The Encyclopedia of World Religions

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"''^'^ The Encyclopedia of

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Robert S. EllwOOd, General Editor
Gregory D. Alias, Associate Editor

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Thjs book was de\eloped and wntten by Book Builders Incorporated.
General Editor:
Robert S. Ellwood

Uni\crsit\- of Southern California
Associate Editor:
Gregory D. Alles

Western Man'land College
Advisers and Consultants:

Dr. Robert T. Anderson
Department of Religious Studies, Michigan State University

Dr. Frida Kemer Furman
Department of Religious Studies, DePaul Universit>-

Dr. Azim A. Nanji
Department of Religion,Universit\- of Florida

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UJLoRlD Relrqrops

Robert S. Ellwood

University of Southern California

GENERAL EDITOR

Gregory D. Alles

Western Maryland College

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

OnFacts File, Inc.

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For my family and the future.

—Robert S. Ellwood, General Editor

To my children.

—Gregory D. Alles, Associate Editor

The Encyclopedia of World Religions

©Copyright 1998 by Book Builders Incorporated

All rights resersed. No part of this book may be reproduced or utiUzed in any form or by any means, electronic

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Encyclopedia of world religions / Robert S. Ellwood, general editor,

Gregory D. Alles, associate editor.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8160-3504-0

1 Religions. I Ellwood, Robert S., 1933- . II. .'Mies, Gregor\' D.

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copceocs

Preface

\i

Introduction: What Is This Encyclopedia About?
Entries A-Z

1

Appendix: Topical Outline
375

Selected Bibliography
380

Index
383

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PRepAce

R.religion is one of the most important areas of spectives through fiirther reading, especiallv in
the sacred songs and scriptures of religions, and
human life. It has caused wars, inspired great acts above all by meeting and talking with people of
of compassion, and produced some of the most various religious backgrounds. In the United
exalted literature and philosophy known to hu- States today, people of almost all backgrounds are
accessible because temples of nearly all the
manitT,". Yet it is often difficult to get information world's religions can be found in most large
on the world's religious traditions, information cities. The religious world, in other words, is
that is not only simple and interesting to read, but found not only in books but is also a living reality
also objective, not partial to the point of view of all around us.
one religious tradition or another. The purpose
of The Encyclopedia of World Religions is to help As you use Tlie Encyclopedia of World Relig-
you find this kind of information. ions, you will find that you often need to go from
one entrv' to another to find certain new words or
We need always to recognize that religion can ideas explained- To assist you in locating infor-
mation on topics related to the entrii- in which vou
be looked at in n\o ways, from outside and inside. begin to read, you will notice that some words
The "outside" point of view means identifting within an article sen'e as cross-references and

—some basic facts for example, the histor>', teach- Aappear in small-capital letters. word in small-

ings, practices, and organization of a religion, capital letters indicates that there is an entry
facts that can be called out during research. The within the encvxlopedia for that word, an entry
"inside" point of \iew means taking a close look to which you can refer for additional information.
at the people who live and worship in that tradi- Be sure to look up any other words you do not
understand in a dictionar)' or other reference
tion. To truly understand a religion as it exists for book. Best wishes, and welcome to the wonderflil
and fascinating realm of the world's religions.
real people, then, \'ou need to be able to get
—Roben S. Ellwood
—inside to begin to understand the feelings of a
General Editor
religion's believers, their wavs of looking at the
world, and the things that are actuallv imponant Editor's Note: In this encyclopedia, Japanese
in their religious li\es. Gaining inside under- names are written in the Japanese manner, with
standing does not mean you ha\e to agree with the surname first; the surname is also in small-
believers or even accept the representations of capital letters in cross-references.
their beliefs; it just gives you the abilin.' to empa-
thize with, or have a feeling for, other peoples'

values.

Although an enc\'clopedia like this one can
easUy pro\ide material for the outside point of
\iew, it is hoped it will make you interested
enough to want to also gather some inside per-

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rpCRODUCCfOD

oibAC fs cNs encgclopeDfA abouc?

—/A-dolescence is a rime of curiosin- about one- LAM, lUD.AISM. WTiere appropriate, the editors
have also included main entries on the persons
self, one's friends, one's world. The Encyclopedia
who started or "foimded" the major rehgions: the
of World Religions aims to help young people BUDDH-Y, JESUS, MUH.\.\L\L\D. Many Other relig-
satisfy- their curiosit\- about a ver\' important as- ions have their own entries, too; for e.xample.

pect of their world: religions. The Encyclopedia of World Religions includes
.\ZTEC RELIGION, CELTIC RELIGION, GREEK RE-
Today more than ever young people in UGION, INDIGENOUS AMERIC.\N REUGIONS,
MANTCH.AEISM, and PACIFIC OCE.\N REUGIONS.
North America encounter a variet\- of religions. In addition, more specific entries generally sup-
plement the broader ones. Thus, in addition to
They do so through the mass media. Many, espe- an entn- on ZOROASTRLVNISM, there are entries
cially those who live in metropolitan and
on the P.\RSEES, ZAR.\THUSTR.\, and the ZEND
suburban areas, also do so firsthand. But oppor-
.WESTA.
tunities for young people to learn about religions Comparative entries discuss features that

are more limited. Much education in the United appear in several or in all religions. They intro-
duce students to many standard topics in the
OnStates does not include religious studies. ( the study of religions. Examples include entries on
GOD, GODDESSES, .\L\GIC, .MiSTICISM, lUTES OF
difference bet\veen religious studies and theol- PASSAGE, SACRfflCE, and SCRIPTURE.
Og\-, see THEOLOGY' and RELIGION. STUDY OF.)
But religions are not simply facts to be re-
In addition, most books and articles in religious counted and compared. They are topics about
which to think. Here is where the theoretical
studies are geared to a college and postgraduate entries come in. The most basic theoretical entr\-
is the one on the study of religions. Readers
audience. should turn to it at the outset (see RELIGION,
STLT)Y OF). Several more specific entries discuss
Reference books are no exception. Although theories and movements in religious studies, for
example, .\NLMISM, D\'N.\MISM, FE.MINISM,
there are some fine reference books available on FL-NCnON.XLISM, and TOTEMISM. (Not all of
these theories, however, are still found accept-
religions. The Encyclopedia of World Religions is able.) Other entries discuss major thinkers and
their ideas: Emile DURKHELM, Mircea ELL\DE
different in that it aims to address students di- (editor of the scholarly 16-volume Encyclopedia

rectiy. It prosides them with accurate information

about religions that they are likely to encoun-

—ter both in their school and personal lives. It

also provides them with information that they can

use and understand. Generally speaking, it con-

tains three kinds of entries: historical entries,

comparative entries, and theoretical entries.

Historical entries discuss features of specific

religions. The most basic historical entries are

those on the major religious traditions: BUD-

DHISM, Chinese Religions (see CHIN.V

RELIGIONS OF), CHRISTIANTTir, HINDUISM, IS

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of Religion [Macmillan, 1988]), James George Finally, a few other useful distinctions should
FRAZER, Sigmund FREUD, Carl Gustav JUNG, be noted. For example, throughout most of the
Bronislaw M\LINOWSKI, Karl MARX, Rudolf
OTTO, and Max WEBER. (Note that entries per- entries, readers will find themselves directed by
taining to people are listed in the encyclopedia
alphabetically by the person's last name.) cross-references to related entries, or entries that

In selecting entries, the editors have kept in offer additional information of interest. These
mind that young people are especially interested
in topics that address the world in which they live. cross-references appear in small capital letters and
Therefore, the encyclopedia supplements the
general entries on Buddhism, Christianity, Hin- will serve to extend the scope and depth of the
duism, Islam, Judaism, and PROTESTANTISM with
entries on these religions in America (for exam- encyclopedia.

ple, see BUDDHISM IN AMERICA). It also gives Also, usually within the initial definition of
preference to topics that young Americans are an entry, readers will sometimes find references
most likely to encounter. For example, the Bud-
dhist philosopher Nagarjuna (for which there is to Sanskrit, the ancient Incfo-European language
no entry here) is every bit as sophisticated and
influential as the Christian theologian Thomas sacred to or influential among Hindus and Bud-
Aquinas (who is represented here). But as the
dhists. Other references throughout, often found
20th century draws to a close, it is difficult to
imagine very many American middle school or in parentheses without explanation, constitute
high school students looking for an entry on
Nagarjuna, as opposed to an entry on Thomas references to the Christian Bible, here to the
Aquinas. With time that situation may well
various books of the New Testament.
change. I want to close on a more personal note. Two

The basic structure of many of the entries groups of young people have convinced me of the
goes back to the ideas of Joachim Wach. These
ideas are certainly not beyond criticism. For ex- need for this volume.
ample, Wach related experience and expression in
a way that opens up all sorts of thorny philosophi- The first group comprises several generations
cal problems. But Wach did identify' three modes
of students in the SUMMERSCAPE program at
—of religious expression the theoretical, the prac-
—tical, and the sociological that are especially Drur>' College, Springfield, Missouri. Over the
last decade I have been amazed and impressed by
helpRil in organizing material for beginning stu- the number of gifted and talented sixth to ninth
dents of religion. Although the major entries use graders who were willing to spend two weeks of
simpler words, Wach's three basic divisions re-
main. Moreover, entries generally discuss a their summers taking what amounted to intro-

religion's history before considering its theoreti- ductory courses in religious studies and
cal, practical, and social aspects.
philosophy. These students have consistentiy

given me more than I have given them. This
volume IS a testimony to our time together.

The second group includes my nieces,
nephew, and above all my children. The voices,
music, and general commotion of the last group,
my children, provided a constant drone for the
melody that was my work on this encyclopedia.

That IS only fitting. I was singing it especially for

them.

—Gregory D. Alles

Associate Editor

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_2:



A

AARON Brother of MOSES in the Hebrew BI that abortion is not, therefore, murder. Liberal
religionists believe that abortion is always a seri-
BLE. According to the Bible, GOD appeared to ous moral decision, but that it can be justified for
such reasons as saving the life or health of the
Moses in the desert and appointed him to free the mother, or the prospect of the child's being born
seriously deformed. In the great majorit>' of cases,
people of Israel from sla\'er\- in Eg^pt (see EXO- abortion as a means of birth control, that is, as a
means to terminate unwanted pregnancies, usu-
DUS). Moses objected that he had no public allv does not have the appro\al of religious
speaking abilities, so God appointed his older
authorities.
brother Aaron as his assistant (Exodus 4).
Moreover, the issue is one not only of
Aaron was instrumental in bringing about whether abortion is intrinsically right or wrong,
but also of who has the right to decide. Is it the
the various plagues that eventually convinced the mother's right alone to decide if she will have a

king of Egypt to release the enslaved Israelites —child? Or do others the state, the medical pro-
—fession, the father, the church have the right to
On(Exodus 5-12). a less positive note, he is said
make that decision? It is a complex and wrenching
to have manufactured a calf of gold for the people issue that man\' persons, religious and otherwise,
continue to wrestie with.
to WORSHIP when they feared that Moses had

perished on Mt. Sinai ( Exodus 32).

Tradition holds that Aaron was the first high

Apriest of Israel. group of priests associated with

the Temple in JERUS.\LEM (middle 900s to 586

B C.) claimed to be descended from him. They are

known as Aaronides or Aaronites.

ABORTION AND RELIGION The mten In 1979, in Trenton, New Jersey, a group of pro-choicers

tional destruction by medical means of a human demonstrate against abortion regulation. (Courtesy of
UPI/Corbis-Bettmann.)
—fetus in the womb prior to birth a highly con-

troversial ethical issue for many religious people
since it means the taking of present or potential
human life. On one side are those, calling them-
selves "pro-life," who hold that a fetus is a person

and that abortion therefore is murder. This is the

view officially taken by, among others, Roman
Catholics, many conser%'ative Protestants, and
Orthodox Jews. However, unlike ROiVL-VN CA
THOLICISM, Orthodox IUD,\ISM permits abor-

tion if the mother's life is at stake.

Others, calling themselves "pro-choice,"

contend that an unborn fetus is not a person and

2 ABRAHAM

ABRAHAM (Arabic, IBRAHIM) Legendary for him among the animals, God put Adam into

ancestor of Jews and Arabs, also revered by Chris- a deep sleep, took one of his ribs, and fashioned
tians and all Muslims. The BIBLE presents an
image of Abraham that roughly corresponds to a woman from it, whom Adam eventually named
EVE. In Genesis 3 God expelled Adam and Eve
the way of life common in Canaan between 2000
and 1600 B C from the garden because they disobeyed God's
command not to eat from the tree of knowledge
According to the Bible, Abraham left the cit>' (see FALL, THE).
of Ur in Mesopotamia and traveled to the land of
Canaan. In fulfillment of a promise from GOD, he Jewish philosophers have seen Adam and his
and his wife SARAH had a son, ISAAC, despite story as symbolizing all human beings. Christians
their advanced age. (The Bible says Abraham was used the image of Adam in defining the special
100 years old [Genesis 21.5].) Isaac's son JACOB
became the ancestor of the Jewish people. Arabs role of lESUS. For example, PAUL saw Jesus as the
trace their descent to Abraham through Ishmael second Adam, undoing the consequences of the
(Arabic, Ismail), the son of Abraham and Hagar. First Adam's sin (I Corinthians 15.22, 45). For
Muslims consider Hagar Abraham's first wife. Muslims, Adam is the first in the line of prophets
They attribute the building of the most sacred that culminates in the prophet MUHAMMAD.
of all Islamic shrines, the KAABA in Mecca, to
Abraham. GRANTHADI Punjabi for "first book"; the

A well-known story relates how God com- sacred book of the Sikhs. It is also known as the

manded Abraham to SACRIFICE his son. Jews tell Guru Granth Sahib.
this story about Isaac. Muslims tell it about Ish-
mael. Abraham obeyed God without question. The Adi Granth contains almost 6,000
He stopped only when an ANGEL informed him hymns written by Sikh gurus and other SAINTS
that God's command was merely a test. Abra- (see SIKHISM). The hymns are mosdy arranged
ham's faith as seen in this incident is the theme of according to the musical modes in which they
a book. Fear and Trembling, by the Danish phi-
losopher, Soren Kierkegaard. are sung.

Abraham is a very important religious figure. The first and third gurus, NANAK and Amar
Three of the world's most prominent religions, Das, made collections of their own hymns and
JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, and ISLAM, are ofi:en
called "Abrahamic religions" because they see those of earlier religious poets. In 1604 the fifth
themselves as worshiping the God of Abraham. guru, Arjan, added other hymns to the earlier
collections to make the first version of the Adi
ACTS, BOOK OF See BIBLE. Granth. He installed it in the most sacred Sikh
shrine, the Golden Temple at Amritsar. In 1704
ADAM The first human being in Jewish, the last Guru, GOBIKD SINGH, completed the Adi
Granth by adding hymns of his father. Guru Tegh
Christian, and Islamic tradition. The name
Adam may also be translated simply as "the man." Bahadur, to the earlier version. Before Gobind
The BIBLE seems to link this name to adamah, Singh died, he established the book as the guru
Hebrew for ground (Genesis 2.7). As told in of the Sikhs. It is the ultimate authority on relig-
the second chapter of Genesis, the Lord GOD
formed Adam from the Earth's dirt, breathed life ious matters.
into him, and placed him in the garden of
Eden. After a futile attempt to find a companion Sikhs in fact treat the Adi Granth as their

guru. Copies of the book are enshrined in Sikh
houses of WORSHIP, known as gurdwaras. There

they are unwrapped in the morning and wrapped
up at night according to set RITUALS. During

worship, the sacred book is fanned, just as if it
were a living dignitar>', and hymns from it are
sung. In the presence of the Adi Granth, one

AFRICAN-AMERICAN RELIGIONS 3

should have one's head covered and remove religions e.xpeet the deities and spirits to help with
one's shoes. problems and difficulties in everyday life. The
deities and spirits may reveal themselves through
ADONIS An ancient Greek god. The Greeks a medium. Worshipers may also seek advice from

knew Adonis as a god who was imported from the a diviner.
ancient Near East. His name seems to bear out
this idea. It seems related to the Semitic word The religions of African Americans in the
niion, which means "lord." United States developed differentiy. There the
dominant religious tradition was PROTESTANT-
Adonis figured prominendy in Tlw Golden ISM. Unlike Catholicism, Protestantism does not
Bouj^b, a well-known collection of mythology by venerate saints who can be identified with African
James George FRAZER. According to Frazer, gods and spirits. ( In Africa, the high god is usually
Adonis was a typical god of vegetation. He died distant and as a result not worshiped.) In addi-
and rose again in imitation of plant life. The tion, African Americans enslaved in the United
ancients did indeed know some stories about States often did not have the opportunit)' to form
Adonis being restored to life. But these stories their own relatively isolated communities, as they
were told about Adonis only at a very late period. did in the Caribbean and South America.

