The Encyclopedia of World Religions

D

DALAI LAJVLA The head ofthe Tibetan Bud- religious communit>-. Dalai means "ocean, all-
encompassing"; lama means "supreme teacher."
dhist conimunit>' and traditionally the ruler of
Tibet. The first Dalai Lama assumed office in The first Dalai Lama resided at the Tashil-
hunpo monasten- in central Tibet, but his succes-
1438, although he was not given that title until sors have ruled from Lhasa.
1578, when the Mongol king, .\lta Khan, gave
the name Dalai Lama to the head of the Tibetan The Dalai Lama is seen as an INCLINATION of
AVALOKITES\'AK\, a BODHISATn'A. Tibetan BUD-
DHISM teaches that rebirth occurs 49 days after
death (see B,\RDO THODOL). Successive Dalai La-
mas are found by identifying signs on a child bom
49 days after the death of the pre\ious Dalai Lama.
The candidate also demonstrates knowledge of the
pre\ious Dalai Lama's possessions.

In 1959 the 14th Dalai Lama, Bstan-'dzin-
rg>a-mtsho, fled into exile to escape Chinese
rule. In 1989 he received the Nobel Prize for
peace for leading a peacefiil resistance to the

Chinese takeover.

Dalai Lama issuing a call for harmony and peace at the DANCE AND RELIGION The significance
Parliament of the World's Rchgions in Chicago. (By
permission of the Episcopal News Service; photograph by and role of religious dancing. Like the music that
David Skidmorc.) usuall\' accompanies it, dance has had a ven- wide
role in religion but has sometimes been regarded
with suspicion for its intoxicating effect and its
association with sensual feeling. In primal socie-
ties, dance frequentiy ser\ed the role of creating
sacred times and places, dances being occasions
of rich communit\' activity' when the gods were
close and perhaps even possessing people while
the\' danced. Shamans especialh' danced to create
and express their ecstasy as their patron god
danced through them (see SH.\M.\XISM).

Dance has been performed and interpreted
in different ways. In HINDUISM, dance often ex-
presses the nature and mythology of the gods.

90 DANIEL

Tibetan monks, dressed as Buddhist deities, dance during thie annual Butter Festival, the ancient event that is
attended by thousands of piJgrims and marks the end of lunar new year celebrations. (Counesy ofReuters/
Corbis-Bettmann .}

The great god SIVA is called "nataraja," king of die In recent times, however, there has been a
dance, and his repertoire of 108 dances enacts the move in some quarters to revive sacred dance,
stages of the world from creation to destruction. In even performing decorous and expressive mod-
SHINTO, sacred dance is more often seen as an ern dances as parts of church or temple services.
oft'ering to the gods for their entertainment. So is it In Pentecostal circles, on the other hand, free and
also in China, though the solemn dance RITUALS of ecstatic dancing has increasingly arisen spontane-
Confucian students and mandarins also powerfully ously as a sign of the Holy Spirit. Some of the new
express the traditions and cohesion of their class. In religions of Japan, like TENRJKi'O and Odori
the more devotional wings of JUDAISM (HASIDISM) Shukv'o (the "Dancing Religion"), have made
and ISLAM (SUFISM, the "whirling dervishes"), dance their central act of worship. In one form or
dance expresses religious ecstasy or at least iminhibi- another, dance seems sure to be a part of religion
ted, loving PR.W'ER and fervor. In the Catholic for a long time to come.
traditions of CHRISTIANITV, folk dances have usu-
ally been tolerated as a pan of the celebration of DANIEL The title character in the book of
holidays like May Day or CHRISTMAS but have rarely Daniel in the BIBLE. He is likely based on a figure
had a part in formal WORSHIP itself. PROTESTANT-
ISM has tended to reject dance altogether, or to in Canaanite and earlier Hebrew literature.

regard it as purely secular. Ancient texts discovered at Ugarit in Syria
during the 20th centurv- reveal that, well before

DEAD SEA SCROLLS 91

anv of the Bible was written, the Canaanites knew the Hittite in battie so that he in turn could marrs'
a legendan- hero named Dan'el. This figure ap- Uriah's wife Bathsheba. At the end of his life his
pears in the biblical book of the prophet EZEKIEL sons fought to succeed him. These struggles in-
cluded a failed coup attempt by Absalom.
(14.14; 28.3).
David was famed as a musician. Tradition
The book of Daniel records stories and VI- attributed the biblical book of Psalms to him. In
SIONS. They allegedly took place during the exile the late Second Temple penod (roughly 200
of the Judeans in Babylon (586-539 B.C.). The B.C.-A.D. 70), some Jews hoped for a MESSL\H
book's account of this period is, however, ver\' descended trom Da\id. Christians assert that this
confused. Much of the book is written in Ara- Messiah was JESUS.
maic, a later language, and it does make detailed
and accurate allusions to some later events. DAY OF ATONEMENT English for tiie
Therefore, it is customan- to ascribe the book to
an anonvmous author who lived during the Has- Hebrew phrase Totn Kippur, the most sacred of
monean revolt ( 167-164 B.C.). the "days of awe" in IUD.\IS.\!. Jews obser\e the
Day of Atonement on the tenth day of Tishri, the
Jews classifi,' Daniel with the Ketuvim or first month of the Jewish year. This date falls in
"writings"; Christians consider it a prophetic September or October.
book. It is unique in the Hebrew Bible in that it
is an apocalypse (see APOC.^LYTTIC LITERATURE). The Day of Atonement is a time for restoring
It does not recount historical events. Instead, its one's relationship with GOD. The Jewish people
purpose was to call the Jewish people to remain collectively repent of their SINS and receive God's
faithful to their religious heritage, despite oppres- forgiveness. If one has offended human beings,
sion and persecution. In giving reassurance, the one should also make amends to them.
book looks for\sard to a RESURRECTION fi-om the
dead (12.2-3). This idea influenced later Chris- The BIBLE calls the Day of Atonement the
"Sabbath of Sabbaths" ( Leviticus 16.31). Itisthe
tians, as did the figure of the "Son of Man" most solemn day of rest. Observant Jews do not
(Daniel 7.13; cp. Mark 13.26). The New Testa- eat or drink fi^om one sundown to the next. (In
ment book of REVELATION borrowed much im- the Jewish calendar, days begin at sundown.)
They spend die da\- at a S^-NAGOGUE in PR.\\-ER.
agery fi-om Daniel's visions.
The LITURGY for the Day of Atonement
DAVID (ruled c. 1000-960 B.C.) In die includes several well-known prayers. An example
is the "Kol Nidre," which asks forgiveness for
Hebrew BIBLE, king of Israel and founder of the breaking vows made to God. It is as famous for
ruhng dynast)- of Judah. Afi:er the death of King its melody as it is for its words.
S,\UL and his sons, Da\id united the kingdoms of
Israel (today in northern Israel) and Judah ( today DEAD SEA SCROLLS Scrolls roughly 2,000
in southern Israel). He took lERUSALEM (pre-
\iouslv the stronghold of a people known as the years old found in caves on the northwestern edge
Jebusites), made it his capital, and brought the of the Dead Sea. In Februan- or March 1947, a
ark of the COVTN.^NT to it.
15-year-old Arab boy named Muhammad adh-
The books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible Dhib accidentally made one of the greatest dis-
recount many stories about Da\id. Among them coveries in modem archaeology. Accounts of
are his anointing while yet a boy by the prophet
what happened var\'. According to one account
—Samuel to be king, his battie with Goliath the he was taking shelter ft^om a thunderstorm. Ac-
—giant champion of the Philistines and his close cording to another he was looking for a lost goat.

relations with Saul's son Jonathan. Less positively, In anv case, he entered a caxe in the Wadi Qum-
Da\id is said to have engineered the death of Uriah ran, northwest of the Dead Sea. There he found

92 DEATH AND RELIGION

jars containing scrolls from about the ame of The scrolls tell us much about the commu-
nity' at Qumran. Many scholars think it was a
JESUS. communit)' of ESSENES. One scroll contains the
During the next 20 years scholars and Bed- rules for the community. Its members followed a
rigid discipline designed to ensure purit)'. An-
ouin found ancient manuscripts hidden in 11 other scroll, called "The War of the Sons of Light
different caves at Qumran. These manuscripts are
what many scholars mean by the Dead Sea Scrolls. with the Sons of Darkness," describes a great
They were written benveen the third century B.C. battie at the end of time. Apparendy, the com-
and A.D. 68. Originally they belonged to the munin,' expected that the final battle between
library of a monasticnpe community' located
below the ca\es. Some people take a more inclu- GOD and the forces of e\il would take place in the
sive \iew of the Dead Sea Scrolls. They use the
term to designate ancient manuscripts discovered ver\' near fiiture. It was also waiting for two
not just at Qumran but also in the entire Dead messiahs: a son of DA^^D to rule politically, and a
Sea region. According to this \iew, the Dead Sea son of .AVRON to take charge of religious RITU.\LS.
Scrolls were written over a longer period of time.
The oldest scrolls in the entire region were hidden Neither rabbinical Judaism nor CHRISTL\N-
by S.\NLyUT.\XS when Ale.xander the Great con-
quered the region around 331 B.C. The most n\ came direcdv from the Qumran community'.
recent manuscripts in the entire region date from
the time of the re\olt of Bar Kokhba against Ne\ertheless, the scrolls allow us to see some of
the variet)' of religious beliefs and practices that
Roman rule (.-^.D. 132-135). were current when both of them began.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are extremely impor-
DEATH AND RELIGION Religious con-
tant. They provide at least fragments of almost
every book of the Hebrew BIBLE (Old Testa- cepts and practices in relation to death and d\ing.
It would be hard to imagine a religion truly
—ment). These fragments sometimes complete indifferent to death, the end of an individual
—books are centuries older than any other surviv- human life as we knew it in this world. That is
because religion tries to look at life from the
ing copies. They allow us to see what the books largest possible perspective, in the light of that
of the Bible were like 2,000 years ago, and how which is ultimate. It is death that forces people to
they grew into their present forms. For example,
some scholars have identified what they see as look at their own lives in that way. Knowing that
ancestors of three different versions of the Bible, one has only so much time in this world means
all equally ancient. The three are the \ersion used one must make choices and must choose the
bv the Samaritans; the Greek version, known as values on which to base those choices. Knowing
that manv religions sa\' there is more to life than
the Septuagint, that the earliest Christians used; just the present short span on Earth, one wants
to know what the rest of it is and how it relates
and the "Masoretic text," that is, the Hebrew
Bible that we know today. to here and now.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are important for an- In regard to the event of death, religion tends
other reason, too. They proWde new insight into to provide two things. First, it usually teaches
the religious world of ancient Palestine between about what happens after death, often including
the Hasmonean revolt (167-164 B.C.) and the in that teaching accounts of an after-death judg-
so-called Jewish Wars (AD. 66-74). This was the ment or rebirth, which will reflect on the choices
time when JUDAISM as we know it, rabbinical
Judaism, was just beginning. It is also the time one has made in life (see AFTEBilFE IN WORLD
when Jesus lived.
RELIGIONS). Second, religions surround the ex-
perience of death itself with rites and attitudes
designating it as a great experience of transition.

DEATH AND RELIGION 93

The death-practices of various religions say much The same themes of indi\idual transition
about their deepest values. significant dispersal of the remains, and family
and community' healing occur in most traditions
Devout Hindus, for example, want to die on though the particulars may varv^ gready. In TI
the banks of the sacred river, the GANGES, par- BET.\N RELIGION the words of the B.\RDO THO
ticularh- in the holy cit>' of BAiV\IL\S. If that is not DOL, or "Tibetan Book of the Dead," may be
possible, thev wish at least for their remains to be whispered in the ear of the dying person as a kind
brought there to be cremated, and the ashes
thrown into the sacred river. The funeral pyre —of guide telling what will be encountered the
should ideally be lit by the deceased's eldest son. —Clear Light, the Buddhas of the MAND.-VLA and
These practices teach us several things: that death
is a time for returning to one's spiritual roots and how to respond to them in order to gain libera-
the main svmbols of one's F.\ITH; that the physical tion or a good rebirth. The physical remains may
body is not important after death and can be
reverendy returned to the elements from which it be just cut up and left in a field for carnivorous
came; fire, water, earth, and air; that death is a birds to consume to show their unimportance.
dme of transition in this world too, from father
to son, when the social order rent by death must But memorial services to help the deceased
through the transition and bring the family to-
be svmbolicallv restored.
gether continue afterward.
In JUDAISM, the dominant theme is the im-

portance of each individual to the community' and

Davofthe Dead in Me ( Courtesy of the Intake Bank.)

94 DENOMINATION

the preciousness of each human life. When death angels, and the "Hail Man" of Catholic pietv' asks

approaches, the d\ing person might recite a AL\RY, the Mother of God, as though she were
our mother too, to "prav' for us now and at the
PRATCR confessing sixs and asking GOD for for- hour of our death." Death is a precarious time,
and yet may be a welcome time, a time of judg-
—giveness and a place in his realm after death the ment and of release, of the loss of loved ones here
and the gaining of loved ones on the other side.
individual transition. After death, a group of vol- Sometimes it is also presented as a great adven-
ture, a time for growth and learning of things now-
unteers from the communit\' might care for the hidden. Above all, religions present death as a
time for meeting face to face with God or an
bodv, watching over it, washing it, dressing it for ultimate reahtv-, in love and fiilfillment. The proc-
ess of death, dving, and grieving has interested
burial. Immediate relatives observe deep mourn- many vv-riters and readers in the second half of the
20th centurv-.
ing until seven days after the funeral, traditionally
DENOMINATION A fairly large, well-
staving at one place such as the home of the
established branch of a major religious tradition,
Adeceased during this time. meal is given them
uniting many local churches under a common
by others in the Jewish communitv' after return national organization. The individual churches in

from the cemeterv'. All this clearly helps with a denomination hold to roughly similar beliefs,
ways of WORSHIP, and forms of local governance.
working through grief and reestablishing family Unlike the cult or sect, the denomination is seen

and society bonds after the loss. Aas part of the religious mainstream. religious

In ISLAM, death is also often preceded by an pattern made up of a collection of denominations
large and small, each more or less equal and in
afBrmation of F.MTH. After death, the body is practice having responsibilitv- mainly for ministrv'
to their own members, has been called a "de-
washed, shrouded, and buried facing MECC.\ in nominational society." The United States of
America is undoubtedly the best example, though
—imitation of the posture of prayer the symbolic the pattern can also be found in certain British
Commonwealth countries and in some respects
reaffirmation of religious roots. Funeral and me- in Japanese BUDDHISM; otherwise, it is really a
religious anomaly in a world of mainly one-relig-
morial services follow, centering on recitations of ion or "church and sect" countries.

parts of the QUR'AN while the family receives In the United States, the major Protestant

—condolences affirmation of faith and reaffirma- —groups Methodist, Baptist, Presbv-terian, Lu-
—theran are called denominations. The Roman
tion of family and community ties.
Catholic, Jewish, and Eastern Orthodox tradi-
Christian practices varv' among traditions but tions in <-\merica also have had to act as de-
nominations for all intents and purposes.
repeat the same themes. Praver is properly said Denominations have distinctive histories and
usuallv a revered founder or principal theological
with the dying person. In Catholic traditions teacher. Their reason for founding and historical
background is generallv- ethnic or located in a past
these include confession of sins, absolution or

forgiveness of them pronounced by a priest, final

holy communion, and holy tmction or anointing

—with oil the "last rites." These mark the individ-

ual transition and preparation for judgment after

Ondeath. this side the family gathers for the

fiineral, sometimes added to by a "wake" or

fiiends sitting up with the body in the home, and

a meal given the mourning family by relatives or

the church communitv-. The body is returned to

the earth by burial, or nowadays often cremated.

Death is dealt with in more intimate and personal

wavs in religious writings. Some speak of a "good

death" as something to prepare for during all of

one's life. Sometimes it is seen as a time to be

particularly close to the holy figures of one's faith,

the SAINTS and ANGELS and others. Popular re-

ligious art may show a deathbed surrounded by

DEVILS ANT5 DEMONS 95

religious conflict. Ordinarily, formal organization
is along national lines except for overseas mis-
sions. Denominational loyalty can be a factor in
promoting the overall health of religion in a
society.

DEVILS AND DEMONS Personalized sources A demon as depicted by Durcr. Coititt'iy ofCofbts-

of EML. The t\vo words mean about the same i
thing, though demons may be subordinate to a
principal devil, or to S.W.VN, the chief of the forces Bettmann.)
of e\Tl in Western religion. Most traditional relig-
ions have given a place to individual powers that condemned to the worst of those six places, the
work wickedness in the world, and usually are HELLS, arc tormented by raksasas-like demons.
related to a principle of cosmic e\il. These entities But the most important Buddhist demon is
may be called demons or devils. For simple be- MARA, who tempted the BUDDHA on the night of
lievers they may help explain many unfortunate his enlightenment. Significantly, Mara is not so
things: sickness, madness, war, disasters. They much consumed by evil will as blinded by igno-
may even have a positive role as an agent of the rance, unable to see that the Buddha's enlighten-
dixine to punish the wicked. The rnore sophisti- ment could be of benefit to him too, though the
cated may see demons as symbolic of important Buddha is "teacher of gods and men" alike. For
truths of F.\ITH: that evil exists despite a good in Buddhism as in Hinduism the ultimate source
GOD or universe, that it afflicts and can e\en of e\il is not in the will but in ignorance of the
possess humans yet also comes from outside
them, and finally that e\il is a force of cosmic true nature of reality.
The demons in Western religion, like the
—dimensions perhaps part of a "war in HEAVEN"
Western Satan, are beings in rebellion against
of God and his .VNGELS against Satan and his
God out of e\il will, though even here ambigui-
—demons and so the defeat of e\il requires dixine ties may occur. An early example is Satan in the
Hebrew scriptures' book of Job. Here Satan ap-
action on a large scale. At the same time, the pears as an adversary to God in the sense of a
actual historx- and meaning of demons in various
religions says much about them. Sometimes the
gods of one era or religion are turned into the
demons of another that supersedes it.

