Instant Expert: World Religions

Joanne O'Brien, Sandra Palmer

• Publisher: Lion Books
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9780745957845
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Comparative Religion

Religions play a major role in today's world. This book gives you a simple and accessible introduction to the main beliefs and practices of significant and influential faiths. Joanne O'Brien and Sandra Palmer provide key facts about religions their histories and stories, their beliefs and rituals, their literature and festivals, their people and places. This book also recognises the major differences within each religion. This is a valuable guide for quick reference and offers a glimpse of the world of beliefs. The religions covered are Baha'i, Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism.

Christianity

Christianity teaches that God is ultimately beyond human comprehension but has chosen to reveal his nature through his son – Jesus Christ – and that because of Jesus it is possible to have a relationship with God.

Beginnings

Christianity began in the first century AD in Palestine, now Israel, at a time when it was ruled by the Romans. The followers of Jesus, an itinerant preacher from Nazareth, believed that he had risen from the dead, having been crucified on the orders of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. They spread the teachings of Jesus, and the hope of resurrection and a new life in which love overcomes hatred, despair, and death. The first Christians met with persecution until the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the fourth century AD.

Little is known of Jesus before the age of thirty, when he began to travel the countryside with twelve disciples. According to four accounts of his life, the Gospels, he healed the sick, performed other miracles, and preached using sayings and stories called parables. The essence of his teaching was that God is love and loves everyone, especially those who are rejected by society. He taught that God’s kingdom would come very soon.

Jesus was a Jew and known as a rabbi, or teacher. He taught a radical form of Judaism that emphasized the spirit rather than letter of the Law, which Jews believed God gave to their ancestor Moses. This brought him into conflict with other Jewish groups – rabbis known as the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, who were based in the Temple in Jerusalem. The first Christians were also Jews and believed Jesus to be the fulfilment of Jewish prophecies. This is why they continued to regard the Jewish scriptures as God’s word; they are now known as the Old Testament.

The word Christ means “messiah” or “saviour anointed of God”. There was an ancient belief in Israel that God would send someone as a messiah to save the people from their enemies and bring a reign of peace. Jesus’ followers believed that he was this messiah and so he became known as “Jesus Christ”, and they became known as “Christians”. Very early on they believed that Jesus brought spiritual rather than political salvation.

Developments and divisions

There were two main centres of Christianity in the first millennium AD – the Western Church based in Rome and the Eastern Church based in Constantinople (now Istanbul). There were also Christian communities as far away as India and China, as well as around the Mediterranean. In the eleventh century an argument about the wording of the Nicene Creed – a statement of faith – led to a split between the two: the Western Church became known as the Catholic Church, and the Eastern Church was known as the Orthodox Church.

Protestant Christianity sprang from reform movements in Europe in the sixteenth century and rebellions against the teachings and practices of the Roman Church. For the Protestant reformers, such as Martin Luther in Germany, it was faith in God’s love that brought salvation, not obedience to the church or the keeping of rules. Since those early days the Protestant movement has fractured into over 33,000 denominations, if very small independent churches are included.

Emigration and a strong sense of mission have taken Christianity all over the world so that there are now over 2 billion Christians. Nearly half are Roman Catholics, but Protestant churches, especially in the developing world, are the most rapidly growing.

The Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant traditions

Orthodox and Catholic churches have a strong liturgical tradition, with worship in a set order, set prayers, and rituals that draw on all the senses. Priests wear robes in liturgical colours and there is often incense. Their buildings, whether a grand cathedral, a parish church, or a small chapel, have statues and images. In the Orthodox tradition these images are icons painted according to strict guidelines and many are on a screen, the iconostasis, which divides the congregation from the area of the altar.

Both churches have priesthoods – only the priests may perform certain rituals for them to be valid. They both have hierarchies – from archbishop or patriarch, to bishop, to priest. Only a bishop may ordain a priest. Roman Catholic priests are not married, except for a few who were priests in the Anglican church first. Orthodox priests may marry but a bishop must be celibate.

The Orthodox and Catholic traditions are both sacramental forms of Christianity. It is believed that God’s grace is given and experienced through the observance of sacraments – though what counts as a sacrament and the exact number differ. They include baptism, Eucharist (breaking of bread), marriage, anointing the sick, confirmation, and confession. The consecration of the bread and wine takes place at the altar.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is honoured in both Orthodox and Catholic churches as the mother of God, since Jesus is believed to be God.