According to some myths the GODDESSES By 1800 many African Americans in the
Aphrodite and Persephone struggled over United States were turning to Protestantism.
Adonis. As a result, he spent part of the year with They tended to favor forms that emphasized
each of them in turn. According to another fa- conversion experiences rather than a LITLIRGY. As
mous myth, told by the Roman poet Ovid in his a result, they became Methodists and Baptists (see
Metamorphoses, Adonis was a favorite of Aphro- METHODISM and BAPTIST CHURCHES). On occa-
dite who was killed by a wild boar while hunting. sion these Afiican Americans founded their own
denominations. For example, several black Meth-
The women of Athens worshiped Adonis by odist congregations formed the American Meth-
planting gardens on their rooftops during the hot odist Episcopal Church in 1816. In smaller
summer months. When the plants died, they numbers, African Americans in the United States
mourned the god's death. also joined the more liturgical churches, such as
the Episcopal (see ANGLICANISM) and CathoUc
AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGIONS The
churches.
religions of people of African descent living in the
Western Hemisphere. African Americans have African Americans obviously benefited
had and continue to have a vibrant and rich greatly from the movement to abolish slavery.
religious life. Black as well as white ministers were abolitionists.

Afiican -American religions in the Caribbean After the Civil War and Emancipation, African
and South America often preser\'e and adapt Af- Americans participated in the Holiness move-
ments. Like prewar Baptists and Methodists,
rican traditions (see AFRICAN RELIGIONS). Good these movements emphasized rehgious experi-
examples are VOODOO from Haiti, SANTERIA ence. Then, at the turn of the century, Aincan
from Cuba, Candomble in Brazil, and Winti in Americans were instrumental in forming PENTE-
Surinam. They often combine African and Euro- COSTAL CHRISTIANITY. GOSPEL music is a well-
known product of these movements. In the
pean practices. This combining is sometimes mid-20th centuiy, the Southern Christian Lead-
called "syncretization" or "creolization." ership Conference, led by a Baptist minister, Mar-
tin Luther KING, Jr., helped end legal segregation
Many traditional religions interact loosely in the southern United States.
with ROMAN CATHOLICISM. Those who practice
them WORSHIP African deities and spirits in con-

junction with Catholic SAINTS. All traditional

4 AFRICAN RELIGIONS

Traditional Chrisrianin- did not meet the Kenya from 1959 on seem to confirm this belief
needs of all African Americans in the United Some are over two million \ears old.
States. Some rejected it because of its connection
with the former slave owners. African nationalist The histon,' of Africa south of the Sahara is
movements provided one important altemarixe. not known as well as we would like. That is true
After Emancipation some African i\mericans of the history of African religions, too. African
called for a return to Africa. In the early 20th religions do have venerable pasts. For example,
centur>-, Marcus Gar\ey (1887-1940) empha- .\frican rock paintings often have m\thological
sized black separatism and pride. The best known and religious significance. Some rock paintings
black nationalist movement is the Nation of Islam date as far back as 26,000 B.P, (before the pre-
(see ISLAM, N.MION OF). It was organized in the sent). It would be a mistake, however, to think
1930s by Wallace Fard and Elijah Muhammad. that traditional African religions were static and
Until a \isit to Mecca in 1964, .\L\LCOLM X was never changed, as was commonly thought in the
its most effective spokesperson. Rastafarianism, a late 1800s. Like all religions, they changed and
movement from Jamaica, is famous for its music, developed. For example, in the last 500 vears,
reggae. It saw the former emperor of Ethiopia, many African peoples acquired kings. The\' often
Haile Selassie (1892-1975 ), as a sa\ior for Afri- thought these kings were sacred.
can Americans. Before his coronation, Haile Se-
lassie was called Ras Tafari. There are thousands of African cultures, lan-
guages, and religions. Ob\iously, it is impossible
Other African-American alternatives to tradi- to describe them all. But some features of African
tional Christianity- have also emerged. lUD.MS.M religions appear fairly frequentlv.
has attracted some African Americans. The\-
identified with the stor\' of the EXODUS, in which Many traditional Africans know about a
the Hebrew slaxes were freed from captivit\' in "high god" who created the universe. This god
Egjfpt. Some ha\'e foimded Jewish sects. Other
African-American movements have borrowed is distant and unconcerned with dailv life. Afri-
cans tell many different stories to explain why.
Aand adapted elements from Christianit\'. good
example is Father Di\ine (c. 1880-1965), who They also tell stories about the beings who

used elements of traditional Christianin,- while first invented cultural products and social institu-
preaching that he himself was God. African tions. Other stories tell about figures known as
Americans have also found religious inspiration TRICKSTERS.

Ain traditional African religions. good example Some superhuman beings have a more di-
rect impact on human life. They include beings
is K\V.\NZ,\.^. Created in 1966, it is a vear-end sometimes called gods and sometimes called
festival that celebrates family values from an -Afri- spirits. They also include the souls of the dead.
can perspective. These souls may be venerated as ancestors.
They may also be considered to be GHOSTS.
AFRICAN RELIGIONS The indigenous re-
Traditional Africans interact with these beings
ligions of Africa. This entr\- discusses African by means of RITUALS.
religions south of the Sahara Desen. North of the
Sahara ISL\M has been the dominant religion Healing pla\s a large role in most African
since the A.D 600s. religions (see HE.\LING, RELIGIOUS). Traditional
Africans often attribute sickness and misfortune
People ha\e lived in Africa for tens, if not to witchcraft and sorcer)'. In some cases witch-
hundreds, of thousands of years. Indeed, manv craft may cause disease without any conscious
intention on the pan of the supposed witch.
belie\e that the genus Homo first evohed in Af- Traditional Africans may consult specialists who
rica. Hominid bones found at Olduvai Gorge in know how to counteract these forces. Sometimes

traditional Africans attribute diseases to "affile-

AFTERLIFE IN WORLD R_ELIGIONS 5

on," that is, to a spirit that is possessing a person. TION (or coming back to be bom again) in human

In these cases the spirit needs to be expelled. or animal form; some en\ision ultimate absorp-
African religions generally have RITES OF P.^-
GODtion into or eternal reality.
S.AGE to make a transition from one stage of
existence to another. INITL\TION rituals are par- Many of the world's early religions held that
ticularly well developed. S.\CRIFICES and offerings
are ver\- important components of African ritual the afterlife was about the same for almost every-
practice. Music, dancing, and arts, such as mask- one. The Ainu of northern Japan considered it a
making, also make major contributions to the
practice of African religions (see MUSIC -\ND RE- world that was just the opposite of the present
LIGION, D.\NCE.\ND RELIGION, AKT, RELIGIOUS, world, so that when it was day here it was night
and .VLASKS .\ND RELIGION). Many African relig- there; one alternated bet\veen the two. Native
ions also assign special roles to chosen people.
Such religious leaders include priests ( see PRIESTS Americans often \iewed the world of departed
.\ND PRIESTHOOD ), prophets, mediums, diviners, spirits as being like this one but better; it was a
and kings. place where crops and the hunt were always

At the end of the 20th century, only about bountifiil and the weather mild. Among them, as
10% of Africans practiced traditional religions. among many primal peoples, the shaman (see
Roughly 50% practiced CHRISTLVsTFi' and 40%
practiced Islam. During the late 19th and 20th SHAiVLVNISM) was an important religious figure
centuries, Africans also developed "new relig-
ions." Many of these new religions were indige- who was believed able to travel between this
nous Christian churches. They either broke away
from mission churches or were founded by Afri- world and the next, bearing messages, invoking
can prophets. Examples include the Aladura
("pra\ing people") churches of Nigeria, which gods and spirits, and guiding the souls ( see SOUL,
eventually broke away from their .\merican par- CONCEPTS OF) of the departed to their eternal
ent church, and the amaNazaretha Baptist
Church, founded by the Zulu prophet Isaiah home.
Shembe (d. 1935). Other new religions fit tradi-
tional religious practices into the organizational For the ancient Egyptians (see EGYPTLAN RE-
forms of Christianity and Islam. An example is the
Bwiti Church of Gabon. LIGION), the afterlife was very important, above
all for the pharaoh as the supreme human being
AFRO-BRAZILIAN RELIGIONS See .\FRI in charge of all others. The soul's journey after

C.\.N .\.\1ER:C.\N RELIGIONS. death required elaborate preparations, such as
making the body into a mumm\'. It was said that
AFTERLIFE IN WORLD RELIGIONS
the soul would be weighed against a feather to see
Belief in continuing life after death. Most relig- how virtuous it was.
ions hold that there exists an afterlife. The way in
which this afterlife is pictured varies gready In ZORO.ASTRIANTSM it is believed that after
among the world's religions. Some envision a
shadowy other world or one similar to this one; death the soul crosses a bridge to the other world,
some see eternal reward or punishment in
HEAVEN or HELL; some believe in REINCARNA- which becomes a wide highway for the righteous
but narrow as a razor for the wicked. The latter

then fall off" into hell to be temporarih- punished.

On the last day God will resurrect (raise up and

restore to life in their bodies) all persons and

create a fresh and beautifiil Earth where they all

will live joyously forever.

—The same themes an indi\idual judgment

after death, then a general resurrection and new-

—Heaven and Earth at the end of the world can

be found in the Western family of monotheist

(believing in one God) religions besides Zoroas-

trianism: JUD.MSM, CHRISTIAxm', and ISLAM. In
the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament to Chris-

tians) there is litde reference to the afterlife until

6 AGAKHAN

the last few centuries B C, after the Jews had These too last only as long as the bad or good
karma, and the supreme achievement is to be-
encountered Zoroastrian or similar concepts dur- come a Buddha and enter NIRV.\N'.\, uncondi-
ing their exile in Babylon. Modern Judaism has tioned realit)' beyond life or death. In one
important form of Buddhism, PURE LAND BUD-
not emphasized the afterhfe as much as some DHISM, those who express faith in .\MIDA Buddha
other religions. It is more concerned with the will be reborn after death in the Pure Land, a
good life in this world and the survival of the paradisal realm from which entering into Nirvana
Jewish people. Many Jews acknowledge, how-
is easy.
ever, that the righteous continue for all time to
live in the presence of God. Jews have held differ- In China, TAOISM speaks of becoming an
ing emphases, some stressing the immortality' immortal, a deathless one, in this world or a
(undxing nature) of the soul and its reward or heavenly realm. There are ways to attain immor-
punishment after death; others believe in the talit\' through YOGA or MEDITATION, through
RESURRECTION! of the body; a few have belie%ed taking medicines of immortalitx' made bv ALCHEMY,
in reincarnation; still others have just emphasized and through \ irtuous living. CONFUCLANISM, be-
life in this world. cause of its emphasis on the family, makes much
of ancestral spirits that continue to bless the
Christianit\', influenced by both Jewish be- living. They are venerated at ancestral tablets in
liefs and Greek concepts of the immortality' of the the home, in family temples, and at the grave.
soul, has given great importance to heaven as a
place of eternal reward and happiness, and hell as Although images of the afterlife in the
a place of eternal punishment for the wicked. In world's religions are varied, many of these images

ROM\N CATHOLICISM there is a third state, pur- have in common three features. First, the afterlife

gator)', where those neither ready for heaven nor is a place of judgment in which the injustices of
bad enough for hell can suffer temporar\' punish- this world will be corrected; the wicked will be
ment to purge away their sins and finally enter punished and the good rewarded. Second, the
heaven. Christianitx' traditionally speaks of an world religions' concepts of the afteriife see it as
indiWdual judgment of the soul at the time of
death, and then a bodily resurrection of all the — —at least for the righteous a place of ease and
dead at the end of the world with a final judg-
ment. Islam afBrms a day of judgment, when the beautv' that compensates for the hardness of this
righteous will be assigned to a paradise tilled with world. Third, whatev er its form, the belief means
wonderfvil delights, and there is a more vaguely that there is more to the fullness of human life
described place of punishment for the \vicked. than just this world, that our lives are lived out on

In the East, HINDUISM emphasizes reincar- a larger stage.
nation based on KARMA, or cause and effect; for
ever\' thought, word, and deed there is a conse- KHANAGA Persian for "great commander";
quence. One can be reincarnated as an animal,
human, or in a heavenly or hellish state that will the tide of the leader of the Nizari Ismaili com-
last until the good or bad karma is exhausted. The
ultimate ideal to is become one with God, and so munit\' in ISLAM. The Aga Khan is the !AL\M or
go beyond death and rebirth altogether.
inspired leader of a communit\' in SHITTE ISLAM
BUDDHISM is similar to Hinduism. There are
six places of possible rebirth, depending on known as the Xizari Ismaili community. Aga

karma: the hells, the realm of the hungry' ghosts, Khan I (1800-81 ) received the designation from
the realm of the asuras or titans (fighting giants),
as an animal, as a human, or in one of the heavens. the shah of Persia in 1817. Later he rebelled

against one of the shah's successors and immi-

grated to India. There he assisted British militarv'

efforts and won British favor.

The tide has been passed down to successors

of the first Aga Khan: his son Aga Khan II (d.

ALCHEMY 7

1885), his grandson Aga Khan III ( 1877-1957), austere Jains end their lives by giving up food and
and his great-grandson Aga Khan r\' (b. 1937). water altogether.
In addition to overseeing their communit\', the
Aga Khans ha\e been active in politics and busi- In the early 20th century Mohandas G.\N'DHI
ness. For example, Aga Khan III led the All-India made ahimsa a central idea in his teachings.
Muslim League in its struggle for independence
from British rule. In 1937 he was elected presi- AHURA MAZDA See ZOROASTRIANISM.
dent of the League of Nations.
AKHENATON A king of Eg\pt (ruled
AGNI God of fire in the VEDA. Vedic HINDUISM
roughly 1350-34 B.C.). He is remembered for
—a form of Hinduism that scholars often suggest changes he made to EGYPTIAN RELIGION.

entered India from the northwest around 1500 WTien Akhenaton came to the throne, Egyp-
tian religion focused on the WORSHIP of the god
—B.C centers upon performing SACRIFICES. As a .WION-Re. In the sixth year of his reign, however,
Akhenaton made the Aton or sun's disk the cen-
result, the fire into which sacrifices are made tral god of Eg\pt. He changed his name from
Amenhotep to Akhenaton, "Servant of the
assumes tremendous importance. It is worshiped
Aton." He also moved his capital up the Nile from
as the god Agni. In the sacrificial grounds three Thebes to a place he named Akhetaton, known

fires represent Agni in the three levels of the today as Amarna. .\khenaton and his wife Nefer-
titi worshiped onlv the Aton; the people wor-
universe: HEA\'EN", atmosphere, and earth. shiped Akhenaton and Nefertiti.

As the "oblation-eater" (the one who de- Akhenaton's changes did not last long after
his death. His successor, Smenkhkare, destroyed
vours sacrifices) Agni is the divine equivalent to the settiement of Akhetaton and moved the capi-
tal back to Thebes. The next king, Tutankhamen,
Hethe priest. is responsible for purifying the gifts restored the cult of Amon.

of human beings and bearing them to the gods. Man\' ha\-e seen Akhenaton as the first mono-
He also brings the blessings of the gods to human theist (see MONOTHEISM), but that claim is too
hold. Some have even speculated that MOSES
beings. In the sacred collection of hymns known learned monotheism from Akhenaton. There is
no evidence to support such an idea.
as the Rig-veda, he is praised more than anv god
ALCHEMY The practice of using chemical
but INDR.\.
experiments or processes for such purposes as
AGRICULTTJRE AND RELIGION See PRE making potions of immortahti.' or transmuting

HISTORIC RELIGION. commoner metals into gold. .-Mchemy was wide-
spread in the Middle Ages and early modem times
AHIMSA Sanskrit word for "non-injury"; a in Europe, China, and elsewhere. In Europe a
supreme goal of the practice was isolating what
central ethical principle in the religion of J.AIXISM. was called the "philosopher's stone," which was
believed to give eternal life. Alchemy was inter-
Many Hindus and Buddhists also teach ahimsa. twined with the origins of modem science, and
even as great a figure as Isaac Newton was in-
Jains beUeve that any injurv' to another being volved with it. As alchemy sought to transmute
produces K.\R.\L\ and binds people to the world
of rebirth. Therefore, Jains avoid injuring others "base metals" into nobler ones like gold, create

as much as possible. As a result, they act out of a
supreme respect for life.

