Prophetic orientation is a prominent aspect of

You have been staying in San Diego for the past five months. The city is fun, but much different than you had expected. Before you came, you had thought that the city would be a fairly quiet seaside town with a historical center. You quickly found the historical center—old Spanish-style buildings, pink oleander, and red bougainvillea—but you still haven’t found the quiet. Once a provincial naval port, the city of San Diego is now large, modern, and crisscrossed with freeways and wide roads. The hum of traffic can even be heard in the hillsides. A friend told you of Joshua Tree National Park and its wonderful vegetation. It is not too long a drive, and you consider taking a trip. You and your friend plan your trip, expecting to camp for two nights during a week in autumn. Together you drive north. You have lots of bottled water, sunscreen, a hat, and a long-sleeved shirt for protection from the bright sun. You drive through the Anza-Borrego area and then to the Salton Sea. Finally you arrive at Joshua Tree National Park and get a camping permit. The Joshua trees look like vegetation from another world, and the massive boulders are unbelievable. After setting up camp and eating supper, you enjoy the sunset. The dusk comes on gently, and before you are aware of it, the stars start to appear. You put on your hooded jacket and walk out into a world transformed by twilight. What strikes you first is the crispness of the air. You walk farther, beyond the clearing, and suddenly you are on a path near large boulders. As a strong breeze rises, the wind makes an eerie, whispering sound. Moving on, you find yourself walking along a slight ridge. To your right, you see the evening star against the blue-black sky. To your left, the sky still holds some daylight. You sit down on a flat rock, pull up your hood, and watch the silhouettes of rocks and trees disappear as darkness spreads its thickening veil.

It’s difficult to pull yourself away. All around you stars begin to pop out, and soon they are blooming thick as wildflowers. Overhead, the mass of stars resembles a river—it must be the Milky Way. You get up and slowly turn full circle to take it all in. You had almost forgotten about stars. You don’t see them much back home, let alone think of them. Where you have lived, stars appear in movies. Here, though, stars are mysterious points of light. You remember what you once learned: stars are so distant that their light can take millions of years to reach earth. You realize that some of the stars you see may no longer exist. Only their light remains. At last you begin to walk back. A cluster of clouds emerges on the horizon, lit from behind by the rising moon. You see your campground in the distance. From here it looks so small. The stars seem like the permanent, real world, while the few tents appear little and temporary—more like a question mark in the great book of the universe. Questions flood your mind. Who are we human beings? Do we make any difference to the universe? Are we part of any cosmic plan? Is there any point to the universe at all? What is it all about? WHAT IS RELIGION? Starry Night over the Rhône depicts a sky full of luminous stars. Painted near the end of its creator’s life, the work summarizes the vision of Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890). Van Gogh was an intensely religious man who had planned to be an ordained minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, as was his father. But he struggled with his studies and had a falling-out with Church authorities. For a time, he lived Page 5as a lay preacher, working with poor miners in Belgium. When he was 27, his brother Theo, an art dealer, encouraged him to take up painting.

Despite this new career in painting, van Gogh continued to think of himself as a minister. If he could not preach in words, he would preach in pictures. His subjects were the simple things of life: trees, sunflowers, a wicker chair, a bridge, his postman, a farmer sowing seeds, peasants eating a meal, workers bringing in the harvest. His paintings express a quiet awe before the wonder that he sensed in everyday objects and ordinary people. It was his special sense of the sacredness he saw all around him that he wanted to share. Almost as a reminder, in Starry Night over the Rhône, van Gogh placed the town below the night sky, but with his attention upward to the stars. The heavenly realm illuminates van Gogh’s vision of the sacred character of the entire world. Key Characteristics of Religion When people begin their study of religions, they bring ideas from the religion in which they were raised or from the predominant religion of their society. They may assume, for example, that every religion has a sacred book or that it worships a divine being or that it has a set of commandments. Indeed, many religions do share all these characteristics, but some do not. Shinto, for example, does not have a set of commandments, nor does it preach a moral code; Zen Buddhism does not worship a divine being; and many tribal religions have no written sacred scripture. Nevertheless, we call them all religions. What, then—if not a common set of elements—must be present for something to be called a religion?Page 6An obvious starting point for many scholars is to examine linguistic clues: What are the linguistic roots of the term religion? Intriguingly, the word’s Latin roots are re-, meaning “again,” and lig-, meaning “join” or “connect” (as in the word ligament).1 Thus the common translation of religion is “to join again,” “to reconnect.” If this derivation is correct, then the word religion suggests the joining of our natural, human world to the sacred world. In classical Latin, the term religio meant awe for the gods and concern for proper ritual.2 We must recognize, though, that the term religion arose in Western culture and may not be entirely appropriate when applied across cultures. Spiritual path, for example, might be a more fitting designation to refer to other religious systems. We will keep these things in mind when we use the long-established term religion.