Protestant churches often have ministers or pastors instead of priests, and many have a strong egalitarian tradition. They tend to emphasize the authority of the Bible and personal conversion over the authority of the church and sacraments. Communal worship is often informal, and at least partly extempore rather than following a written order of service. The Lord’s table is used instead of an altar. Some Protestant groups do not have purpose-built churches but meet instead in schools or other suitable buildings.

Music is widely used in Christian worship. Some is ancient, going back centuries, and some is very modern.

All Christians use the cross as a symbol. Protestant churches usually have a simple bare cross; Catholics and Orthodox often have crucifixes with the figure of Jesus on the cross.

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The term “Catholic”

The word “catholic” is used in three ways. With a small “c” it refers to the whole universal church. With a capital “C” it refers to a sacramental liturgical tradition that includes a stream within the Church of England. The Roman Catholic church refers to the worldwide church based in Rome with the pope as its head and authority on earth.

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Christian scriptures

The Bible is believed to be the word of God. It is a collection of sixty-six books written over a period of between 500 and a thousand years and is divided into two parts – the Old and New Testaments. It contains a variety of genres: myth, history, laws, poetry, prophecies, and letters. The New Testament contains the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), an account of the early church (the Acts of the Apostles), and letters written by early church leaders, including the apostle Paul. Most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. The New Testament was written in Greek because that was the language widely read through the Mediterranean world, though Jesus spoke Aramaic. The complete Bible has been translated into over 400 languages, and the New Testament into over a thousand.

Some Christians take the Bible literally and believe that as the word of God it must be true in every detail. Others think that it reflects the worldviews of the periods in which it was written and believe that while some parts are myth and legend, it is true in its teachings about the nature of God, God’s relationship with all creation, and the purpose and meaning of life.

It is Orthodox and Roman Catholic teaching that the Bible must be understood and interpreted under the guidance of the church. Protestants read the Bible directly for themselves, though in practice there are strong traditions of interpretations within Protestant communities.

Some copies of the Bible are treated with reverence, especially those used in worship in Orthodox and Catholic churches. Christians often have their own copies that they use for study. There are no special rules for the care of personal Bibles – some Christians make notes in the margins as they study.

Dating the New Testament

Letters by the Christian missionary Paul are the earliest books of the New Testament, thought to be written from around AD 50 to 68. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke have so much overlapping material that most scholars think that the authors of Matthew and Luke used the Gospel of Mark and another common source to write their Gospels. These are known as the “synoptic gospels”. The earliest Gospel is thought to be Mark’s, written around AD 65 to 70, although this is much debated.

The canon, the final closed list of writings to be included in the Bible, was settled by the beginning of the fifth century AD, though there are minor differences between denominations.

Beliefs

Christianity is a monotheistic religion, teaching that there is one all-powerful, all-loving, providential God who created heaven and earth and revealed himself in his son Jesus to save the world.

The Trinity

Christians believe God is one being in three persons: God, the creator and transcendent father; God the son; and God the Holy Spirit. This is known as the Trinity. The creeds teach that Jesus is God incarnate. Many rites, including baptism, finish with the statement, “in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”. Acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity is a requirement for membership of the World Council of Churches, a worldwide fellowship of 349 churches seeking unity, a common witness, and Christian service.

Original sin

Since Bishop Augustine of Hippo in the fifth century AD, the Western Church has taught that all are born into original sin, bearing the sin of Adam and Eve who disobeyed God by taking the forbidden fruit from the tree in the Garden of Eden. This original sin is forgiven at baptism (Catholic tradition) or on acceptance of Jesus as a personal saviour (Protestant tradition).

A liberal interpretation of the doctrine is that everyone makes mistakes as part of learning, and that all are accepted and loved by God.

Salvation: forgiveness of sins

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are believed to heal the relationship between humanity and God, between the individual and God. Jesus brings true li...

Table of contents

• COVER
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT
• CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH
• BUDDHISM
• CHRISTIANITY
• DAOISM
• HINDUISM
• ISLAM
• JAINISM
• JUDAISM
• SHINTO
• SIKHISM
• ZOROASTRIANISM