At a minimum Jains adopt a vegetarian diet,
because plants are thought to suffer the least

injur)- of all living things. Jains also care for sick

and d\ing animals in sanctuaries. Some Jains filter
their water, wear a mask over their mouth and
nose, and sweep their path as they walk to avoid
accidentally injuring unseen creatures. The most

bener medicines, and fashion the "elbdr of life," altars associated with temples. Roman Catholic,
some fundamental discoveries about chemistry' Orthodox, and some Protestant Christians call
and medicine w ere made. Even with these discov- the table on which the EUCHARIST is celebrated
eries, alchemy itself fell out of favor by the end of
the 1 7th centun'. Chinese alchemy, which flour- an altar, too. At times this altar has been shaped
ished from the fifth to ninth century, was largely like a sarcophagus and required to hold a RELIC.
focused on the quest for immortalit)'. Scholars of
alchemy, such as Carl Gustav JUNG and Mircea Many altars ha\e been quite simple. The first
ELL\DE, have shown that alchemy often had a
profoundly reUgious or psychological signifi- Greek altars were simply piles of ash from prev-
cance, in which various elements and chemicals ious sacrifices. Other altars ha\e been great works
were seen as symboUc of spiritual qualities, and a of art. The Pergamum Altar to ZEUS (164— 156
whole procedure was like a religious rite.
B C. ), now in a Berlin museum, measures roughly
ALLAH The Arabic word for GOD; specifically, 100 by 100 feet wide by 30 feet tall; its seven-
foot-tall marble frieze shows the battie of the
the designation for God in ISLAM. The basic gods and the giants. Some classic early European
Islamic attitude to God is given in the profession Apaintings are altarpieces. good example is the
of faith: "There is no god but God [Allah]." Islam
Isenheim altarpiece by Matthias Griinewald.
emphasizes the unit}' of God. In doing so, it Vedic Hindus constructed elaborate altars, too
explicitl)' rejects as pohtheistic Christian notions (see MiDA). The scholar Stella Kramrisch once
that God is a TRINm' and that JESUS was divine. suggested that piled Vedic altars pro%ided the
models for Hindu temples.
In Islam, God is the creator of the universe
AMATERASU SHINTO goddess associated
and its eternal ruler. It is the dut\' of all creatures,
including human beings, to submit to his will. with the sun and behe\'ed to be the ancestress of
the Japanese imperial house. In m\tholog\', she is
(Muslims speak of God in the masculine.) God said to inhabit the High Plain of HE.\\TN, There
she once hid in a heavenly cave as protest against
has revealed his will through a Une of prophets. her brother Susanoo, a storm god, when he dese-
crated her celebration of the har\est festival. She
This line culminates in the prophet MUHAMMAD. was enticed out when another GODDESS did a
Islam also looks forward to a RESURRECTION of comic dance and the gods laughed uproariously,
the dead. At that time God will welcome the making her curious. Amaterasu's primary' place of
WORSHIP is the Grand Shrine of ISE, where her
righteous into the gardens of paradise. chief symbol, an ancient mirror, is enshrined.

Allah is not the only designation for God in AMTDA Japanese name of i-\mitabha, a cosmic
Islam. Muslims also recognize 99 "most beautiful
names." One of them, al-Rahman, occurs at the Buddha, .\mida is best known as the principal

beginning of almost ever.' sura or section of the figure m the form of BUDDHISM known as PURE

QURAN: "In the name of God, al-Rahman [the LAND BUDDHISM Jodo in Japanese), which is
(
merciful], al-Rahim [the compassionate]."
The highest form of art in Islam is calligra- ven,' popular in East Asia. It tells us that many
aeons ago on becoming a buddha, Amida vowed
phy, artistic writing. Ideal subjects for this art that, out of compassion, he would bring all who
called upon his name in simple faith to his
include verses from the Qur'an about God and HE-WEN or Pure Land, also known as the Western
Paradise, after death. Temples in the Pure Land
his most beautifiil names. tradition generally have an image of Amida in
MEDITATION as a central object of WORSHIP, and
ALTAR A place, usually ele\ated, on which

people offer S.\CRIFICES. Altars var>' gready.

There are home altars, pubhc altars, portable

altars, stationary' altars, freestanding altars, and

www.ebook3000.com

often works of gold and jewels to suggest the Amish beliefs and practices are verv- similar to
wonders of the Pure Land. those of other Mennonites. The Old Order Amish
conduct their WORSHIP services in a dialea of Ger-
AMISH Particular groups of MEXNONITE man known as Pennsvivania Dutch; this is the
language that the\- ordinarily speak. Other Amish
Christians. The most traditional Amish are the conduct their services in English. Old Order services
Old Order ^\mish. They are probably the most are known for the slow-, prolonged manner in which
\isible and best known Mennonites. That is be- thev' sing in unison; a single hvTnn may take as much
as half an hour. Other ^\mish sing more quickly; like
cause, paradoxically, they are so assiduous in other plain people they sing without instruments
avoiding the ways of the world. and often in four part harmony. Old Order i\mish
worship in homes. Other Amish have constructed
The Amish split off from other Mennonites church buildings. Men and women sit separately.
in the 1690s. The issue was discipline. All of the Like other plain people, the Amish celebrate the
EUCR\RIST in the context of a "love feast." At this
—"plain people" conservative Mennonites, Amish,
—and Brethren obsene a strict discipline. It cov- special service, often held in the evening, partici-
pants not onl\- partake of the eucharist, the\- also
ers many areas of life, such as dress and the use of wash each other's feet. In doing this, they follow
modem inventions. In observing the discipline
they claim to practice what the BIBLE teaches, the example of JESUS, who washed his disciples' feet
especially Romans 12.2: "Do not be conformed
at their last meal together (John 13.3-15).
to this world." The Amish have traditionally shied away

In the 1690s Jakob Amman, a Mennonite from Bible study and THEOLOGY. In their eyes,
elder, disagreed with other elders over how to study symbolized the sin of pride. But in the late
20th centurv' many Amish were finding evangeli-
enforce the discipline. Following certain verses in cal CHRISTLXNITi' attractive (see E\'.\NGELICAL
.\ND FUXD.\MENT.\L!ST CHRISTLWlTi). They
the Bible, he taught that those who violated the liked its emphasis on the Bible and on cultivating
discipline should be shunned. That is, no member a personal relationship with GOD. Amish groups

of the communitv' should associate with them. have bishops, preachers, and elders, all of whom
Other Mennonites thought that shunning was must be men. To avoid pride, these leaders are
too harsh. It meant, for example, that one might
chosen by lot from candidates recognized as wor-
have to avoid one's own children. thy of the office.
At one time Amish Mennonites lived in sev-
A person becomes Amish by being baptized,
eral parts of Europe: Switzerland, Alsace (eastern
France), southern Germany, Holland, and Rus- generally around the age of 15 or 16. Once
sia. Today the Amish live in North America. Thev baptized, a person is subject to the community's
began coming to North America around 1720. discipline or way of life. Technically, unbaptized
The earliest immigrants settled in Permsv'lvania, children are not subject to the discipline's rules,
especially Lancaster Count)'. Amish immigrants and many teenagers from Amish families experi-
also settled in western Pennsvlvania, Ohio, Indi- ence the wilder aspects of life before being bap-
ana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas. In the last tized. For example, some keep cars "hidden" in
years of the 20th centurv- many Amish were leav- distant pastures on their parents' farms. Never-
ing Lancaster Counn,-, Pennsylvania, and moving theless, an Amish childhood does not simpiv
farther west, some to the Midwest. Land in Lan- conform to what is common in the surrounding
caster Counn," had become too expensive. (It is societv'. For example, the Amish do not think a
traditional for Amish families to purchase farms
for their sons when their sons become adults.) modem education is necessarv for someone who

Many Amish also found the publicitv' they were

receiving in Lancaster Countv* distastefiil.

10 AMISH

In riiwl central rcnnsvl\aiii,i, hc.iiititul ^^.
church. The Old Order Ami^h hold all-d.
Corbts- Bcttnianyj.)

follows the Amish way of life. In 1972 the U.S. example, the Amish do not buy insurance poli-
Supreme Court decided that Amish children
could quit school at eighth grade, according to cies. On the one hand, they believe that doing so
Amish tradition, despite state laws that required tempts God. On the other, they believe that when
children to go to school longer Wisconsiti v.
someone in the community' has special needs, the
( entire community should help out. The Amish
are well known for helping other members of the
Toder).
communit)' in need. A good example is the barn-
The Amish consicier farming the ideal life.
Following the Bible's command to exercise stew- raising, a communal eftbrt to put up a barn on an
ardship o\'er the Earth, Amish farmers take pains Amish family's farm.
to improve the soil as they work it over the years.
According to the Old Order Amish, this is one Like other Anabaptist groups, Amish Men-
reason that they prefer horses to tractors. Plough- nonites have wrestled with the extent to which
ing with a tractor makes the soil worse because it they should adopt modern ways. The Peachey
packs it down; ploughing with horses aerates the Amish drive automobiles, have electricity and
soil and makes it better. The Amish follow the telephones in their houses, use modern farm
Bible in other aspects of daily life as well. For equipment, and allow men to shave. They adopt
traditional formal dress for Sundav services. Old

ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS 1

Order Amish dnve horses and buggies, do not use AMOS See BIBLE.
public electricity or telephones, use horses to pull
ploughs, and insist that men wear untrimmed ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS The most
beards. In cases of need they may ask their non-
Amish neighbors for rides or to take telephone important book containing the teachings of CON-
messages. All plain people are strict pacifists; be- FUCIUS (551^79 B.C.), the founder of CONFU-
cause soldiers in Europe wore mustaches, their CIANISM. Confiacius was one of the most
men are not allowed to have them. influential teachers who ever lived. But he did not
actually write down his teachings. After his death,
Despite the extremely plain lifestyle of the his followers gathered his sayings. They were
Old Order Amish, it would be a serious mistake eventually collected into a book, the Analects.
to see them as unchanging. They change in dif- The .Analects was put together perhaps in the

ferent ways. Many Old Order Aniish own trac- third centur\- B.C.
tors. They use them for power. Amish farmers
have invented many pneumatic (air-driven) farm The Analects does not expound Confucius's
tools. Amish buggies may look plain and old ideas in a neat, orderly sequence chapter by chap-
fashioned on the outside. But within the limits of ter. It also does not contain stories about Confu-
the discipline, the interiors of many buggies are cius's birth, activities, and death, as, for example,
plush. Some even have special sound systems. the GOSPELS do about JESUS. Instead, the
Analects contains short statements, sometimes no
AMON Also spelled Amun; the chief god of more than a single sentence long, unconnected
with one another. These statements claim to pre-
Egypt in the New Kingdom. At first Amon was sent Confucius's teachings in his own words. The
following saying is typical: "Tzu-kung asked, Ts
only the god of a small place. Around 2000 B C there a single word which can be a guide to
his cult was brought to Thebes, the capital of conduct throughout one's lifer' The master said,
Egypt. He became identified with Re, the sun
DoTt is perhaps the word ^''shu [reciprocity]."
god. When the New Kingdom begaji in 1 570 B C
not impose on others what you yourself do not
Anion-Re became the god of the kings and the desire'" (Analects 15.24 [Lau tr.])
king of the gods.
In the Analects, ConfLicius instructs his stu-
Eg\'ptian gods are sometimes shown with the
dents, who were male, on how to become gentie-
heads of animals; Amon had the head of a ram. men. To Confiacius a gendeman was more than
someone who is courteous and polite. He was
His major temples sat on the east bank of the Nile someone with moral depth. Confucius consid-
at Karnak and Luxor near Thebes. During festi- ered the gentleman to be the ideal of what it
means for most people to be human. (A few go
\als Amon went visiting. During one festival a beyond being gentiemen. They are sages).

procession carried him fi-om Karnak to Luxor. In Confucius's eyes, what characterizes a
During another he \'isited the tombs on the west gentleman is humaneness. Humaneness has nvo
bank of the Nile. As Egypt's wealth grew, ,\mon's parts. One part is the golden rule: As Confiicius
temples became immense, and his priests became formulated it, do not do to someone what you
extremely powerfijl. would not wish them to do to you. The other part
talks about how one should conduct oneself One
Amon had a consort, Mut (mother), and a should always strive to do one's best.
son, Khonsu (the moon). Some later thinkers
Confijcius believed that people had to work
claimed that all the gods were his manifestations. hard to realize virtue to the fijllest. Virtue had to
Others claimed that he was JUPITER. Ruins of be cultivated through a process that lasted a
Ajiion's temples still stand at Karnak and Luxor.
Thev attract hundreds of thousands of tourists
each vear.

)

12 ANCESTOR VENERATION

lifetime. The process began at home, with obedi- ancestors. But the ancestors may turn malevolent
against any unworth)- descendants of theirs who
— —ence and respect the "filial piet\'" that chil- do none of these things.

dren showed their parents. If one did not love Ancestor veneration is particularly notable in
one's parents, Confiicius asked, how could one traditional Chinese (see CHINA, RELIGIONS OF)
love other members of societ)'.' The process of and other societies influenced by CONFUCIAN-
cultivating virtue continued in socien,- as a whole. ISM. There, ancestors have almost divine status,
It did so as people obser\ed the rules of proper being worshiped like gods with offerings of in-
behavior. Confijcius believed that one nurtured cense, food, and water. In essence, however, Chi-
virtue, which is ultimately an internal qualify nese veneration for ancestors is simplv an
through one's external behavior. (Compare some extension of "filial piet>," the honor children owe
North American parents, who teach their chil- parents, beyond the grave. In traditional Chinese
dren gratitude, an internal quality, by telling communities, they are honored at three places: at
them to say "thank you," an external act.
a household shrine, where simple offerings may
Confucius expected his gentlemen to be be placed daily before a tablet bearing the names
of those recentiy deceased; at an extended family
members of the government. He had a ver\' spe- shrine, where large tablets bearing the names of
cific idea of how it was best for them to rule. Bv male ancestors for six generations back are set up
passing laws and meting out punishments, Con- on tiers and honored; and at the cemeterv, where
the famih" traditionally cleans graves and sets out
fucius said, one could maintain order, but one offerings nvice a year, in spring and fall.
would not make people more virtuous. The bet-
ter way to rule was by being virtuous and obsen- Reminders of ancestrism can be found in
ing proper beha\'ior oneself That way, people many societies. In HINDUISM, though the body
would develop a sense of shame and as a result is burned, the devout perform trachtional Vedic
govern themselves. These ideals of government offerings to ancestors called sraddhas, which are
often strike North Americans as unrealistic. It is performed at the time of the ancestor's death and
good to remember, then, that for centuries the as a part of regular household worship thereafter,
Chinese government ruled a \ery large territory daily and in a more elaborate form at the new
moon. In ^^merica, respect is shown the deceased
at least in part by putting Confiicius's ideals into through visits to grave or mausoleum and offer-
ings of flowers. There is a Jewish custom of
practice. leaving stones on the grave. Traditional times for
visiting graves include the anniversar\' of the de-
ANCESTOR VENERATION Honoring ceased's death. Memorial Day, and for Jews be-

the spirits of ancestors. In many traditional reli- fore the High Hoh" Days. A sense of a need to

—gions, the souls of ancestors of parents, uncles, honor and keep in touch with those of one's
famih' who ha\e gone before is a pervasive part of
grandparents, great-grandparents, and those human religion.

—even ftirther back are believed to have a special ANGELS Pure spirits devoted to the worship

power in people's lives. Typically they continue and service of GOD. Most developed religious
on the other side as the wise but stern parents the\' traditions have a class of beings that range be-
probably were in this life. Ancestors are con- tween the human realm and the supreme God or
cerned with the well-being of their descendants, Ultimate Reality. They include lesser gods,
but also with the upholding of traditional moral- SAINTS, ancestral spirits (see ANCESTOR VTNERA-
it)' and the traditional family structure. They will
bless those who keep traditional sacred values,
above all by working hard, having traditional
families themseh es, and keeping the family honor
bright. Descendants do this especially, of course,
by performing the customar\- RITU.\I.S that honor

ANGELS 13

TIOX), BODHISATT\'.\S, and today even aliens Third, angels are pictured as protectors.
from other planets. Angels are among the most Great archangels are patrons of nations and cities;
prominent, especially in monotheistic (believing lesser angels of individuals are "guardian angels,"
in one God) religions. They are believed to be designated to help those persons and fend off
temptations from the demons.
pure spirits created direcd\' by God to praise and
honor him in MB.^NTN, and ser\-e as his messen- Angels have traditionalh' been portrayed as
gers (the word angel comes from the Greek an- beautifiil human-like figures with wings. They
^ellos, messenger) on Earth. often appear female but are said to be se.vless,
although the greatest archangels are often repre-
Angels are important in the Western religious sented as male. The wings are partly due to the
traditions, JUDAISM, CHRISTIANI'n', and ISLAM.
influence of ancient Greek and Roman art, which
AHere they have several roles. hierarch)', includ- pictured various spirits in this wa\', although some
ancient Hebrew angels, like the one Isaiah saw,
ing the mighti,- archangels Michael, Gabriel, were also winged. Historically, angels may have
Raphael, and others, is believed to praise and been a way to bring popular belief in many gods
and spirits into harmony with belief in one God,
ser\e God in heaven. According to ancient by making them all his ser\ants. But belief has

sources, there are ranks of angels, in descending certainly been reinforced by accounts from nu-
order known as Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones,
Dominations, \'irtues. Powers, Principalities, merous ordinary- people who report angelic help
and encounters. One such account is from the
AArchangels, and ordinarx' angels. well-known founding of the Church of Jesus CJuist of
LATTER-DAY S.MNTS, the Mormon Church, by
ston', hinted at in the Bible but developed by the
poet John Milton and others, says that S.\TAN, the Joseph Smith. Beginning in 1823, the angel
de\il, was once a ven,' high angel, Lucifer (Light- Moroni is said to have visited Smith in upstate

bearer), but rebelled against God and was cast out New York, and directed him to the golden plates

of heaven and into hell. Tljc Annunciation by Butticelli. ilie arthajigel Gabnel
Second, angels are messengers of God. Arch- announces to the Virgin Man* tJiat she is to bear the
son of God. (Courtesy of the Imajfe Bank.)
angels and angels have performed missions for

God crucial to the central narratives of these three
faiths. In the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament
to Christians ) angels guarded the Garden of Eden

after .\D.\M and E\"E were driven out of that
garden. They visited .\BRAHAM with the promise
of a son, and the prophet ISAL-U-I saw a six -winged
cherubim, a kind of angel, in the temple. In

Christianitv', it was the archangel Gabriel who
\isited .\L\RY to inform her she would become the

mother of the Savior, JESUS, and angels appeared
singing in the skies at the time of his birth in
Bethlehem. In Islam, the same archangel,
Gabriel, delivered the sacred scriptures, the Ko-

ran, to the prophet Muhammad. On a more

personal level, these faiths have traditionally be-
lieved that each individual has a guardian angel

who guides and protects him or her. There is
some popular belief that the departed become

angels after death, but this is not considered

orthodox.