In ancient HINDUISM, tor example, the as-
uras, demonic deities, were originally good gods
but became malevolent beings to the next race of
gods, gods Uke INDR.\ and MSH.NU. The asuras

are in constant conflict with those gods, but the
latter always outwit them in the end. Another
class of demons are the raksasas, like Ravana in

the great EPIC, the RAMAYA.N.\; they delight in

causing misery to human beings.
Many of these Hindu entities were borrowed

by BUDDHISM. The realm of the a.suras is one of
the six places of rebinh, for those overh' domi-

nated by anger, violence, and stupidity; those

96 DEVILS AND DEMONS

prosecutor whose function is to present an oppos- both to per\'erse human will and human entan-
ing point of view to the Lord, in this case that Job glement in the cosmic rebellion of Satan and his
should be unjustly aftlicted to test him. Other angels. The height of Christian demonism was
demonic figures, probably influenced by Babylo-
nian examples, like Leviathan and Rahab repre- the 15th to 17th centuries, the period of the
senting chaos, Lihth the demoness of night, and notorious witch-persecutions and of related
Azazel the wilderness, also appear but only on the elaborate beliefs in the powers of demons, their
margins of the divine ston- (see MESOPOTAML\N pacts with humans, their signs and methods of
RELIGIONS). operating (see WITCHCRAFT). But the horrible
injustice and cruelty to which such beliefs could
However, bv the sixth centur\' B C and prob- lead produced a reaction, and they went into
ably under the influence of ZOROASTRL\NISM decline with the 18th centup,' and the "Age of
from Persia, JUD.\ISM became much more prone Reason."
to see the world in terms of an eternal cosmic war
between two opposing forces of good and evil, Since then, liberal theologians and psych-
ologists have taken demons as allegorical per-
led bv two personal commanders, God and Satan. sonifications of the evil within the human

Zoroastrianism belie\ed the universe was a consciousness. In conservative Christian circles
battleground ber\\een the high god Ahura
Mazda and the hosts of darkness under Angra belief in the De\il and his demons often remains
Man\ai or Ahriman. Hellenistic Judaism likewise strong; much that is bad is attributed to them,
and there are RITUALS and ser\ices for exorcism
saw Satan as the adversary of God from the or the driving of demons out of persons and
beginning and the world infested by demons
places.
under his rule. This is the world view carried over
In ISLAM, the opponent of God is Iblis or
into the New Testament and CHRISTL\Nm'. In Shaitan, who first disobeyed God by refusing to
bow before his greatest creation, human beings.
mainstream rabbinical Judaism after the Diaspora
of the Jews throughout the world, behef in Satan While not always totally evil, he and his jinns
and demons became less of a central force and (genies; spirits) and shaitans (demons) are ill-
today has relatively littie importance, although it disposed toward humans and keep trying to lead
lives on in Jewish folklore about Lilith, about them astray. Demon-doctrine is not a central
feanire of Islamic thought, but acknowledgment
magicians who had dealings with demons, about of the reality of angels and demons is required of
the orthodox, and there is a large store of popular
dibbuks or evil spirits, and about golems or arti- belief and folklore about the jinns and shaitans.
ficial humans created by sorcery.
Though not as strong as it once was, belief in
Christianit>- in its traditional form perceived de\ils and demons remains alive in the modern
world. Some have contended that the horrors of
Satan as a fallen angel in age-long rebellion the 20th century, such as the demonic Nazi re-
gime, show that it is not outdated to speculate
against God, who corrupted ADAM and EVE in the about the presence of such malevolent forces. It
Garden of Eden and thus brought SIN to the is as though some intelligent energ>' of more than
world, and who continues to twist toward himself merely human wickedness possessed a brief hold
whom he can out of his hatred for the good. Cast on an entire nation at that time, and has shown
down from heaven, Satan and his minions landed its hanci in other places fi-om Cambodia to Bosnia
as well. However that may be, devils and demons
in hell at the center of the Earth. There they not live on as parts of many religious world views.

only plot their war against God waged through
tempting humans on the world's surface, but also
receive the souls of those condemned to eternal

torture and gleefially impose that punishment.
This story is familiar to readers of Dante and
Milton. In it Evil in the world can be anributed

DHARMA, IN HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM 97

DEVOTION, DEVOTIONAUSM Religious which one finds oneself, and, although it is not
often stated, one's gender.
acts and inward attitudes marked by deep emo-
tional feelings of awe, love, and fer\'ent commit- Technically, the stages of life appl\- onl\- to
ment to GOD. Movements like BH.\KTI in males of the highest three varnas; BRAHMINS,
HINDUISM, H.'\SIDISM in JUDAISM, or the spirit of kshatriyas, and vaisyas. In youth boys should
St. FRANCIS OF .\SSISI and Franciscanism pietism study the NTD-X. In maturit)- they should marr\-,
and much of Evangelicalism in CHRISTLA-S'lTli' support a household, perform the household
may be regarded as devotional. The de\otionalist rituals, and have children, especially sons. In old
tvpicaily centers WORSHIP, in the mind and often age they should retire. Some choose yet a fourth
on the ALT.AR, on a vi\id, precise representation stage, a life of total renunciation.
of the di\-ine in some form: the god KRISHNA, the
Sacred Heart of lESUS, CHRIST on the cross, and The traditional ideal tor women stresses their
god in one's own heart. Simple prayers, chants,
and mo\ing hymns, and even the dance of PEN- subser\'ience to men: in youth to their fathers, in
TECOSTAL CHRISTLASTTi' are among the varied maturitx' to their husbands, and as widows to their
expressions of devotion, though it may also be sons. This ideal has often made life ver\- hard for
subjective and free-form. Devotional attitudes Indian women. Xe\ertheless, powerful and inde-
and movements ha\'e done much to keep religion
alive throughout the ages. pendent women have emerged in e\er\' period of

DHARMA, IN HINDUISM AND BUD- Indian history.
DHISM From the Sanskrit verb dim, which
Buddhist Dfl\ral\
means "to sustain." Dharma is the order that
sustains the universe. Although it always retains Buddhism rejected the ritual classes of Hindu
this root meaning, it is used somewhat ditferenth' dharma. Indeed, it rejeaed Hindu rituals altogether.
in HINDUISM and BUDDHISM.
In Buddhism, dharma was originally identi-
Hindu Dharma fied with the BUDDHA'S teaching. Then it became
the teachings of Buddhism in general. With this
In Hinduism, dharma refers to all forms of order. meaning it appears as one of Buddhism's three
Thus, it can refer to the regular cycles of the sun. jewels. An example is the formula, "I take refiige
But in religious terms dharma refers most specifi- in the Buddha; I take refuge in the S.\NGFL\; I take
cally to the moral standard by which human refuge in the Dharma."
actions are judged. The impact of this standard is
ver\' broad ranging. At its most universally hu- Buddhist dharma is summarized in the
man, dharma is sometimes said to be the Hindu Buddha's FOUR NOBLE TRLTHS. For Theravada
equivalent of the English word "religion." Buddhists the teachings of Buddhism make up a
large collection of books in the Pali language
Starting perhaps in the second centur\' B.C., known as the Tipitika or "Three Baskets." These
dharma was s\'stemanzed in books known as "baskets" or collections are the basket of the
SmritisoT Dharmasastrar, the most famous is the Buddha's sermons (dharma, properly speaking),
Laws fl/MANU. These books recognize that dif- the basket of the monastic discipline, and the
ferent dharmas or ideals of behavior are appropri- basket of philosophical speculation known as
ate to different groups of people. It is customary "abhi-dharma."
to identify' these ideals in terms of the varna or
RITU.AL class into which one is born (see CASTE, In Mahayana Buddhism, which is found es-
IN HINDUISM), the asrama or stage of life in pecially in east Asia, the word dharma sometimes
takes on an even broader sense. The "three-body
doctrine" identifies three different bodies (Kaya)
of the Buddha or three different manifestations
of the Buddhist dharma. The\' are the earthly
(nirmanakaya), heavenly or "enjoyment" body

.

98 DIALOGUE

(sambhogakaya), and absolute ( dharmakaya ) • People participate in interreligious dialogue
The historical Buddha is the ideal form in which to learn what other people believe, not to
the dharma appears in our world. But it is not the teach them what is true (rule 1).
highest form ofdharma. The heavenly body refers
to the most excellent manifestations of dharma • Participants must accept one another as
possible in worlds of name and form. In other equals. For example, one cannot consider
words, it refers to the Buddhas and BODHISAT people of other religions savage, primitive,
demonic, deluded, or evil (rule 7).
r\'AS who live in the \anous HEA\'ENS. Beyond
name and form is the dharma body itself In • Each participant has the right to define
this body the dharma underlies and sustains all what her or his views actually are. For
example, if a person insisted that a physical
that is.
image was not GOD but simply a means to
DIALOGUE A method by which religious help one WORSHIP God, one should not
mpeople the second half of the 20th century tried
insist that that person was worshiping the
to understand one another. Dialogue was especially image or idol itself (rule 5).
popular among liberals of all three branches of . Participants must be willing to look at their
own religions critically (rule 9).
CHRISTL\Nm'; E.\STERX ORTHODOX CHRISTL\N- • All participants must share their positions
ITi', ROMAN CATHOLICISM, and PROTESTANTISM. honestly. That means they must be willing
to share their doubts and hesitations as
Talking with people who practice a religion well as their convictions (rule 3).
different from one's own is certainly not new. . In a dialogue people should compare the
Akbar (1542-1605 ), a Muslim emperor of India, practices of others with their own practices,
their own ideals with the ideals of others.
was noted for his religious tolerance. At his capi- In the past, people had often used their
tal, Fatehpur Sikri, he built a structure that pro- ideals to condemn the practices of others.
\ided him an elevated seat in the center of a room. They had conveniendy ignored problems
with their own practices (rule 4).
—Different religious teachers Muslim, Hindu,
—Buddhist, and Christian occupied elevated Swidler claimed that interreligious dialogue

"pulpits" in each of the room's four corners. In was "something new under the sun." Others
this way, Akbar entered into discussion with all claimed that only dialogue and the attitudes
four teachers simultaneously. found in dialogue could save human beings from

During the 20th century, Christian denomi- universal threats, such as nuclear holocaust or an
nations and MISSION.ARIES became increasingly ecological imbalance that would poison the
interested in "interreligious dialogue." Different Earth. These claims are probably too enthusiastic.
Christian churches, for e.xample, Catholics and
Lutherans, established official dialogues with one Some have rejected interreligious dialogue
another. Some Christian groups established offi- altogether. More traditional Christians have seen
cial dialogues with representatives of other relig- dialogue as abandoning the basic calling of a
ions, for e.xample, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists.
Indeed, the Second VATICAN COUNCIL saw dia- Christian: to proclaim the truth of Christianity.
logue as the most appropriate means to use in
Some non-Christians have seen dialogue as a new
missionan,' efforts. and underhanded way for Christians to try to
convert them. In their eyes, those who advocated
In 1983 Leonard Swidler, a theologian, pub-
lished 10 ground rules for interreligious dialogue. dialogue were v\ol\es in sheeps' clothing.
He called them the "Dialogue Decalogue." The
following points drawn from his rules give a good
idea of what interreligious dialogue is about.

DIET AND RELIGION 99

DIAMOND SUTRA A relatively brief Ma- religions order and regulate what people eat and
drink. Sometimes they make eating and drinking
Havana Buddhist writing. It became important for into RrTU.\LS. Examples include the Japanese tea
practicers of ZEN BUDDHISM as well as for other ceremony and the Christian EUCHARIST. Some-
schools of BUDDHISM. times they teach their adherents to slaughter ani-
mals in special ways or dedicate food to religious
The Diamond Sutra is one of a group of beings or for religious purposes. That is, they
writings known as Prajiia-paramita stitras, that S.\CRIFICE and make offerings. Sometimes they
is, "discourses concerned with perfect wisdom." ask followers to give up earing, drinking, or both,
Originally an Indian book written in Sanskrit, it either partially or entirely, for a limited period of
was translated into Chinese around AD. 400. time. This is F.^STI^G, which Muslims, for exam-
ple, do during the month of Ramadan. Religions
The sutra records a conversation between the also make rules about ordinarj,- eating and drink-
BUDDHA and Subhuti, one of his most advanced ing. That is, the\- have dietar\' laws. Dietar\- laws
disciples. The two rapidly recount a series of bold answer such questions as what foods people
paradoxes that encapsulate Buddhist wisdom. For
example, the Buddha teaches Subhuti that if any- should and should not eat, who may prepare and
one suggests that the Buddha has taught any- ser\e food, and when and how much people may
thing, that person slanders the Buddha, because eat. There is probabh- no item on w hich all relig-
truth cannot be taught. The sutra also teaches
that things that appear to us are transient, like ions agree.
objects in dreams.
Regulations Concerning Me.\t
DIANA A Roman GODDESS. Diana seems to
One of the most common topics for dietar\' laws
have been a goddess of the woods and perhaps of concerns the eating of meat. Some religions do
the moon and its light. She was early identified
with the Greek goddess ARTEMIS. In this capacit\' not allow the eating of meat at all. Traditionally,
the Romans thought ofher as a hunter, a midwife, most Hindus of the highest religious status have
and a goddess of the crossroads. not eaten meat. Other Hindus consider some
meat and animal products, such as eggs, more
The most important festival of Diana took acceptable than others, such as beef Many Bud-
place on the Ides of August (August 13 1. During dhists have practiced vegetarianism. So have
this fesri\'al women would wash their hair and Jains, the PNthagoreans of ancient Greece,
carr\' torches from Rome to Diana's most impor- Manichaeans, and some Taoists. In the last dec-
tant shrine, a grove at Aricia. The festival was also ades of the 20th centur\' a number of North
especially important to slaves. Americans adopted vegetarianism. They often did
so because they wanted a healthy diet, a diet that
Diana had an ancient temple in Rome. Her %vas responsible to the enwonment, or both.
grove at Aricia was on the shores of Lake Nemi.
In ancient times this lake was known as "the Other religions allow the eating of meat but
mirror of Diana." Offerings at Aricia attest to strictiy regulate which meats may be eaten. The
Diana's connections with childbirth: They in-
clude models of human sexual organs. Stories —Jewish laws oikashrtit more colloquially, kosher
about the priests of Diana at Nemi pro\ided the
title and structure to an influential study of relig- —foods are a good example. Traditional Muslims
ion published in the early 20th century. The
Golden Boii/jh by James George FRAZER. obser\'e many of the same restrictions on meat
products as Jews. Christians do not.
DIET AND RELIGION ReUgious regula-
Obsenant Jews eat water animals as long as
tions about what people may eat and drink. Most the)' have scales and fins. Therefore, sole and
trout are kosher or acceptable; lobster, shrimp,
eels, and catfish are not. Obsenant Jews also eat

—

100 DIET AND RELIGION

birds that meet certain requirements. But the best celebrate certain rituals, such as CARNIVAL. Some
known kosher law concerns land animals. These
animals must chew the cud and have cloven Protestants, however, a\oid alcohol altogether.
hoofs. Pigs do not chew the cud; therefore, ob- They even celebrate the EUCH\RIST with unfer-

—servant Jews do not eat pork and many other mented grape juice. After World War I this Prot-

meats as well. estant attitude, represented by groups like the
Obsen'ant Jews also do not eat blood. This Women's Christian Temperance Union, helped
to pass a constitutional amendment that made
regulation requires special preparation of meat alcohol illegal in the United States. This started
before cooking. The BIBLE forbids boiling a kid the era of Prohibition ( 1920-33).
in its mother's milk. The R.\BBIS e.\tended this
rule: It is not proper to eat meat and dair^' prod- OTHER DlET.\RY LAWS
ucts in the same meal. Thus, cheeseburgers and
pepperoni pizzas are not kosher. Observant Man\' dietary laws detail what foods may be eaten.
households often have two sets of kitchen ware But religions also tell their followers who may
one for meat meals, the other for dain,' meals. prepare, ser\e, and clean up food, as well as when
After eating a meat or dair\' dish, obser\ant Jews and how much a person may eat.

—also let an appropriate interval say, six hours In traditional Hinduism dietary rules help
define ritual classes ( varnas) and castes (jatis) (see
pass before eating foods of the other variety'. CASTE, IN HINDUISM). According to these rules,
a person should eat only cooked food that is
Regl'l.\tion's Concerning other Foods prepared by someone of equal or higher status.
Similarly, people should clean up only food that
Religions have had less to say about plant food has been eaten by someone of equal or Jiigher
and dairy- products, but they have not ignored status. Buddhism teaches that MONKS .AND NUNS
them. The followers of Pythagoras were forbid- should not eat after noon. MAN1CH\EISM taught
den to eat beans. Members of the Nation of Islam that its elite, called "the elect," must eat all the
(see ISL.->lM, N.\TI0N OF) are supposed to avoid food that la)persons brought to them.
certain vegetables that recall the experiences of
slavePi'. TecJmically, Jains may eat only li\Tng Wm- Regul.-\te Diet?
beings that have a single sense. This principle
prohibits them from eating some plants as well as People often wonder why others observe dietary
meat. (Most North Americans limit senses to laws that they do not. Some people attribute these
animals, but Jains do not. ) Traditional HINDUISM laws to medical concerns. For example, some
distinguishes betv\een two types of food, pakka people think that obsen ant Jews do not eat pork
because pigs carry tricJiinosis. However, when the
and kaccn. Hindus who are most concerned
Jewish dietar\' laws of kashrut were established,
about the purit\' of their diet eat only food that is no one knew that pigs carried trichinosis.
pakka. They avoid onions and garlic as well as
animal foods. They also eat food that is prepared Many modem scholars trace dietan' laws to a
with clarified butter, known as "ghee," rather
than with oils from plants or animals. different cause. They say that these laws help
create group identitx'. For example, the laws of
Manv religions also regulate the consump- kasJirut help distinguish Jews from non-Jews.
tion of alcohol. One of the five precepts of There is something to diis claim. During the 20th
BUDDHISM rejects alcohol altogether. Some Bud- centurv people all o\er the world mo\ed into
modern, pluralistic cities. When they left their
dhists, however, ignore this precept, especially in traditional communities behind, many of them
Japan. JUDAISM permits alcohol in moderation, gave up their traditional dietary practices. But
but ISLAM stricdy forbids it. Christian attitudes group identin,- explains only wh\' people observe

var\ . Some Christians drink to excess when the\-

DOMINICANS 101

dietan- laws. It does not explain the particular Religions create unitv' in many wa\'s. Mem-
bers of a given religion may see themselves united
laws that they obser\e.
bv shared behavior, which usually includes both
It is important to note what the religions participation in religious RITU.\L and living ac-

themselves say about these laws. Buddhists say Acording to prescribed ways of life. good exam-

that it takes a clear, crisp mind to pursue en- ple is traditional orthodox lUDAISM. Other
lightenment, or understanding. Someone who religions stress correctness of belief Members are
united by shared adherence to dogma (what the
is intoxicated does not have such a mind. group officially believes) and doctrine (what it
Therefore, they refrain from alcohol. Jains do officiallv teaches). These terms appear often in
discussions of CHRISTL\NITV, since Christianit)'
not eat meat because of their devotion to the grew bv attracting people to a set of new beliefs
rather than as a shared way of life.
principle of AHIMSA. Many observant Jews say
Christians have recognized several sources of
that there is only one good reason for practicing
dogma and doctrine. Protestants derive Christian
GODthe dietan' laws. instructed them to do truth from the BIBLE (see PROTEST.\NTISM). Ro-
man Catholics and Orthodox Christians derive
so. Who are human beings, that they should Christian truth also from tradition (see ROXL\N
CATHOLICISM and E.\STER.V ORTHODOX CHRIS-
second-guess God? TTANm'). Most, but not all. Christians recognize
the ancient CREEDS and the decrees of the ancient
DISCIPLES See .VOSTLES. church councils as defining their dogma and doc-
trines. Indi\idual churches often have their own
DOGEN (1200-1253) A Buddhist monk special statements as well. Examples include the
mwho the late 1220s founded the Soto school Pope's pronouncements in the Catholic Church
and the "confessions" of various Protestant
of ZEN BUDDHISM in Japan. In 1223 Dogen left
Kyoto for China. He had already studied two churches.
schools of BUDDHISM: Tiendai Buddhism and
Zen Buddhism. In China he attained enlighten- DOMINICANS An order of Roman Catholic
ment, or a deep understanding of nature and the
causes of sorrow. In 1227 he returned to Japan MONKS .-"lND nuns properly known as the Order
to teach the path that he had followed. of Preachers. The Dominican order was founded
by Dominic in 1216. Like the Franciscans (see
Dogen emphasized the practice of sitting in FIL^'CIS OF ASSISI .\ND FR.\NCISC.\NS ), it is an
order centered on mendicant friars. Its members
.\lEDIT.\TION (Z.\ZES) without any purpose. take vows of poverty', and they are not under the
From his point of \iew, one did not sit in medi-
tation to anain enlightenment. Sitting in medita- control of a diocese and its bishop.
tion was itself enlightenment.
The Dominicans received as their special mis-
Dogen's teachings disagreed with Buddhist sion the tasks of preaching and study. Preaching
had earlier been the privilege of bishops and those
tradition in important ways. He taught that all
to whom they had delegated the task. The Do-
beings are Buddha-nature and that Buddha-
nature is impermanence. Traditionally Buddhism minicans, it was hoped, would effectively counter
had taught that all beings have, not are, Buddha- various heresies that were beginning to spread.
nature, and that Buddha-nature lies beyond im- Later the Dominicans played a major role in
permanence. INQUISmONS.

