Miss Buddha (103 page)

Priests

Where ritual is central to a religion, you
usually also find an established and powerful priesthood. This is
certainly the case in the Catholic and Orthodox forms of
Christianity as well as in Hinduism and Shinto.

Jews and Muslims, however, and many
Protestant churches do not have a priesthood as such because they
emphasize a direct faith and consideration of scripture.

Holiness, Inward Transformation, and
Salvation

Most major religions provide clear (or not
so clear) paths meant to deliver individuals from the bondage of
sin, immorality, ignorance, and other types of impurity or
disharmony and lead them toward a state of purity of soul,
spiritual knowledge, wisdom, godliness, enlightenment, or even
eternal life.

Virtually all religions hold that human
beings have an inner and higher nature that lives in tension with a
lower, baser counterpart. The paths offered are meant to free the
former from the clutter and clutches of the latter.

Some religions emphasize the separation of
the spiritual part of the self from worldly attachments, while
others emphasize living harmoniously in relation to nature, self,
and divinity.

One discerns two corresponding religious
ideals from the different ways in which religions consider
salvation: on the one hand, the saved or truly religious person may
be one who has achieved liberation from the material world and has
reached a heavenly state of afterlife (such as heaven—once dead)
or, on the other hand, a supreme state of consciousness (such as
Nirvana—even while alive).

It is worthy of note that many religious
virtues—such as love, self-control, compassion, nonviolence, and
wisdom—appear in more than one religion, while differences in
belief systems give varying significance to these virtues.

All historic religions address the need for
individual holiness in some form or other and often point to
saints, mystics, or spiritual exemplars who fully embody the ideals
of their traditions.

Religion in the Modern World

Our modern (Western) times have posed, and
continue to pose, acute challenges to traditional religions. As
early as the 1960s, membership in mainstream Christian
denominations began their decline, and candidates for the
priesthood began falling.

For the majority of modern people, religion
no longer holds relevance, especially in view of the many
alternative ways to find meaning these days: cultural pursuits,
ethical ideals, ecological causes, and alternative lifestyles.

These challenges to
religion are partly as a result of
the
rising prestige of Science
, which describes
a universe without reference to deities, or souls, a place of no
spiritual meaning. And as
Science
more and more dons the role of modern religion,
the Science convert no longer looks to the traditional for solace
or meaning.

Not that he or she is necessarily happier as
a result, rather the opposite.

Another factor in today’s religious decline
is that critical studies of biblical history have demonstrated that
the Bible is not (as so long thought) unique among ancient
religious and historical documents. For example, the biblical
stories of the Garden of Eden and the Deluge (universal flood) are
common to other ancient Middle Eastern religions as well.

Other factors that have contributed to a
decline in religious participation in the modern world include the
portrait of religion variously as a pre-scientific form of
superstitious thinking, as a source of political control and
divisiveness (i.e., Marx), as a confirmation of established
patriarchal values (as in feminism), or as an emotional crutch (the
radio talk shows).

On the other hand, in many
instances, religion has been able to adapt to modernity by
accommodating the diversity of contemporary culture. Many religious
traditions have not only broadened the concept of God to allow for
the coexistence of various faiths, but have also
acknowledged
gender equality
by ordaining women, and have adopted outward
characteristics of modern culture in general.

Many religious groups have also taken
advantage of electronic media and networking, and several such
groups have developed religious functions for the Internet,
including electronic prayer groups.

Modern
marketing techniques
have also been
employed to increase membership—treating religion like any other
business (the true Western religion these days).

Many churches also incorporate the latest
kinds of support groups, counseling techniques, and popular
music—i.e., in an effort to become “hip” and so become acceptable
to the youth of various cultures.

Modern Evangelism

Evangelicalism in its various forms,
including fundamentalism, offers a different response to
modernity.

Conservative movements, which have appeared
internationally in every major religious tradition, have of late
gained strength by openly protesting what they see as the
conspicuous absence of moral values in secular society.

In times of anxiety and
uncertainty (such as ours), such movements hold up literal
scripture as a source of doctrinal certainty and of
moral absolutes
. Against
the rising secularism of our day, these evangelical movements have
managed to create their own alternative conservative-literal
cultures and have, in fact, acquired considerable political
influence.

Challenges and Opportunities

For all its challenges to traditional
religious identity, modernity has at the same time created new
spiritual opportunities.

Literally thousands of new
religious movements emerged around the world in the
20
^th
century and continue to proliferate; each such movement
offering alternative forms of community to people otherwise no
longer affiliated with traditional religion while also disenchanted
with modern values.

Collectively, these new religions offer a
large number of options, addressing virtually every conceivable
type of spiritual need. In a sense, our times have created needs
and problems for which new movements hold themselves as
solutions.

Some offer ethnic revitalization; others,
techniques of meditation and self-improvement; and still others,
the power of alternative or spiritual forms of healing.

Interestingly, Buddhist- and Hindu-derived
movements also continue to garner considerable followings among
Westerners searching for truths beyond the Judeo-Christian
tradition.

The World’s Religions

It would be an impossible task to list and
accurately survey every religion on Earth, there simply are too
many. Here, however, I will give a brief rundown of what is
normally considered the five major world religions: Judaism,
Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

:: Judaism ::

Judaism, the religious culture of the Jews,
is one of the oldest continuing religious traditions in the
world.

