The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1386 page)

 
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(1443–1527).
Founder of an eclectic religion in China. From his writings, gathered in
Five Works in Six Volumes
, it seems clear that he attained enlightenment after a personal quest. His teaching attacks the vacuity of ritual and prayer, and stresses in contrast the importance of gratitude—for everything and everyone on whom one's being depends. His school has diversified into a number of different sects, including one, the Dragon Flower Way (Lunghua) which has somewhat reversed his teaching and includes a ritual element.

 
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(1632–1704).
English philosopher who became a major source for British empiricism and for liberal democracy, and who applied his thought to the support of Christian theistic belief. In addition to his
Essay Concerning Human Understanding
(1690),
The Letter on Toleration
and (anonymously)
Two Treatises on Government
, he wrote
Thoughts on Education
(1693),
Reasonableness of Christianity
(1695), and works which appeared later,
The Conduct of the Understanding
(1706) and
Miracles
(1716).
That things are ‘well-ordered’ was important for Locke. Far from being ‘a blind, fortuitous concourse of atoms’, we are able to make sense, from our senses, of the universe, in which ‘Nature never makes excellent things for mean or no uses’. From this, the existence of God is able to be demonstrated; and given that demonstrable truth, Locke was able to argue that certain rights which humans possess by nature are God-given and cannot be taken away: toleration becomes a primary virtue, to be exercised everywhere except where the rights of others are threatened. Locke's views were thus influential in forming the attitudes of the founders of the USA.

 
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(Gk., ‘sayings’). Any of various collections of sayings of Jesus in circulation in the early church.

 
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Logic
.

An activity both condemned and justified in the history of Buddhist thought. While the
Buddha
discouraged vain philosophical speculation, there is no evidence that he disapproved of logic as such. The
Abhidhammic
literature, with its listing of Buddhist concepts, is presented in a vaguely logical manner; and the
Therav
din
Kath
vatthu
is an attempt to refute logically more than 200 propositions held by opposing schools. See also
TARKA
.

 
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