The religion answer book

THE HANDY RELIGION ANSWER BOOK... #414 Canton, MI 48187-2075 Visible Ink Press and The Handy Religion Answer Book are trademarks of Visible Ink Press LLC.. Raised in the Roman Catholic t

THE HANDY RELIGION ANSWER BOOK

The Handy Religion

Answer Book™

CO P Y R I G H T © 2002 B Y VI S I B L E IN K PR E S S®

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Renard, John, The handy religion answer book / John Renard.

1944-p cm.

ISBN 1-57859-125-2 (pbk.)

1 Religions Miscellanea I Title.

BL80.2 R46 2001 291 dc21 2001004052

CIP

INTRODUCTION ix

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii

CHRONOLOGY OFMAJOREVENTS xv

GE N E RAL BAC KGROU N D

DE FI N ITION S AN D

M ETHODS 3

History and Sources Religious Beliefs Signs and Symbols Membership, Community,Diversity Leadership, Authority, Organization Personalities and Powers Holidays andRegular Observances Customs and Rituals

Contents

v

C H RI STIAN ITY 125

History and Sources Religious Beliefs Signs and Symbols Membership, Community,Diversity Leadership, Authority, Organization Personalities and Powers Holidays andRegular Observances Customs and Rituals

I SLAM 187

History and Sources Religious Beliefs Signs and Symbols Membership, Community,Diversity Leadership, Authority, Organization Personalities and Powers Holidays andRegular Observances Customs and Rituals

BU DDH I SM 305

History and Sources Religious Beliefs Signs and Symbols Membership, Community,Diversity Leadership, Authority, Organization Personalities and Powers Holidays andRegular Observances Customs and Rituals

vi

RE LIGIOU S TRADITION S

OF EAST ASIAN ORIGI N

DAOI SM AN D C H I N E SE COM M U N ITY TRADITION S 363

History and Sources Religious Beliefs Signs and Symbols Membership, Community,Diversity Leadership, Authority, Organization Personalities and Powers Holidays andRegular Observances Customs and Rituals

CON FUC IAN I SM,

TH E LITE RATI, AN D

C H I N E SE I M PE RIAL TRADITION 419

History and Sources Religious Beliefs Signs and Symbols Membership, Community,Diversity Leadership, Authority, Organization Personalities and Powers Holidays andRegular Observances Customs and Rituals

SH I NTO 479

History and Sources Religious Beliefs Signs and Symbols Membership, Community,Diversity Leadership, Authority, Organization Personalities and Powers Holidays andRegular Observances Customs and Rituals

vii

Religion is one of the most powerful and pervasive forces in our world To dismissreligion as so much superstition and delusional thinking is to brush aside one of themost important features of the human condition: what people believe—and why theybelieve it—profoundly influence the way they act Religious beliefs and culturalassumptions are often so intimately intertwined that it is rarely, if ever, possible to dis-entangle them It is possible, for the sake of clarity and to promote further discussion,

to provide a general outline of major themes in history, belief, structure, and practice

But it is essential to keep in mind that any study of a phenomenon so complex andbroad begins from a particular point of view, makes certain working assumptions, andmust inevitably indulge in the luxury of sweeping generalizations

First, a word about my own perspective on the practice and study of religion

Raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, I began my professional study of religion aftercompleting undergraduate work in philosophy and classical languages Graduatestudy toward an M.A in biblical languages and literature focused on the critical exam-ination of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures Since finishing a Ph.D in Islamicstudies in 1978, I have been teaching courses on Islam and other non-Christian reli-gious traditions to undergraduate and graduate students I remain an adherent ofRoman Catholicism, but I work from the conviction that it is my professional respon-sibility to ask critical questions about the nature and function of religion—beginningwith my own One might legitimately ask whether my Roman Catholic backgroundmight lead me to compare other traditions using my own as some sort of standard Myanswer is that I have sought to set up categories of comparability that privilege no tra-dition in particular, drawing from a broad spectrum of concepts, and in no instance do

I engage in the comparative evaluation of truth claims

Another personal conviction, based on over thirty years of studying and teachingthe history of religions, has had a particularly formative influence on my approach tothe subject at hand It is this: I am persuaded that, as the great traditions teach in somany ways, there is an absolute truth that is somehow accessible to human beings

