Religion 101 (10 page)

1. Great Learning
   
2. Doctrine of the Mean
   
3. Analects
   
4. Mencius
   

Of these texts, only the
Analects
contains anything reputedly written by Confucius himself. The Four Books have commentaries by Zhu Xi (1130–1200), a great Neo-Confucian philosopher who helped revitalize Confucianism in China. Confucian Classics, as they were called, became the core curriculum for all levels of education.

The I Ching

The
I Ching
, one of the Five Classics of Confucianism, combines divinatory art with numerological techniques and ethical insight. Accordingly there are said to be two complementary and conflicting vital energies: yin and yang. Enthusiasts have claimed that this Classic of Changes is a means of understanding, and even controlling, future events.

Rituals and Customs

As Confucianism does not have all the elements of a religion, and is primarily an ethical movement, it lacks sacraments and liturgy. However, the rituals that occur at important times in a person’s life became part of the movement. Confucianism recognizes and regulates four life passages — birth, reaching maturity, marriage, and death. At the root is the ritual of respect: A person must exhibit respect to gain respect.

Birth:
The Tai-shen (spirit of the fetus) protects the expectant woman and deals harshly with anyone who harasses the mother-to-be. The mother is given a special diet and is allowed to rest for a month after delivery. The mother’s family is responsible for coming up with all that is required by the baby on the first-, fourth-, and twelfth-month anniversaries of the birth.

Marriage:
A couple goes through six stages in the marriage process:

1. Proposal.
   The couple exchanges the year, month, day, and hour of each of their births. If any unpropitious event happens within the bride-to-be’s family during the following three days, then the woman is believed to have rejected the proposal.
   
2. Engagement.
   After the wedding day has been chosen, the bride announces the wedding with invitations and a gift of cookies made in the shape of the moon.
   
3. Dowry.
   This is carried to the groom’s home in a solemn procession. Gifts by the groom to the bride, equal in value to the dowry, are sent to her.
   
4. Procession.
   The groom visits the bride’s home and brings her back to his place, with much fanfare.
   
5. Marriage and reception.
   The couple recite their vows that bond them together for a lifetime, toast each other with wine, then take center stage at a banquet.
   
6. Morning after.
   The bride serves breakfast to the groom’s parents, who then reciprocate.
   

Death:
At death, the relatives cry aloud to inform the neighbors. The family starts mourning and puts on clothes made of coarse material. The corpse is washed and placed in a coffin. Mourners bring incense and money to offset the cost of the funeral. Food and significant objects of the deceased are placed into the coffin. A Buddhist or Taoist priest, or even a Christian minister, performs the burial ritual. Friends and family follow the coffin to the cemetery, each bearing a willow branch, which symbolizes the soul of the person who has died. The branch is later carried back to the family altar where it is used to “install” the spirit of the deceased. Liturgies are performed on the seventh, ninth, and forty-ninth day after the burial, and on the first and third anniversaries of the death.

Spread of Confucianism

On Confucius’s death his students compiled his thoughts in
Spring and Autumn Annals
. Mencius spread the values of Confucianism throughout the known world. With the increasing popularity of Confucius, his disciples and followers left sacrifices in temples dedicated to him.

LAOZI

Founder of Taoism

Relatively little reliable information is known about Laozi — surprising, given the immense influence his philosophy of Taoism has had. He probably lived during the sixth century
B.C.
, although it’s possible he lived a century or so earlier. He may (or may not) have been a contemporary of Confucius. Supposedly he was born in the village of Chu Jen.

Myths and legends have grown up about him over the centuries. According to one, his mother conceived him while gazing at a falling star and gave birth to him after bearing him in her womb for sixty-two years. He emerged (not surprisingly, after that length of time) with a long full gray beard. He lived, according to another tradition, for 999 years.

Tradition says he was a keeper of archives in the royal bureaucracy of the Zhou dynasty and was a scholar. Like many of the philosophers of ancient Greece, he never founded a formal school but instead gathered around himself a group of students, whom he taught by both speech and example. Although there are accounts of his meeting with Confucius and debates between the two men, most scholars agree that these are probably false and are merely anti-Confucian propaganda put out by Taoists.

Among his disciples was one Yinxi, to whom he dictated the text of the
Tao-de Ching.
Yinxi became a follower of the sage when Laozi, tired of the corruption and materialism of men, walked into the west, intending to live as a hermit. Yinxi was a guard at the western gate of the kingdom and recognized Laozi. He asked to be taught by the master, explaining that he had made a detailed study of astrology, which allowed him to recognize the portents of the master’s approach.

Yinxi was put hard to the test by Laozi, and after many years of study, endeavoring to find his Tao, Laozi elevated him and took him on a journey through the entire universe. The relationship of the two men is taken as an exemplar of the ideal relationship between master and student.