People have constantly tried to define religion, and there are thus many notable attempts. These definitions may emphasize a sense of dependence on a higher power, awareness of the passing nature of life, the use of symbolism and ritual, the structuring of time, or the acceptance of moral rules. Yet reading these definitions makes one aware of their limitations. The definitions often seem inadequate and time-bound, the product of a particular culture or period or discipline. Perhaps, for the time being, it is better simply to be open to many possible definitions, without as yet embracing any single one. After studying the major world religions, we will undoubtedly come closer to our own definition of religion. The problem of how to define religion continues to plague scholars, who love definition. A definition may apply well to some religions, but not to others. A definition may apply to religions of the past, but may not be suitable for a religion of the future. Traditional dictionary definitions of religion read something like this: a system of belief that involves worship of a God or gods, prayer, ritual, and a moral code. Yet there are so many exceptions to that definition that it is neither comprehensive nor accurate. So instead of saying that a religion must have certain characteristics, it is more useful to list a series of characteristics that are found in what are commonly accepted as religions. Scholars note that what we ordinarily call religions manifest to some degree the following eight elements:4Belief system Several beliefs fit together into a fairly complete and systematic interpretation of the universe and the human being’s place in it; this is also called a worldview. Community The belief system is shared, and its ideals are practiced by a group. Central myths Stories that express the religious beliefs of a group are retold and often reenacted. Examples of central myths include the major events in the life of the Hindu god Krishna, the enlightenment experience of the Buddha, the exodus of the Israelites from oppression in Egypt, the death and resurrection of Jesus, or Muhammad’s escape from Mecca to Medina. Scholars call such central stories myths. The term “myth,” as scholars use it, is a specialized term. It does not in itself mean (as in popular usage) that the stories are historically untrue, but only that the stories are central to the religion. Ritual Beliefs are enacted and made real through ceremonies. Ethics Rules about human behavior are established. These are often viewed as having been revealed from a supernatural realm, but they can also be viewed as socially generated guidelines. Characteristic emotional experiences Among the emotional experiences typically associated with religions are dread, guilt, awe, mystery, devotion, conversion, “rebirth,” liberation, ecstasy, bliss, and inner peace. Material expression Religions make use of an astonishing variety of physical elements—statues, paintings, musical compositions, musical instruments, ritual objects, flowers, incense, clothing, architecture, and specific locations. Sacredness A distinction is made between the sacred and the ordinary; ceremonies often emphasize this distinction through the deliberate use of different language, clothing, and architecture. Certain objects, actions, people, and places may share in the sacredness or express it. Each of the traditions that you will study in the pages ahead will exhibit most of these characteristics. But the religious traditions, like the people who practice them, will manifest the characteristics in different ways and at different times. The SacredAll religions are concerned with the deepest level of reality, and for most religions the core or origin of everything is sacred and mysterious. This sense of a mysterious, originating holiness is called by many names: Brahman, Dao, Great Mother, Divine Parent, Great Spirit, Ground of Being, Great Mysterious, the Ultimate, the Absolute, the Divine, the Holy. People, however, experience and explain sacred reality in different ways, as you shall see in the chapters that follow.

One familiar term for the sacred reality, particularly in the Western world, is God, and monotheism* is the term that means a belief in one God. In some systems, the term God often carries with it the notion of a Cosmic Person—a divine being with will and intelligence who is just and compassionate and infinite in virtues. God is also called omnipotent (“having total power over the universe”). Although God may be said to have personal aspects, all monotheistic religions agree that the reality of God is beyond all Page 8categories: God is said to be pure spirit, not fully definable in words. This notion of a powerful God, distinct from the universe, describes a sacredness that is active in the world but also distinct from it. That is, God is transcendent—unlimited by the world and all ordinary reality. In some religions, however, the sacred reality is not viewed as having personal attributes but is more like an energy or mysterious power. Frequently, the sacred is then spoken of as something immanent within the universe. In some religions, there is a tendency to speak of the universe not just as having been created but also as a manifestation of the sacred nature itself, in which nothing is separate from the sacred. This view, called pantheism (Greek: “all divine”), sees the sacred as being discoverable within the physical world and its processes. In other words, nature itself is holy. Some religions worship the sacred reality in the form of many coexisting gods, a view called polytheism. The multiple gods may be fairly separate entities, each in charge of an aspect of reality (such as nature gods), or they may be multiple manifestations of the same basic sacred reality. In recent centuries, other views have become prominent. There can be a tendency to deny the existence of any God or gods (atheism), to argue that the existence of God cannot be proven (agnosticism), or simply to take no position (nontheism). (Such tendencies are not strictly modern; they can also be found in some ancient systems, such as Jainism; see Chapter 5.) However, if one sees religion broadly, as a “spiritual path,” then even systems based on these three views—particularly if they show other typical characteristics of a religion—can also be called religions. Religious Symbolism Religions present views of reality, and most speak of the sacred. Nevertheless, because religions are so varied in their teachings and because the teachings of some religions, when taken at face value, conflict with those of others, it is common to assert that religions express truth symbolically. A symbol is something fairly concrete, ordinary, and universal that can represent—and help human beings intensely experience—something of greater complexity. For example, water can represent spiritual cleansing; the sun, health; a mountain, strength; and a circle, eternity. It is common to find symbolism, both deliberate and unconscious, in religious art and ritual. Symbols and their interpretation have long played an important part in analyzing dreams. It was often thought that dreams were messages from a supernatural realm and that they provided a key to the future. Although this type of interpretation is less common nowadays, most people still think that dreams are significant. Sigmund Freud introduced his view of the dream as a door into subconscious levels of the mind. He argued that, by understanding dreams symbolically, human beings can understand their hidden needs and fears. For example, a dream of being lost in a forest might be interpreted as distress over losing one’s sense of direction in life, or a dream of flying could be interpreted as a need to seek freedom.