14 ANGLICANISM

containing the Book of Mormon, scriptures sup- conversion experiences. An instigator of this
plemental to the Bible in Mormonism. Moroni is movement was John Wesley. He never actually
often portrayed atop Mormon temples. left the Church of England, but his followers

In HINDUISM and BUDDHISM, the equivalent estabhshed an independent Methodist Church.
of angels are beautiful figures, apsaras or yaksas In the I9th century the Oxford Movement
sought to recover Catholic elements in the Angli-
in India, tennin or tennyo in Japan, said to inhabit can tiadition.
the heavens of the gods, the Pure Land, and even
mountains and forests as pla\'flil or mysterious English colonization from the 17th through
the 19th centuries helped spread Anglicanism
spirits. Some may tempt holy men, but in their overseas. Originally i\nglicanism was the estab-
most exalted conceptualization, as in the Pure lished or official religion of the American colonies
Land, they represent the wonderful joy of the of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. After the
world of gods and buddhas. The Taoist (see Revolutionary War, American Anglicans formed
TAOISM) immortals also have some angelic char- an independent Episcopal Church. This church
acteristics, and live in beautiful places in Heaven was in communion with the Church of England
or Earth accompanied by other worldly beings of but did not pledge allegiance to the British
throne. Since then other Anglican churches have
angelic character. arisen throughout the world. Today Anglicanism
Latelv there has been a renewal of interest in embraces an entire "Anglican Communion." The
churches of this communion are independent,
angels in popular culture in the United States. but they recognize the archbishop of CANTER-
These beautiful beings appear to have meaning to BURY as the "first among equals." Their bishops
many moderns, just as diey did for people of the meet roughly e\ery 10 years.

past. Anglicans have not defined themselves by a
detailed set of beliefs, the way some churches
ANGLICANISM The form of CHRISTIANITY have. They do, however, generally respect a set of
Thirt\'-nine Articles adopted in the 1560s. Ac-
represented by the Church of England and cording to these articles and other statements,
churches in other parts of the world that are in Anglicans acknowledge the BIBLE as the ultimate
"communion" or official association with it. In authorit\' in matters of faith. Unlike fiindamen-
the early 1530s King Henry VIII of England
wanted to annul his marriage to Catherine of talists (see EVANGELICAL AND FUNDAMENTALIST
Aragon. The pope refiised to grant him an annul-
ment. So Henry declared the English church to CHRISTLANITY), they have generally been open to
be independent of the PAPACY and himself to be modern methods of bibUcal interpretation. They
the Earthlv head of the church. But he preserved also acknowledge the Aposties' and Nicene
Catholic teachings and practices. After Henry's CREEDS, and they teach the views of the TRINITY
death, strong forces favored the more radical and the INCARN.ATION developed in the ancient
changes of the Protestant REFORMATION.
Henn''s daughter Elizabeth I mediated between church.
Catholic traditionalism and Protestant reform.
Under her the Church of England as we know it Anglicans have defined themsehes much
took shape. more by practice than by belief In doing so, they
have emphasized WORSHIP as central to the
Anglican churches see themselves as pursuing church's work. The most important document of
a middle way between Catholicism and PROTES- the church has been the Book of Common Prayer.
TANTISM. Since Elizabeth's time several move- Renowned for its beautiful language, it translates
ments have stressed one side or the other of its into English the worship ser\ices that were used
rich heritage. In die 18th century the Church of
England experienced revivals that emphasized before the Protestant Reformation. Unlike the

ANIMISM 15

Roman Catholic Church, which has seven SACRA animal goes into the crops and the communit\-;
MENTS, Anglican churches recognize only two, or that the spirit of the animal is a messenger on
B.\PTISM and the EUCHARIST. behalf of the people to the gods. If the flesh, after
being offered, is then consumed by the commu-
i\nother distinctive mark of the Anglican nir\\ that sacred meal can be like a holy commun-
churches is their emphasis on bishops. They have ion with the gods and a wa\' of reaffirming their
presened the apostolic succession of bishops.
That is, their lines of bishops extend without a identin,'.
break back to the time of the APOSTLES. Besides
bishops the Anglican churches have both priests On the other hand, the protection of some
and deacons. Since the 19th century they have
also had their own MONKS .AND NUNS. animals, or of all animals, can also be viewed as a
religious obligation. In J.AINISM, ahimsa or harm-
One question sparked much controversy in lessness toward all animate life is a way of affirm-
the late 20th centurv': Could women be priests ing the sacred character of .such life and the souls
and bishops? The majority of AngUcans decided
that they could. In the United States the first within it. Many Hindus and Buddhists also prac-
woman priest was ordained in the 1970s and the
first woman bishop in 1989. In England the first tice such harmlessness for spiritual reasons (see
woman priest was not ordained until 1994. HINDUISM and BUDDHISM). Sometimes certain
animals are protected and not killed because of
ANIMALS AND RELIGION The symbol- their meaning as the "totem," the emblem or
animal protector, of a communitv'. Hindu India's
ism and role of animals in religion. Animals have well-known "sacred cows" suggest compassion
had a profound significance for religion as far and the sacredness of motlierhood and all life to
back as reUgion can be traced. The famous Old its people.
Stone Age cave paintings of game animals un-
doubtedly had some kind of spiritual meaning. Animals also have widespread symbolic
But meaning and attitude have varied greath' meanings in religion. Religious art is full of ani-
fi-om one religious culture to another. In hunting mals. Sometimes gods are portrayed as animals,
culnires, where animals are a major source of food or as half-animal and half-human, like many
Eg\'ptian deities (see EGYPTLAN RELIGION) or the
and their killing a mark of human prowess, hunt- Hindu GANESA, with an elephant head and a

ing is a religious activity, involving spiritual prepa- human body. In CHRISTLWITY', the Holy Spirit is
ration by such means as fasting, performing oft:en portrayed as a dove. Many gods and Chris-
sacred dances before setting out, and observing tian SAINTS have an animal companion or symbol:
the bull of SrVA, the owl of ATHENA, the eagle of
taboos in the field. PRAYERS may also be ad-
dressed to the animal to be killed, and petitions St. John. In such cases the animal is usually said
made to a "Master ofAnimals" deity believed able
to give or withhold game. to embody a particular virtue important to that
figure: the bull as a token of fertiht)-, the owl of
In many societies, especially earU' agricultural wisdom, the eagle of soaring to the heights.

or pastoral (herding) ones, animals have often Animals are our companions and relatives
here on this Earth. Yet because they cannot speak
been the subjects of religious SACRIFICE. One or think exacdy as we do, they are always objects
example is the religion of the ancient Hebrews. of myster)' to humans. Given this, it is inevitable
The rationale is varied: It is believed that the savor that religion would make much of animals.
of the offered meat pleases GOD or the gods; that
the sacrifice to the highest of something eco- ANIMISM Belief in spirits. Stricdy speaking,

nomically valuable, as animals certainly were, in- the term "animism" refers to a theory about the
dicates faith and devotion; that the life of the
origin of religion. The theory is now widely re-
jected. Some still use the word to refer to the

16 ANSELM

religious beliefs and practices of indigenous peo- George FRAZER hypothesized that a stage of
ples. But the beliefs and practices to which ani- ^L•>LGIC had preceded religion. VVilhelm Schmidt
mism refers vary widely. As a result, what said all these theories were wrong. The first reli-
"animists" believe and do must be determined on gion had been the belief in a high god, "primal
a case by case basis. MONOTHEISM."

In 1871 the English anthropologist Edward There was really no conclusive evidence for
Burnett Tylor published an epoch-making book. any of these \iews of religion's origin. Further-
Primitive Cutturt: In it, he de\eloped the theor\' more, Tylor treated religion as if it were nothing
more than a set of beliefs. As anthropologists
— —that animism the belief in spirits was the ori- spent time with peoples outside of Europe, they
began to realize that Tylor and others had used
gin of religion. their evidence in crude and misleading wavs. They
gave up the search for the origins of religion and
At the time Tylor was writing, many authors culture and studied contemporary religions and
were developing evolutionan,' theories of religion
(see EVOLUTION .\ND RELIGION). They assumed cultures instead.
that evolution alwa\'s moved in one direction:
from the simplest to the most complex forms. But Tylor's influence had been enormous.
Therefore, to find the origin of religion, all one "Animism" had become a poUte term for what
had to do was identify its simplest form. T\'lor people used to call "paganism," "heathenism,"
thought he had found it: the belief in spirits. and "savagery." At the end of the 20th centurv'
some still used the term.
Tylor suggested how people first came to
ANSELM (c. 1033-1109) A medieval Chris-
Abelieve in spirits. corpse is strikingly different
tian thinker. Anselm was a BENEDICTINE monk
from a living human being. But what makes it (see MONKS AND NUTvIS) who rose to become
archbishop of CANTERBURY, the most important
different? T\'lor said that "primitives" attributed
Christian leader in England. After he died, the
the difference to a spirit that animates the body,
that is, that makes the body alive. Tylor also Roman Catholic Church officially declared him a
pointed to the difference between dreaming and SAINT. He is venerated on April 21, the date of

waking. He said that to explain the experience of his death.

dreams, "primitiNes" hypothesized that the spirit iAnselm is remembered most for the way he
left the body. Once the idea of spirit was born, it tried to prove that GOD exists (see GOD, THE
was just a short step to applv it to the world of E.XISTENCEOF). He defined God as "the greatest
nature. Spirits explained the growth of trees and object that can be thought of" Then he argued
animals, the roar of the thunder, an\thing un-
usual. Indeed, for Tylor's "primitives" the whole Athat, given this definition, God had to e.xist:
world was fiall of spirits. Tvlor buttressed his God who actually existed would be greater than
account with numerous references to reports any God who was only imagined. Anselm also
about the religion of living "primitives."
claimed that no one could know what the word
There were, however, competing theories. "God" means and still doubt that God existed.
The anthropologist R. R. Marett said that there
was a stage even earlier than animism: not so Some people have rejected Anselm 's proof
much belief as emotional awe in the presence of Among them are the great Christian theologian
an impersonal force, something like religious Thomas AQUINAS and the important philosopher
electricity. Marett called this religion preanimism Immanuel Kant.
or DYN.WIISM. Prominent thinkers like Sigmund
FREUD and Emile DURKHEIM picked up on an

idea of W. Robertson Smith. He had suggested
that TOTEMISM was the earliest religion. James

ANTI SEMITISM 17

ANTICHRIST In Christianin,', a figure op- conquests of Alexander the Great (d. 323 B.C.),
Greek-speaking or "Hellenistic" culture became
posed to CHRIST. The Antichrist is expected to the norm throughout the eastern Mediterranean
come at the end of time. region and the Near East. Those who fa\ored
Hellenistic culture at times looked down upon
In the New Testament (see BIBLE) only the Jews. Many Greeks valued reason in pursuit of the
truth. Some of them saw the Jews' reliance upon
letters of John mention the .\ntichrist. In these God's revelation (see TORAH) as superstition.
letters the Antichrist is the person "who denies Even more Greeks saw the practice of CIRCUMCI-
the Father and the Son." Furthermore, John's SION, an important sign of identity for Jewish
letters suggest that many Antichrists are already males, as a distasteftil mutilation of the body.
in the world. That, the letters say, is a sign that
the last days have already arrived ( 1 John Hellenistic culture was not, howe\er, the
2.18-25). primary source of anti-Semitism in the ancient
world; CHRISTL\NITY was. Some see evidence of
Although other New Testament writers did anti-Semitism in the most sacred writings of

not use the word "Antichrist," they shared the Christianity, the New Testament. Pertinent pas-
belief in a being or force opposed to lESUS. The
book of REVELATION has been particularly influ- sages include Matthew 23, John 8.34-4-7, and,
ential. Christians have often taken one of the most fatefijUy, Matthew 27.25, in which "the
beasts in Revelation to be the Antichrist. (See also Jews" proclaim themselves and their descendants
2 Thessalonians 2, which anticipates the coming guilty of JESUS's death. Many biblical scholars see
of an unnamed, lawless opponent to Christ.) these and other passages as motivated by fierce
competition between Jews and early Christians.
Speculation about the identin,- of the i\nti- They do not consider them historically reliable.
christ has been rampant throughout Christian
history. At one time or another. Christians ha\e On the basis of such passages, ancient Chris-
identified Simon Magus (a miracle-worker in the
book of Acts ), MUH,\MM\D, particular popes and tian teachers could utter fiercely anti-Semitic
Byzantine emperors. Napoleon, Adolf Hitier, in- statements. For example, John Chrysostom Ic.
stitutions such as the PAPACY, and ideologies such
347^07), a leader of the Orthodox Church in
as communism with the »\ntichrist. Asia Minor (now Turkey), taught that Jews were
Some who have opposed Christianity- and its viler than wild animals and that all Christians had
an obligation to hate them. AUGUSTINE, bishop
\alues have seen the Antichrist as a positive, not of Hippo and one of the most influential Roman
a negative figure. The best example is the German Catholic thinkers, wrote a "Tractate against the
Jews." He taught that Jews should be humiliated
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who wTOte a in punishment for rejecting Jesus.
book entided The Antichrist.
Anti-Semitism in the Medieval ,\nd
ANTI-SEMITISM Words, actions, and atti- Reforal\tion Periods

tudes directed against Jews because they are Jews. During the Middle Ages, anti-Semitic activity
The term was actually coined in 1879 by Wilhelm shifted from the regions around the Mediterra-
nean Sea to Europe.
Marr, a German conservative politician, to iden-
tify' an anti-Jewish racial policy that he and his Jev\s were s\'stematicall\' barred from many
fellow conservatives advocated. In the 20th cen- economic institutions. The theologian Thomas
tun- anti-Semitism led to the murder of roughly AQL'INAS taught that because Jews were guilty of
6 million Jews in the HOLOCAUST. deicide ("killing God"), princes were permitted
to take their property whenever they wanted.
Anti-Semitism in the Ancient World

Although the word was first coined in 1879,
anti-Semitism is by no means new. After the

18 ANTI-SEMITISM

A few days after German unification, a German policeman checks gra\'estones at a Jewish cemeten' where neo-Nazis

have spray-painted gravestones with swastikas. (Counesy ofReiiTers/Corbis-Benmann.)