Dogen's most important writing is the Sho-

bhogenzo or "The Treasur>' of the True DHARNW
Eye." Today Soto Zen is one of the largest

schools of Japanese Buddhism.

DOGMA AND DOCTRINE A religion's of

ficial behefs and teachings.

102 DREAMS AND RELIGION

Other Domirucan accomplishments are though they recognized they were not always
more likely to win admiration today. The order reliable. Penelope, in a famous passage in Tlje
has included the great theologians Albertus Mag- Odyssey, said that there are two gates through
nus {c. 1200-80; and Thomas AQUINAS; the which dreams pass; the gate of ivor\-, whose
mystics Meister Eckhardt (c. \260-c. 1328), Jo- dreams are deceitful, and the gate of horn, whose
hannes Tauler (c. 1300-61), and Catherine of dreams are true. The ancients, like the Chinese
Siena ( 1 347-80); the reformer Savonarola ( 1452- more recently, would also practice incubation or
98); the painter Fra Angelico (c. 1400-55); and sleeping in a temple in order to receive advice
the champion of Mesoamericans' rights, Bar- from a god through a dream. CHRJSTlAXITi' has
tolomede las Casas (1474—1 566). From the 16th sometimes seen dreams as a means of divine
through the 18th centuries, the Dominicans were revelation, but has also recognized that demons
in decline. Since the middle of the 19th century can tempt the unwary through dreams.
the order has experienced a revival.
The hazy and fleeting nature of dreams has
Dominicans have been active in the United also had religious meaning. Buddhist literature
States continuously from the year 1786. In 1806 such as the DL\MOND SUTR.\ has spoken of this
the first Dominican province, the Province of St. world with its emptv' attractions as Uke a dream,
Joseph, was established at St. Rose, Kentuck)-. a phantasm, a bubble, a shadow, a dew-drop,
The first Dominican nuns arrived in the United and a flash of Ughtning. Here dreams mean not
States in 1853. Today Dominicans are active in revelations of truth, but illusion and unreality.
North America teaching, promoting a life of con- Yet Eastern accounts have also presented posi-
templation, and supporting missions overseas. tive experiences of dreams, and there are ad-
vanced yoga techniques for controlling and
DREAMS AND RELIGION Dreams of re- using them.

ligious significance. Dreams have been thought Twentieth-centur)' anaUtic psycholog\' in the
to have spiritual importance in many traditions.
The 19th-centun' anthropologist Edward Tylor, tradition of C.\RL GUSTAV JUNG has given dreams
in fact, thought that the origin of religion lay in a renew ed spiritual importance as mirrors or in-
the experience of dreams. It seemed natural to dicators of what is going on in one's psychic and
think that figures appearing in those mysterious spiritual life. Jung pointed to the marked similar-
nighttime adventures might be gods or spirits of ity of the sv'mbolic language of dreams to the
ancestors, and that their words or stories might language of the world's mythologies and relig-
bear divine messages. The ability to interpret ions, showing that, righdy understood, one's
dreams rightly was also a divine gift. In the biblical dreams could be like a personal story telling what
book of Genesis, JOSEPH was able to win his is needed to fulfill one's life. Other modern psy-
freedom from prison by righdy predicting the fate chologists, however, have said there is ven' little
of two fellow-prisoners from their dreams, and of real imponance in dreams, thus closing the
then foretelling the seven good years and seven door on a venerable religious tradition. In any
lean years on the basis of pharaoh's dream. In the case, dreams have always been important in the
mjths and religions of the world, whether as the
New Testament another Joseph, the spouse of voice of the divine or as warnings not to get lost
MARY the mother of JESUS, was told by an ANGEL in fantasy and that which is passing away. (See also

in a dream that her child was conceived by the VISIONS.)
Holy Ghost, and later was warned in the same way
to take the infant to Egypt and avoid the wrath DRUGS AND RELIGION The reUgious use
of Herod. The Greeks and Romans also consid-
ered dreams to be messages from the gods. and meaning of mmd-altering drugs. There are
drugs both natural and .synthetic that can produce

DRUIDS 103

experiences similar to religious experiences: VI and Zen masters, after he had taken mescaline, a
SIONS, ecstasy, cosmic journeys, what the poet substance made from peyote. However, Huxley
also believed such stimulants should be restricted
Baudelaire called "artificial paradises." They can to those truly mature and ready for them. An-
also produce inner HELLS as terrible as any that other impetus was the invention of LSD (lysergic
can be imagined. Nonetheless drugs have had a acid), a highly visionary synthetic substance. The
spiritual or sacramental use the world over. Sha- use of drugs, allegedly for spiritual purposes, was
mans of PR1^L'VL RELIGION in Siberia and the an important aspect of the counterculture of the
Ajnericas have taken hallucinogenic mushrooms, 1960s. But the "drug culture" quickly filled with
peyote, datura, and other plant substances to help drug-induced crime, sickness, mental break-
induce Ndsions of the divine realms and messages down, and exploitation, and hallucinogenic drugs
fi-om gods. Some scholars believe that soma, the were oudawed everywhere in the United States
famous sacred drink spoken of in the VEDAS of by 1966, with exceptions allowed for the Native
ancient India, may have been made from the American Church, where drug use has continued
fly-agaric mushroom, and a few have speculated to be a legal issue. Whatever role drugs may have
that the mysteries of Eleusis in ancient Greece had in the religious life of the remote past, they
mav have employed the same hallucinogenic are generally not welcome in that of the modern
plant. Today the Native American Church in the world, and most faiths see combating drug use as
United States uses peyote, a hallucinogenic cac- an important part of their mission to help people
tus, as a sacramental substance to be taken in a live disciplined and productive lives.
reverential setting as a means of communion with
GOD. DRUIDS Ancient Celtic priests. The word

However, religions such as JUDAISM, CHRIS- "druid" means "wise one." The druids formed a
TL\NITY, ISLAM, and the major eastern FAITHS separate, elite class of Celtic society (see CELTIC
have generally rejected the use of drugs in relig- RELIGION). They were close allies of the kings.
ion, believing that the visions and raptures they According to Julius Caesar, the dniids "watch
induce are spurious and not authentically from over divine matters, administer public and private
God. (Certain non-mainstream Hindu, Bud- sacrifices, and rule all matters of religion" (Gallic
dhist, and Taoist sources, chiefly related to Tan- WarsdAi). Caesar goes on to describe the dniids
trism, have seen some positive spiritual value in as preserving the sacred verses of the Celts in niem-
the materials, but for the most part as an initiation or\' rather than in writing, educating the young, and
into realities that ought later to be realized by
non-drug means.) They have recognized and teaching that at death souls are reborn.
condemned the dangers that can lie in drug use: In all of these characteristics the druids re-
lethargv', escapism, indifference to other issues of
life, and finally addiction to the point that one will semble the BRAHMINS of India. Unlike brahmins,
neglect responsibilities and commit crimes for the however, druids did not have to inherit their
status. They could choose to become druids.
sake of the drug. Other ancient authors identify different kinds of
In the mid-20th century, a new interest in the
Womendruids: priests, poets, and soothsayers.
spiritual meaning of drug experience arose. One
important impetus for it was a book. The Doors of could hold the position of soothsayer.
Perception (1954), by the famous mystic and Druids ceased to exist when the British Isles
novelist Aldous Huxley (1894-1963). Huxley
vividly described the way the ordinary world be- were converted to CHRISTIANHT during the first
came transfigured and splendid as though it were
all divine, like the way it was seen by great artists millennium (1-1000) AD But during the 19th

and especially the 20th centuries, people in Brit-
ain and the United States tried to revive the order
of druids. They not only used ancient traditions

104 DRUZE, THE

but also relied upon images of the druids that created was female, Durga. Her images portray
arose as late as the 18th centun,-. her defeating Mahisha.

THEDRUZE, A small religious communin,^ Durga is one of several manifestations of the
Goddess in HINDUISM. She is worshiped by fol-
in the Near East. The Druze are an offshoot of lowers known as Saktas. Her major festival is
Navaratri, obser\ed in Bengal in the cooler time
ADSHriTE ISLAM. In 1017, a Fatimid ruler of of the year just after the monsoons (see HINDU
FESTrVALS). It celebrates Durga's \ictory o\er
Eg\pt named al-Hakim became convinced that Mahisha.
he was divine. Two MISSION.ARIES, Hamza ibn Ali
DURKHEIM, EMILE (1858-1917) A
and Darazi, promoted his di\init\'. Shordy there-
French thinker w^ho helped im'ent the stud\' of
after all three "disappeared." The Druze believe
sociology'. He has had an immense impact on the
Athat they went into hiding. follower named
study of religions.
al-Muktana assumed leadership of the commu- Durkheim's early writings contributed some

nity. His leners, as well as those of Hamza and terms that scholars ha\'e used to study religions.

al-Hakim, form the communit\''s sacred book. An example is the term "anomie." It refers to the
social and moral disorder that arises when tradi-
The Druze observe seven "pillars" or prac- tional social forms break down. But Durkheim's
most important book for the study of religions
tices. These include always speaking the truth
appeared later: Tlw Elctncutan' Forms ofthe Rtiiff-
within, but not outside, the communin.-; helping :om Lifi (1912).

members of the communit)' by militar\' means, Lf The Elementary Fonnsst^ns with the idea that
TOTEMISM and T.'VBOO in Australia are the most
necessan,'; and confessing the oneness of GOD, basic forms of religion. Although this idea is no
who was incarnate in al-Hakim. The Druze e.\- longer accepted, other ideas in Durkheim's sys-
pect al-Hakim and Hamza to return at the end of tem have proven ver\- usefiil. Durkheim proposed
that religion ser\es to bind individuals to society.
time to establish universal justice. It does so, he says, because religious symbols,
such as totems and gods, along with rehgious
The Druze do not accept converts. Their rules objectif)' and represent societ\' and its values.
Therefore, religious RITU.\LS actually celebrate
community consists of t^vo groups, the initiated
human society.
and the ignorant. Only the initiated may read the
DYNAMISM Also called preanimism; a once-
Druze secret writings and attend the secret RJTU
popular theor\- of the origin of religion. At the
MS. Druze also accept "dissimulation." That is, end of the 19th centun-, scholars tried to identify

for survival they ma\' pretend to practice the the earliest form of religion. Many followed E. B.
Tylor, who suggested that the earliest religion
majority' religion where\'er they are. In the 1 9th was ANIMISM. R. R. Maren, an anthropologist,
disagreed. He said there was an earlier form of
and 20th centuries the Druze were intensely in- religion. He called it preanimism. Later, others
called it dynamism.
volved in the miHtari' conflicts of Lebanon and
According to Marert, before people believed
the surrounding regions. in spirits, the\' felt awe before the supernatural

DURGA A Hindu GODDESS, especially popu-

lar in eastern India. She is usually shown with
eight arms that hold weapons and riding either a

tiger or a lion.

According to legend, the goddess Durga
was created when a powerful water buffalo de-
mon, Mahisha, began to savage the Earth. Each
of the gods tried to stop him, but they were
unable to, so they decided to combine their
powers into one being more powerful than any
of them. Perhaps because the Sanskrit word
sakti, divine power, is feminine, the being they

DYNAMISM 105

energ>' that pervaded the uruverse. Marett called Like all other theories of the origin of relig-
ion, Marett 's theor>- was entirely speculative. His
this energ\' mana, a Polynesian word. Mana was description of mana also distorted the Pohnesian
life-giving, but like electricit\-, too much of it was idea. Today dynamism is no longer accepted. But
dangerous. So people protected themselves by the ideas that it made popular, mana and taboo,
creating T.\EOOS. Animism resulted when people have taken on a Ufe of their own.

associated personal characteristics with mana.

e

EASTER The most imponant Christian festi- The word "orthodox" means "having the
proper opinions or beliefs." In the case of the
val, a time when Christians celebrate the RESUR- Orthodox churches, it means adhering to
RECTION of lESUS from the dead. According to the decrees of the seven ancient, ecumenical
the New Testament, Jesus was crucified on a councils. (The Roman Catholic Church and some
Friday. The following Sunday he rose fi-om the Protestant churches accept these decrees, too.)
dead. These e\ents took place around the time of The councils were meetings of bishops to deter-
the Jewish festival of PAS.SOVER. As a result, Chris- mine Christian teaching, especially with regard to
tians do not obsen-e Easter on a set date. They JESUS. Some Eastern churches, such as the ARME-
observe it on a Sunday in spring around the time NIAN CHURCH and COPTIC CHURCH, refused to
of Passover. That Sunday is the first Sunday after
the first fill] moon after the spring equinox accept the councils' decrees.
(roughly March 21 ).
The Orthodox churches see themselves as
For Catholic, Orthodox, and some Protes- continuing the traditions of the .APOSTLES. In-
tant Christians, the most "liturgically correct" deed, imponant centers of Orthodoxy were
way to observe Easter is with a vigil. This is a founded by aposdes. Orthodox bishops also pre-
lengthy service late Saturday evening, which looks sene "apostolic succession," as do the bishops in
forward to the resurrection Sunday morning. An- the Roman Catholic and some Protestant
other common practice is to hold "sunrise ser\- churches. They go back in an unbroken line of
ices" early Easter morning. In North America and succession to Jesus's immediate followers.
Europe, Christians also celebrate Easter with col-
ored eggs. The eggs are said to symbolize the new The Orthodox churches arose in the Eastern,
life that the resurrection of Jesus made possible. Greek-speaking Roman Empire. ROMAN CA-
They probably also preser\'e ways of celebrating
the coming of spring that were common in mTHOLICISM arose the Western, Latin-speaking
Europe before CHRISTL\NnT.
Roman Empire. Political and cultural tensions
Not all Christians observe Easter. Some Prot- between the two led to theological disputes in the
estants reject it as a human in\'ention. Among 800s. In 1054 the Pope and the head of the
those who do not observe Easter are the "plain Orthodox churches, the Patriarch of Constanti-
people," such as the AMISH. nople, excommunicated one another. In 1204

EASTERN ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY the Fourth CRUS.ADE \iciously attacked Constan-
tinople. Not until 1965 did the Pope and the
One of the three major branches of CHRISTIAN-
IT\'. The Eastern Orthodox churches are properly Patriarch reestablish friendly relations.
known as "the Orthodox Catholic Church."
Orthodoxy comprises 15 independent terri-

—torial churches for example, the churches of
—Constantinople, Russia, and America and three

other churches that are semi-independent in
Crete, Finland, and Japan. The independent

106

EGYPTIAN RELIGION 107

churches call their chief officials either patriarchs, missions in Alaska. In the 19th and 20th centu-
archbishops, or metropolitans. The Patriarch of ries, immigrants also brought many other forms
of Orthodox Christianin,' to the United States. In
Constantinople is recognized as the first among
equals. The leaders of the Orthodox churches 1970 the patriarch of Moscow estabhshed the
have never claimed the political powers that the Orthodox Church of America, but not all Ortho-
I',\rACY claimed in the West. That is because in
the Eastern Roman Empire political power did dox churches in i\menca belong to it.
not disintegrate the way it did in the West. Until
1453 the Byzantine Empire patronized Ortho- EGYPTIAN RELIGION The religion prac
doxy. The Russian Empire took over that role
ticed in ancient Egypt.
until 1917.
Orthodox theologians have generally ex- Much of the evidence for Egyptian religion
comes from burial practices. Clearh', Eg\'ptians
pressed the truth of Christianity differently than
Catholic and Protestant theologians. Catholics gave the afterlife a great deal of attention (see
and Protestants have tended to think in judicial
terms. They have talked about original SIN, guilt, .AFTERLIFE IN WORLD RELIGIONS). But their re-
reparation, and atonement. Orthodox theologi-
ans talk instead about the divinization of human- ligion dealt with life in this world, too.
it)'. In their eyes, human beings were made for
communion with GOD. Indeed, human beings HISTORY
find their fijIfiUment in the diNine. The INCARNA-
TION and especially the RESURRECTION of Jesus Ancient historians divided the history of Egvpt
testify to that fulfillment, despite the obstacles into 30 dynasties or families of rulers. Modern
that life in the v\orld presents. The church and its scholars ha\e divided Egyptian history into sev-
SACRAMENTS are the places where such commun- eral periods. Some were more important for re-
ion and di\inization take place today. ligion than others.

Like the Roman Catholic Church, the Or- Egyptian histor\' begins around 3100 B.C. At

thodox churches recognize seven sacraments. that time a king whom the Greeks called Menes
Their central WORSHIP practice is the celebration
of the EUCFLARIST in the Divine LITURGY. Ortho- unified Upper and Lower Egypt. Like virtually
dox churches allow even infants to receive the ever\' king after him, he claimed to be the god
bread and wine of communion, provided they are HORUS on Earth. Menes established his capital at
baptized (see BAPTISM). Orthodox churches also Memphis, where Upper and Lower Egypt meet.
make rich use of sacred pictures known as icons He built a temple for the nation there. The temple
(see I^UGES, ICONS, IDOLS IN RELIGION). They served the god FTAH.
ha\e well-developed traditions of monasticism.
Although Orthodox priests may be married men, During the first part of the Old Kingdom
bishops must be monks. (Dynasties 3-6, 2650-2180 EC), the kings of
Egypt built massive stone tombs. These include
Orthodox churches ha\e not won as many the great pyramids at Giza outside Cairo. During
the second half of the Old Kingdom, a new god.
converts through foreign missions as have Catho- Re, the sun-god of Heliopolis, became dominant.
lic and Protestant churches. The rise of ISLAM in Many texts about him have survived.
the seventh centun' restricted their opportunities.
So did the relative weakness of the Christian After the Old Kingdom, Eg\pt fragmented
territories in which they lived. But the Russian into local districts that competed with one an-
church spread across Asia and then established other. The Middle Kingdom (Dynasty 12, 2050-
1800 B.C.) interrupted this disorder briefly. At

that time the god AMON first became associated
with the southern cit\- of Thebes. But Amon and
Thebes achieved much greater glory during the
New Kingdom (Dynasties 18-20, 1570-1080

B.C.). Anion-Re became the national god. His

108 EGYPTIAN RELIGION

temple at Karnak near Thebes became a power- Their temples at Edfii, Dendera, and Philae are
especialh' well-known. During this period the
ful institution. "mysteries" of the Egyptian GODDESS Isis spread
throughout the region of the Mediterranean Sea
During the New Kingdom, many people (see \ri'STERY RELIGIONS).

were buried with texts to help them in the next CHRISTIANITY came to Egypt as early as the
life. Today these texts are known as The Book of first century AD. It thrived there, but some
Going Forth by Day or, more popularly. The Egyptians continued to practice the traditional
Egyptian Book of the Dead. During the 18th religion. In the fourth century AD. Christianity
dynasty the king .\KHENATON directed his relig- became first a legal religion, then the required
ious attention to the disk of the sun, known as the religion. Some Egyptians persisted in tradi-
Aton. Some have seen him as an early monotheist. tional ways. In 415, Christians stoned an Egyp-
tian woman philosopher and mathematician
In 332 B.C. Alexander the Great conquered named Hypatia. By the end of the fifth centur)',
Egypt. One of his generals, Ptolemy, began a the last functioning non-Christian temple in
Greek dynast\' there. It ruled Eg>pt until the the Roman Empire, the temple of Isis at Philae,
Romans annexed the region around the time of had shut down.
lESUS. The Ptolemies lavishly sponsored Egyptian
religion. In particular, they built great temples.