Laozi’s Philosophy

The Taoist philosophy can perhaps be best summed up in a quote from Zhuang Zhou (Zhuangzi):
“To regard the fundamental as the essence, to regard things as coarse, to regard accumulation as deficiency, and to dwell quietly alone with the spiritual and the intelligent — herein lie the techniques of Tao of the ancients.”

CHAPTER 4
CHRISTIANITY

Christianity refers to many religious traditions that have grown from a single source. These include Catholicism, Protestantism (which itself has many divisions), Copts, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and countless small sects. What all of them have in common is the teachings of Jesus Christ as they have evolved over the past 2,000 years. Christianity has had an incalculable effect on the world, both on its culture and language, and on its political and social development. There are churches and cathedrals in every city and town (practically on every street corner). Western governments have established national holidays around Christian rituals, and we live by a calendar that measures time according to “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini” (in the year of Our Lord).

Christianity is also one of three religions (the other two are Judaism and Islam) that exist within what’s called the “Abrahamic tradition,” that is, they trace elements of their beliefs to Abraham, father of Isaac and chosen by God as the father of nations. Abraham’s story is among the most moving episodes of the Old Testament and has provided grist for innumerable scholars and exegetes over the centuries. But the specifically Christian tradition begins with the coming of Jesus of Nazareth.

JESUS OF NAZARETH

The Man and the Christ

What we know about Jesus comes from the four gospels written by Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John (mostly from the first three, known as the Synoptic Gospels). None of the gospel writers were contemporaries of Jesus, so a lot of details about him are murky. In fact, he’s probably the greatest world-historical figure about whom the least is known.

According to tradition, he was born in humble circumstances: son of a carpenter, born in a stable as his parents Joseph and Mary journeyed to Bethlehem to take part in the Roman census.

December? Try June!

Although Christians celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25, nothing in the Bible supports this as his birthday. Since he was born around the time of the census, it’s possible he may have been born as late as June, a traditional time for the census. Some scholars place his birthday in September or March. To make things even more complicated, scholars have concluded that he was born about five years earlier than the beginning of the current general calendar, or about 5
B.C.

Jesus was Jewish; he was raised in the Jewish tradition under Jewish law. When he reached adulthood, together with a group of his disciples (students), he traveled Palestine to spread the word of God. Jesus’ message came from Jewish roots but was also new. He taught that God wanted people to live their lives in goodness, love, and simplicity.

Miracles and Parables

Jesus performed many miracles, including walking on water across the Sea of Galilee; turning water into wine at a wedding feast at Cana; reviving Lazarus from the dead; and feeding 5,000 hungry people with five loaves of bread and two fishes. The point of these miracles was to build faith among his disciples and show them he had power that could only come from God. Christians also interpret these miracles allegorically: For instance, the food is actually a symbol of spiritual enrichments. Receiving Jesus’ spiritual message and accepting knowledge of him is food for the soul.

Jesus also spread his teaching through parables, or stories. Sometimes these are actual stories and sometimes they are metaphors. For instance, in Matthew 13:31–32:

“He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’ ”

To most theologians’ thinking Jesus’ message is that faith begins as the smallest seed in the hearts of human beings. When the seed is sown and nurtured, it grows into something bigger, stronger, and more beautiful. To sow the seed is to accept the word of God, which in turn will transform the person from within in the same way the seed is transformed into a plant or a tree.

Before the Pharisees and Sadducees

Jesus’ message was a very powerful one, and he also offended conservative groups within the Jewish establishment. These forces, the Pharisees and Sadducees, formed an alliance against Jesus and called for his arrest.

Betrayed by his disciple Judas, Jesus was taken before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, tried, and condemned to death by crucifixion. Jesus was crucified on a hill outside Jerusalem. Over his head the Romans inscribed the letters INRI (
Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum
, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews). This was intended to serve as a warning to the Jewish people not to oppose Roman rule.

Factions in the Jewish Hierarchy

• The Pharisees: A group of staunchly restrictive Jewish leaders
  
• The Sadducees: A conservative political group that represented the aristocracy of the Jewish society
  
• The Zealots: A group that believed in armed revolt against the Romans
  
• The Essenes: A group neither politically active nor violent, they took to the wilderness to study religious writings
  

Resurrection

In the days that followed Jesus’ death, his followers felt hopeless. How, they asked one another, could Jesus be the Messiah, the chosen leader who would lead the Jewish people out of captivity? He was gone and the people still lived under the Roman Empire.

Hope was renewed when rumors spread that Jesus had risen from the dead. His tomb was empty, and several people reported they had seen him.