Especially from 1200 on, Jews were required to Martin LUTHER thought he had purified Christi-
live in separate areas, sometimes surrounded by anity' of e\er\' impediment that had pre\ented
walls. In Italian these areas were called ghettos. people from becoming Christian. He was of-
fended that Jews did not convert. In 1543 he
In the same period rumors about Jews wrote a book. Against the Jews and Their Lies. In
abounded. They were said to conspire against it he encouraged his followers to bum down
Christianity', deliberately to desecrate the host synagogues and steal land owned by Jews.
(communion bread) as they had desecrated
Christ's body, and to kill Christian children and .\nti-Semitism in the Modern Period
use their blood for R1TU.\L purposes. Some Euro- AND THE Present
pean Christians used the last charge to justih,'
lynching Jews for over 800 years. Also during the The mo\'ement of thought known as the Enlight-
Middle Ages, Jews were expelled from even,' enment (the 17th centiuA' to the 1 8th centim')
coimtry in Europe except Poland. They tell victim changed the position of Jews in European societ\'.
to pogroms or massacres, for example during the It taught that all human beings, by \irtue of being
CRUS.\DES and die Black Death (1348-50). In human, enjoyed certain basic ciWl rights. Accord-
addition, some Jews were severely pursued by the ing to the American "Declaration of Inde-
Spanish INQUISITION.
pendence," these rights included "life, libenv',
The Protestant REFORM-WION (the 16th and the pursuit of happiness." Influenced by this
century) brought more of the same. For example. kind of thinking, one European country' after

APOCAL\TTIC LITERATURE 19

another removed legal restrictions that had been something that is hidden." The second meaning
placed on Jews. Especially during the 19th cen- is a good indication of what apocalyptic literature
tur\- Jews began in theon' to participate equally
as full members of European societ\'. does.
Apocalyptic literature provides knowledge to
In the late 19th centur\', however, a backlash
which people otherwise would not have access. It
arose. Some politicians used ideas about race and generally claims that its knowledge comes from

genetics to develop an anti-Semitic program. — —one or both of two sources. One source is a
They attributed a barrage of vices to Jews and
lobbied for the reimposition of traditional restric- vision that a person on Earth has of the spiritual
tions. In the 20th centur\' this backlash attained
horrid proportions in the Nazi Holocaust. realm. A good example is the second half of the

Anti-Semitism persists today, but among book of DANIEL in the Hebrew BIBLE (Daniel
Americans and Europeans oven anti-Semitism
A7-12). second source for apocalyptic knowl-
is generally confined to marginal groups such edge is a journey into HLWEN. Beginning in
chapter four, the author of the New Testament
as the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazis. The
estabUshment of the state of Israel in 1948 has book of Revelation is basically taking a guided
prompted the rise of anti-Semitism in the tour of the spiritual realm.
Islamic world, where it had previously been less
Whether they see visions or journey to
prevalent. In the United States, anti-Semitic heaven, those who are privileged to have these
statements by leaders of the Nation of Islam experiences need help in understanding what they
(see ISLAM, NATION OF) have contributed to encounter. That is because what they encounter
tensions between the Jewish and African- combines natural features in unusual and obscure
American communities. ways. For example, Daniel sees a ram with horns
of different sizes and a goat with one horn. The
Conclusion goat defeats the ram, loses its horn, and gains four

Anti-Semitism has a long histor\'. It has been Amore horns. littie horn grows out of one of the

especially common among European Christians four horns. Then it disrupts the S.ACRIFICES to
"the prince of the host" (Daniel 8.1-14). Daniel
and their descendants. At least for the last says that the ANGEL Gabriel helped him under-
1,000 years, this histon' has included severe
atrocities. At the same time, it would be ven,' stand this \-ision (Daniel 8.15-17). Indeed, the
authors of apocalyptic literature often claim that
wrong to think of all Christians and Mushms as spiritual intermediaries, such as angels, helped
anti-Semites. Especially since World War II, them understand what they encountered.
many Christian churches and denominations
have worked hard to develop an appreciation Manv Jewish and Christian apocalypses pro-

and respect for JUDAISM, vide a special look at the course of world history.
Thev often talk about periods of history, and they
APHRODITE See \-ENUS. associate these periods with fantastic symbols,
such as the horns in Daniel 8. They also en\ision
APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE A kind of a time when the present world of suffering and
misery- will be transformed or obliterated and a
literature in JUDMSM, CHRISTL\NlTi', and GNOS- new world ofjoy and bliss will take its place. From
TICISM. An apocalyptic book is called an apoca- such apocal\ptic expectations, Jewish people in
the late Second Temple period (200 BC.-A.D. 70)
Kpse. The best known apocal\pse is the New began to hope for a MESSL\H.

Testament book of REV'EL^TION. Gnostic apocal\pses are somewhat different.
The word "apocalyptic" comes from a Greek That is because of the way Gnostics think of the
world and SALVATION. Like Christians, Gnostics
word that means "to imcover," thus "to reveal

20 APOCALITTIC LITERATURE

en\ision a liberation from the present existence. Some scholars speculate that apocalxptic lit-
But the\- do not connect tliat liberation with the
course of histon,-. They emision it as a freeing of erature has roots in ZORO.\STRL\NISM. Zoroastri-
elements of light and goodness that are mixed up anism was the official reUgion of the Persians,
with darkness and e\il. Gnostic apocal\pses, then,
tend to talk not about histor\' but about meta- who freed the Jewish people from exile in Baby-
physics. They describe the hidden world beyond lon. It emisions a final battle in which good
the world in which we live, and they describe what
happens to the liberated soul. defeats evil. Apocal\ptic hterature also has its

Almost all apocal\pses are "pseudonymous." Aroots in the visions of ancient prophets. good
That means that, although they claim to be writ-
ten by famous people in the past, they are not so. example is ISAIAH's vision of GOD's heavenly
The book of Daniel is one example. Although throne ( Isaiah 6).
Daniel claims to live during the Babylonian exile,
his book's content makes it clear that it was The earliest apocalvpse may be as old as the
actually written about the time of the Maccabean 300s EC. But most Jewish apocalvpses adcfressed
revolt (167-164 B.C ). Many apocal\pses outside the uncertain time from the Maccabean revolt to
the Bible claim to be wrinen by such famous the destruction of the Temple in A-D. 70. Apoca-
figures as .^DMI, Enoch, NO.\H, .\BK\H.\M, Kptic thinking assured people whose political
MOSES, or, among the Gnostics, PETER, P.\UL, fortunes were uncertain that God was on their
side. After .\.D 70 rabbinical Judaism largely re-
and James. The New Testament book of Revela-
jected apocalvptic thinking.
tion is an exception. Its author actually identifies
himself as John. Scholars debate whether this Apocalvpric thinking also appealed to a dif-
John had any relation to the apostle John.
ferent movement that grew out of late Second
The prophecies that apocal\pses contain are Temple Judaism: Christianin,-. The GOSPELS of
very helpfiil in showing when they were WTinen. Matthew, Mark, and Luke ascribe a minor apoca-
lvpse to Jesus himself (Mark 13.5-37 and parallel
Apocal\pses often describe in ver\' figurative lan- passages). It seems to refer to the siege of JERU-
S.\LEM and the destruction of the Temple. The
guage the recent histon- of the people among New Testament book of Revelation is only one
whom the writer of the apocalypse lived. The of several apocalvpses that the earhest Christians
book of Daniel provides a good example. The ram used. Ancient Gnostics also wrote apocalvptic
in Daniel 8 is probably the Persian Empire, made
up of Persians and Medes (the t\vo horns). The —literature. Three of them the apocalvpses of
—Peter, Paul, and James ^vvere found among the
goat is probably Alexander the Great. Alexander's
empire split into four parts ( the four horns ). From Nag Hammadi Codices in 1945.
one of the horns, the Seleucids, came Antiochus At the end of the 20th centurv- apocalvptic
rV. In 167 B C. Antiochus outiawed traditional
literature still exercised its fascination. It did so in
mJewish sacrifices and built an .\LT.\R to ZEUS
several ways.
the Temple ("the abomination that desolates" of
Daniel 9.27 ). That sparked the Maccabean revolt. Many fiindamentaUst Christians adopted a
Daniel's \ision predicts this abomination will last point of view known as "dispensationalism" (see
only 1,150 days. Indeed, after about three and a
half years the Maccabeans expelled the Seleucids E\.\NGELIC.\L .\ND FUN"D.\MENT.\LIST CHRISTI-
and rededicated the temple. That event is cele- .\NITi). They divided histon,- into several "dis-
brated in the Jewish festival of H.\NUKK\H. pensations" and read biblical prophecies,
especially the book of Revelation, as predicting
current events. For example, some fiindamental-
ists identified Mikhail Gorbachev, a leader of the
Soviet Union, with a figure in the book. They
thought the prominent birthmark on his fore-
head was a feature mentioned in Revelation.

AQUINAS, THOMAS 21

Apocal\-ptic ideas and images are not, how- Europeans and North Americans commonly
see Apollo as a god of enlightenment and reason.
Aever, limited to these Christians. popular book
A good example is the German philosopher, Frie-
about indigenous Americans, Black Elk Speaks,
records a great vision that resembles ancient drich Nietzsche (1844-1900). This image of
apocal\-ptic literature in many respects. Science Apollo derives largely from Hellenistic and Ro-
fiction also develops apocal\ptic themes.
man mvth-writers. Nevertheless, many see this
APOLLO An ancient Greek god of social or- Apollo as embodying distinctively Greek charac-

der and law. Arrvvork shows Apollo as an ideal teristics.
young man, just reaching maturity, often holding
APOSTLES From a Greek word meaning
a bow or a l\Te. He seems especially to have been
the protector of young men as they became old 'sent out"; the earliest leaders of the Christian
enough to enter public life. More broadly, .^ollo
was a god of order and justice. As such, the Greeks church. The word apostle often refers to the 12
routinelv consulted him when they were thinking
whomspecial disciples JESUS "sent out" into the
of establishing colonies. In addition, Apollo was
associated with herding, music, and prophecy. It world. Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, was
has been popular to suggest that -Apollo was a god originally one of the 12; according to the New

of the Sim. That \ie\\ was common among Hel- Testament (see BIBLE), GOD chose Matthias to
lenistic and Roman writers. (Hellenistic literature
take his place (Acts of the Aposdes 1. 1 5-26).
is Greek literature after Alexander the Great [d.
323 B C ]) But Apollo's cormections with the sun The word apostie, however, does not refer
always played a very minor role in his worship.
only to the 12 disciples. PAUL, the early mission-
Apollo had two important sanctuaries. The
first was the sacred island of Delos in the Aegean arv to the non-Jews of the Roman Empire, calls
Sea; the ancient Greeks said that Apollo and his himself an apostie. He also calls James, the
sister ARTEMIS were bom there. The second was
the sanctuary at Delphi in central Greece, the site brother of Jesus and one of the most important
of a famous oracle, that is, a means of consulting
the god. Apollo shared the sanctuar\' at Delphi leaders of the Jewish Christians in JERUS.'U.EM, an
with the god Dionysos. At Delphi, individuals or
commimities would put questions to the Sybil, a apostle. Other writers refer to other persons as
priestess of Apollo. According to legend, she
would breathe vapors, enter a trance, and provide aposties. Taken most broadlv', aposdes are the
an answer. Then Apollo's priests would commu-
nicate the answer in the form of ambiguous po- most prominent leaders of the earliest Christian

Aetrv'. famous example is the oracle given to communities, regardless of whether or not they

Croesus: "If you go to battie, you will destroy a were among the original 12.
great kingdom." Encouraged by these words,
APOSTLES' CREED See CREEDS.
—Croesus attacked Persia and lost his kingdom.
AQUINAS, THOMAS (c. 1224-1274) The
Scholarly research suggests that the procedures
and responses at Delphi were actually more mun- most important Christian theologian ofthe Euro-
dane. Questioners manipulated black and white
beans, and the god supposedly used them to pean Middle Ages. Thomas was the son of an
reveal yes and no answers.
Italian count. He became a Dominican ftiar ( see

DOMINICANS) and devoted his life to teacJiing

and vMiting THEOLOGY. His greatest book was

the Summa Theoloffica ( 1266-73), "the summary

of all theology."

In Thomas's day western Eiyopeans were

just discovering the ideas of the Greek philoso-

pher Aristotle (384—322 BC ). Thomas found

Hethese ideas very attractive. insisted that truth

was one, because GOD was one. Therefore, he

argued, what human reason said was true could

—

22 ARCHAEOLOGY AND RELIGION

not be opposed to what God's revelation said was dme-consuming. It may also be a bad idea. Such
true. The nvo were compatible. But human rea-
son could not discover ever\thing. Therefore, excavation destroys evidence that later archaeolo-

God finished what reason began by revealing the gists, with new and better tools, might also be

fiillness of truth. able to study.

Thomas included God's existence among the The first archaeologists were interested in art
treasures, \aluable materials such as gold, and
truths that reason could discover. In fact, he sensational headlines. With time, archaeologists
provided several classic proofs for the existence of learned that careful stud\- of the simplest remains
might teach diem more. Remains are most signifi-
God (see GOD, THE EXISTENCE OF). He also felt cant if the precise location where they were found
that although all human beings had a natural is known. As a result, archaeolog\' is not the random
digging of treasure hunters. It is a painstaking
sense of right and wrong, reason alone could not remosal of detritus. The site and its objects are
carefially mapped even' step of the way.
discover truths such as the INCARNATION of God
in lESUS and die triune character of God (see In analyzing the materials uncovered, one of
TRINITi'). Eventually Thomas's teachings became the first questions archaeologists must answer is,
more or less the official teachings of the Roman
"How old is it?" Several methods help them.
Catholic Church.
Unless a site is disturbed, more recent material
ARCHAEOLOGY AND RELIGION The lies on top of older material. Identifying the
different layers of material in a site is known as
study of objects that human beings made and
used in the past, and the ways in which that study stratigraphy. It provides a relative chronology'
affects scholars' understanding of rehgions and an idea of what is older and what is younger.

the claims religions make. ^\nalvzing tree rings from wooden objects can
provide a relative chronology, too. In the second
What Is Arcr^eology? half of the 20th century' archaeologists developed

Religious people have been interested in artifacts sophisticated physical tests for establishing actual
from the past for a long time. For example, in the
eighth century B.C. people in Greece began to dates. The most wideh' known is radiocarbon
dating. It dates items that were alive within the
WORSHIP heroes (see HEROES ,\ND HERO M\THS) last 40,000 vears by measuring the amount of
at tombs from the Mycenaean period (ended radioactive carbon they contain.
roughly 1 100 B C ). But archaeolog)- is the sys-
tematic, scientific study of the things people made In the first half of the 20th centun' archae-
and used in the past. It has roots in grave-robbing ologists were interested in major artifacts such as
and treasure-hunting. It also has roots in the temples and palaces. Besides developing methods
of dating, they classified material remains accord-
sensational excavations of Pompeii and Hercu- ing to t\'pes, for example, t\pes of jars and oil
laneum, Italy, that began in the 1 8th centur>', and lamps. Their ideas about religion generally re-
of Troy and Mycenae in the 19th century. In the flected the ideas of the time, such as DI'N.AMISM;
20th century scientific archaeology came into its man\' scholars today question those ideas. In the
own. 1960s a so-called "new archaeology" arose. This
kind of archaeolog)' used statistics to analyze
Archaeologists study artifacts in several dif- material remains, often those associated with
ferent ways. Sometimes they make field sun'eys, evenday life. In doing so, it applied models of
that is, thev note what kinds of remains are visible religion and societ)' that sociologists and anthro-
on the Earth's surface. Often archaeologists un- pologists had developed. The results were in-
dertake limited excavations. They dig trenches at triguing, but sometimes controversial.

places where they know or suspect human beings
lived. To excavate an entire site is cosd\" and

ARCHAEOLOGY AND RELIGION 23

.\RCR\EOLOGY AND THE STUDY OF RELIGIONS Maya (see iVLWA RELIGION), texts from ancient
Egypt and Mesopotamia (see EG\TTL\N RELIG-
Archaeology' provides the only hard e\idence ION and MESOPOT.\ML\N RELIGIONS), and texts
available for PREHISTORIC RELIGIONS. That is that have transformed the understanding of the
because prehistory is defined as "before the in- BIBLE and its world. The last include Canaanite
vention of writing." texts from Ugarit and Ebla (see C.VNA\NTTE RE-
LIGION), texts from Qumran known as the DEAD
It is possible to read too much into this SEA SCROLLS, the Nag Hammadi Codices of an-
evidence. In 1956, Horace Miner published a cient Gnostics (see GNOSTICISM), and texts of the
good example in the journal, The American An-
thropologist. He claimed to be analyzing the Bible itself.
"We'uns." They lived in a place called "Xa-
cirema." What he actually did was apply archae- ARCHAEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS CLALMS
ological language to artifacts common in
American society' at the time. ("Nacirema" is Because religions make claims about the past,
American spelled backwards.) The results were archaeological discoveries may have something to
amusing. They also pointed out a very real dan- say about those claims. Sometimes archaeology
ger: People of today may seriously misinterpret raises questions about religious claims. An exam-
arrilacts from the past because they make assump- ple is the story of the universal FLOOD. Television
tions about them that simply do not hold. stations occasionally show programs in which
"archaeologists" are searching for NO.\H's ark. In
Despite the dangers, archaeologists ha\e pro- fact, archaeology has made it \irtually certain that
vided a wealth of information about prehistoric a universal flood never occurred. On the one
religions. They have shown that religion goes hand, archaeologists have uncovered documents
back at least to the Neanderthal people, and that make it possible to trace in a general way

perhaps even fiirther. From the PaleoUthic period where the writers of the Bible got the story. On
they have discovered evidence of religion that
includes cave paintings, statuary, and burials. the other, there is no eWdence for the kind of
Marija Gimbutas and others have studied the cataclysmic flood that the Bible records. Evidence
religious significance of Neolithic figurines from of such a flood should be everywhere, and it
eastern Europe, ".^rchaeoastronomers" have ex- should be unmistakable.
amined megalithic monuments like Stonehenge
as well as temples in Mesoamerica. They note the It is worth pointing out that archaeology
way these monuments relate to the sun, moon, does not question claims only of JUDAISM and
stars, and planets. Some scholars, inspired by the CHRISTIANITY'. Some indigenous North Ameri-
geographer Paul Wheadey, have explored the role cans think that human life originated in the West-
religion played in the founding of cities. In south
Asia archaeology has uncovered a massive, early em Hemisphere. However, evidence from
ci\'ilization known as the Indus Valley or Harap-
pan civilization ( see INDUS v.-\LLE1i' RELIGION). Its archaeology and other sources, such as compara-
writings remain undeciphered. In China archae- tive anatomy, make this extremely unlikely. Hin-
ologists have unearthed massive, early tombs (see dus have traditionally traced sacred events to
CHIN.\, RELIGIONS OF). times in the very distant past. They have dated the
events of the Mahabharata to roughly 3000 B.C.
Archaeologists have also made tremendous and the events of the Ramayana to roughly
contributions to the study of historical religions. 867,000 B.C. (see R.\AL\, RAMATANA). The first
One way they have done so is by discovering date is unlikely; the second is inconceivable.
ancient texts that were previously unknown. Such
texts include the hieroglyphs and calendars of the Archaeology does more than raise questions
about religious claims. It also makes those claims
more \i\id and meaningfial. For example, archae-
ology has provided an understanding of cities and