Temple of Isis, hononng the ancient Egyptian goddess Beliefs
(Courtesy of the Itnajje Batik.)
Many writings tell us about Egyptian beliefs.
They include writings from tombs: the Pyramid
Texts (Old Kingdom), the Coffin Texts (Mid-
dle Kingdom), and the so-called Book of the

Dead. These and other writings often portray
Egyptian gods with the heads of animals. The
heads helped distinguish one god from an-
other. There is little evidence that Egyptians
actually worshiped animals.

Most Eg\ptian gods began as the gods of
particular places. When Egypt became unified,
priests at different temples tried to fit all the gods
together. Different temples developed difterent

systems.

One influential system was the "ennead," or
group of nine gods, which developed during the
Old Kingdom at Heliopolis. According to this
svstem, the first god, Atum, produced two others,
the god Shu (air) and the goddess Tefnut (mois-
ture). These two produced the god Geb (the
earth) and the goddess Nut (the sky). Geb and
Nut gave birth to two couples, Osiris and Isis, and
Scth and Nephthys. The E\TL god Seth killed his
brother Osiris. Osiris's son Horus avenged his
father by killing Seth. Horus ruled as the living
god of Egypt; Osiris was the god of the dead.

ELIADE, MIRCEA 109

The Eg\ptian language did not sharply sepa- Temples also had many lower order priests that
rate gods from human beings. The king was a we might call servants.
living god. The same word was also applied to
important nobles. In general, the Egyptians Significance
thought human beings had three different parts
that we might call "souls." The ba was a bird-like Although Jews, Christians, and Muslims may be
spirit that uent up into the sky at death. The ka reluctant to trace their beliefs and practices back
was a spirit that resided in an image of the person to ancient Egyptian religion, some similarities are
after deatli. The aW; went to the realm of the dead certainly suggestive. The name MOSES is Egyp-
tian. Although lewish MONOTHEISM almost cer-
Aand sometimes returned as a ghost. famous tainly does not derive from the religion of
AKHENATON, as some ha\'e suggested, rUD.MSM
illustration from the so-called Book of the Dead
shows the heart of a dead person being weighed probably preserves general cultural elements that
in a balance against a feather. The feather is the spread from Egypt to ancient Phoenicia, Israel,
sign of Maat, goddess of truth and justice. and Judah. The influential Neo-Platonic philoso-
pher Plotinus thought of the universe as emanat-
Practices ing from a single principle. Triads of Egyptian

Egyptian WORSHIP centered on temples. Temples gods may have influenced the Christian notion of
were buildings that housed images of the gods. the TRINITi'. At Luxor near Thebes, Muslims
The RITU.\LS of the temples helped maintain the hold processions of boats at the feast of the SAINT
harmony of the universe and of human beings Abul Hagag. They look much like processions at

within it. ancient Egyptian festivals.

A series of reliefs from a temple in Abydos ELIADE, MIRCEA (1907-1986) In tiie

shows what happened in these temples e\ery day. second half of the 20th century, one of the most
influential scholars of religion and myth. Eliade,
A privileged group of priests entered the chamber born in Rumania, was interested as a child in
biology. His most creative contributions to the
where the image lived. They bathed it, clothed it, study of religion resemble an area in biology
fed it, and praised it. As they left the chamber, known as "morphology," the study of underlving
they were carefiji to remo\e e\ery trace of their forms and patterns. It has also been important in
the study of language.
footsteps.
Eliade's work explored the "niorpholog)" of
On special occasions called festivals the im- "hierophany." The idea is not as complicated as
the words. Eliade believed that one aspect made
ages would leave their temples and travel. During all religions special: In religion, the Sacred re-
festivals the gods were visible to ordinan* people. vealed itself He believed ftirther that the Sacred
Many temples also had places at the backs of their revealed itself in certain forms or patterns that
different religions shared. He called these pat-
sanctuaries where common people could consult terns ".-mCHETiTES."

the gods. According to Eliade, any aspect of the world
could be and has been a means for revealing the
Org.-\niz.\tion Sacred. But some have been more prominent
than others. These include natural phenomena
The distinction bet\veen religion and politics that like the sun, the moon, the earth, the oceans, and
is common in North America was unknown in
Egypt. In theory the king was the chief priest of
all Egyptian temples. The reliefs at Abydos show
the king worshiping the gods. In practice priests
worshiped the gods on the king's behalf Only the
highest priests could enter the gods' chambers.
Priests who were experts in writing produced the
many texts that are found in Egyptian tombs.

110 ELIJAH

panerns of death and rebirth associated w\xh in- and stN'les of behaWor appropriate to their world.
itiations and RITES OF P.\SSAGE.
At the same time they tell listeners about the key
Although some scholars consider some of
Eliade's interpretations forced or artificial, his historical events and figures that ought to be
ideas have been rich, exciting, and far-reaching.
common knowiedge: the major batties, kings,
ELIJAH (ninth centurj' B.C.) A prominent
and achievements of the people's past. The relig-
prophet of ancient Israel ( the "northern king-
dom"). The book of Kings in the BIBLE recounts ious world is ine\itably pan of these stories. Ex-
Elijah's opposition to Canaanite WORSHIP and his
advocacy of the worship of 'iTfVVH ("the Lxjrd") amples of ancient epics with religious overtones
at the time of kings Ahab (ruled c. 869-850 B.C.)
are the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, the Aeneid
and Ahaziah (ruled c. 850-849 B.C ). One of the
best known events is his battle with the prophets of Virgil, the Mahabharata and R.WL\YANA of
of BAAL. He called down fire fi-om HEAVEN to
ancient India, the Kojiki in Japan, and the great
ignite an ALT.\R soaked with water ( 1 Kings 18).
According to the Bible, Elijah did not die but was historical narrative running through much of the
taken to heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2). Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament and de-

Elijah later became an important figure in scribing e\ents fi-om the Creation in Genesis to
Jewish tradition and folklore, most notably as the
precursor of the messianic age. At the celebration the death of King David (I Kings) and the exile
of the P.^SSO\'ER meal a place is set for Elijah in
recognition that he might return. in Babylon.

ENOCH See .APOC.AL\TTIC LITER-^TURE. The great epics appeared as finished products

EPICS, RELIGIOUS Long narrative stories, at about the time that some people were trying to
understand how one can live in a world in which
often poetic, dealing with gods and heroes, and
regarded as foundational to the identit>' and so many bad things happen: wars, slaughters,
world view of the people from which they come.
They are not quite myths in the grandest sense, plagues, suffering, and loss. Epics were one way
stories of creation and salvation that express in
narrative form a culture's most basic religious of looking at this problem. As in all great stories,
\ision, but they may contain mxthic elements and
do the same thing for the nation itself Epics there are moments of defeat and despair in epics
characteristically describe events at the beginning
of a nation or civilization, perhaps leading up to as well as of triumph. At these times only hope
its golden age; they were probably based on oral
tradition but later put into literarv', written form. and faith sustain the heroes and their people. But
They recall days when long stories were told to
while away e\enings before books or television, in the end the\- prevail, or at least the ven,' heroism
in the process imparting cultural perspectives im-
portant to anyone li\ing in that societ)-, for many of their sufl^ering is shown to make it worthwhile.
epics reveal in ston- form \irtual libraries of infor-
mation about attitudes, values, RITL'ALS, beliefs. The pattern of epics suggests a guiding hand in

the lives of great men and the events of histon'.

Broadly speaking, the great age of epics, 1300

ADB C. - 700, was the time of the origin of the

major religions and their founders, such as

MOSES, BUDDHA, lESUS, MUH.\MM.\D. Like these

faiths, and often coming to work in tandem with
them (as in the incorporation of the Hebrew epic

into the BIBLE), epics assured people that how-

ever dark things may seem, GOD or the gods are

in control and \ictor\' v\ill come at the end.

ESCHATOLOGY Religious doctrines about

the end of human life and the end of the world.
The word basically means the "study of the last

things." Rehgiously, the "last things" can be seen
as either gloomy, the "twilight of the gods" or
descent into an underworld like the Greek Hades

or the Hebrew Sheol; or glorious, the RESURREC-

ESSENES 111

TION of the body and the new HEAX'EK and earth m the three great Western monotheistic religions,
(see AFTERLIFE INWORLD RELIGIONS). Individual
eschatolog)' includes beliefs about death, judg- JUDAISM, CHRISTLANITY, and ISLAM. In their tra-
ment, heaven, HELL, or REINCARNATION. World ditional forms, they emphasize a divine judgment
eschatolog)- imoKes the destiny of the world as a of the world on the Last Dai,'; Christianit\' says the
whole: the fiature coming of MESSL'VHS or saviors,
the last judgment, the divine destruction and judgment will be b\- Jesus CHRJST, who will then
perhaps recreation of Earth as a new paradise. come in glory to judge the living and the dead.

History HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM

Ideas of world eschatology as we know it prob- In the Eastern religions of HINDUISM and BUD-

ably did not begin until people started to think in DHISM, individual eschatology is seen more in
terms of historical time, not the cyclical time in
which the world just repeated itself year after year terms of K,ARMA, though its popular scenarios
and age after age. This realization broadly coin-
cides with the invention of writing and the emer- mav include personal judgment by the lord of the

gence of world religions in which GOD or ultimate underworld, Yama or Yenio, and possible perdi-

realin,' is seen as doing something of immense tion to the hells or the realm of GHOSTS, or
importance uithin historical time; gi\ing the law
to MOSES, saving the world in JESUS, showing reward in one of the heavens, as well as human or
supreme enlightenment in the BUDDRA, deliver-
ing the QUR'.an to .\1UELA\L\1AD. If God can act —animal reincarnation all for as long as it takes to
to save the world within histor)', can there not
also be a supreme consummation of histon' in expend one's bad or good karma. World escha-
which its meaning is firlfiUed and revealed, justice
is done, and perhaps a new and better age begun? tolog)- may be ultimately within the context of
World eschatolog)- comes from seeing the course
of a world as a line, not a circle, commencing with cycles, but may more immediately include the
creation and ending in a last judgment or su-
preme revelation that sums it all up and makes it coming of Kalki, the tinal avatar or divine appear-
meaningful. This would be the end of history.
ance, or in Buddhism of Maitreya, the future
Western Religions
Buddha. In popular lore Maitreya's coming realm
This st>ie of world eschatology may well have
begun with the ancient Iranian prophet Newis often seen as a paradisal age. religious
Z.AR,\THUSTR.\ and his religion ZORO.^STRLAN-
ISM. He taught that the world is a battieground movements both East and West frequently have
between Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Light, and
the principle of EVTL, the Lord of the Lie, Ahri- a highly eschatological cast.
man. As Ahura Mazda would defeat Ahriman, the
prophet Zarathustra would return, all those who ESSENES Members ofa group ofancient Jew-
had died would be raised in a general resurrec-
tion, and God would create for them a new and ish ascetic communities. These communities are
perfect earth. Ideas highly reminiscent of these, called "ascetic" because their members practiced
perhaps influenced by Zoroastrianism, are found rigorous self-denial. They existed from the time
of the Hasmonean revolt (167-164 BC.) to the
Jewish wars (AD. 66-74).

For centuries the only information on the
Essenes came from ancient writers like PhUo,
Josephus, and Plinv- the Elder. In the mid-20th
centurv' a library of scrolls was imearthed at Qumran.
These scrolls are known colloquially as the DEIAD SE.\
SCROLLS. Despite some differences in teaching, most

scholars believe that these scrolls represent the librarv-
of an ancient Essene communitv'.

The Essenes formed ascetic communities to
which only males could fully belong. L^pon en-
tering the community, an Essene gave up his
private property- and adopted a way of life that was
strictiy regulated. He gave much attention to

112 ESTHER

maintaining purio*. Sources differ on whether such matters as right and wrong, honesty, the
Essenes accepted a RESURRECTION of the body, legitimac)- of certain practices (as in "medical
but they clearly believed in the immonalit)' of the ethics" or "business ethics"), and, in "social eth-
soul (see SOUL, CONCEPTS OF). They were also ics," in respect to what a societv' as a whole should
famous for being able to predict the future. do about issues like poverty or whether war is ever
justified. The line between ethics and a related
Some have tried to connect the Essenes with term, moralirv', is fiizzy. But today "ethics" is
John the Baptist and JESUS. This seems unlikely. usually taken to refer to the philosophical and
If the Essenes influenced rabbinic IUD.\ISM and religious study of right behavior, to the ideals of
emergent CHRISTIANITY', they probably did so society, of certain professions, and of individuals
in a public context, while "morals" refers more to
indirectly. a personal code of conduct.

ESTHER A Jewish woman allegedly married Any thoughtful ethical system begins with a
view of the universe as a whole within which the
to the Persian emperor Ahasuerus, and a book of ethics make sense. One could hold that ethics
the BIBLE that tells about her. According to the begins with the will of GOD, with "natural law"
book of Esther, Haman, the vizier of Ahasuerus or the way the universe works, or an assessment
(Xerxes I, who ruled 485-464 B.C.), plotted to of what the results of an action would be, or even

destroy the Jews. Esther, whom the emperor did with purely individual choice. Ethical views are
not know was Jewish, and her cousin Mordecai divided by philosophers into two tvpes. Deon-
managed to thwart the plot. On the da\- ap- tological ethics are "oughts," coming fi-om some-
thing that is considered prior or given: the will of
pointed for the attack on the Jews, the Jews God, the laws of nature. Teleological or conse-
destroyed their enemies instead. quentialist ethics are determined on the basis of
the consequences or results of an action and
The book is not generally regarded as histor\'. whether it is good or bad in the eyes of the person
It probably derives from the time right before the
Hasmonean revolt against the Seleucid Empire Amaking the decision. deontologist might say,
I 167-164 BC ). It is important today because it
is the basis for the festival of PURIM. During for example, that killing is always wrong because
Purim the book of Esther is read in the S^Ts'A- God has forbidden it, and therefore capital pun-
GOGUE with light-hearted reveln. ishment or any killing in war is always sinfial.
Another of the same camp might say it is right if
ETERNITY Unending time and a state be- it is a matter of meting out true justice, since

yond time altogether. In popular usage the word Aestablishing justice is alvvavs God's will too.
often means days without end, the way the after-
consequentialist might respond that it depends
hfe (see .\FTERLIFE IN WORLD RELIGIONS) in
HILWTN or HELL is often popularly understood. on how much good the capital punishment
would do, or whether the war is a "just war" and
But in the philosophy of religion, eternity is more how much benefit winning it would bring. Manv'
likely to mean a state beyond time and space religious people would also say that the real will
altogether, as the state of GOD, NIRVANA, or other of God is love or compassion, not simple "do's
ultimate, as infinite, unconditioned reality. The
term is also used for the state of souls after death, and don't's," and that different circumstances
as in entering "eternal life." mav call for different ways of exercising love or
caring about the real good of others, and they
ETHICS AND RELIGION Right behaWor may range ft'om indulgence to firmness when
people need firmness, .\nother issue is intention:
in the light of religion. The word "ethics" means
standards or norms of behavior expected by a
societv' and justified by religion or philosophy in

EVANGELICAL AND FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTLANITY 113

Do \vc judge ethics by the good intentions of

parties, or only by consequences?
Tlrinking about ethics is an important part of

religion. Ethics are where the ideals of a religion
intersect with the crucial problems of societv' and
of even'one's everyday life. Many ethical issues
today, such as abortion, war, public honesty,
"merc\' killing," and others, are not easy to de-
bate. But religions must deal with them or risk

being irrelevant.

EUCHARIST The central RITUAL ofCHRISTI- Young girl receiving the Eucharist for the first time
during the sacrament of Holy Communion. (By
.\NIT\'; also known as the Lord's Supper or Holy
Communion. The name "Eucharist" comes from permission of the Crosiers.)
the Greek verb "to gi\e thanks," from the tradi-
tional PR,\\TR of the priest in performing the United States, while MISSIONARIES have also
spread these movements throughout the world.
ritual.
"Evangelical" comes from the Greek word
JESUS established the Eucharist during his for GOSPEL or "good news," euatigdion. It means
"based on the gospel."
last meal with his disciples. He distributed bread
and wine among them and asked them to do During the REFORMATION Martin LUTHER
likewise in remembering him. Christians follow
and his followers preferred to call themselves
these instructions in different ways. In E.ASTERN
E\ angelical rather than Lutheran. Many Luther-
ORTHODOX CHRISTL\NITl' and ROMAN CATHOLI-
ans today still use the term, for example, the
CISM, the Eucharist is the focal point of regular Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Lu-
WORSHIP: the Holy LITURGY and the Mass, re- therans like this term because they emphasize the
"gospel" or "good news" of SALVATION by
—spectively. Anabaptist churches the MENNON-
—ITE, .WIISH, and Brethren celebrate it only twice GR.\CE through FAITH: that GOD saves people

a year in the context of a communal meal. Not all freely if they accept his gift.
churches use wine, and some use specially made But in the English language Evangelical
wafers instead of bread. During the Middle Ages
it became customary for Roman Catholic laypeo- Chrisdanit)' generally does not refer to LLTTIER-
ple to eat onl\' the bread; the wine was reserved
for priests. In Orthodox churches, bread and
wine are often taken together.

—Christians have also differed on indeed,
—fought o\er what the Eucharist means. For ex-

ample, Roman Catholics believe that the bread
and wine actually become Jesus's body and
blood. Many Protestants believe that they are

only symbols.

EVANGELICAL AND FUNDAMENTAL-

IST CHRISTIANITY Kinds of Protestant

CHRISTI.WITi'. Evangelical and Fundamentahst
Christianit)' have been especially prominent in the

114 EVANGELICAL AND FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIANITY

ANISM. It refers to a very dififerent kind of Prot- perfection. One moral demand was extremely
estant Christianity'. This form began in England
and North America during the 18th century. It is important in the history of Evangelical Christian-
associated with a personal experience of con\er- ity; not drinking alcohol. It led eventually to the
sion, revival meetings, and intense missionary legal prohibition of alcohol in the United States
activity. Evangelical ChristianitT,' in this sense was from 1920 to 1933.
the dominant religion in the United States after
the Revolutionary War. John WESLEY (1703-91), who founded the

Fundamentalism began among Evangelicals Methodists, played an important role in the rise
in the United States at the end of the 19th and of Evangelical Christianity in England. In the
the beginning of the 20th centuries. Fundamen- United States, Evangelical Christianity began
talists reacted to the teachings of "modernism." during the First Great Awakening. This was a
Modernism was an attempt to make Christianity revival movement that swept through the British
agree with science and history. Important issues colonies in North America in the middle 1700s.
were the origin of the universe and the solar Until the middle 1800s all major branches of
system, the evolution of life (see EVOLUTION AND
RELIGION), and the results of a historical study of —PROTESTANTISM in the United States Method-

the BIBLE. ists, Baptists, Congregationalists, and Presbneri-
Fundamentalism rejected modernism. It in-
—ans were evangelical. They often stressed
sisted on certain fundamentals that it thought no
form of Christianity could throw out: The Bible patriotism and opposed Catholicism.
is literally true and inerrant (has no mistakes);
JESUS' mother was a virgin (see VIRGIN BIRTH); By the late 1800s Evangelical Christianity
lesus' body actually rose from the dead (see RES- had gone from the dominant religion to a religion
on the outside. Many members of churches that
—URRECTION); Jesus is coming again in his body were once Evangelical became attracted to mod-
ern ways of looking at the world. In response.
and soon; and when Jesus died on the cross, he Evangelicals insisted that they could tolerate no
paid the debt that human beings owed God. All compromise with the world. It was in this climate
of these ideas were familiar in traditional forms of that ftmdamentalism was born.

