Sermon Tone Analysis

What is Religion?

The English word religion comes from the Latin religio, meaning “awe or fear of a god or spirit.”

Most religions do affirm a supernatural realm and include practices intended to worship or placate gods or spirits.

Not all Belief systems typically classified as “religions” entail the supernatural or even uphold its existence.

Confucianism, Taoism, Theravada Buddhism, and Jainism are found in every world religions textbook yet are indifferent or agnostic on the reality of the supernatural, especially in any personal sense.

Those who study religion professionally have different working definitions for “religion.”

The theologian Paul Tillich called it “that which is of ultimate concern”

Anthropologist Michael Alan Park defines it as “a set of beliefs and behaviors pertaining to the supernatural.”

Edward Norbeck says religion is a “distinctive symbolic expression of human life that interprets man himself and his universe, providing motives for human action” (in Religion in Human Life [1974:6]).

William James said religion “consists of the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto.”

Basic Principles for religion

First, one religion component is an organized system of beliefs.

In some cases the organization may not be obvious to outsiders, but no religion is made up of random, unrelated creeds.

Second, not all religions involve worship, but they do all mandate or at least commend certain behaviors and actions—corporate, individual, or both—that are related to the belief system.

Third, a religion answers questions about the unknown.

What is ultimate reality?

For theists (primarily, adherents to Christianity, Judaism, Islam), the answer is God.

Buddhists say the answer is Nothing (specifically, a void, or Nirvana).

Secular Humanists say it’s the material universe, beyond which nothing else exists.

Secular humanism is a movement consisting mostly of atheists, agnostics, and deists.

All are antitheists and antisupernatural.

All are strongly naturalistic.

What is the nature of the universe?

Theists maintain that God created it

Secular Humanists believe the universe (or the material components that comprise it) is eternal and has no beginning or creator (First Cause).

Hindus say the material universe is an illusion; we think it’s real, but it doesn’t actually exist—rather, all reality is spiritual in nature.

Hindus say the material universe is an illusion; we think it’s real, but it doesn’t actually exist—rather, all reality is spiritual in nature.

“What does it mean to be human?”

“What is humanity’s primary problem?”

“What happens after death?”

A good working definition for this class:

“Religion is an organized system of beliefs that answers ultimate questions and commends certain actions or behaviors based on the answers to those questions.”

Hinduism, the world’s third largest religion, has about 850 million followers.

Most Hindus live in India, although the Indian diaspora (Indians joke that the country’s biggest export is people) has taken the religion around the globe.

Sizeable Hindu populations live in the United Kingdom, Canada, the U.S., East Africa, and on the island of Bali in Indonesia.

Unlike most religions, Hinduism has no identifiable founder or “starting point.”

HINDUISM IS PERHAPS the most complex and difficult worldview to understand, especially to the Western, rational mind.

Hinduism gradually grew over a period of five thousand years, absorbing and assimilating the religious and cultural movements of India.

It has been likened to “a vast sponge, which absorbs all that enters it without ceasing to be itself.…

Like a sponge it has no very clear outline on its borders and no apparent core at its center.”

syncretism

The incorporation into religious faith and practice of elements from other religions, resulting in a loss of integrity and assimilation to the surrounding culture.

Syncretism

syncretism, either a conscious combining of two or more religions over a short period of time, or a process of absorption by one religion of elements of another over a long period of time.

In both types the absorbed elements are usually transformed and given new meaning by the fresh context.

HINDUISM: ITS SCRIPTURES AND ITS HISTORY

Scriptures

The Hindu scriptures, mainly written in Sanskrit, were composed over a period of more than 2,000 years.

The name for the most sacred scriptures of Hinduism is the “Vedas,” meaning “book of knowledge.”

There are four Vedas: the Rig-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda.

Rig-Veda

The word “Rig-Veda” means literally “sacred knowledge in stanzas.”

As the sacred text in many strands of → Hinduism, the Rig-Veda is a collection of 1,028 poems, with 10,600 stanzas in all.

It is written in ancient Sanskrit and divided into 10 cycles, of which 1 and 8–10 were added later to an older corpus (2–7).

In the latter the hymns of a traditional family of poets are collected and arranged according to deities and an ascending number of stanzas.

The first part of the first cycle and then the eighth cycle contain poems of a later family, while the second part of the first cycle and the tenth cycle consist of a large appendix to the collection in which later poems, some of a philosophical content, have found a place.

Rig-Veda

The word “Rig-Veda” means literally “sacred knowledge in stanzas.”

As the sacred text in many strands of → Hinduism, the Rig-Veda is a collection of 1,028 poems, with 10,600 stanzas in all.