24 ARCHETiTE

ways ot life pictured in the Hebrew Bible. It has MYTHOLOGY). By contrast, Eliade considered
also provided a more accurate and detailed image
of what crucifixion was like at the time of lESUS. modem people to be secular. But they have not
At the same time, archaeolog},' can say ver)' little
about some \er\' important religious claims. lost the archetypes completely. They have simply
These include claims such as the follo\\ing: GOD become unaware of them. As a result, Eliade said,
wants Jews to live according to the TOR.'Ui; Jesus religious archetypes recur in cultural forms such
as art, literature, music, and film.
is the son of God; the prophet MUHAMM\D
ARCHITECTURE, RELIGIOUS The de-
received the QUR".\N by divine revelation; the
sign of buildings for specificallv religious pur-
BUDDHA discovered the path to NIRVANA. poses. Religious traditions ha\e always wanted to
set aside sacred places for WORSHIP, seeing them
Significance as dwelling places of gods or as locations where
the presence of the divine could be especially
Archaeolog\' has transformed the way people experienced. The caves of the Old Stone Age
think about religions. It has also transformed the fi'om as far back as 35,000 years ago, with their
way people think about religious claims. Some wonderful paintings of animals located almost
religious people ha\e reacted negatively to these inaccessibly deep in the Earth, were clearly sacred
developments, but others have seen them as an sites of some kind. As soon as developing tech-
opportunitv' to rethink and reformulate religious
nology enabled human beings to do so, religious
truth. shrines were among the first and grandest struc-

ARCHETYPE Pattern or model. T«o impor- tures to be built.
From the temples and pyramids of ancient
tant 20th-centur\' thinkers about religions devel-
oped the term "archetype" in ver>' influential Egypt ( see EGYPTIAN RELIGION) to the cathedrals
ways: Carl Gusta\- lUNG and Mircea ELLADE. and temples of the Middle Ages and today around
the world, these buildings have often employed
Jung was a ps\'chologist. He believed that all the richest materials and called forth the finest
human beings shared a certain kind of uncon- skills of architects and artisans. People have

scious, the "collective unconscious." In his eyes, thought that only the best is worthy of GOD or
the collective unconscious contained fijndamen-
tal symbols or archet\pes necessarx' to personal the gods, and because such places are usually
community centers as well as places of worship,
well-being. One example is the \LANDALA, a geo-
metric diagram of squares, circles, and other de- they reflect the pride and common piuposes of a
signs around a center point. One of his followers, town or societv. In many places today, the church
Erich Neumann, developed an archetype that he
called the "Great Mother" (see GODDESSES). or temple is the oldest and most central building
Among other places, Jung thought archetypes in a community, and one that in its history,
could be seen especially in dreams and m\T±is. design, and artwork is best thought to reflect the
culture as well as the faith of the community.
Mircea Eliade was a historian of religions. He
divided human beings into tvvo general classes: Buildings intended for worship provide a
"archaic man" and "modern man." Eliade con- space, or total environment, in which the relig-
sidered archaic man to be homo relipiosjis. That is, ious reality believed in by these people comes aUve
through the use of symbols and the evocation of
religion defined the way archaic people looked at memories. Everywhere one looks there may be a
and lived in the world. In particular, archaic symbolic reminder of some truth of the faith, or
people lived their lives according to archetypes. scenes that recall previous times of worship or
These archetypes were revealed at the beginning sacred events participated in by oneself or one's
of time and recorded in m\-th (see ArVTH AND people. Often, it has the special feel of sacred

ARCHITECTURE, RELIGIOUS 25

space; one may instinctively talk in hushed tones ages or pictures. The Buddhist temple, on the
and act difterentiy in a religious building than one other hand, representing a faith imported to Ja-
does outside. This may particularly be the case pan from the Asian mainland, retains a touch of
Chinese influence in its architecture, and through
during rites or services. the dark mysterious feel of its interior a sense of
Religious buildings are basically of two types: the philosophical depths plumbed by BUDDHISM.

those that are seen primarily as the House of God, Many Hindu temples, especially in the south
and those that are planned primarily for congre-
gational worship, an assembK' place for the Peo- of India, have high facades ( inandir) so richly
ple of God. SHINTO shrines, Hindu temples, carved they seem overflowing with gods and
some Buddhist temples, and many of the ancient mvthological beings, hinting at the richness of
temples are chiefly homes of the deit\'. They are religious creativitv* in this tradition. Others are
built as one would, in the respective culture, open to birds and troops of monkeys that share
construct the palace of a king or other great figure in the offerings along with the gods. These tem-
who is venerated and honored. They present ples suggest the Hindu themes of the intermin-
courts where \isitors may come to pay respects gling of life and the divine presence in all
and present petitions, as if in homage before such creatures. In the interior of the temple, often
a personage. Food offerings and other services are reached only after passing through outer cham-
presented regularly as in a royal court. But there bers watched by guardian deities, one comes to
is no room for an entire congregation to gather the^arbha ("womb"), the place of the principal
in the temple, for that is not the purpose of the deit)', suggesting that reaching it is like finding
divine house. At times of festival, persons may file one's way to the ultimate mvsterv and source of
by the di\-ine presence in a steady stream, or
gather in a couroard to watch the ceremonies. life.

Today Muslim MOSQUES, Christian churches, The Islamic mosque, domed, spacious, and
and Jewish S^'NAGOGUES are primarily places for austere, with the upward-reaching minaret beside
congregational worship. The architectural em-
phasis is on providing facilities for large meetings, it, ftilfills its religious flincrion excellently. It is a
with good acoustics for music and sermons, and
an inspirational atmosphere for corporate wor- meeting-place for the House of ISLAM and a place
ship. Some churches in the Roman Catholic and where the faithful are called to PRAraR, and it
Orthodox traditions, and some Buddhist tem- bespeaks with its clean emptv' space the infinitv' of
ples, find ways to combine both the House of the One God, Creator of the worlds, who cannot
God and People of God emphases, with shrines be represented by any form or image made by
or .-VLT.ARS for indi\idual devotion and a sense of human hands.
divine presence, but also room for larger services.
The many different stvies of architecture found Christian churches in western Europe hav-e
throughout the religious world each have their adopted several architectural stales through the
own messages. The visitor to Japan, for example, centuries. First was the basilica, an oblong build-
will be struck by the contrast between the plain, ing with a central passageway or nave and a raised
rustic, understated Shinto shrine, and the more platform in front, based on the Roman court of
massive Buddhist temple, perhaps with its sky- law. It suggested the church as a place for impor-
ward-reaching pagoda. The Shinto structure tells tant meetings and proclamations. Then came the
of its roots in the simplicitv' of ancient Japanese Romanesque church, a squarish domed building
culture and of the reserved, hidden nature of its with high narrow windows that, in the Dark Ages
KAMI or gods, who are seldom portrayed in im- when it flourished, strongly told of the church as
a fortress, a place of refiage both phvsically and
spiritually in a troubled world. In the high Middle
Ages came the Gothic cathedral, whose high
pointed ceilings and spires and wonderful

stained-glass windows spoke instead of aspiration (one who will attain enlightenment in the present
hea\enward. In the Renaissance and early mod- life), and the arhat.
ern period the ornate baroque style, found in
churches from St. Peter's cathedral in Rome to The first arhats were the five ascetics who
the Spanish missions of the southwestern United
States, suggested richness of depth and texture. heard the Buddha's first sermon. (Ascetics are
The simpler Georgian or Palladian st\le, with its
careful proportions of plain white mteriors and persons who deprive themselves of luxuries and
exteriors, found in many colonial American even of necessities for religious purposes.) Many
churches, reflects Protestant restraint. In the 20th others became arhats in the Buddha's day. After
century churches have been built in new styles the Buddha died or, as Buddhists say, entered the
made possible by new technologies for building ultimate NIRVANA, it became harder to become
as well as by new concepts of worship. There are
churches made of poured concrete to resemble an arhat.
ships or tents, churches in the round with the
pulpit or altar in the center, churches under- In time arhats became objects of popular
ground or atop skyscrapers. WORSHIP. In some Buddhist countries today in-
fluential monks are still said to be arhats.
The Jewish temple or synagogue also basi-
cally adopted the model of the Roman basilica, ARMENIAN CHURCH The distinctive
because its primary function after the Diaspora or
dispersion of Jews throughout the world was to Christian institution of Armenia. Armenia is a
ser\'e as a place of meeting for worship and study. region in northeastern Turkey and northwestern
Features of the ancient temple at Jerusalem, how- Iran, and includes an independent common-
ever, have also been used, along with other re- wealth between the Black and the Caspian Seas.
minders of Near East origins such as domed
windows and doors. In recent times Jewish tem- No one knows exacti\' when CHRISTIANITli' first
ples and synagogues, especially in the United
States, have experimented with modern architec- arrived there. In AD. 314 Tiridates, the king of
the countr\', con\erted to Chnstianit)'. Armenia
tural forms. then became the first nation in which Christianity
was the established or official religion. Armenian
Throughout history architecture has been Christianity took distinctive form in the fifth
one of the most important of all forms of religious century. At that time the BIBLE and many church
art, capable of conveying messages as profound writings were translated into Armenian.
as any other art about the nature of the human
The most distinctive feature of the Armenian
relation to the divine. Church is its \icw of lESUS. In technical terms,
the Armenian Church is "monophysite." That is,
ARHAT A Sanskrit word meaning "worthy, it rejects the teaching of the Council of Chalce-
don (451 ) that Jesus had two natures, divine and
venerable"; a person who has attained enlighten- human, united in one person. It teaches instead
ment by following the path of the BUDDHA. The that the incarnate Word of GOD has only one
arhat is an important figure in Theravada BUD
DHISM, the form of Buddhism found in southeast nature.

Asia. Theravada talks about four stages leading to Armenian worship practices closely resemble
enlightenment: the stage of the stream-winner those of the Orthodox churches (see EASTERN

(one who will attain enlightenment in a fiiture ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY'). So does the organi-
life), the once-returner (one who will attain en- zation of the Armenian Church. The head of the
Armenian Church is known as the "catholikos."
lightenment in the next life), the non-returner He resides in Echmiadzin near Yerevan, the capi-
tal of Armenia. A smaller group of Armenians
recognize as their head a patriarch who now

resides in Beirut, Lebanon.

ART, RELIGIOUS 27

ART, RELIGIOUS Painting, sculpture, ar- candles or present incense, and pray to the SAINT
or deity represented as though present in the
chitecture, music, dance, poetry, drama, and sto- object. While few would perhaps think that the
ries that are created for rehgious purposes. In its spiritual entity is solely contained within the form,
broadest sense, art refers to all that is made by the latter does serve as an effective focus for
human bemgs to convey beaut\', pleasure, and concentration of mind, and is like a window into
meaning through its form, whether that be in the heavenly or divine world wherein the sacred
matter, words, or sound. It even includes such being dwells.
"minor" arts as garden landscaping and jewelry
making. All these arts have been given religious In EASTERN ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY, for
significance and have had roles, often ver\' impor-
tant ones, in communicating religious truths and example, icons or paintings of saints are highly
inducing religious experiences. venerated. They are thought of as openings into
HEAVEN; the background will be the gold of
These arts can be thought of as stained-glass eternity, and the eyes of the saints will be large to
windows. If ultimate religious reality is like pure
light, for us truly to be able to understand it, it represent their spiritual, all-seeing quality.
needs to take color and shape. This is what relig-
ious art tries to do. The greater the art, the more In ROMAN CATHOLICISM, Statues of the Vir-
it is able to give meaning to the light without gin MARY and other saints are worshiped with
weakening it. adoration. In HINDUISM and BUDDHISM, images

At the same time religious painting and of gods and buddhas similarly help concentrate
sculpture have performed several different func- the meditative PRAYERS of temple-visitors and
tions, sometimes separately and sometimes in provide insight into the splendor of the heavens
combination. One is to tell the narratives of the and the spiritual riches they give the world (see
religion. Art illustrates important scenes fi'om the IMAGES, ICONS, IDOLS IN RELIGION). Sometimes
faith's myths, histories, and visions of the fiature. art can also represent desired answers for prayers
Think of all the pictures and statues of the BUD- and aspirations. The paintings of animals on the
walls of prehistoric caves may have been a form
DHA at the moment of his enlightenment or of of hunting magic used in rituals to help men slay
JESUS as an infant in the manger or on the cross those same animals in the world above. Some
later art offers scenes of heaven, the Buddhist
dying for the sins of the world. Paintings and Pure Land (see PURE LAND BUDDHISM), or an
statues may also be of other events or figures: the ideal cit)' as a focus for hope.
lives of saints, prophets, reformers; important
shrines or places. As for the fijture, consider Finally, religious art can portray the world the
scenes of the Last Judgment in European cathe-
drals, or of Maitreya, the Buddha to come, in way the religion wants to see it. An outstanding
Eastern temples. In times past, when the great example is the art of ZEN BUDDHISM. Many of the
majority of people were illiterate, these pic-
ink-wash paintings associated with it are not of
—tures in stained glass, in sculpture, in paint- buddhas or even Zen masters, but of scenes of
—ings were, together with the spoken word, nature: a mountain reaching into empty sky, a

literally the storybooks and BIBLES. But even bird on a bamboo branch. Yet these are done with

those who were able to read frequently found that a light touch suggesting that although all things
a visualization helped them hold the scenes of are continually changing, nonetheless they all

faith in mind. manifest the buddha-nature. Some Hindu sculp-
ture, like the famous portrayals of the god
Another role of art is to serve as a focus for KRISHNA playing his flute, or the god SIVA danc-
DEVOTION. Paintings and statues are treated as ing, suggest that the creation and activity of this
divinity. The devout kneel before them, burn world may be viewed ultimately as di\ine hla, the
dance or play of GOD.

