christianity
The Gentile Background
The Roman Empire
Judaea, Galilee
Roman Civic Religion
National, polytheistic
The Mystery Religions
Personal, Participation in the life of the
God
Christianity
Jesus of Nazareth in historical perspective
The Message of Jesus
The law of Moses must be kept
But it must be interiorized
The law exists for man, not man for the law
The Oral Law has no validity
No food is unclean
God is our Father
The law is kept fully by loving God and our fellow
man
Christianity
The Kingdom of God
Ag. the Sadducees, there is a future life for
soul
and body
One day Jesus will return.
The Miracles of Jesus
Christianity
The Message of Paul
Jesus is the Savior of Mankind
All men are sinners, and need
redemption
The Gentiles are immoral and do not
know
God
The Jews do not keep God’s law
All men suffer death, the punishment
Christianity
Jesus saves mankind from sin and death
by his death
and resurrection
To become a Christian is to participate in
Jesus’
death and resurrection
Christianity
The Further Development of Christianity
Jewish v. Gentile Christians
Destruction of Jewish Christianity in 70
AD.
Some meanings of terms
“Catholic” = the whole church, as
contrasted
with the local church
Organization of the Christian Church
Christianity
The Christian Bible
The Hebrew Bible completed c. 100 AD
Accepted by Christians as the Old
Testament
Books of New Testament settled c. 180 AD
The Church superior to the Bible
The Sacramental System
At first two, then five others
“Ex opere operato”
Christianity
The Church as Authority
The Apostolic Succession
Communion with the Church in Rome
312, Constantine, Christianity permitted
Theodosius, other religions banned
Christianity
The Status of Jesus
Divine or human?
Real body? Real death?
Doctrines of Incarnation:
Jesus is one person with two natures
and Trinity
God is one nature in three persons
Christianity
Philosophy and Theology
Evil
Purgatory
East v. West
The Germanic tribes
Christianity
The Reformation
Martin Luther, 1517
John Calvin (b. 1509)
Salvation by grace alone
Nature and reason are corrupt
Grace only through Christ
Salvation by faith alone
Christianity
Certainty of salvation
Reduction of the sacramental system
The church not a divine authority
but the Bible
Virtue the consequence of being saved
Elimination of prayers for the dead.
Christianity
The Reformation Churches
Lutheran
Calvinist
Presbyterian
Congregationalist
Anglican
Methodist
Christianity
The Radical Reformation
Baptist
Believers only, by immersion
Separation of church and state, religious
liberty
Mennonite (Brethren)
Sect v. church
Bible alone
Pacifist
Society of Friends
Christianity
Ethics
Old Testament: the Ten Commandments
New Testament: love and compassion
Catholics: Natural Law (Aquinas)
Protestants: diverse.
Bible alone;
or, Natural Law (Hooker, Locke)
Christianity
Modern Developments
Liberal Christianity
Values rather than faith
Social Justice
Equality v. No Harm
Comparative Analysis
Phenomenological: without value judgements,
initially
Evaluational: in terms of some criterion, e.g.
consequences
What are the interesting points of comparison?
That is, what are the interesting differences
and the interesting agreements?
Comparative Analysis
Aspects of Religions:
Faith, Belief, World-view
Religious Practices
Ethics, Values
Consequences:
Social existence, economics, government,
family
Comparative Analysis
Example: Compare and contrast Buddhism
and Christianity.
Theravada: Interesting Differences:
God v. No Self, Impermanence
Morality v. psychology
Just war v. pacificism
Similarities: Detachment, humility
Comparative Analysis
Mahayana and Christianity
Differences: God v. Eternal Buddhanature
Reality of the Phenomenal
world
Similarities
Saviorist
Comparative Analysis