It is interesting to note
that the terms
Judaism
and religion do not exist in pre-modern Hebrew. Instead, the
Jews spoke of
Torah
, God’s revealed instruction to Israel, which mandated both a
worldview and a way of life—
Halakhah
.

Halakhah
derives from the Hebrew word “to go” and has come
to mean the “way” or “path.” It encompasses not only Jewish law,
but also its customs, and practice.

Pre-modern Judaism, in all its historical
forms, was thus an integrated cultural system encompassing both
individual and communal existence. It was (and for the traditional
Jew, remains) a system of sanctification in which all is to be
subsumed under God’s rule, that is, under his divinely revealed
models of cosmic order and lawfulness.

Judaism originated in the land of Israel.
Subsequently, at one time or another, Jewish communities have
existed in almost all parts of the world, a result of both
voluntary migrations of Jews and forced exile or expulsions.

According to the American Jewish Yearbook,
the current world-wide Jewish population is estimated at 13.2
million, of whom 5.7 million lived in the United States, 4.8
million in Israel, 530,000 in France, and 438,000 in the former
Soviet Union. These are the four largest centers of Jewish
settlement.

Other significant Jewish communities are
found in Canada (360,000), Great Britain (276,000), Argentina
(200,000), and South Africa (80,000).

Basic Doctrines and Sources

Monotheism

While Judaism, with its long, rich and
complex tradition, was never monolithic its various historical
forms have nonetheless shared certain characteristic features.

The most essential of these
is a
radical monotheism
, that is, the belief that a single, transcendent God created
the universe and continues providentially to govern it.
Underpinning this monotheism is the teleological conviction that
the world is both intelligible and filled with purpose because God,
a single divine intelligence, stands behind it.

Therefore, nothing that humanity experiences
is capricious; everything ultimately has meaning.

From ancient through to the present, various
forms of Judaism have acknowledged the existence and role of other
heavenly beings, such as angels, and have warned against various
forces of a demonic nature. But since these beings have always been
regarded as the creations of the one and all-knowing, well-meaning
God, and all subordinate to His will, they are ultimately
irrelevant to the primary mission of the Jewish people, which is to
acknowledge the unity of God and to serve God in the world.

Revelation

To the traditional Jew, the mind of God is
manifest in both the natural order, through creation, and in the
social-historical order, through revelation.

The same God who created the world revealed
himself to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai.

That revelation is
the
Torah
, God’s
will for humankind expressed in commandments that individuals are
to heed in their interaction with one another and with God. By
living in accordance with God’s laws and submitting to His divine
will—and only thereby—humanity can become a harmonious part of the
cosmos.

It is primarily as a people fused in
obedience to God’s Torah that the Jews view their role among the
rest of the human community. By testifying to the unity of God and
to the divine will as revealed in the Torah, they seek to awaken
all humanity to the one unique God of all creation.

The Covenant

The third major concept in Judaism is that
of the covenant, which is viewed as the contractual agreement
between God and the Jewish people.

According to Jewish tradition, the God of
all creation entered into a special relationship with the Jewish
people at Sinai: If they would acknowledge God as their sole
ultimate king and legislator, agreeing to obey his laws, God, in
turn, and on his part, would acknowledge Israel as his particular
people and be especially mindful of them.

Both Biblical authors and later Jewish
tradition interprets this contract in a universal and historical
context: Only after successive failures to establish a covenant
with all of rebellious humanity did God finally turn to a specific
segment of it: Israel. This land, He decided, was to be a “kingdom
of priests,” and the ideal social order it will establish in
accordance with the divine laws is to be a model for the rest of
the human race. Israel thus stands between God and humanity,
representing each to the other—not unlike Jesus Christ, when you
think about it.

The idea of this contract with God greatly
colors the way in which both nature and history have been viewed by
the Jews. And this view is that Israel’s well-being, as a people
and as a country, in essence depends on their obedience to God’s
commandments: All natural and historical events that befall Israel
are interpreted as emanating from God and as influenced by Israel’s
religious behavior.

In other words,
a direct causal connection is thus made between
human (Jewish) behavior and human (Jewish)
destiny
. This view does intensify the
problem of theodicy in Judaism, because the historical experience
of both Jewish individuals and the Jewish people as a whole has
frequently been one of persecution and suffering.

Much Jewish religious thought, from the
biblical Book of Job onward, has concerned itself with the problem
of affirming justice and meaning and with staying the course even
in the face of apparent injustice.

Over time, this problem has
been mitigated by the reasoned belief that virtue and obedience
ultimately would be rewarded and sin ultimately punished by divine
judgment after death, thereby redressing inequities in this world.
Thus, the indignities of foreign domination and forced exile from
the land of Israel suffered by the Jewish people would also be
redressed at the end of time—when God would send his Messiah
(
Mashiah
, the
anointed one), a scion of the royal house of David, to redeem the
Jews and restore them to sovereignty in their land.

The resulting strand of Jewish thought,
Messianism, has since its origin been a significant one, and
yearning for the Messiah’s coming has always been particularly
intense in periods of calamity.