28 ARTEMIS

Religious art takes many different st\les. In character, Artemis is a virgin and a hunt-
Most often, especially when it is art intended to ress. In the battle of the gods in book 21 of the
be used in churches or temples as a part of WOR- Iliad, she comes off poorly. In effect, Hera disci-
SHIP, it follows certain conventions of style and plines her physically, and she nans to ZEUS for
incorporates standard symbols. Some religious art comfort. But Artemis is not always such a weak-
is more realistic than others. There is, of course,
ling. Some myths tells how she killed the mighrv'
a religious place for decorative art, for abstract art,
hunter Orion after he had insulted her. In an
for art based on symbols, like the Christian cross indirect way she was responsible for another
or the Jewish star of David, rather than living death. Hippohtus, the son of Theseus, was de-
forms. Some Hindu gods and Buddhist BOD- voted to Artemis. Jealous, the goddess Aphrodite
HISATTVAS have many arms to symbolize their engineered an amorous intrigue that eventually
ability to do numerous acts of mercy at once. resulted in HippohTus's death. The plax-wright
Some Egvprian and Hindu deities ( like the Hindu Euripides made this story famous in one of his
elephant-headed god G.\NES.-\) are in animal form
or combine animal and human elements to sym- plays.
bolize certain qualities, like Ganesa's wisdom.
With the exception of the Eastern Orthodox icon. »\rtemis watches over the young from birth
Christian art tends to be realistic when dealing to maturit)'. ^\ncient Greek girls would dance in
with CHRIST or the saints. choruses in her honor as part of their rituals of
growing up. Girls of Athens served Artemis at the
In some religions, belie\'ers object to certain sanctuan' at Brauron. They were known as arktoi,
religious uses of art, usually on the grounds that
they represent idolatr,' or the representation of bears, apparently after a bear whom m\ths said
the infinite God in a particular form at a particular
place. JUDAISM, for example, employs decorative the Athenians had once killed.
art and art for educational purposes but avoids
sacred statues or paintings in places of worship. ASCENSION, OF CHRIST See JESUS.
ISLAM rejects any attempt to portray God or the
Prophet in art, and in MOSQUES there is only ASCETICISM Self-denial and living a very
abstract ornamentation, often calligraphed lines
from the Koran (see QUR'.\N). Protestant simple life for religious reasons. Seriously relig-
churches may have stained-glass windows and ious people in virtually all traditions have given
up things, especially things that appeal to the
prints or paintings, less often statues, as storytell- senses, for the sake of religion. They have given
ers and reminders but not as objects of de\otion up food by fasting, or by subsisting only on coarse
in the Catholic or Eastern Orthodox sense.
and tasteless food. They have worn only rough
The use or non-use of forms of art in worship clothes, or even gone without clothes at all. They
has been a heated issue in rehgjous histor\', the have lived in cold caves or hard monastic cells.
subject of fierce argument and even Niolent per- They have foregone marriage. They have medi-
secution. But for all the conflicts, few things have tated for hours under a hot sun, or in freezing
brought more joy to reUgious believers than the mountains. They have deliberately induced dis-
best of religious art within its tradition. comfort by wearing hair shirts or chains, sleeping

ARTEMIS An ancient Greek GODDESS. In Aon beds of nails, and standing under waterfalls.
mythology she is .APOLLO's twin sister. Among
few have even mutilated themselves.
other ftinctions, Artemis presided over the rituals These states of self-denial are called asceti-
that marked a young woman's coming of age.
—cism abstention from the natural pleasures of

life for religious reasons. It ranges from what may
be called "normal" asceticism, that of, say, a
monk or nun in an austere order with long hours
of pra\er or meditation and a sparse but whole-

ASSASSINS 29

some diet, to the greatest extremes of self-in- Asoka distinguished himself eariy in his ca-
flicted pain. Ascetics are found in the spiritual reer by conquering the Kalingas, a people living
traditions of most religions. Examples would in- in northeast India. The conquest of this people
gave him sovereignt}' over almost the entire In-
clude the MONKS ANDNUNS of ROMAN CATHOLI dian subcontinent and u-shered in an era of peace.
CISM and EASTERN ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY, of
BUDDHISM and of TAOISM, the Sufi mystics of Asoka inscribed a series of edicts on pillars,
ISLAM, and the often more individualistic SADHUS
or "holy men" of HINDUISM. All traditions have rocks, and cave walls throughout his realm. A

included both "normal" and sometimes very continuous theme runs through them all:
saintly ascetics, and "extreme" ascetics. All relig- dharma. The edicts outiawed the killing of most
ions have also included devout lay men and animals. They urged various religious groups and
orders to live together in peace. They also prom-
women who, sometimes ver\' quietly and pri- ulgated the virtues of dharma throughout the

vately, have practiced various forms of self-denial realm.
and asceticism in the midst of an "ordinar>'" life.
Asoka is particularly remembered as a patron
WTnat are the religious reasons for asceticism? of BUDDHISM and its order of monks (see
First, it can be an aspect of the love or compassion
that is the great virtue of most faiths, for what one SANGHA). He is said to have called a Buddhist
denies oneself one can give to the poor. In this
way it not only does good, it also sets an example council at his capital, Pataliputra, to settie dis-
to others. Second, it is a form of self-discipline,
and to learn to discipline oneself is basic to fol- puted questions. He is also said to have sent his
lowing any spiritual path. It can be seen as a
rejection of the physical body, viewed as the son to Sri Lanka to promote Buddhism.

"lower" pan of one's nature, or even as a source Most Indians revere Asoka as an ideal ruler.
of temptation and evil, in favor of the spiritual For that reason, the hons atop Asoka's pillar at
dimension of life (see CELIBACY). Third, it is seen Sarnath in north-central India are a widely used
as a way of doing repentance for one's SINS, to symbol. They appear, for example, on Indian
work off the punishment or "bad K.\RMA" they
have accrued, and so to set oneself right. Finally, money.
asceticism is believed to enhance religious expe-
rience. Fasting can help one to see visions, and a ASSASSINS Popular name for a medie\al
light diet can lead to eflfective MEDITATION; even Shi'ite Muslim community more properly known
pain can alternate with religious rapture. There as the Nizari Ismailis. The Nizari Ismaili commu-
are psychological and physiological reasons for
some of this. Most importantly, though, asceti- nity is a group within SHITTE ISLAM about which
cism always sends a religious message: GOD takes much imaginative lore has circulated. Europeans
priorit)' over the pleasures and entanglements of called them "assassins." Arabs called them
hashishiyah, that is, "marijuana smokers." Travel-
this world. ers such as Marco Polo (c. 1254-1324) spread
rumors that the assassins were incited to murder
ASOKA (early third century B.C.-c. 232 B.C.) by being drugged, taken to gardens, and thus
given a foretaste ofparadi.se. These rumors re-
The third and last great emperor of the Maur>'a
dynastA' in India. He is known for propagating main entirely unsubstantiated.
DH.\RM^ (Sanskrit for "right order") throughout
The Nizaris broke away fi-om the Fatimid
his realm. Ismaili communin,- of Eg>'pt in the late 1000s. As
so often in Shi'ite Islam, the dispute concerned
who should be the next IM.AM. They established
a state in parts of Syria and Iran, which continued
in existence until the 1250s. The rumors about
them certainly derive from military and guerilla

30 ASTROLOGY

actions taken in defending and extending this ^:acticaCeurcb&e0

state. tunfjtigm ^ura.m.CCiCCC.tii.ri^. £>tti ^ocijgdmm vn 6et

The Nizari Ismaili communit\' stilJ exists, l56li(ftcii'C>nmerrKct<Crfiirlit/gcpi«UcirebDrct)may(frt
but the name "assassins" is not associated with it.
In the early 1800s, the communit>'s imam re- iCntrcs v»n Wtinmtt/Vnayftn ijcr QyPcn frcyen Cm(i.
ceived the tide of AG.\ KHAN.
X3entt9Rcg(ercr. tn4ramrtt)crr(t)tt.

ASTROLOGY The belief diat the position of A 1512 medieval zodiac calendar with one of the 12

the stars and planets in the sky affects the destinies — —signs Pisces in the center. (Courtesy ofCorbis-
of individuals, and of larger human units such as
cities and nations, and even the entire world, is Bettmnnn.)
the basis of astrology. Over centuries it has devel-
oped into complex methods of determining that or constellations. Each of them have particular
influence in particular cases, combining precise traits or qualities, such as the balance or equanim-
calculations with intuitive insight. Astrolog\- is it\' of Libra, or the secretive yet passionate nature
not an essential component of any major religion, of Scorpio. So do the sun, moon, and planets: the
but has had relationships with most of them. emotional moon, warlike Mars, and others.
Sometimes, as in the case of HINDUISM, the Chi-
nese religions (see CHIN.'\, RELIGIONS OF), and in Figuring the total impact of all these ele-
some eyes JUDAISM and CHRISTIANITY, especialK' ments as they were configured at the time of one's
in the Renaissance, the relationship has been birth, or at important moments in personal or
relatively positive. Astrology has been viewed as a national or world histon,-, is the task of the as-
confirmation of the orderly working of the uni-
verse as a divine system or as GOD's creation, and trologer. Many astrologers today say that the art
a legitimate way of divining its secrets. Others, onl\- determines, so to speak, the hand one is dealt
such as the Hebrew prophets, the Puritans (see by fate; how one plays it is left up to the person,
PURITANISM), and many recent Jews and Chris- and so it does not compromise free will. They also
say it shows there is a fundamental panern to the
— —tians not to mention most scientists condemn

astrolog\' as wonhless, as destructive to the fi-ee

will of both God and humans, or as an entn- into

dangerous aspects of occultism. But astrolog)- has
retained numerous believers today.

Astrology is thought by most scholars to have
originated in ancient Eg>'pt and Mesopotamia,
and to have then been developed into a thorough
system by Greek thinkers during the Hellenistic
period (approximately 300 B C.-A.D 300). It
spread from the Mediterranean world to the Arab
lands, India, and China, acquiring manv distinc-
tive elements from those cultures so that now-
Indian and Chinese astrolog)' have imponant
differences from Western. All astrology^ though,
is based on the zodiac, the path through which
the sun, moon, and planets move through the
sky. That celestial band is di\ided into 12 "signs"

ATHENA 31

unixerse, and that astrolog)' demonstrates that Because of her intelligence, Athena was the
our human lives have cosmic meaning because we goddess of all skillfiji undertakings, especially
are interconnected parts of that cosmic pattern. spinning and weaving. In myth she was the patron
Others say the basis ot astrolog)' is false and that of many heroes, especially the crafty Odysseus.
true religion has no need of it. Her special animal was the owl. Images also show
her with the aegis, a mythical object shown as
ATHEISM Denial of the existence of any GOD either a cloak or a shield (interpretations vary).
The aegis is decorated with the head of Medusa.
or supreme supernatural being. Atheists have Later generations have seen Athena, like APOLLO,
long been around. In ancient India, China, and as embodying characteristics distinctive of the
Greece a few philosophers said that the gods were Greeks.
only figments of human imagination, and every-
thing that happens in the universe could be given
a natural explanation. Religionists have also ac-
cused one another of atheism. Christians have
sometimes said that Buddhists are atheists be-

cause they do not have a personal God as God is

understood by the Western religions, even
though BUDDHISM has most other features of
what they would call a "real" religion. Atheism
has probably grown in the modern world with the
rise of science, and through its association with
powerful ideologies like commiuiism. But
though many people may be non-religious for all
intents and purposes, atheism as a deeply-felt
personal commitment remains a minority stance.

ATHENA The most important GODDESS of Staiiic uf Athena, a goddess of ancient Greece.
{Cotirtesy of the linage Bank.)
the ancient Greeks. Athena was a warrior goddess
renowned for her intelligence. In that regard she
contrasts with Ares, the god of military chaos and
unthinking violent rage. According to myth
Athena was born from the head of ZEUS. She
herself remained always a virgin. Thus, the name
for her most famous temple, the Parthenon in
Athens, derives from the Greek word parthcnos,
"virgin."

IVlany cities worshiped Athena, but she was
especially the goddess of Athens. At Athens the
major festival in her honor was the Panathenaia.
During this festival an enormous procession pa-
raded through the city. It accompanied a newly
made pcplos or embroidered robe, which was
suspended from the masts of a ship-like cart. Then
the Athenians presented the robe to the image of
Athena on the Acropolis.

32 ATMAN

ATMAN A term used for the inmost self in the world of material objects. In dreaming conscious-
ness it interacts \\ ith a world of subtle objects.
\'ED.\NTA schools of Hindu philosoph\'. The Deeper than either of these is sleep without
Sankhya and YOGA schools have a similar concept. dreams. But according to the Matidtikya Upani-
They call it purusha, "person." Others, such as shad deeper still is a fourth, nameless state. That
the Jains, talk about the jiva, that is, the hving is the atman.
component of human beings and animals, as
opposed to inert matter. In some passages the Upanishads seem to

The L'PANISHADS are the last layer of the —equate the atman the realit>- underlying the hu-
sacred writings known as the X'EDA. For that —man person-with the brahman the realit\' un-
reason they are called Vedanta, "end of the
Veda." Among other topics, the Upanishads are derlying the world that we perceive: "This atman
particuiarly interested in BRAHALVN, the realit>^ is brahman"; "I am brahman"; "All this is indeed
that underlies the world that we perceive, and brahman"; "You are that." But other passages
ATiVL\N, the reality- that underlies the human per- seem to disagree. Different schools of Vedanta
son. The sages ofthe Upanishads wanted to know took different positions. In an\' case, they agreed
what the "self" was. They did not ha\e a single that the atman had three basic characteristics: sat^
answer. Indeed, they did not even use a single
word for this self Sometimes they called it pu- —chit^ and ananda being, consciousness, and bliss.
rusha. Nevertheless, the discussions in the Upan-
ishads laid the foundations on which much later Ideas about the atman profoundly influenced
Hindu thought arose. Hindu teachings about life and death. According
to the sage Yajnavalk\a, the atman is reborn at
One of the most imponant discussions took death. It takes along with it the friiits of the
place between a father named ^\runi and his son, actions done in this life. This process is known as
Svetaketu. It is recorded in the Chandqgya S.\MS.AR.\. According to the BHAG.W.\D-GITA,
Upanishad. Aruni asks Svetaketu to open up a samsara does not alter the atman: "It is never
seed-pod from a banyan tree, and then to open born; it never dies. It does not, nor has it, nor will
up a seed. He asks his son what he sees. Svetaketu
ans\vers, "Nothing." That is the point. The at- —it become. Unborn, eternal, perpetual, primal it
man, like the essence of life at the heart of the
seed, is imperceptible. Yet from both impressive is not killed when the body is killed" (2.20).
Freeing the atman or purusha from continual
living beings grow. Similarly, Aruni asks S\e-
taketu to dissolve salt in water. Svetaketu can no rebirth came to be the ultimate goal of some
longer see the salt, and he can no longer separate influential forms of Hindu religious practice.
it from the water. The atman resembles salt dis-
solved in water. It is distinct from a person's bodv, ATONEMENT See SAL\'.WION.
senses, mind, and desires, but it per\ades them all
and cannot be separated from them. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (354-430) One

The sages of the Upanishads had several ideas of the most important theologians of the ancient
of what the atman might be. Some said the sun, Christian church. Aurelius Augustine was born

others air, others ether, others breath (see and raised in Nonh .Africa. His mother, Monica,

PRANW). Most important for later thought, some v\as a staunch Christian, but Augustine did not at
sages identified the atman as consciousness.
There are, however, many kinds of consciousness. first practice CHRJSTL^XITi'. He received an edu-
Not all of them are atman pure and simple. In
waking consciousness the atman interacts with a cation in rhetoric and taught it in Carthage. Later

he moved to Rome and then to Milan, where he

held a prominent post as an orator. These skills
ser\ed him well when he eventually became a
spokesperson for Catholic Christianity' (see RO-

MAN CATHOLICISM).

AUSTRALIAN REUGIONS 33

In matters of religion, Augustine first in- gians said that human beings could and should
clined to NUNICHAEISM. This religion taught that
two opposed forces, light and darkness, created tr\' to be morally perfect.
the world when they somehow came into contact. In attacking these ideas, Augustine com-
In time, Augustine abandoned Manichaeism and
toyed with the ideas of ancient philosophers bined biblical teachings, especially teachings of
known as Skeptics. They took a cautious attitude the aposde Paul, with Greek philosophy, espe-
cially the ideas of Plato and his many followers.
toward the abilit\' of human beings to know God, Augustine insisted, is absolutely good. Evil
things for certain. In Milan, Augustine came
under the influence of Bishop Ambrose. From comes into the world because God creates human
Ambrose he learned the ideas of Plato and beings who are free to choose. Since human
Plotinus. Plotinus had taught that the man\'
things of the world had all emanated from "the beings are free to choose, they will not always
One." choose good. In fact, once AD.WI sinned, his

In August 386 Augustine had a profound transgression was handed down to all of his de-
scendants as original SIN". Original sin makes it
experience. He heard a voice like that of a child impossible for human beings to be perfect on
sa\ing, "Pick it up and read." He picked up the their own. They need the gift of God's GRACE
before they can do good. One way they receive
BIBLE and read a passage from PAUL'S letter to the grace is through sacraments like BAPTISM and the
EUCHARIST. Sacraments are effective because
Romans. He was so moved that he renounced his God is at work in them.

previous life-st\ie (characterized by sexual im- Augustine wrote in his letters that he was "an
moralitv), adopted celibac\', and was baptized the African, writing for Africans . . . living in Africa."
next E.-\STER. In 391 the people of Hippo in But he also defined the terms that fiifure Euro-
North .-Vfiica convinced him to become a priest. pean theologians, Catholic and Protestant, would
use in trving to express their faith. His ideas
In 395 he became their bishop. He spent the rest influenced Protestant reformers like Martin
LUTHER and John C.ALMN tremendously. At the
of his life administering the church at Hippo,
heading a monastery, preaching, teaching, and same time, the Roman Catholic Church considers
writing. His highly influential books include the him a SAINT. It celebrates his feast on August 28,
Confessions (c. 400), an account of Augustine's
long road to Christianity, and Tlie City of God the date of his death.
(413^26). The second book attempts to show
that Christianitv' did not cause the decline of the AUSTRALIAN REUGIONS The traditional

Roman Empire. religions of the indigenous people of Australia.
As a thinker, Augustine grappled with ques- These people are generally called Aborigines. Hu-
man beings seem to have settled in Australia as
tions that became classic in the historv' of Euro- long ago as 40,000 E P (before the present I. They
pean and North American THEOLOGY. Where developed complex cultural and religious tradi-

does EVIL come from? If GOD already knows what tions. An example of both are their rock- paint-
human beings will do, how can they fi-eely choose ings. Some of them are perhaps 15,000 years old.
their ow n acts? What must people do in order to
Traditional Australians lived in local groups that
be saved? Augustine developed his answers to
questions like these in the course of anacking had their own languages, cultures, and territories.
three different groups: Manichaeans, Donatists, They supported themselves by gathering and
and Pelagians. Donatists taught that members of hunting. Complex trade networks covered the
the church must be pure and that SACRAMENTS
administered by sinfiil priests were invalid. Pela- entire continent.