Christianity. Apart from fundamentalism. Evangelical
Christianirs' remained relatively quiet until after
Evangelical Christlwity World War Two. At that point evangelical think-
ers like the American theologian, Carl F. H.
Most Christians believe that God acts in the world Henry (b. I9I3), tried to formulate a version of
through the Holy Spirit. Evangelical Christianity evangelicalism that was conservative but not flin-
began from a distinctive view of how the Spirit damentalist. The popular American preacher,
Billy Graham, is often seen as part of this move-
acts. ment. The strictest fijndamentalists rejected him
because he agreed to associate with more liberal
Orthodox, Catholic, and most Protestant
churches have traditionally taught that the Spirit Christians.
acts especially in SACRAMENTS and, for Protes-
tants, in preaching "the Word." Evangelical By the middle of the 1970s Evangelical
Christians taught that the Spirit acts in the human Christianity was again a major force in American
heart. They emphasized a personal, emotionally life. Liberal churches were losing members, but
powerful experience of conversion. As a result,
they are popularly called "born again" Christians. conservative churches were growing. A "born-
They also taught that after Christians are saved,
they should strive for "sanctification" and moral again Christian," Jimmy Carter, was elected
president. Other Protestant churches, such as the
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Chris-
tian Reformed Church, were moving in an Evan-

gelical direction.

At the end of the centun- Evangelical Chris- In this way they sought to convert Jews to Chris-
tianit)' became a force in American politics. Its
members often, but not always, supported con- tianitv'.

servative causes. Since the 1970s fiindamentalists have been

Fundamentalist Christianity Aver\' acti\e in American societ\'. French scholar,

Fundamentalist Christianit>' is the militant wing Gilles Kepel, has suggested that they did so in two
of the evangelical movement. Of course, the word ways, "from above" and "from below." From
"militant" does not mean that its members use above, flindamentalists attempted to influence
violence. It means that fundamentalism was born the federal government. Jern- Falwell's Moral
of a desire to fight and destroy forces that, in its Majority and Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition
eyes, were attacking the biblical foundations on are good examples. From below fundamentalists
which American socien,' had been built. Funda- sought to create local institutions and organiza-
mentalists have generally been adamant in refus- tions to address people's needs and attract them.
ing to recognize other forms of Christianity' as They also sought to take charge of local go\ern-
genuine. mental bodies, such as school boards.

Fundamentalists often adopt a view of his- EVE From the Hebrew Hawwah, perhaps re-
tory known as "dispensationalism." This view
divides history into several periods or "dispen- lated to the word for "living"; the name of the
sations." It tries to apply the prophecies in the mother of all human beings in lUD.AISM and in
Bible literally to these periods. It also sees the religions it has inspired. In the BIBLE Eve appears
last dispensation, the millennium, as coming in the second and third chapters of Genesis. There
ven,' soon. Dispensationalism tells in detail what she is created from die rib of .AD.AM as a compan-
ion for him. It is she who first listens to the serpent
will occur when Jesus returns. One event is the and violates GOD's command not to eat from the
"rapture," when Christians will be taken up tree of knowledge. In punishment, she must bear
mto the atmosphere to meet Jesus.
children in pain (see F,ALL,THE).
In the 1920s fiindamentalism sparked major i\ncient Christians sometimes looked upon
controversies in the Northern Baptist and Pres-
bnerian churches. It also opposed the teaching AL\RY, lESL'S' mother, as a second Eve, just as they
of evolution in public schools. One example was looked upon Jesus as a second Adam. They also
the high-profile trial in July 1925 of John Scopes,
a biolog)- teacher in Davton, Tennessee. In the justified the subordinate position of women bv
1930s and 1940s, fiindamentalism became less recalling that Eve was created from Adam and led
visible. Some ftmdamentalists split fi'om the ma- him into SIN (see I Timothy 2.11-15).
jor Protestant churches to form their own DE-
NOMINATIONS. Others joined independent, Another ancient religious complex, GNOS-
Bible-based churches. Eventually, fundamental- TICISM, used the figure of Eve differendy.
ists formed organizations for people in various Gnostics often inverted relations in Jewish sto-
walks of life. Campus Crusade, Inter-Varsity ries. That happens with Eve m, for example, an
Christian Fellowship, and Young Life were ver\- ancient book "On the Origin of the World"
active among students. Fundamentalists also be-
gan to make sophisticated use of mass media like (Nag Hammadi Codices 2.5). In that book,
radio and television. Toward the end of the 20th Adam is the lifeless creation of EVIL, dark demi-
century, a fundamentalist group adopted Jewish
trappings and called themselves Messianic Jews. gods. Eve is a representative from the world of
light and life. She sees Adam, pities him, gives
him life, instructs him, and lays the foundation
for future SALV.'KTION.

EVIL That which is bad, yet is. Perhaps the

most difficult problem in religion is the problem

116 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION

of evil. If GOD or ultimate realiw is good, why is ably influenced the other Western religions, as
there evil? Evil is serious suffering in mind or when in Chnstianit)- the role of SAT.\N as Prince
body, especially when the pain is seen as unjust
and undeserved. It is that which is not as we of Darkness and great adversary of God is empha-

believe it was meant to be and should be; the sized, and this world is seen as provisionally his
domain. In the East, evil is basically ascribed to
innocent child upon whom cruel tortures are K,\RMA, or cause and effect from our thoughts,
words, and deeds, and from ignorance, not seeing
imposed, the horrors of war and plague, any things as they really are and so not righdy assess-
being unable to fulfill the life for which it was ing the results of acts. There is not only individual
born. Evil seems to be deeply ingrained in our karma, but also group karma, of communities,
world, yet because religion wants to look at things nations, the world as a whole, and one may be
from a perspective abo\'e the world and fi'om entangled in it as well.
which to interpret all that transpires in it, it must
say something about the reasons for evil. Religions have also said that some apparent
evil is not really such, but has a purpose in evolu-
JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, and ISLAM basically tion, in educating persons, or in teaching non-
attachment, and so is experienced only by those
see e\il as the result of the disobedience to God of imperfect spiritual development. Yet the prob-
lem of evil must undoubtedly be regarded as not
of creatures having the fi"ee will to obey or not. completely solved. Many people who reject relig-
In some traditional stories, it was first .\NGELS, ion altogether do so on the grounds of its seem-
ing inability to deal with the problem of evil in a
who on rebelling against God, then became DEV- world created by a good God.
ILS AND DEMONS, although the notion of a devil
is foreign in Judaism. Then humans, as in the EVOLUTION AND RELIGION The ways
ston' of ADAM and EX'E in the Garden of Eden,
succumbed to evil of their own will though they in which religion relates to evolution. Evolution
were also tempted by a devil. By bringing in devils is the idea that life, and sometimes human cul-
and demons as well as humans, these stories seem ture, has developed from simple to more complex

to be sa\ing that not all evil is direcdy due to forms.
human agency. In Christianit)', there is also evil
Evolution is an old idea. Some ancient phi-
—embedded in nature floods, droughts, the cru- losophers, such as the Roman poet Lucretius (c.
95-55 B.C.), had already written about it. But
elty of animals. Perhaps it goes back to a cosmic evolution came into its own in Europe and North
rebellion and "fall" before humans came onto the i\merica during the 19th century. Two kinds of
scene. GNOSTICISM, a religion of the ancient
world related to Judaism and Christianity, evolution are especially important with regard to
thought that our entire world was made b\' a
"demiurge" or lower and incompetent god with religion. One is the theory that life on Earth has

littie good will tov\'ard humans, who botched the evolved over a period of hundreds of millions of

job of fashioning this particular abode of life. —years. Today virtually all reputable scientists and
SALVATION is out of this world altogether, back —a good many religious people accept this the-
to the Halls of Light from which we ultimately
came, before we were trapped in the demiurge's ory'. The second is the question of whether relig-

mess of an e\il world. ion itself has evolved.
ZORO.ASTRLANISM adopted a dualistic \iew,
The theory of the evolution of life is insepa-
sa\ing the world is a banleground between Ahura rable from the name Charles Darwin (1809-82).
Mazda, the Lord of Light, and Ahnman, the In 1859 Darwin published The Origin of Species.
source of evil; in one view, these two are eternal It made the theor\- of evolution unavoidable.
principles, though Ahura Mazda will eventually Darwin did not actually propose the idea tiiat life
prevail in this world. That perspective has prob-

EXODUS 117

had evolved. Others, such as Jean Baptiste La- During the 1 9th and early 20th centuries,
some anthropologists, especially in Great Britain,
—marck ( 1744 1829 ), had already done that. Nor debated whether religion itself had evolved. Well
before Darwin, the Scottish philosopher David
did Darivin argue that life evolved from non-liv-
ing matter. That idea only came later. What Dar- Hume ( 171 1-76) had suggested that all religion

win did was show how evolution could work. He had grown out of POLYTHEISM, the WORSHIP of
many gods. In the 19th and early 20th centuries
proposed a theor\' of "natural selection." In his some thinkers claimed that religion began with
view, forms of life change constandy, if only in other forms: the belief in GHOSTS (Herbert
minor ways. Only the best forms survive. The Spencer), a "disease of language" (Friedrich Max
word "best" here means best able to compete for
resources and reproduce. Miiller), the belief in spirits (E. B. Tylor), a
powerfiil, nonpersonal, electric-Uke force called
Bv the end of the 19th centuPi' the theon' of
evolution had been widely accepted b\' theologi- mana (R. R. Marett). The most widely known
ans as well as by scientists. figure may have been James George FRAZER. He
divided human histon- into three stages: magic,
But in the 20th century a backlash against
evolution arose among some American Protes- religion, and science.
tants. This was fiindamentalism (see EVANGELI- After World War I anthropologists rejected

CAL AND FUND.AMENT.ALIST CHRISTL'WITi'). all of these ideas. More importantly, they rejected
the attempt to identify a single series of steps
Besides rejecting evolution, fundamentalists op- through which religion had evolved into the
posed historical methods of studying the BIBLE forms we know today. Most English-speaking
thinkers have remained ver\' suspicious of the
and a movement in Christianiti,' that emphasized topic of religion's evolution.
social reform. In 1925 ftmdamcntalists and scien-
tists squared off in the famous "monkey trial" of EXODUS The central ston,' of the Hebrew
John Scopes in Danon, Tennessee. He was ac-
cused of violating the law by teaching evolution BIBLE and a formative event in the historv- of
in a biolog)' class. In the middle 1970s fundamen- JUDAISM. The root meaning of the word "exo-
talists began demanding that public schools in the dus" is "a going out." During the Exodus, MOSES
United States teach "creation science" in addition led the people of Israel out of slaveni' in Egvpt.
to evolution. Almost all reputable scientists reject They wandered through the desert of Sinai for 40
years before entering the promised land of Ca-
"creation science" as bogus. naan. During this time they entered into a COVE-

Unlike the frmdamentalists, many have ac- YHWHN.-\NT with the god who had freed them,
cepted evolution without rejecting traditional re-
ligion. Indeed, Darwin himself remained a ("the Lord"), at Mt. Sinai. There they received
commined Christian all his life. Some have as-
serted that science is about facts, while religion is the TEN COMMANDMENTS and, according to Jew-
concerned with values. This was the position of
the German theologian Albrecht Ritschl ( 1822- ish tradition, the entire law (see TOR.\H).
89). Others have maintained that biological evo- The only information about the Exodus
lution explains material aspects of human life, but
not Its mental or spiritual side. This was the comes from the Bible; no outside sources confirm
position of A.R. Wallace, an associate of Dar- it. Most scholars think that some slaves did escape
win's, and of Rudolf OTTO, a philosopher of from Eg\pt, but they disagree on the details. For
example, they disagree on how many slaves es-
religion. Still others, such as the Catholic priest caped and what route the\' took. They also dis-
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (I88I-1955), have agree on the date. Many date the Exodus to
around 1250 B.C Some prefer to date it earlier,
taught that the human spirit evolves. around 1425.

118 EXORCISM

—The three major JEWISH FESTIVALS PASS- bones (Ezekiel 37), and the vision of a new
—OV'ER, Shavuot, and Sukkot commemorate the temple (Ezekiel 40^8).

major events of the Exodus. The symbolism of Ezekiel's \dsions greatiy
influenced later APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE, for
EXORCISM The dri\'ing out of evil spirits by-
Areligious means. particular place, or a person, example, the New Testament book of REVELA-

believed to be "possessed" by DEVILS AND DE- TION.
MONS, may be exorcised. In PRI\L\L RELIGION,
exorcism is frequently a part of WITCHCRAFT and EZRA A priest important in shaping JUDAISM
MAGIC. It is practiced in Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist,
and Islamic contexts, txpically by specialist priests in the penod after the Babvlonian exile (586-539
B.C.), and the name of one biblical and two
or lay shamans rather than by the regular clergy. apocryphal books. According to the BIBLE, Ezra
the priest went from Babylon to Judah in the
In the New Testament, lESUS is described as seventh year of King Artaxerxes. There were two
kings with this name and opinions vary on which
casting out demons, and saying that his doing so Artaxerxes is meant. Ezra's arrival would date
was a sign of the coming of the kingdom of either 458 or 398 B.C.
HEAVEN. Accordingly, the Christian church has
generally had a place for the practice of exorcism, In Judah, Ezra opposed what struck him as
though it has not always been much emphasized. the lax practices of the Jews, including intermar-
The Roman Catholic Church has an exorcism
RITL'AL, which may be pertbrmed by priests riage with non-Jews. He convinced Jewish men

authorized to do so. In EVANGELICAL AND FUN- to divorce their non-Jewish wives; he organized
DAMENTALIST CHRISTIANITY, and in PENTE- Jewish life in accordance with the instructions
COST.\LISM, exorcism is sometimes done with given in the TOR.AH; and he conducted a cere-

scripture reading, intense prayer, and the laying mony of dedication in which the Torah was read.
on of hands. The exorcism of a possessed person Some think that he was acting as an official of the
is reportedly a very difficult and grueling engage-
ment, both for the exorcist and for the subject. Persian state. Nevertheless, his activity exercised
Often, as in Jesus' own driving out of demons,
exorcism is thought to be a prelude to spiritual a profound influence on the formation of Juda-
HEALING. ism. As a result, some call him the "father of

EZEKEEL A(sixth century B.C.) priest who Judaism." He is also seen as a second MOSES, who

authored one of the prophetic books of the He- v\'Ould have received the Torah if Moses had not
brew BIBLE, also named Ezekiel. Ezekiel uttered already done so.
both words of warning before the destruction of
JERUS.\LEM (587 BC.) and words of hope after- At least three different ancient books go by
ward. His prophecies are remarkable for their the name Ezra. The biblical book of Ezra-
Nehemiah continues the history told in the books
symbolic, visionan' quality. Among them are the of Chronicles. It recounts in detail Ezra's reforms
throne of \TrVVH ("the Lord") with its four and NEHEMlAH's building activities. The apocry-
phal book known as 1 Esdras (Latin for Ezra) in
living creatures (Ezekiel 1), the \alley of dn'
— —eft'ect summarizes with changes most of Ezra-

Nehemiah as well as the end of Chronicles. The
Book of 2 Esdras is probably a Jewish apocalypse
(see APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE) with a later

Christian o\crlay.

F

FAIRIES In traditional folklore, non-human, faith not so much as saying one believes certain
quasi-supernatural but not divine beings who "propositions" but as an attitude of dependence
dwell on this planet. Fairies, elves, gnomes, and trust in God, especially as revealed in CHRIST.
It is therefore an inward attitude and perhaps
dwarfs, brownies, trolls, and pixies are familiar emotional disposition as much as an intellectual
names. While not strictly religious, belief in fairies fi'amework, though it may include the latter. The
is interesting and important for showing that the theologian Paul Tillich went .so far as to regard
sense of wonder that is one source of religion can
have other manifestations than the reverence of faith as an openness toward an ultimate realiu'
wholly beyond one's understanding. Even honest
GOD alone. In some religious mythologies, one
doubt is therefore a kind of faith. Some modern
finds not only HEAXTiNS above and HELLS be-
neath, but also "horizontal" wonderlands some- Buddhist teachers have presented faith as simply

—where on our plane for example, Avalon, the a willingness to take, say, the BUDDR.Vs FOUR
NOBLE TRUTHS as a "working hypothesis," the
Isles of the Blessed, and the Eastern grottoes of
immortals are comparable to Fair>'land. final truth or falsit\' of which will be determined
not in theor)' but in practice.
FAITH Religious attitude and belief Faith is
Faith then may be derived in various ways.
the state of mind by v\hich religious persons are Inner psychological dynamics may push a person
able inwardly to accept and act on the teachings toward one or another religious system. It may
of a religion. Faith is called for especially when come out of experience, whether of a mystical or
there are few outward proofs that a religion is conversion sort, or just an experience of life-
true. In the most famous definition of faith, that problems that point toward a certain religion as
of the Epistie to the Hebrews in the Christian the answer. WORSHIP and living in a "community
of faith" can incUne one to want to share in that
New Testament, it is "the assurance of things faith and make it one's own. At some point
faith requires making a "leap" and affirming
hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Yet faith has different shades of meaning in Athings beyond reason and sight alone. faith-

religion. In some contexts it means chiefly fidel- commitment thus becomes a choice freely and
fully given. Some would say making such a choice
ity, the ongoing loyalty of persons to GOD and of about one's life is the whole point of faith, as it is
God to humanit\' even when all seems darkest. It of religion.

is thus really a kind of inner stability of character THEFALL, A story told by Jews, Muslims,

and predictability of action. In ROMAN CATHOLL and especially Christians. It explains why human

CISM faith first of all means acknowledging the beings no longer live in paradise close to GOD.
truths of the religion, which are contained in the
established DOGMAS AND DOCTRINES. These may
be arrived at in part by reason rather than simple
acceptance. Many Protestant theologians stress