Introduction

ix

honestly in quest of it But I am equally convinced that human beings are by tion incapable of possessing that truth either exhaustively, so that any person or groupcan claim to have it fully; or exclusively, so that the world divides itself neatly betweenthe “we” who own the truth and the “they” who are simply out of luck Any such viewboth inflates human capabilities and reduces transcendent realities to pocket-sizetrinkets This does not mean that I am one of those intellectually indecisive peoplecalled relativists who believe either that all religious traditions are the same or thatone is as good as another I do believe, however, that God, or Ultimate Reality, is fartoo great for any religious tradition, or all of them put together, to master or dispense;and that each individual who seeks with a sincere heart the center and goal of his orher life will be led to it Meanwhile, one of the noblest and most useful tasks to which

defini-we can commit ourselves is a greater understanding of how and why people believe asthey do I believe, perhaps naively but nonetheless firmly, that the world is richer forits religious pluralism, and that it would also be safer if the quest for mutual under-standing of that diversity were a higher priority

I begin with a number of assumptions about religion—that is, aspects of the ject that a book like this will not and could not, without expanding to many volumes,begin to address In addition to the assertions with which I opened this preface, hereare several other “givens,” naturally arguable and open to debate, on which this bookbuilds One is that it can be misleading to try to reduce any of the world’s major reli-gious traditions to a handful of questions and answers But it can also be very helpful

sub-to do so occasionally, so long as one keeps in mind that these tidbits of informationare offered as an invitation to dig deeper Another assumption is that because religion

is so susceptible to misunderstanding and caricature, specialists in religious studieshave a responsibility to devise balanced approaches to the subject It is my hope thatforegrounding my own biases and limitations will assist the reader in evaluating theapproaches in these pages Misinformation about religious beliefs and practices, espe-cially those of “other” people, abounds and has a way of perpetuating itself This broadsurvey attempts to provide solid, basic information in the hope that readers will beencouraged to pursue particular aspects of this enormous subject and fill in for them-selves the kind of historical context a book this size cannot afford

Finally, I have opted for a bias toward the larger, more organized, and lettered orso-called world religious traditions In doing so I have deliberately left out any directconsideration of the archaic traditions, such as Graeco-Roman and Egyptian; indige-nous or tribal traditions, such as Native American or Oceanic; or nature-oriented tra-ditions, such as Wicca That is due in part to the practical constraints of size and inpart to my own professional limitations Of at least two of the traditions treated here,Buddhism and Confucianism, one might legitimately suggest that they fit moreappropriately in the category of ethical system than religion I believe, however, that

in both instances there is more than ample reason for setting them alongside theother religious traditions

x

The Handy Religion Answer Book is organized in four parts Part One lays out the

ground plan to be followed through the eight chapters dealing with major traditions

In its eight subsections, the general introduction provides the reader with the mental working concepts needed to get a good start in religious studies Part Twodevotes a chapter each to the three traditions of Middle Eastern origin, namely,Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Part Three covers the two largest traditions of SouthAsian origin, Hinduism and Buddhism; and Part Four deals with three traditions ofEast Asian origin, Chinese Confucianism and Taoism, and Japanese Shinto Each ofthe chapters organizes the material in eight subsections: history and sources; reli-gious beliefs; signs and symbols; membership, community, and diversity; leadership,authority, and organization; personalities and powers; holidays and regular obser-vances; and customs and rituals In order to facilitate comparison, many of the ques-tions are phrased generically rather than specifically, so that readers will hear echoes

funda-of questions posed in other sections Other questions are concept-specific, especiallywhere the issues at hand already are mentioned in popular media and thus readily rec-ognizable A global chronology of religious history offers an overview that blendsmaterial from all the chapters

One final note: These religious traditions represent vast and complex ments over many centuries and in countless cultural contexts Reducing them, as Ihave here, to fifty or sixty pages apiece means barely scratching the surface to offer themerest hint of their richness This volume’s modest goal is to provide the kind of solid,basic information upon which interested readers might build a broader and deeperunderstanding of these world treasures through further investigation

develop-xi

I am indebted to scholars too numerous to mention by name here, although theextensive bibliography will offer some idea of the throng of dedicated specialists onwhose work I have relied My deepest gratitude goes, as always, to my spouse, MaryPat, for her unfailing good humor through the duration of the project Special thanks

go to David Vila of Saint Louis University for his advice on reading an early draft, toDarius Makuja for his research assistance early in the project, and to Elizabeth Staleyfor her editorial and research assistance in preparing the final draft