In 1788 Europeans arrived. Many aborigi-
nals died from warfare and disease. Manv others

34 AVALOKITESVARA

gave up their traditional cultures and religions. other component is secret; only initiates into a
They assimilated into European society' and group can be present. The secret groups are
adopted CHRISTIANITY'. Today, traditional abo- divided according to gender. In most places
riginal ways continue only in northern and central women as well as men have secret groups and
rituals. In most places, too, religious and social
Australia. power resides with the men.

A major feature of Australian religions is the In Africa, Oceania, and the Americas indige-
nous peoples developed religious movements to
Dreaming. The name is not aboriginal; it was resist European colonization. One example is the
given by scholars. Traditional Australians believe
that at first the world had no form and content. GHOST DANCE of North America. Indigenous
But in a time known as the Dreaming, spirits Australians did not generally develop such move-
appeared. They, too, are known as Dreamings.
Their activities gave birth to human beings, other ments. But in the latter part of the 20th century,
forms of life, and features of the natural land- strong movements did arise that pressed the gov-
ernment to recognize their rights to land. In
scape. Traditional Australians believe further that conjunction with these movements, some took a
new interest in traditional aboriginal religion and
these spirits did not simply cease to exist. They
are still present at specific locations. They are culture.
responsible for flourishing in the world of nature.
They also give life to a fetus in the womb. There- AVALOKITESVARA One of die most im-
fore, traditional Australians believe that each per-
son has a share of spirit. At death, this share portant BODHISATTVAS in BUDDHISM, known
returns to the spirit realm and waits to be reborn. especially for compassion. In most places

Traditional Australians ha\'e identified sev- Avalokitesx'ara is male, but in east Asia Avalokites-
eral extremely important spirits. Scholars some- vara became venerated in female form. She is

times call them All-Father, All-Mother, and known in Chinese as Kuan-yin and in Japanese as
Rainbow Snake. All-Father was important in Kannon.
southeast Australia. All-Mother is still important
in northern Australia. She often has a male spirit Avalokitesvara is celebrated in nvo Buddhist
as her associate. Rainbow Snake is connected with scriptures, the LOTUS SUTRA and the Pure Land
the fertilizing rains. Some groups thought of it as
male, some as female, and still others as both male — —Sutra. He or she is a supreme example of the
and female at the same time. Some groups also
identified Rainbow Snake with All-Mother. bodhisatrva ideal. According to this ideal people
should not seek NIRVANA for themselves. That
The purpose of aboriginal religious practices would be selfish. Instead, they should donate
is to foster life. They do so by establishing contact whatever good they have acquired to help all
with the spirits and events of the Dreaming. The beings achieve release.
spirit is often present in the form of an image or
Many myths connect Avalokitesvara with the
emblem. A well-known example is the tjurunjia Buddha Amitabha, known in Japanese as AMIDA.
Pure Land Buddhists say that Avalokitesvara is
of the Aranda people. It is a board, sometimes one of Amida's attendants in the Pure Land (see
plain, sometimes decorated. Songs and acting PURE LAND BUDDHISM). Others say he is Ami-
recall the events of the Dreaming.
tabha's son. In any case, Avalokitesvara is often
Life-cycle rites are important religious prac-
tices. These include INITWTIONS for both males worshiped separately. He is said to dwell on a
and females. Most major ceremonies have two mythical mountain known as Potala or Potalaka.
From there he looks aft:er the world during the
distinct components. One component is public; time from the BUDDHA Siddhartha Gautama ( c.
everyone in the community participates. The 560-c 480 B C.) to Maitreya, the Buddha who is

vet to come.

AZTEC RELIGION 35

Avalokjtesvara is the epitome of virtue and number. Temples in India are often dedicated to
Vishnu's "ten avatars."
compassion. He devoted eons to meritorious ef-
whoforts. As a result, his abilit\' to help beings Ideas vary about who these ten avatars are.
The list often includes a tortoise on whose back
are suffering knows no bounds. Worshipers call
the gods churned the ocean of milk; a one-
— —upon him or her for help in any number of
horned sea creature who saved MANU, the an-
situations. They may desire release fi'om the three cestor of all human beings, from the FLOOD; a
boar who raised the Earth on its tusks when it
traditional Buddhist poisons of lust, anger, and sank into the oceans; a dwarf who rescued the
three worlds from an evil ruler; a man-lion who
ignorance. Or they may want protection in times defeated an enemy immune to most creatures;
Parasurama ("Rama with the axe"); RAMA;
of danger, protection for travel on the sea, or long KRISHNA; the BUDDHA; and Kaiki, the avatar
who will come on a white horse and begin a
life. Especially as Kuan-yin, this bodhisattva pro- golden age. Some Hindus think JESUS was an

tects women and oversees childbirth. avatar of Vishnu, too. This is an identification
that Christians generally reject.
All Buddhists venerate Avalokitesvara. Bud-
AVESTA See ZEND AVESTA.
dhists in southeast Asia known as Theravadins call
AYATOLLAH Also spelled Ayatullah; relig-
upon him as Lokesvara, "lord of the world." This
ious scholars of highest rank in a branch of
Hebodhisattva also has close ties to Tibet. is said SHITTE ISLAM. Ayatollah is an Arabic and Persian
word that means "light of GOD." It denotes the
to have revealed the mantra Oin mani padmehum
religious scholars who lead a branch of Shi'ite
"Om(literally, the jewel in the lotus hum"), one
Islam.
of the most important mantras in Tibetan Bud-
Shi'ites maintain that, when MUHAMMAD
dhism (see TIBETAN RELIGION). He is also said to
died in AD. 632, the leadership of the Islamic
take human form as the D,\LAI LAMA, the leader community passed to his male descendants. They
call these leaders IMAMS. Shi'ites known as
of Tibetan Buddhism. "twelvers" maintain that there was a line of 12
imams. The t\velfth imam has been in hiding since
There are several common images of A.D. 874. The community is now led by ayatol-
lahs, religious scholars who speak on his behalf.
Avalokitesvara. One shows him resplendent with
The ayatollah best known in North America
jev\els, wearing a tall crown, and holdmg a lotus at the end of the 20th century was Ruhollah
Khomeini (1900-89). In 1979 he instigated the
in his left hand. On the crown is the Buddha overthrow of the shah of Iran, became the head
Amitabha. Another common image shows of state, and led Iran in an aggressively anti-
American direction.
Avalokites\ara in female form with 1 1 heads and
AZTEC RELIGION The religion of the peo-
a thousand arms. The 1 1 heads may recall one of
ple who ruled the valley of Mexico (the region
the meanings of Avalokitesvara's name, "lord of around present-day Mexico City) when the Span-

what is seen." The thousand arms represent the ish conquered it in the 16th century. According

bodhisatt\'a's limitless ability to shower her wor-

shipers with benefits. An image ver\' common in

China shows Kuan-yin dressed in flowing gar-

ments, a serene, motherly expression on her face;

in her arms she holds a jar the way a mother might

hold a baby, and from the jar she pours water into

a pond, a sign of her beneficent gifts.

AVATAR A Sanskrit word for "descent"; in

HINDUISM the appearance of a god on Earth,
especially the appearance of the god VISHNU.
The Btt^GAVAD-GITA says that whenever evil
waxes and virtue wanes, Vishnu appears on
Earth to restore order. There are many avatars
of Vishnu, but ten has become the standard

36 AZTEC RELIGION

to legend, the Aztecs migrated to the \'alley of The Aztecs knew Quetzalcoati in several
forms. One was as a priest-king of the ancient city
Mexico from the north. Around AD 1325 they of Tula. This Quetzalcoati diligentiy performed
rituals. For example, he offered blood from the
settled a marshy island in the middle of Lake calves of his legs and he bathed ceremonially. As
Texcoco. Their patron god, Huitzilopochdi, had a result, Tula prospered. At the same time,
pointed the site out to them. By reclaiming land Quetzalcoati reflised to perform certain rituals,
from the lake, they built a major cin,' named such as human sacrifice. According to one text,
Tenochtidan (Mexico Cit\', today). Three cause- he sacrificed only snakes, birds, and butterflies.
ways connected it to land. By the time the Spanish Because of indiscreet behavior, Quetzalcoati was
arrived in the 1520s, Tenochtidan had perhaps forced to abdicate his throne. He traveled to the
half a million inhabitants. By that time, too, the east and burned himself His spirit arose to the
Aztecs had established their dominance over the sk)' to become the planet Venus. Another legend
entire region. said that he sailed oft' into the east. At first the
ruler of the Aztecs mistook the Spanish warrior,
The Aztecs had elaborate \iews of time and Hernan Cortes, for Quetzalcoati returning.
space. Good examples of these are the famous
Aztec calendar stone and illustrations from an- Like \irtually all ancient peoples, the Aztecs
cient pictographic books known as codices. The practiced RITUALS in their homes. In these rituals
Aztec views were very similar to those of the Mava they used small figurines and incense burners.
(see MAYA RELIGION). The Aztecs resembled the They also had a religion associated with ceremo-
Maya, too, in believing that they were li\ing in nial centers. It consisted of SACRIFICES, often
the fifth world or, as they called it, the "fifth sun."
human sacrifices. For the Aztecs, the human body
A famous story, the "Legend of the Suns," relates contained the sacred forces that made order and
life possible. These forces were especially concen-
the fate of the previous four worlds and predicts trated in the heart and the head. As a result,
the fate of the fifi:h. sacrifices paid particular attention to hearts and

The Aztecs worshiped several deities. Huit- heads.
zilopochtli, "the Hummingbird of the Left," was
one of two deities worshiped at the great temple The Spanish conquerors considered Aztec
in the middle of Tenochtidan. Construction
workers in Mexico City discovered the temple bv —religion to be the work of devils literally. They
accident in 1978. The other deity worshiped
tried to obliterate it. Nevertheless, elements of
Athere was Tlaloc, the god of rain. third god, Aztec religion survived. They combined with the
religion of the conquerors to produce a distinct
Quetzalcoati, the feathered serpent, had a temple
nearby. tradition of ROMAN CATHOLICISM.

B

BAAL The most imponant god of the ancient nym, made from the first letters of Baal Shem

Canaanites. The BIBLE records conflicts bervveen To\-.
the priests of Baal and prophets of the Israelite
god \TTVVH ("the Lord"). Texts from ancient Littie is actually known about the Baal Shem
Ugarit discovered in the 20th century present the To\'s life. He is said to have worked wonders such
as healing through a special name of GOD. The
god in a more positive light. Baal Shem Tov is important today because of the
"Baal" is actually a general word meaning religious movement he is said to have started. In
his day normative JUDAISM in eastern Europe
"lord." In religious contexts, the specific lord in stressed a detailed study of TOR.\H and a strict
observance of Jewish rituals and a Jewish way ot
question is usually the Canaanite god of rain, life. For the Baal Shem Tov, this form of practice
dew, and fertile fields (see CANA.\N1TE RELIG- distracted people from their highest purpose,
ION). This god is said to ride on the clouds. He communion with God. God's light, he said, was
all pervasive. Therefore, communion with God
is also called "Prince Baal." In Semitic languages, could and should be had in all of life. The means
to such communion included singing, dancing,
the phrase is Banl zebiil. From it the New Testa- and emotion-filled prayer. From these roots Ha-

ment derived the term "Beelzebul" (e.g., Mat- sidism grew.
thew 10.25; Mark 3.22; Luke 1 1. 15, 18-19). But
it used the term simply to refer to the chief BABEL, TOWER OF The way die BIBLE ex-
demon; any reference to the Canaanite god had
plains the multitude of languages that human
been lost. beings speak. According to Genesis 11, the in-

Baal was the king of the gods, a position that habitants of the Earth decided to build a tower to
he took from the god of the sea, Yamm. The reach to the HE.WTiNS. The kind of tower that the
Canaanites worshiped him as present in many writer seems to have had in mind is the ziggurat.
local sanctuaries. As a result, some texts speak of Ziggurats were huge p\Tamids, built in several
Baals in the plural. The Canaanites also thought
that Baal fought with the god of death. Mot. The steps or parallel layers. On top of them Mesopo-
outcome of this struggle determined whether
successive periods of seven years would be fertile tamians placed temples to their gods (see
MESOPOTAMIAN RELIGIONS). They were a tvpical
or barren. form of religious ARCHITECTURE in ancient
Mesopotamia.
BAALSHEMTOV (cl700-1760) The popu-
As Genesis tells the story, the god "iTLVVTl
lar name of Israel ben Eliezer. He was a Ukrainian ("the Lord") was worried about what great things
human beings might be able to accomplish. So he
Jew whom man\' consider to ha\e founded H.\SI- created the various languages. Because the build-

DISM. "Baal Shem Tov" means "Master of the

Good Name." It refers to the miraculous powers

Hethat Israel ben Eliezer allegedly possessed. is

also known as the "Besht." This term is an acro-

37

38 BABYLONIAN RELIGION

ers could no longer communicate, they could not Baha. By the end of the 20th centur)' it had
complete the tower. This disruption can be seen roughly t\vo million adherents.
as god's punishment on people who want to
overstep human Umitations. Teachings, Practices, .-wd Organization

Genesis derives the name Babel from the The Baha'i faith sees itself as continuing the
confusion of languages that resulted: the Hebrew revelation of God found in JUDAISM, CHRISTIAN-
verb meaning "to confuse" is balal (Genesis ITi', and ISLAM. The prophets of each of these
11 .9 ). Modern scholars are more inclined to see traditions, it teaches, were genuine messengers
the name as referring to a region or place. Many from God. Each of them fulfilled the task assigned
suggest that it refers to the city of Babylon. by God. But Baha'is insist that the process of
Some have suggested that it refers to a temple God's revelation will never end. Neither MOSES
within Babylon known as Bab-ilu, the "gateway nor JESUS nor MUHAMM,\D was the last of God's
of God." messengers. For the contemporary' world there is
a new messenger, Baha'uUah. He has made
BABYLONIAN RELIGION See MESOPO known a new task: to unite spiritually aU people.

TAML\X RELIGIONS. Baha'is are enjoined to pray in private every
day. In addition, local communities gather to-
BAHA'I A religion founded in Iran in the sec- gether on the first day of ever\' month. (Baha'i

ond half of the 19th centurv'. The Baha'i faith sees Amonths are 19 days long. ) major Baha'i festival
itself called to unite spiritualh' all the peoples of is Noruz, New Year's. In accordance with Persian
the world.
practice it is celebrated on March 21, the time of
History the spnng equinox. During the month prior to
Noruz, Baha'is obsen'e a fast. They neither eat
During the 1840s a religious figure in Iran known nor drink from sunup to sundown; they eat and
as the Bab ("gateway") predicted the coming of drink at night. (Muslims observe a similar fast
"the one whom GOD shall reveal." In 1863, one during the Islamic month of Ramadan.) More-
of his followers, now known as Baha'uUah o\ er, Baha'is are never permitted to drink alcohol.
(1817-92), claimed to be that one.
During the 20th centur\' a major initiative of
The teachings of the Bab and of Baha'uUah the Baha'i communin,' was the construction of
threatened the authoriti.' of orthodox Islamic major houses ofWORSHIP, one on each continent.
scholars. As a result, Baha'uUah spent much of The design of each house of worship reflects
his life in exile and in jail. From 1868 until his significant elements of its locarion. For example,
death he lived in what is now Israel. For that
reason, the center of the Baha'i community' is the house of worship in New Delhi, India, is in
the form of a LOTUS, a sacred plant in India. The
located in Israel.
brick work of the house of worship in Panama
When Baha'uUah died, control of the com- reflects stone work in the ancient temples of
munit)' passed to his son, known in the Baha'i middle America. At the same time, aU Baha'i
communit)' as Abd al-Baha ( 1 844-192 1 ), and his houses of worship share certain features. For ex-
ample, they have nine doorways and nine-sided
grandson, Shoghi EflFendi (1899-1957). It then domes. Baha'is see the number nine as a sign of
passed to a board known as the Council of the the highest unit\'. Therefore, the doors and
Hands of the Cause (1957-62) and finally to an domes emphasize the unit)' that Baha'is believe
elected assembly, the International House of Jus- characterizes God, all people, and all religions.
tice (1962-present).

The Baha'i faith first attracted widespread
attention with the missionarv travels of Abd al-

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