120 FAMILY AND RELIGION, THE

Religious people ha\e told many dift'erent New Testament PAL'L develops these ideas most
stories to explain why the world we live in is not fully. He makes Jesus into the second or new
eventhing we might wish for. According to sev- Adam, who undoes what the first or old Adam
eral stories told in ancient Mesopotamia, the gods
created human beings to do the work they them- had done. Later, under the influence of Paul,
selves did not want to do (see MESOPOTAML\N AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO formulated the idea of
RELIGIONS). Other peoples have told stories original SIN. In this view sin is not an act done
about successive ages in which the world gets against God's will; it is a state of life that began
progressi\'ely worse and we, unfortunateh', are with the Fall. Because of the Fall, all human
living in the last age. Examples of this kind of beings live in sin fi'om the moment they are
stor\- are Hesiod's account of the five ages of the conceived. Augustine's views later became the
world, gold, silver, bronze, heroic, and iron; sto- basis for John CAL\TN's notion that after the Fall,
ries in India of the four ynjjas\ and the Japanese human beings live in a state of utter depravit)'.
Buddhist notion of M\PPO. According to Gnos- That is, without GRACE they are unable to do
tics and Manichaeans, the uni\erse and people what pleases God.
came into being when light and goodness some-
how became mixed with darkness and EVIL. In Not all of those who ha\e told the stor>' of
this %iew, it is not the fall but creation itself that the Fall of Adam and Eve have seen it as some-
disturbs the original ideal state (see GNOSTICISM thing negative. Many Gnostics believed that the
and .\L\NTCR,\EISiM). god of the Jews who created the world was an
e\il, deluded being. For them the central religious
The Hebrew BIBLE records another stor\', the
stor\' of the Fall. According to Christian interpre- problem was ignorance; knowledge was the
tation, it tells how the serpent tempted the means to S.\LV'.-\TION. Salvation began when E\e
mother of all people, E\T.. The god 'iTiWH ("the violated die commands of the evil creator and ate
Lord") had forbidden AD.Wl and Eve to eat fi-om from the tree of knowledge. Thus, what Jews,
two trees, the tree of life and the tree of the Christians, and Muslims see as the first transgres-
knowledge of good and evil. The serpent con- sion was, for Gnostics, the beginning of salvation.
\inced E\e to eat from the tree of knowledge. She
did, and then tempted Adam to do so, too. As a FA^^LY AND RELIGION, THE Religiously,
result, God expelled Adam and Eve from the
garden. He cursed Eve to bear children in pain, the fundamental and most sacred natural unit of
and he cursed Adani to till the ground with society. "Family" is an elastic term that can be
difficulty. Death was also a result of the Fall. construed in at least two ways: as the "nuclear"
family, consisting of a father, a mother, and their
Later folklore elaborated this stoni. Jews, immediate children; and as the "extended" fam-
Christians, and Muslims came to identify the ily, including grandparents, aunts, uncle, cousins,
and all other relati\es regularh' involved with each
serpent with SATAN. They told different versions other or, in some religious traditions, people
of a stor\- in which Satan was a fallen .\NGEL.
Muslims also told how Adam and E\e quarreled sharing common ancestral shrines. There are also
after the Fall and how God reconciled them at the
Mount of Merc\- in the sacred area around single-parent families and same-sex families.
MECCA. Father-mother-child may be seen as an analog)'
or model of creation: the sk\ -father, the earth-
The ston,- of the Fall is especially significant mother, the fiuits of the earth and above all
humanit)' as their children. The extended famih',
in CHRISTL\NITi'. Traditional Christians see it as moreover, may be seen as an image of the ideal
organization of society, with the sacred king as
the event that made it necessar\' for JESUS to the father of all.
become incarnate and die on the cross. In the

FASTING 121

Family structures van% of course. In tradi- regulate them. They have told people what they
may and may not eat or drink.
tional societies, they may be patriarchal, ruled by
A religion's dietar\' laws do this. They make
the father; matriarchal, ruled by the mother; pa-
restrictions that are permanent (see DIET .\ND RE-
trilocal, with the bride dwelling in her husband's
LIGION). Fasting imposes restrictions, too, but it
family home; matiilocal, when the husband
Amakes restrictions that are temporar\'. fast may
moves into his wife's family home; polygamous
involve only specific items, or it may be total. In any
(several wives for one man) or polyandrous (with case, fasting is a particularly pointed way to involve
one's body in religious oh>servance. It may also be
several husbands for one woman). In each case, used to e\oke mental e\ents that occur when some-

HEAXtN may be considered to be set up in some- one is deprived of food and drink.
thing like the same way. The most common
V\Tien people fast, how long they fast, who
arrangement in traditional societies, however, is fasts, what they give up in fasting, and why they

patriarchy. It may be a reflection of the belief that —are fasting these are questions that religions
GOD above is also a supreme father. Patriarchy
answer very difFerentiy.
may also be evidenced in carefiii attention to the
Some fasts are short; others are long. On the
shrines of male ancestors, as in Confucian China,
DAY OF ATONE.viENT, obscr\ant Jews fast fi-om
where it is seen as an extension beyond the grave one sunset to the next. Cathohc, Orthodox, and
some Protestant Christians have traditionally
of "filial piety," or the obligation of children to fasted during the 40-day period before E\STER
known as LENT. Muslims fast for the entire month
parents (see CONTUCL\S"ISM and CHIN.V RELIG of Ramadan. B.VFLVIS fast for an entire month,
too, but the Baha'i month is only 19 days long.
IONS OF), Fasts may take place before life-cycle RITU.^LS.
For example, some Native Americans fast before
Religious m\thology invohing family images seeking a \lSION. Fasts may also take place before
rituals performed for HE.ALING and renewal. Or-
is not restricted to the highest deit\-, however. As thodox Christians fast before receiving the

we have seen, the earth is frequently portrayed as EUCH.\RIST.

a mother. Siblings are also fi-equently important. Some fasts involve the entire communit)': the
Day of Atonement, Lent, Ramadan. But e\en here
Sometimes the primal parents of humanin.' are there may be exceptions. For example, those for
whom the Ramadan fast may present difiicul-
Onpresented as twin brother and sister. the other
—ties the elderly, the sick, the ver\- young, pregnant
hand, two brothers may be rivals, like Cain and —women, travelers are not supposed to fast. Other

Abel in the Hebre%\ scriptures. fasts involve small groups, for example, those who

The family is important as a center for relig- will participate in an indigenous American sweat

ious RITUALS, with a household ALT.\R as an lodge or Orthodox Christians who will receixe the
eucharist at a particular service. Still others may be
important place for DEVOTION. Among devout entirely private. Hindu women often take personal
vows that may involve fasting.
Hindus, the most important offerings are really
At the maximum, fasting involves total ab-
those made in the home, where food offerings are stention from food and drink. On the Day of
Atonement observant Jews do not eat, drink, or
prepared by the wife and the husband acts as chief smoke for 25 to 26 hours. Certain Jain SAINTS

priest. In JUD.\IS.\1, celebration of the Sabbath in

the home, with Sabbath PRATCRS and meal, is a

primary' obligation. Most festivals of all religions,

like CHRISTM.^ for Christians, have important

home components. And most religions empha-

size the importance of good, lo\ing, and devout

whofamily life for all are set in families.

FASTING Giving up eating or drinking or

both. Eating and drinking are simple biological
acts that himian beings generally do ever\' day.
Most religions have found it useftil to order and

122 FEMINISM

give up eating and drinking as a way to bring on During the second half of the 20th century,
feminists lobbied for religious offices to be
death (see JAINISM). But many fasts are partial. opened to women. Previously, many religious
For example, it was once common for Roman bodies, but not all, had reserved their offices for
men. As a result of feminist efforts, the Episcopal
Catholics not to eat meat on Friday.
Church, for example, began to ordain women as
The reasons people fast are as numerous as
bishops and priests (see ANGLICANISM). Reform
the reasons people practice religion. In ancient JUDAISM became the first branch of Judaism to

Greece, people fasted to get ready to be initiated ordain women to the rabbinate (see RABBI, RAB-

into secret cults known as "mysteries" (see MYS- BINATE). At the end of the century, however,
important religious offices remained closed to
TERY RELIGIONS). Some people fast to purify
women. For example, in ROMAN CATHOLICISM
their bodies or control their appetites and desires. and EASTERN ORTHODOX CHRISTL\NITY only
The fast on the Day of Atonement is part of a men could be priests. Similarly, only men can be

ritual asking for GOD's forgiveness. Jains fast in Orthodox rabbis.
During the same period, feminist scholars
order to stop the accumulation of bad KARMA.
Some people fast to acquire spiritual merit and studied the often overlooked contributions

benefits; for example, a Hmdu woman may fast women had made to religions in the past. Even

to have the same husband in her next life. Chris- religions that have been heavily patriarchal have
benefited fi-om the activities of prominent
tians fast at Lent as a reminder of their SINS. The women. For example, in medieval Europe some
Ramadan fast commemorates important events in
women were important mystics and writers. In
early ISLAM. It also helps Muslims develop sym- addition, little was known of the religious lives of
ordinary women, who have made up a sizable
whompathy for the less fortunate, for fasting is a proportion of almost evcr\' religion. Some schol-
ars worked to learn more about these contribu-
way of life.
tions. Other scholars studied the ways in which
In the 20th century, Mohandas GANDHI religion had contributed to women's subordina-
made special use of fasting. He said that he fasted tion and oppression. They showed how certain

to learn to control his senses and to atone for the myths had sometimes subdy consigned women
to subordinate positions. They also focused atten-
sins of his followers. But his fasts were also ver\' tion on RITUALS. Among the more disturbing
were sati {widow burning) in traditional HINDU-
effective political tools. In the time since Gandhi,
many others have gone on hunger strikes to bring ISM and clitoridectomy (female CIRCUMCISION)
in many INITIATION rites.
issues of injustice to pubhc attention.
Some feminist thinkers were convinced that
FEMINISM A way of thmking prominent in
traditional religions could be reformulated in a
the second half of the 20th century, concerned manner consistent with women's rights and
with overcoming the subordinate position that aspirations. They retranslated sacred texts to
eliminate an earlier male-centeredness. They re-
women have often occupied in societ)'. Feminism discovered feminine aspects of gods that had
appeared to be entirely male. They reformulated
has been imponant in religions themselves and in standard doctrines and PRAYERS, such as the
the academic study of religions. Feminists have LORD'S PRAYER, to eliminate their androcentric
been active in most parts of the globe, but North
American feminists have generally taken the lead. focus. And they developed more acceptable mod-

In the 19th centur\' feminists addressed such
issues as voting rights and access to education.
Beginning in the 1960s many feminists turned
their attention to religion. They sought to reform
religious institutions, studied the contributions

past women had made to religions, reformulated

traditional religions, and developed religions of
their own.

FIRE AND RELIGION 123

Feminism also had its critics. Traditionalists
within the various religions often dismissed
and condemned their actions. Criticism came
from more sympathetic quarters, too. African-

American women and other women of color

pointed out that feminism often addressed issues
defined narrowly by class and culture. They
started alternative movements called womanist

and mttjerista, respectively.

With signs calling for "equal rights under law," a group FIRE AND RELIGION The religious use

of women took up a vigil on the Capitol steps in 1970, and symbohsm of fire. Fire is one of the most
important symbols in religion. Its light, purit\',
as the Senate was considering a proposed constitutional and energ)- suggest GOD, the soul, or newness ot
amendment on women's rights. (Courtesy of UPI/ life, while on the other hand, its destructive power
Corbis-Bctrmann.) indicates the burning wrath of God against EVIL,
and the way all that comes into being in this world
els of the religious communiU'. Many of the first will go out of being and be destroyed in the end.

such thinkers arose within CHRISTIANITi'. Jewish In the ancient Hebrew religion, fire was used
feminists often took the lead in developing to burn whole offerings, suggesting the utter
women's riaials. Islam, Hinduism, and BUD- puritv and dedication of the sacrifice. Perpetual
DHISM have had feminist thinkers, too. fire was kept burning in the temple in lERUS.MEM,
as it is in Zoroastrian temples and was by the
Other feminists were convinced that tradi- Vestal Virgins of Rome (see zOROASTRL\NISM
tional religions were too patriarchal to be saved. and ROMAN RELIGION). A principal deit>' ofVedic
India was AGNI, the fire god, for SACRIFICES were
Thev set out to formulate their own rituals, be- offered to him, and he in turn was the "messen-
liefs, and communities. Some saw themselves as ger" to the gods who carried their essence to
recovering a primal tradition of GODDESS worship other realms. Corresponding to fire on Earth was
that had been lost and suppressed. Some of their the lightning in the sky and the sun in HE.W'EN;
historical claims are questionable, but the my- Agni went between those levels, and the sacrificial
fire on Earth was believed to correspond to the
thology is powerfiil. processes of eternal creation and destruction.

In HINDUISM, the bodies of the deceased are
generally burned, returning them to the elements
and making them part of that process. In its
purelv terrible and destructive aspect, flames are

— —the substance of HELL the "Lake of Fire" eter-

nally punishing the wicked, though in Roman

Catholic tradition the fires of Purgatory' have the
more benign though also painfiil role of purging

awav the impurity of sin from those who do not

deserie hell but are not yet ready for heaven. Fire
has also svmbolized life and the immortal spark
that is the soul. Buddhist literature has used the

124 FLOOD, THE

image of passing the torch, or lighting one flame On God's instructions, Noah builds an ark in
from another flame, to indicate the process of
which he, his family, and representative animals
REINCARNATION. Statues of the BUDDHA some-
times show him with a tlame above his head, ride out the flood.
pointing to his enlightenment. The Hindu UP.AN- The biblical stor\- appears to be part of a large,

ISHADS use the metaphor of a single flame that older tradition of flood stories that derive from
takes many different shapes to suggest how BRAH- Mesopotamian m\ahology (see MESOPOTAMIAN
M.\N, the One, assumes the form of all the differ- RELIGIONS). The Story of GILGAMESH was put
ent entities in the universe. In the book of Acts in into final form around 2000 B.C. In it. King

the New Testament it is said that the Holy Spirit Gilgamesh \isits the two human beings who sur-
vi\'ed the flood, Utnapishtim and his wife. They
descended on the .\POSTLES as "tongues of have become immortal, and Gilgamesh wants to
flame," making fire an embodiment of spiritual learn how he can become immortal, too. Another
wisdom and power at the same time, even as Mesopotamian story, the story ofAtrahasis (1600
JESUS had said he would baptize with fire. B C or earher), tells a different account of the
flood. Indeed, it parallels Genesis closely. Human
Fire has also been employed as an instrument beings were making too much noise. After trying
of divine HE.\LING. The ancient Celts would herd
cattle between vwo fires, in the behef that this several other remedies, the gods, led by Enlil,
would help presene them from disease. It can be decided to destroy them with a universal flood.
a guide, especially to the other world, as Agni But the craft)' god Enki told his faithful wor-
guided the dead to heaven; and it can bring the shiper, Atrahasis, to build an ark. In it, Atrahasis,
dead back to life like the Phoenix reborn out of his family, and representative animals were saved.
his ashes. Finally, fire, especially in the form of
soft and quiet candlelight, is widely used to indi- Greek msthology knew a similar flood story.
cate and hallow sacred places. Candles are fre- Because of human wickedness, ZEUS sent a flood
quendy burned before Christian and other to destrov the Eardi. Deucalion and Pyrrha were
shrines as offerings and to demarcate their holi-
ness. Candles are found on the ALT.\RS of many saved in an ark; to repopulate the Earth the\' cast
churches, and lighting them is a preliminar\' stones, which turned into people. The m\'tholog\'
marking the beginning of the sacred time of a of India knows a similar story, too. There the god
service. The Jewish Sabbath begins with the light-
\1SHNU takes the form of a great fish that pulls
ing of special candles, customarily by the women MANU, the ancestor of humankind, to safety on a
raft. Unlike the \ersions already recounted, in the
of the house. Fire in the world of religion takes Indian version no woman is saved. As a result,
as man\- forms, and has almost as many meanings, Manu must first create a daughter, Ila. With her
as does fire itself. he repopulates the Earth.

THEFLOOD, .Also called the deluge; in my- It seems likely that the Greek story derives
from Mesopotamian roots. It is more doubtful
thology', a flood that co\ ered the entire Eanh and that the Indian story does. Indian mythology tells
of several successive universes that are each o\er-
destroyed almost all human beings. Although whelmed by primal waters. But flood stories are
certainly not limited to the region stretching from
extensive, localized floods have occurred, there is Greece to India and through the Near East.
Indeed, they are found on almost every continent.
no evidence for any worldwide flood.
For example, the Maya people of Meso-
The flood stor\' best known to most Nonh america (see MAYA RELIGION) tell an EPIC stop.-
known as the Popol Vuh. It begins with successive
Americans and Europeans is the one told in the attempts to create human beings. In one attempt

BIBLE (Genesis 6-9). In this story, GOD wishes to
destroy human beings because of their SINS. He
decides, however, to save NOAH and his family.

FOLK RELIGION 125

the creators fashion manikins. These prove unsat- think more of how religion fits into their seasonal
isfactory and are destroyed by a flood. The Aztec
Legend of the Suns (see AZTEC RELIGION) talks cycles and local geography. If they are agricultur-
not about successive attempts to create human ists, festivals of planting and har\'est are impor-
beings but about successive suns or universes. tant. For all people in temperate climates spring
During the fourth sun, called 4 Water, people and midwinter celebrations are ver\' common.
lived 676 years. Then a sudden flood rushed upon Even if the people officially belong to a religion
them, destroying their world and changing them with a historical orientation, like JUDAISM or
into fish. CHRISTIANITY, the seasonal aspects of festivals
with a theoretically historical origin, like PASS
Some people take flood stories as history. OVER, CHRJSTMAS, Mardi Gras and CARNIVAL, or
Odiers take the view that the stories were written EASTER, and the timeless aspects of the occasion,
are likely to become central in practice. (This is
to convey religious messages. Their concern is to why the snow and Santa Claus feattires of Christ-
identify what those messages are. For some, such mas, and the rabbit and spring elements of Easter
as the scholar IVIircea ELIADE, flood stories fit a
universal mythological model. Water is both cha- — a Christian holiday named after an Anglo-
otic and creadve. The flood represents a reversion —Saxon GODDESS of spring are so prominent in
to the primal chaos, but also the possibility that
a new, fi-esh, pure creation will emerge. Rather folk or popular Christianity.) The geographical
than fit every myth into a single stereotype, it bearing of folk religion is perhaps more pro-
nounced in some traditions than others; it means
seems better to take each m)th on its own terms a tendency toward venerated holy places, like
and use more general interpretations only to the sacred mountains, trees, waterfalls, shrines, and

extent that the specific cultural context supports PILGRIIVL\GE places that are accessible to ordinary'
them.
—people like Mount Fuji in Japan or the famous
FOLK RELIGION The religious life of ordi-
grotto at the shrine of the Blessed Virgin iMARY at
nan' people who are not primarily oriented to- Lourdes in France.
ward their religion as it is presented by its formal
history, but who know and practice it as it is A related characteristic of folk and popular
communicated and performed on family, village,
religion is emphasis on religious marking of the
or popular levels. In traditional societies, folk individual's life cycle. BAPTISMS, confirmations,
religion is generally associated with peasant socie- BAR MITZVAHS, weddings, childbirths, personal
SAINTS' days, and fianerals, or the equivalents in
ties, but in the modern world many of its charac- various traditions, are likely to be extremely sig-
teristics can be found among working-class and nificant family or even community events, entail-
other ordinary' people in urban societies. Here it ing perhaps great preparation and expense. The
key occurrences of personal life thus blend into
is often called popular religion. occasions that keep communit)' identity alive.
Rl TES OF PASSAGE into adulthood are ways for a
Two fundamental features of folk rehgion community to perpetuate its own life; burial rites
for the deceased become ways for the family and
are, first, that it is primarily "cosmic" rather than communin,' to re-bond and reaffirm their conti-
historical in perspective, and second, that it is
chiefly passed on orally, through the words and nuity afi:er the loss.
examples of family, community members, and
local-level spiritual leaders, whether shamans, Oral transmission, another fundamental fea-
evangelists, priests, or others. ture of folk religion, means that folk religion is
learned first of all through the words of people
Cosmic orientation means that folk religion- one knows locally and face to face, rather than
ists generally have littie sense of history beyond
living memory save as it is encoded in myth, but through much study or in the way the religion is