It is written in ancient Sanskrit and divided into 10 cycles, of which 1 and 8–10 were added later to an older corpus (2–7).

In the latter the hymns of a traditional family of poets are collected and arranged according to deities and an ascending number of stanzas.

The first part of the first cycle and then the eighth cycle contain poems of a later family, while the second part of the first cycle and the tenth cycle consist of a large appendix to the collection in which later poems, some of a philosophical content, have found a place.

The ninth cycle stands apart inasmuch as it contains only hymns to soma pavamāna, the mysterious sacred drink at the moment of its mystically interpreted “purification” in the filter (→ Mysticism 1).

This purification, one of the most important components of ancient Indo-Iranian ritual, survives in → Iranian religions as well (ancient Indian soma = ancient Iranian haoma).

The other deities to which hymns are addressed are, on the one hand, deified natural forces like Agni (Skt.

“fire”), which has an important ritual role as mediator between gods and humans, Vayu (wind), or Surya (sun).

On the other hand, we have personified ethical and social forces like the solemn truth god Varuṇa, who punishes with dropsy those who lie or break their word; Mitra (ancient Iranian Mithra), who represents harmony, friendship, and integrity; and the hospitality god Aryaman.

At the center of the pantheon stands Indra, originally a god of victory who breaks the resistance of enemies but who might now be called the national god of the Vedic Aryans.

This god made the world habitable for us, creating water and cows to care for nourishment, smiting → demons that had kept these shut up, and helping those who believe in him and serve him in the ritual (→ Rite), not only in war but also in other critical situations, making their fields fertile, increasing their flocks, and giving them heroic sons.

This is the king of the gods, and he is still such in the pantheons of → Buddhism and Hinduism.

Here, however, the ancient gods are far less important than Buddha or the supreme Hindu god.

A point worth noting about the → religion of the Rig-Veda is that, unlike later Hinduism, it involves → polytheism without either → temple or images.

The gods dwell invisibly in heaven and are present only in the poetic stanzas, which are offered in → sacrifice in a kind of stylized banquet.

The sacred word of poetry, which in distinction from what happened in other religions was for many centuries handed down only in oral tradition, contains the truth about the gods and the universe and is thus efficacious in both → prayer and ritual.

The concept of → truth (ancient Indian ṛta = ancient Iranian aṣ̌a = classical Skt.

satya) is of central importance in Indian religion and philosophy.

In the Rig-Veda the universe and the gods act in accordance with the truth.

In the → Upanishads we attain to immortality by knowledge of the truth.

An ideal hero like Rama acts according to the truth in the → Ramayana.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) regarded truth as the center of his worldview.

Hindus usually regard the Veda texts as verbally and unerringly authoritative.

From 1000 to 800 B.C. another group of holy texts emerged called the Brahmanas.

The focus of these texts is the sacrifices that Hindus must perform.

The Brahman priests were given the authority and responsibility to perform animal sacrifices to the gods to appease them and ensure salvation.

The Brahman priests were given the authority and responsibility to perform animal sacrifices to the gods to appease them and ensure salvation.

Mature philosophical Hinduism emerged with the writing of the best-known Hindu texts—the Upanishads—written between 800 and 600 B.C.

These texts have little regard for the ritual, formal religion of the earlier holy books; instead, they are philosophical writings that emphasize an understanding of the world and the realm of the transcendent

Mature philosophical Hinduism emerged with the writing of the best-known Hindu texts—the Upanishads—written between 800 and 600 B.C.

These texts have little regard for the ritual, formal religion of the earlier holy books; instead, they are philosophical writings that emphasize an understanding of the world and the realm of the transcendent.

With the Upanishads, the important Hindu term “Brahman” came to designate the one Reality or World-Soul.

Brahman (sometimes identified as “Atman”) is the absolute, infinite, eternal, omnipresent, impersonal, indescribable, neuter Being of the universe.

Individual human souls, the Upanishads teach, are to merge with Atman to achieve salvation

About 250 B.C., the Code of Manu emerged as a sacred text.

The Code gives the commandments and prohibitions that regulate the daily living of the Hindu through all of life’s stages.

Social regulations, dietary rules, and interpersonal rules of behavior reinforced the emerging caste system within ancient India.

Indeed, the four-fold caste system is presented in the Code with great elaboration and approval.

Among the many sacred Hindu texts, the Bhagavad-Gita is perhaps the most revered.

The Gita records the ongoing discussion between the Hindu hero-warrior-god Krishna and Arjuna, his kinsman, friend, and disciple.

The dialogue reinforces a commitment to India’s historic caste system and reincarnation, and can be summarized as “Do your caste duty, and trust your God for the rest of your salvation.”

With the Gita, Hinduism had become devotional and duty-oriented