Thank you also to publisher Martin Connors, editor Christa Brelin, proofreaderMary Ramsay, designer Mary Claire Krzewinski, photo coordinator Robert Huffman,and typesetter Marco Di Vita of the Graphix Group

I also thank Michael Harter, S.J., Beata Grant of Washington University, and the

St Louis Art Museum for kindly providing illustrations, especially on Hinduism

Unless otherwise credited, all photographs are by the author

The images on the pages listed below were provided to the Saint Louis Art

Muse-um by the following sources: page 190, purchase, 1948; page 255, funds given by rill Trust Foundation, 1966; page 270, Friends Fund, 1962; page 273, funds given byWilliam K Bixby Asian Art Trust Fund, 1938; page 276, purchase, 1978; page 277, W

Mer-K Bixby Oriental Art Purchase Fund, 1984; page 289, purchase, 1964; page 370, chase, 1919; page 402, gift of Dr and Mrs Frederick O Schwartz, 1977; page 441,bequest of Leona J Beckmann, 1985

pur-Acknowledgments

xiii

Huang Di, Yellow Emperor, one of the culture heroes in Chinese lore, was patron

of ancient fang shi or shamans (Daoism).

Fall of second Temple to Romans (Judaism).

Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai founds center for legal study and administrative rule

in Yavneh; canonization of biblical literature at Yavneh (Judaism)

Life of Pachomius of Egypt, founder of first monastic community (Christianity) xxi

Fall of Umayyads; rise of Abbasid dynasty; flowering of classical Islamic

Cheng Yi, his brother Cheng Hao (1032–1085), and Zhu Xi (1130–1200), establish

“Cheng Zhu School,” the School of Principle (li xue) (Confucianism).

Life of Jalal ad-Din Rumi, Muslim mystic and original “whirling dervish.” xxix

Yamaga Soko, Japanese Confucian scholar and military theorist, originator of the

way of the warrior, bushi-do (Shinto).

Life of Kada no Azumamaro, considered the founder of the school of National

Learning or Kokugaku (Shinto).

1697–1769

Life of Kamo no Mabuchi, applies philological methods to classical Japaneseprayer

xxxiv

Life of A C Bhaktivedanta became a sannyasi in 1959 (Hinduism), leading figure

Shrine Shinto no longer considered a religion, but a universally binding attitude

of reverence for the emperor

THE HANDY RELIGION ANSWER BOOK

GENERAL BACKGROUND

H I STO RY AN D S O U RC E S

What is religion?

In its broadest sense, the term “religion” means adherence to a set of beliefs or ings about the deepest and most elusive of life’s mysteries The word comes from an

teach-ancient Latin root (religo) that means “to bind” or “to obligate.” Religious persons

join together in a shared quest to understand a host of perplexing questions What isthe origin of life? What does it mean to be human? Are there greater-than-humanforces responsible for the shape of things? How should a person of good will behave? Islife as we know it all there is, or are we destined for an adventure that goes wellbeyond an earthly life-expectancy? But the search for ultimate answers is a complexprocess requiring a balanced assessment of input from three critical sources: culture,tradition, and personal experience

When we allow cultural norms to dominate our quest, the result can be tion with the status quo in which, for example, the “American way of life” is itself theanswer Religion and culture always influence each other, but if we become too satis-fied with the status quo, the result can be a sterile kind of “civil religion.” Anotherimportant ingredient in the quest is “tradition,” the rich treasury of practical wisdompreserved everywhere in families and local communities Put too much stock in thosetime-honored solutions, complacently accept without question the “way we’ve alwaysdone things,” and the result will be stifled conformity But where is the individual inall of this? If I do not actively sort out my personal experience, with help from bothculture and tradition, I will not advance in my search But if I simply strike off on myown, rejecting other sources of input and relying only on my wits, my approach to lifewill be warped and totally subjective Religion is very often life-affirming It can alsolull people into lethargy Religion means being committed to a quest for answers that 3

satisfac-DEFINITIONS AND METHOD