126 FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

known bv its literan' sources or elites, its BR.\H While often passive so far as social or political
MINS or bishops. Folk FAITH is acquired in many change is concerned, folk religion can rouse itself

—ways from parents, other family, peers, commu- to become the voice of the common people and
so to produce moxements that intend major so-
nity' example, festivals, services, lodges, INITIA-
cial change or even revolution, whether moral,
—TIONS, local clergy and wise-women but mainly social, or political. From out of the very nature of
folk religion, such movements are likely to be
in bits and pieces, rather than as a logically coher- cosmic, present-oriented, under visionar\' charis-
ent whole. As popular religion becomes modern matic leadership, full of belief in miracles and
and urban, media like radio, tele\ision, and mass- expecting to be confirmed by miraculous signs
market books or magazines may be added to the and \ictories, up to and including direct divine
means of transmission, so that shamans become intervention. But even if friastrated, folk religion
television evangelists. Ver\' important, because of movements like that of JOAN OF .\RC can change
folk religion's li\ing out of the present rather than the course of histor\'.
out of history and institutionalization, is a
leader's capacin' to manifest direct and \isible Folk religion and its modem popular religion
spiritual power, or immediate impressive creden-
tials. Like a shaman, she or he should exhibit version, with all their color and festi\it\', remain
special charisma and preternatural-seeming states important in the contemporary world.

of consciousness; or like a priest, the ability- to FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS Four compact
mount imposing and mystic-seeming senices or
ceremonies. Some ven,' important religious lead- statements that express the basic teachings of
ers like the Japanese Buddhist prophet NICHIREN
and the founder of METHODISM, John WESLEY, BUDDHISM. According to tradition, the BUDDHA
have managed successfully to bridge the gap be- Siddhartha Gautama discovered these truths dur-
tween folk and institutional religion, and on a ing the night of his enlightenment. He then
lesser scale so have many local priests and pastors.
taught them in his first sermon, which he
Folk rehgion generallv is quite open to belief preached in the Deer Park near B.-VN.\RAS.
in .MIR.'KCLES and immediate demonstrations of
supernatural power, both good and bad. Miracles In the four noble truths, the Buddha thinks
of HEALING and divine protections are commonly like a doctor. He sets out to cure the disease that
acknowledged, as is belief in negative WITCH- plagues all sentient beings ( beings who have con-
CR.\FT or comparable uncanny E\aL. Omens, sciousness). The first noble truth tells what the
amulets, dixination, \lSIONS, voices, signs, and symptoms of the disease are. The next noble truth
.\L\GIC may be taken seriously. identifies what causes them. The third noble truth
sets out what can be done about the disease. The
Oral transmission does not mean that people
who maintain a folk religion are necessarily illit- fourth pro\ides a detailed prescription.
erate. But reading is done in a different way. In
folk-religion versions of scripture-oriented faiths According to the Buddha, we can describe
like Christianit\' or ISL\M, the BIBLE or the the symptoms of our disease with a single word:
QUR'AN mav play an imponant role, to be read, diihkha. Unfortimately, this word is difficult to
believed, chanted, venerated. Yet they are not translate. It means "suffering," but suffering in a
read or understood as would a scholar of the ver\' profound sense. According to the Buddha,
faith's great institutions of learning, but in a ultimate satisfaction cannot be found in condi-
direct way, without historical perspective. It is tioned e.vistence, that is, in this world or in any
reallv another sign, amulet, miracle or source of other. E\en moments of profound happiness are
characterized to some extent by duhkha.
—miracles the greatest of all.
The second noble truth tells us what the
cause of duhkha is: cra\ing. Many later thinkers

Wesay that craving itself derives from ignorance.

FRANCIS OF ASSISI AND FRANCISCANS 127

ignore the fact that we are temporar>' collections ent forms of meditation, samadbi meditation and
vipassana meditation.
of elements produced by outside causes and mis-
Buddhism teaches that those who practice
Wetakenly think that we ha\e sei\es. also ignore the eightfold path are transformed. They experi-

the fact that eventhing around us is unstable and ence, think of, and act in the world differendy.
impermanent. Therefore, we do not accept things Eventually they lose ignorance and craving, es-
cape from duhkha, and enter NTRVAN.A.
as thev are. Instead, we crave, and our craving
FRANCIS OF ASSISI (1181/1182-1226)
produces suffering. AND FRANCISCANS An Italian S.\INT of

The third noble truth holds out hope. The the Middle Ages, and the orders of MONKS .^ND
NUNS that he founded. Francis was the son of an
disease from which sentient beings like us suffer Italian cloth merchant. As a young man, he was a

is not an incurable cancer; in that case the onl\' soldier, but he was taken prisoner and spent the
good part of a year as a prisoner of war. Soon after
option is to make the patient as comfortable as his release he had a number of religious experi-
possible. Instead, our disease can be cured. If one ences. In one famous experience he heard a com-
eliminates erasing, duhkha ceases. But how can
mand to repair a chapel near Assisi. He went to
anyone do that?
his father's store, took the cloth, sold it and the
The fourth noble truth teUs us how. It spells horse he was riding, and tried to give the money
out the Buddha's "Middle Way" between stan- to the priest to repair the chapel. The result was
ing our senses and indulging them. The Buddha a break with his father.

imites his followers to pay attention to, indeed, An even more fatefial experience came in
February of 1208 or 1209. Francis heard words
to change eight areas of life. As a result, the from the New Testament in which JESUS com-
Buddha's way is known as the eightfold path. manded his followers to travel and preach with-
out any possessions whatsoever (Matthew
The first t%vo steps in the eightfold path help
10.9-11). Although he was not a priest, Francis
us acquire wisdom. We need to con\ince our- began to preach. Several followers joined him,
and in 1209 or 1210 the pope blessed his "or-
selves of the truths of Buddhism. This is known der." In 1212 Francis received a noblewoman
named Clare into the monastic life. She became
as right thought. But one can think the same the head of an order of nuns. In the early 1220s
thought with many different attitudes. According
Francis established a third "order" for men and
to the Buddha, one should try to think without women who did not wish to leave their ordinan-

craving and leave greed, hatred, and delusion lives behind but were nevertheless inspired by
Francis's \ision and lifesnie.
behind. This is right understanding.
Francis and his followers originally gave up
The next three steps in the eightfold path all their possessions. They also had no permanent
homes. This life-st^'le was part of Francis's at-
Wefocus on moralit\'. should a\oid killing, steal- tempt to imitate Jesus as much as possible. Fran-
cis's own religious attitude is perhaps summed up
ing, and sexual misconduct. This is right action. best b\' the words "brotherhood" and "sister-
hood." Francis felt that all of GOD's creatures
We —should also always speak the truth right were members of the same family. That meant

speech. Furthermore, a great deal of even' per-

Weson's lite consists of working for a li\ing.

should not do jobs that harm other beings, such

as hunting or selling liquor. This is right liveli-

hood.

The last three steps involve concentration

uith the help of MEDITATION. We should be
Wedihgent in our practice. That is right effort.

should also work for right mindfulness and right

concentration. Theravada Buddhism is the form

of Buddhism that adheres to the eightfold path

most closely. In Thera\ada, right mindfulness and

concentration usually mean practicing two differ-

128 FRAZER, JAMES GEORGE

that all human beings, ofwhatever class or nation- adopted an even more austere life-style that in-
alit\', were brothers and sisters. So were natural clined to the isolated life of the hermit.
phenomena: brother sun, sister moon, even sister
death. As a result, Francis is often associated in The Franciscans do not often receive much
the popular mind with wild animals and gardens. publiciti,'. That is partly because of their interests
in the poor, and partly because of their manner
In the centuries after Francis's death, his first of working. But there are more Franciscan monks
and nuns in the Roman Catholic Church than
order, the order of monks, fragmented. The basic monks and nuns of any other order. Throughout
problem was the extent to which brothers should histor\' women have been particularly active not
be expected to live a life of povert)'. In the 1300s only as nuns but also as members of the "third
the Pope recognized a group known as the Con- order," the order for those who do not renounce
ventuals as the official Franciscan group. Its life-
st\ie is less strict, and it emphasizes preaching and their ordinary li\'es.
study. But today it is the smallest of the major
Franciscan groups. The largest group, the Obser- Some Franciscans have, however, become
vants, emerged in the 1400s. It stands for a strict prominent. When Dominican theologians such as
Thomas AQUIN.AS began to use the writings of
Aobser\ance of Francis's discipline. third group,
Aristode in developing their theologies, the Fran-
the Capuchins, arose in the 1500s. Its members
ciscans strenuously opposed them. Those who

did so included the theologian Bonaventure
( 1221-74) and the philosophers Duns Scotus ( c.

1265-1308) and William of Ockham (c. 1280-
1349). John of Capistrano (1386-1456), best
known in North America for a mission in Califor-
nia to which swallows return regularly, was a
Franciscan. The most famous member of the
"third order," the order still in the world, must
surely be Christopher Columbus. In addition to
moving people to join one of his orders, Francis's

\ ision of po\ert\' and of the unitv' of all of creation

has inspired coundess persons. The Roman
Catholic Church remembers him as a saint annu-
ally on October 4.

Stiincd gjiss irt of Saint Fr. FRAZER, JAMES GEORGE (1854-1941)

Crosiers.) Pioneering British anthropologist and author of
the mtluential book, TIjc Golden Boujfh. Frazer

uas an "armchair ethnologist." He wrote about

peoples all around the globe, but he never \isited
them. Instead, he based his ideas on printed
materials, letters, reports, and conversations with
travelers. His most famous work is The Golden
Boujth. It was first published in t\vo volumes in
1890; by 1915 it had grown to 12 enormous
tomes.

Frazer called his volumes "A Study in Magic
and Religion." For him, iNL\GIC was misguided

FREE WaLL AND DETERMINISM 129

science. When people used magic, they were tn- The tension betv^een free will and determi-
ing to apply the laws of nature. They just applied nism is a classic topic in European philosophy and
the wTong laws. They thought that there was a in Christian, Islamic, and, to a much lesser degree,
Jewish THEOLOGY. The issue arises in other relig-
natural connection between objects that either
looked alike or had been in contact. ions, too.

WTien magic failed, people adopted a differ- Manv religious people feel that fete determines
ent attitude: religion. They concluded that per-
sonal beings controlled the world. They pleaded certain events, such as the time of a person's death.
with those beings for personal favors. Actually, In HINDUISM, BUDDHISM, I.MXISM, and SIKHISM
Frazer said, reUgion and magic are often found one's pre\ious actions (KARiVL'K) determine the cir-
together. RITUALS connected with springtime cumstances in which one will be reborn and under
which one will aa. Note that karma does not
— —and har\'est dying and rising gods were espe- determine what one will actually do.

cially prominent. Determinism is particularly attractive to re-
ligions that teach MONOTHEISM. It can help em-
Frazer's successor, Bronislaw NLVLIN'OWSKI, phasize God's greatness: "God is in control of
started an entirely different way of thinking about
cultures and religions. As a result, Frazer's ideas eventhing." If so, God must control our actions.
are discredited today. But they have been very
influential. For example, the American-British For some, determinism is a consequence of sa\ing
poet, T. S. Eliot, gave Frazer the credit for inspir-
ing some of his greatest poems. that God knows everything. If God knows ahead
of time what a person will do, how can the person
FREE WILL AND DETERMINISM The
really have a choicer For others, determinism
idea that human beings are able to choose their means that human beings must rely upon God's
own actions. People act, and when we act, we grace for SALV.^tion. They cannot earn God's
make decisions. Most of us feel that we have the favor on their own. But determinism raises prob-
option of choosing between two or more alterna-
lems, too. If God is in control of ever\TJiing,
tives. We may choose one of them, but we could where does EML come from (see THEODICi')?

have chosen another, if we wanted to. Many Christian, Islamic, and Jewish thinkers
have discussed these topics. In the New Testa-
This sense pro\ides a basis for the idea that ment P.\UL taught that God chooses whom he
our wills are free. Another imponant basis for that will save. AUGUSTINT OF HIPPO argued that with-
idea has to do with moralit)-. It seems unfair to out God's GRACE, human beings could not will
to do what was good. During the REFORMATION
condemn a person who had no real choice. In
Erasmus strongly defended free will; Martin
order to hold people responsible for their actions, LUTHER strongly attacked it in his book On the
Bondage ofthe Will. Luther and his followers later
we need to be able to say that they could have modified these views. But John C.ALMN and Cal-
vinism emphasized a "double predestination"
acted differently.
There is, however, an idea opposed to free —predestination to salvation and to damnation.

will. It is the idea of determinism, sometimes Some Muslim thinkers ha\e rejected the
conceived of as fate. According to this idea, what teaching of free will. "Determination," they ar-
gued, belongs to God alone. Beginning in the
human beings do is already decided for them. A
10th century .\.D. Jewish thinkers Uving in the
special form of determinism is predestination. It Islamic world reacted to such claims. They argued

teaches that GOD has predestined or predeter- that, according to Genesis, God created human
mined what will happen in the fijture. For some
Christians, God predestines one item in particu- beings in God's image and likeness. God's will is
lar: who will and will not be saved. free; the human will must be free, too.

130 FREUD, SIGMUND

During the 20th cenmn\ Christian and Mus- FUNCTIONALISM One of the most popu-
hm thinkers tended to favor free will over deter-
minism. But the old fatalistic cliche remains lar theories of religion in the 20th centur\-. Func-
popular: "WTien it's your time to go, it's your tionalism has been especially important to social
time to go." The tension benveen free will and
determinism also appears today in a nonreligious scientists.
context: debates on public poUai' informed by
contemporar%' ps\cholog\'. Some stress that he- The anthropologist Bronislaw MALINOWSKI
redit\' and environment cause human beha\ior. coined the word "functionalism." He used it to
Others insist that human beings are accountable describe what he thought scholars should do
for their actions regardless of conditions. when they study cultures, including religions.
Until his time anthropologists had tried to iden-
FREUD, SIGMUND (1856-1939) The tify the stages through which culture and religion

doctor who founded psychoanalysis. Freud grew had evolved see EVOLLTION .\XD RELIGION!. A
up in the Jewish communit)' of \lerma, Austria. I
Trained as a doctor, he became interested in
people who behaved unusually. In the course of good example is James George FR.\ZER's famous
book. The Golden Boujjb. Malinowski suggested
working with his patients, he developed influen- that scholars do something else instead. He sug-
tial ideas about human beings" subconscious and gested that they limit themselves to a single cul-
ture and stud\' that culture as a functioning whole.
unconscious drives and desires. He applied these This starting point determined the goal of study-
ideas to many areas of human life, including ing religious beliefs or RITU.\LS. According to
Malinowski, scholars should explain these beliefs
religion. and rituals in terms of what fiinctions they fiilfUl,
that is, in terms of what they do for the culture as
Freud suggested that religion began from a whole. Almost ever>' sociologist and anthro-
group feelings of guilt. In prehistor)' the father pologist who studied religions followed Mali-
nowski 's advice until the 1960s.
was the head of a horde. He kept all the women
for himself One day in finstrarion his sons For functionalists, function does not mean
purpose. People do perform religious actions for
banded together and killed him. Their guilt was particular purposes. For example, in the middle
responsible for the creation of religion. of a drought people li\ing in a farming commu-
nity' may pray for rain. But functionalists would
No one believes this stor\' any more. Never- not consider the fiinction of the PB-WER to be
theless, many people agree with Freud when he obtaining rain. That is because pra\ing for rain
does not actuall>' produce it. Malinowski liked to
sees m\ths as expressing psychological realities. say that the function of religious rituals was to
fulfill biological and psychological needs. Thus, a
Freud also wrote about RITU.\LS. He called prayer for rain in the middle of a drought may
them "collective neuroses." Just as neurotic peo-
fiinction to relieve anxiet\'.
ple perform senseless, repetitive acts, religious
people perform rituals. Clearly, Freud himselfhad A scholar who influenced Malinowski tre-

littie interest in religion. He was convinced that mendously was Emile DURKHELM. Unlike Mali-
w'hen human beings left the childhood of their nowski, Durkheim emphasized social, not
race behind, the illusion of rehgion would disap- psychological, fiinctions. For him, one important
function of religion was that it integrated people
pear like a mirage.
Freud's ideas had a major impact on 20th- Ainto a societ\'. later sociologist, Peter Berger,

century thought. But toward the end of the cen- suggested that religion flmctioned to legitimate
tur\- many criticized psychoanalysis as "pseudo- cultural creations. For example, in North America
science." children have traditionallv taken their father's last

FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF See QUAKERS.

FUNCTIONALISM 131

name. But they could just as easily take their tolerate rmserable social circumstances. But for
mother's. Religion, Berger said, helped make Marx that was not a good thing. Like opium,
current practices seem legitimate. In the New- religion robbed the masses of energy. As a result,
Testament the apostle PAUL writes that the father they failed to do what was needed to eliminate
is the head of the family, just as JESUS is the head
their misen'.
of the church. Other critics of ftinctionalism question just

Functionalism has had its critics. Some ac- how much it actually explains. Consider the ex-
cuse it of justifying the way things are. According ample of the farming community praving for rain.
to them, fLinctionalism assumes that society Psychological tests can show whether a particular
works. It overlooks aspects of society' that may
prayer actually alleviates an,xiety. But does that
need to be changed. explain whv the communit\' prays? Perhaps not.
This criticism may apply to some functional- Other acts may alleviate an]det\-, too. The com-
munirs- could S.ACIUFICE to the rain god, or it
ists. It does not apply to all. For example, Karl could simply hold a meeting at which community
members shared their concerns.
MARX made claims about religion that are similar
to fimctionalism. He called rehgion the opiate of
the masses. He meant that religion helped people

<5

GAMES, PLAY, AND RELIGION Kinds —boundaries and a time-frame sacred space and
—time within which certain rules are followed,
of human activit)' alternati\e to work. Often the
serious tone assumed by much contemporary and people wear certain costumes indicating their
religion seems to be at odds with games and play. role. Each gi\es observers a chance to participate
But religious rite and games come ultimateh' vicariously in the excitement, and to feel refreshed
from similar sources in human culture: the need afterward.
to "take a break" and express through symbol and
experience the full panoply of what it means to be Here are some fiirther ways in which games
human. Religion may do this by showing that and play parallel the way religion interprets the
people are more than just working drones, but world, within that sacred space and time frame-
also have a divine or eternal meaning. So does work. These in part follow Roger Caillois's book,
play, when it shows that people are not meant just Man, Play, and Games. Competition in games is
to work and contend with serious matters, but like an analogy of the battie of good and E\TL,
also to run, dance, throw balls or dice, find the
excitement of competing and pretending, even GOD and SAT.\N, in the world. The combination
of skill and chance, or divine GRACE or favor,
get into altered states of consciousness by spin- required to be successful in many games is like the
ning and falling.
need for the same combination in real life, and so
It would be natural for these two then to gives instruction in dealing with it. Games often
begin together, and so they probably did, in entail simulation, or "acting out," as when chil-
ancient religious rites that were also times for dren "dress up" or othervvise play games that
dancing, playing, feasting, even loving. There are mimic adult life; religion also tells us to identify
still reminders of that origin. The Olympic games
of ancient Greece began with religious sacrifices with its SAINTS and heroes. Many athletes find
and had a quasi-religious character (see GREEK.
RELIGION). In Japan, sumo wresding, tugs-of- that meditation or a state of clear awareness like
war, horse-racing, and other competitions can be
that taught by ZEN BUDDHISM or the martial arts,
traced back to SHINTO rituals reflecting in NEW UvLng in the moment and acting spontaneously,
gives them an edge. Finally, some kinds of play
YEAR FESTIVALS competition between the old
year and the new, or different factions of a com- — —spinning around, riding roller-coasters in-
munity. Medieval tournaments began with a cele-
bration of mass and were supposed to teach the duce a vertigo that psychologically can approach
values of chivalry.
ecstasy or trance. Play and religion can learn much
Let us look in more detail at parallels of
religious rite and a game, like a modern American from each other.
football or baseball game. Both have definite
GANDHI, MOHANDAS K. (1869-1948)

Known as the Mahatma (Sanskrit, "great-

souled"); leader of nonviolent resistance to Brit-
ish rule in colonial India and father of Indian
independence.

