The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2463 page)

 
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Teleological argument
.

A type of argument for God's existence starting from signs of order or purpose in the world; also known as the Argument from Design and the
Physico-Theological
Argument. St Thomas
Aquinas'
Fifth Way (
Summa Theologiae
, 1a, ii. 3) is an example of such an argument.

 
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Templars
or Knights Templar
.

The Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. They were founded in 1118 by Hugh de Payens to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land. They resisted an attempt to merge them with the Hospitallers (known from 1530 as the Knights of Malta, founded to provide hospitality for pilgrims, but adding to this the care of the sick), but could not withstand an assault from the king of France (and the
Inquisition
), and they were suppressed in 1312.

 
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Judaism
(also Temple Mount)
The central place of Jewish worship in ancient times. The first Temple was built in
Jerusalem
by King
Solomon
. It was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 BCE, and the fast of 9 Av was instituted to commemorate the event. It was rebuilt after the return from
exile
under the leadership of
Zerubbabel
(Haggai 2) and was greatly enlarged and improved by King Herod the Great (1st cent. BCE). Within the walls lay the Temple Court open even to
gentiles
; at the east end beyond the Gate Beautiful was the Court of Women which lay inside the consecrated area. Beyond this lay the Court of the Israelites, open to all male Jews, from which the sacrifices performed on the
altar
in the Court of Priests could be viewed. Up further steps was the Temple proper, consisting of the porch, the
sanctuary
which was furnished with the altar of incense, the table of
shewbread
, and the golden
menorah
, and finally the Holy of Holies. Temple ritual is described in the Mishnaic tractates,
Tamid
,
Middot
, and
Yoma
. The building was destroyed by the Romans (again on 9 Av) in the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE.
Hinduism
See
ART
.
Jainism
Although there has been occasional dissent among Jains (e.g. the Terapanth), the majority of Jains have regarded the building of temples and the revering of the fordmakers in them as meritorious; and they would describe themselves as
murtipujakas
, ‘image-worshippers’. Jain temples reflect early descriptions of the first preaching hall of
Mah
v
ra
, and usually include a tower said to represent Jain
cosmography
, but perhaps absorbed from Mount
Meru
as the
axis mundi
.
Japanese Religion
(Jap.,
tera
,
ji
) Centres for institutionalized Buddhist practice in Japan. Japanese Buddhist temples, both architecturally and religiously, were heavily influenced initially (6th–8th cents. CE) by the Chinese and Korean temple systems. Later, Japan adopted these systems to their own practices and developing sectarian movements.
Temples generally belong to one or another of the many sects of Japanese Buddhism, including some of the Buddhist ‘
new
religions’ of Japan. As such, they represent Japanese Buddhism in its sectarian and institutionalized form.

 
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(1881–1944).
Christian
archbishop
of Canterbury, prominent worker for social and ecumenical ends. He was ordained in 1910, retaining reflective doubts which he explored in subsequent works,
Mens Creatrix
(1917),
Christus Veritas
(1924), and
Nature
,
Man and God
(1934). His thought was imbued with the Oxford neo-Hegelianism of his youth, seeing the purposeful process of the universe leading to the central event of the
incarnation
, where the highest possibility of the union of matter, life, mind, and spirit is displayed—and enacted.
Yet his academic reflection fell away in importance compared to his commitment to the application of his strongly incarnational belief. His progress in the Church (canon of Westminster, bishop of Manchester 1921, archbishop of York 1929, archbishop of Canterbury 1942) enabled him to set in motion or influence organizations in the direction of a gospel applied to society—e.g. COPEC (the Conference on Christian Politics, Economics and Citizenship), the Workers' Educational Association, Faith and Order. In an establishment style, he was one of the first of the
liberation theologians
.