132

GANDHI, MOHANDAS K. 133

Life Mohandas K. Gandhi, Indian national independence
leader. (Courtesy ofCorbis-Bettmann.)
Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in the
region of Gujarat in western India into a t'amil\- Teachings
whose members had held high-ranidng govern-
Gandhi's campaign against the British took many
ment posts. He also claimed to have been heavih- forms, such as the insistence on bu\ing Indian
goods and the spinning of one's own cloth by
mflucnced by the profound piet\' of his mother. hand. Gandhi also advocated Hindu-Muslim am-
In order to study law, Gandhi went to En- it\' and the elimination of religiously rooted dis-
tinctions of caste, especially restrictions on the
gland in 1888, after vowing to his mother to
avoid eating meat, drinking alcohol, and engag- so-called untouchables, whom Gandhi called

ing in sexual relations with English women. He Harijans, or "children of GOD."
Underlying all of Gandhi's actions, however,
kept these three vows, but in other respects he
was a profound religious VISION. Gandhi thought
tried vox hard to assimilate to British ways. The of his goal not in the narrow terms of political
most \isible sign was his European dress. independence but in the broader terms of self-
rule. Because self-rule was necessary' before one
In 1893, Gandhi was sent by his law firm in deserved political independence, Gandhi urged
India to South Atrica on a case. There he experi- his followers to train their senses and desires
enced the severit\' of restrictions imposed on
Indians as on other non-European peoples. In
one well-known incident, he was thrown oft' a
train when he insisted on traveling in a first-class
compartment because he had bought a first-class
ticket. Gandhi remained in South Afiica until
1914. During his stay he developed his fianda-
mental notions of nonviolent resistance, experi-
mented with communal living and diet, and took
a vow of brahmacniya (sexual celibacy).

After he returned to India, Gandhi eventually
joined the Indian National Congress, a group
agitating for India's liberation from British rule.
He became the acknow ledged spiritual leader of
the movement, revered as the "Mahatma" and
loved as "Bapu" (father). Because Gandhi's tac-
tics involved the public violation of law s, he spent
much time in jail.

India finally gained its independence in
1947 but at a severe price: British India was
divided into two countries, India and Pakistan,
despite Gandhi's vigorous opposition, and
much violence erupted between Hindu and

Muslim communities. On Januar\' 30, 1948,
Gandhi was assassinated by a member of a Hindu

group that felt he had been too accommodating
to Mushms.

134 GANESA

through fasting and brahmacarya or sexual absti-
nence.

In keeping with this emphasis, Gandhi re-
jected "body force" (\iolence) in favor oi satya-
£raha (the force of truth). His basic tactics were
to identify the injustice in a law, publich- refijse
to obey it, and suffer the consequences. Gandhi
felt that in this manner the injustice of the law
would eventually be apparent to evenone, in-
cluding those who promulgated it.

Gandhi's method of nomiolence ultimatelv
rested on his confidence in God not as a person
but as a force, which he especially liked to call not
Love but Truth. In 1925 he wrote of this force:
"I do dimly perceive that whilst everNthing
aroimd me is ever-changing, ever-d\ing, there is
underhing all that change a Li\ ing Power that is

changeless, that holds all together, that creates,
dissolves, and re-creates ... I see it as pureh-
benevolent. For I can see that in the midst of
death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth
persists, in the midst of darkness light persists.

Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth, Light. He
is Love. He is the Supreme God."

Significance Modern Hindu poster an depicting Ganesa and brother
Skanda. (Courtesy ofthe Image Bank.)
In addition to profoundly shaping 20th-centur\'
India, Gandhi's \ision of nonviolence influenced amends by gi\ing the child the first head he saw.
leaders outside India, too. The best-known ex- That happened to be the head of an elephant.
ample ma\ be the American civil rights leader,
Martin Luther KING, Jr. Ganesa is re\ered as the remover of obstacles
and lord of beginnings. Accordingli,-, he is in-
GANESA Also called Ganapati; a popular voked at the beginning of most ceremonial and

Hindu god easily recognizable from his ele- important occasions. Hindus who do not engage
phant's head, broken tusk, and pot belly. He is in the sectarian WORSHIP of a single god often
also associated with the mouse.
worship five gods as a manifestation of the su-
Ganesa is said to be the son of the god sr\'A preme. Ganesa is one of them.
or, rather, of Siva's consort PARVATI. One ston,-
about how Ganesa got his head tells that one day GANGES RIVER The most sacred river in
Siva came home after a long period of meditation
India. It flows through the plains of north India
alone. His way was barred by a son bom in his from the Himalaya Mountains in the west to the
absence, whom he did not recognize. In frustra- Bay of Bengal in the east. Hindus WORSHIP it as
tion, Siva decapitated the child. The mother was the GODDESS Ganga.

naturally upset, and Siva promised to make

GILGAALESH 135

According to well known mvths, the Earth errunent nervous. The Wounded Knee massacre
was polluted and needed Ganga's waters to be ( 1 890 ) was the result. ALVI ( the American Indian
made pure. But Ganga was reluctant to drop from Movement ) re\ived the ghost dance in the 1970s.
HEA\'EN. So the god srv'A agreed to break her fall.
In the mountains, where Siva meditates, Ganga GHOSTS Shades or remnants of the departed,
drops onto his head, flows down his body, and
spills onto the Earth. which take visible form and appear to U\Tng hu-
man beings. Sometimes ghosts come to bear
The Ganges is a powerful religious force. messages, sometimes to haunt the grave or places
Worshipers make offerings to it. T\pical offerings familiar to the deceased. Usually though not
include milk and flowers. Worshipers also bathe always they are regarded with fear and apprehen-
in its purifying waters. Because the Ganges puri- sion; benign \isitors from the world of the dead
fies, Indians cremate corpses on its banks and are more often referred to as spirits. Belief in
dispose of the ashes in the river. ghosts is perhaps not a major focus of most
religions, but it is related to beliefs about the
Today several sites along the Ganges are .UTERLLFE, telling us that the dead can li\e on in
particularly auspicious as places of PILGR1NL\GE: another form and can still have relationships with
Hardwar where the river meets the plain; Alla- the Using and life on Earth.
habad or Prayag where the Ganges, the Yamuna,
and the m\thical river Sarasvvati flow together;
and above all the holy city of BANARAS ( Varanasi).

GHOST DANCE Religious movements among GELGAMESH A legendan' king of Uruk in

indigenous .\mericans in the last third ofthe 19th ancient Mesopotamia. Gilgamesh may have lived
century. There were t%vo ghost dance move- in the mid-2600s B.C. Later the ancient Mesopo-
ments. The first occurred around 1870, the sec- tamians worshiped him as a god of the dead (see
ond around 1890. Wodziwob, an indigenous MESOPOT.\MIAN RELIGIONS). But he is best
known as the subject of an ancient EPIC. The best
American who lived on Walker Lake Resenation, version of the epic is from tablets that date from
Nevada, led the first movement. Wovoka, a farm- the 600s B.C. By that time the stor)' had been in
hand in Mason Valley, Nevada, led the second. circtilation for a thousand years.
His father had been a follower of Wodziwob.
As we know it, the epic explores the ine\ita-
Both movements shared the same basic ideas bility of death. Gilgamesh is building the walls of
Uruk when Enkidu, a powerfiil but wild creature
and practices. Each man had a \lSION. He fore- appears. At first he sees Enkidu as a rival, but they
saw the RESURRECTION of the dead, the return become fast friends. Together they kill Humbaba,
who guards a cedar forest. Then Enkidu is sen-
of the animals, and the restoration of the tradi- tenced to die. Distraught, Gilgamesh tries to
tional way of life. Wodziwob expected whites to escape death himself. He journeys to see Ut-
disappear; Wovoka expected indigenous peoples napishtim, the immortal who sur\ived the
FLOOD. Umapishtim shows Gilgamesh that he
and white settiers to live in peace. To bring about cannot even escape sleep. He does, however,
this new era, men and women were to perform a teach him about a plant of immortahty. Through
certain dance on several successive nights (see
DANCE AND RELIGION). The dance was said to be valiant eflFon Gilgamesh obtains the plant, only to

— —the dance of the ancestors or GHOSTS in lose it to a serpent in a moment of carelessness.

HtWEN. Resigned to his ultimate fate, Gilgamesh returns

Lakota (or Sioux) people changed the Ghost to building the city walls.
Dance. They- expected \ictory over whites. They
also expected special shirts to make them in\inci-
ble. The Lakota dance made the American gov-

136 GNOSTICISM

GNOSTICISM A religious trend in die an- important Gnostic writings. These writings,

cient Mediterranean world that emphasized called the Nag Hammadi Codices, were discov-
kiiowiedge as the means by which people are ered in 1945. They are the most important source
saved. The name comes from the Greek word for for the knowledge of Gnosticism today.

knowledge, gnosis. The people who follow this Also in the third centun,' the Persian prophet
Mani claimed to make perfect the revelations that
trend are called "Gnostics." had been given to Z.ARATHUSTR.\, the BUDDH.\,
Gnosticism has been viewed as a uniqueh' and JESUS. His preaching began the religion of
Manichaeism. Man)' consider Manichaeism to be
Christian heresy. But the movement actually ex- the Gnostic world religion. At one rime it
tends beyond CHRISTL^NITi'. It is also often inde- stretched from the Adantic coast of Spain and
pendent of Christianit)-. Therefore many in the Morocco to the Pacific coast of China.
20th centun' considered Gnosticism a religion in
itself. In important ways, however. Gnosticism is In the late fourth century AD. Christianity
not a single reUgion but a trend in thought. In became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
that way it resembles FEMINISM in the late 20th Gnosticism became illegal, and the government
century. There have been feminist movements and the church sought to eradicate it. Neverthe-
within many religions. Some feminists have also less, throughout European histon- various move-
cultivated an independent GODDESS worship be- ments seem to have revived Gnosticism.
cause thev have found traditional religions unsat- Examples are the Cathari and the Bogomils in the
isfying. Similarh', there ha\e been Jewish, Middle Ages. In Asia Gnosticism sunived much
Christian, and Islamic Gnostics as well as inde-
pendent gnostic religions, for example, longer.
MANICH.\EISM and Mandaeism.
Some Gnostic groups still exist today. The
History best known are the Mandaeans. They live in
southeastern Iraq and southwestern Iran. Man-
Scholars do not agree on where or how Gnosti-
cism began. Some have argued that it was inspired dacan priests baptize their followers weekly (see
by Persian m\TJis, for example, the m)th of the B.^PTIS^1). They claim this practice derives from
savior who must first sa\e himself. Others have their founder, John the Baptist. The Mandaeans
have also presened sacred scriptures and teach-
suggested that Gnosticism grev\- from Jewish and ings that have Gnostic characteristics.
Greek roots.
IDE.\S
Some of the earliest Christians found Gnos-
ticism attractive. According to many scholars, the The name Gnosticism presupposes a teaching in
people against whom PAUL argued in his New
Testament letters included Gnostics. In the sec- which people are saved by knowledge. But the
ond ccntur\- .\.D. important teachers of Gnosti-
cism emerged within the context of Christianiri-: knowledge that sa\es is not the knowiedge one
Marcion, Basilides, and Valentinus. The ances-
tors of the Orthodox and Catholic churches re- can get from studying, say, physics or chemistry.

jected them. The sa\ing knowiedge is knowledge of the hidden
In the late tliird centur>' Christians began to truths about the universe and human beings and

settie in the desert of Eg\-pt as MONKS AND NUNS. their relations to the highest GOD. This knowl-

Gnostics found that en\ironment attracti\'e, too, Godedge, like itself, is inaccessible to ordinar)'
perhaps because there they could a\oid anacks
from Christians. In the fourth centun,- monks human experience. In most Gnostic systems it is
living near Nag Hammadi, Egx'pt, made copies of
revealed bv an emissary from the othen\ise un-

known God. For Christian Gnostics that emissan,-

is Jesus.

Gnostic knowledge tends to be esoteric
knowledge. That is, it is secret knowledge re-

GOBIND SINGH 137

vealed onJy to the initiated ( see INITL\TION, RE- was in fact human. The Gnostic Marcion rejected
LIGIOUS). There was never any centralized the Hebrew BIBLE and accepted a new scripture
authority in Gnosticism, and unlike Christians made up of Luke's gospel and Paul's letters. In
Gnostics did not meet in council to determine response other Christians insisted that the He-
which teachings were acceptable and which were
not. As a result, Gnostic teachings var)- consider- — —brew Bible the "Old Testament" was still

ably. Two general topics, however, recur: the valid; they also began to form their own "New
origins of the world and human beings, and the
Testament."
progress of SALVATION.
Most Gnosric teachings on the origins of the On a more positive note, Gnosticism influ-

world and human beings were dualistic. Such enced important elements of European culture
teachings say that the world and its inhabitants during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Gnostic
arose from the mixing of r\vo opposed principles:
light-goodness and darkness- EVIL. The Apocry- view of the world appears, for example, in the
phon ofJohn, found in the Nag Hammadi Codi- poetry of the greatest German writer, Johann
ces, provides a good example. According to it, the Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). The move-
unknown God and his spouse gave rise to the ment known as THEOSOPH\' sees itself as continu-
spiritual world. One of his creations, Sophia
("wisdom"), produced a monstrous demiurge ing the ancient Gnostic teachings. Gnosticism
who created the material world. Identified with
the god of the Jews, this demiurge claimed that also fascinated Carl Gustav JUNG, one of the
he alone was god. Human bemgs result from a founders of modern psychology.
mingling of the spirit of the unknown God with
GOBESID SINGH (1666-1708) The tenth
material realit)'.
and last of the Sikh gurus (religious teachers). In
Gnostics tend to conceive of human beings,
then, as composite beings who combine elements 1675 the Mughal ruler of India, Aurangzeb, a
of light and goodness \vixh elements of darkness
and evil. They generally conceive of salvation as staunch Muslim, executed the ninth guru of the
the separation of the elements of light and good-
ness and their return to their original home, the Sikhs, Tegh Bahadur (see SIKHISM). That guru's
realm of the unknown God. Some Gnostic writ-
ings detail the ascent of the soul through the son, Gobind Singh, became the tenth guru.

\arious planctar)' spheres back to its original Gobind Singh was particularly adept as a
home. Indeed, some writings provide elaborate
spells that the adepts should use as they make Onwarrior. April 13, 1699, he institutionaUzed
their way from one sphere to the next.
the warrior ideal by founding the Sikh commu-
SIGNIFICANCE
nity known as the Khalsa. He called all Sikhs to
Gnosticism is responsible for many features of
Christianity. These features developed as the an- assemble, then asked for five men to volunteer to
cestors of the Orthodox and Catholic churches
tried to refijte Gnosticism. For example, many be sacrificed. One at a time he took them behind
Gnostics favored a view of Jesus as a divine mes-
senger who only appeared to be human. Ortho- his tent. Each time he came back with a bloody
dox and Catholic Christians insisted that Jesus
sword. Then he revealed that the blood was from

sacrificed goats. Gobind Singh initiated the men

by having them drink a sweet liquid stirred with

a double-edged sword. Then he gave them the

surname Singh and enjoined them to obser\'e

several regulations. These included the "five k's,"

five objects that all Khalsa Sikhs are to wear: uncut

hair (kes), a comb kept under a turban (kanj^ha),

a sword or dagger kirpan), a steel bangle on the
(

right wrist (kara), and shorts (kacch).

Two of Gobind Singh's sons were killed in

battie; the other two were executed. Before Go-

bind Singh died, he gave instructions that he

would be the last human guru. From that time

on, the Sikhs have recognized a collection of the Israel from slavery in Egypt (see EXODUS). Many
writings of earlier gurus and other poets as guru. people envision God as well as talk about God.
They worship God in the form of sacred images.
It is called ADI GRANTH or, more reverentiy. Guru For example, Hindus have many elaborate images
Granth Sahib. through which they approach God.

GOD The supreme object of WORSHIP. Out Some people talk about God philosophically.
Among other topics, they try to determine just
of respect, some Jews write "G-d" instead of what can be said about God. Some insist that one
"God." They see this spelling as a way to avoid can talk about God only using negative terms. For
using God's name. example, the statement "God is infinite" says that
God is not subject to ordinary limitations. Others
Monotheists believe that there is only a single speak of God positively, for example, "God is
love." Most qualify that statement: God's love is
God (see MONOTHEISM). Polytheists worship very much more profound than human love. In
many gods (see POLYTHEISM). But many polythe- the 20th centup,', some philosophers and theolo-
ists also speak of God. They may think of God as
the highest god, or they may see all particular gians were interested in symbols as ways of talking
about God.
gods as manifestations of the supreme God.
Yet another group of religious people insist
What Does "God" Mean?
that it is not possible to talk about God at all.
Probably no definition of the word "God" is These are mystics (see MYSTICISM). Some mystics
completely satisfacton,'. Some people characterize claim that God is so unlike anything in ordinary
God as supernatural. But others, such as Baruch existence that God is beyond all speech and
Spinoza, have identified God with nature. Some thought. All human beings can do is experience
people characterize God as superhuman. But oth- God in silence.
ers see a human being as God; for example, some
Christians see JESUS as the only God. The medie- What Is God Like?
val philosopher ANSELM defined God as "that
than which nothing greater can be conceived." Just as many religious people find meaning in
But if one is examining a variety of beliefs in God, stories about God, so many religious people tend
as we are here, Anselm's definition will not work. to think of God in personal terms. Indeed, some
insist that people can worship only a personal
—The definition given above God is the supreme God. During the 20th century, many North
—object of worship has its limitations, too. Some Americans questioned the traditional Jewish and
Christian images of a personal God. In their eyes,
people, such as the ancient Epicureans, have be- these ideas were too European and too male to
be attractive to all human beings (see FEMINISM).
lieved in a supreme God but have considered that
God too remote to be concerned about human Philosophers and theologians have tended to

beings or interested in their worship. describe God in terms of more abstract "attrib-
utes" or characteristics. Many Jews, Christians,
How Do People Talk About God? and Muslims have said that God is one, eternal,

Religious people talk about God in several ways. unchanging, all-powerful, all-knowing, present
throughout the universe, and beneficent. During
Most people talk about God mythologically. the 20th centur>' philosophers and theologians
questioned many of these attributes. "Process
GodThat is, they tell stories that treat as a
theologians" suggested that God was always
human-like being. Hindus have many stories
changing and developing. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a
about God in the forms of srVA, \TSHNU,

KRISHNA, RAAL\, and the GODDESS. Jews, Chris-

tians, and Muslims share stories about how God

created the v\orld, almost destroyed it with a

universal FLOOD, and redeemed the people of