An Introduction to the Study of Religion

1
An Introduction to the Study of Religion

• For a very long time, and in a great variety of
  ways, human beings have been religious (Wilfred
  Cantwell Smiths opening sentence)
• Homo religiosus (religious man) Homo sapiens
• No one (in the academic world) really knows how
  religion began
• Various theories (twilight of the gods)
• Archaeological evidence (especially graves, etc.)
• Inference
• Influence from Darwin later is better religion
  is improving as time passes
• Look at todays primitive people and how they
  live and draw inferences about the first people
  (prehistoric)
• In a museum there are displays/scenes of
  prehistoric people
• Are they before or after the fall of man?

2

• What is the basic idea behind religion?
• Sunrise on Christology p 172-176
• quotes

3

• The Perspective of Divine Principle and
  Unification Thought
• UT
• Law of Dominion of the Center (environment is
  prepared, then S is established)
• Central Providence (Judeo-Christian tradition)
  and Peripheral Providence (the other world
  religions)
• p 327 D Pr preparation for the First Coming
• Among the worlds peoples, God founded religions
  (or philosophies) suited to their regions and
  cultures by which they could make the necessary
  internal preparations to receive the Messiah
• In India, Buddhism through Gautama Buddha
  (565-485 BC)
• In Greece, Socrates (470-399 BC)
• In the Far East, Confucianism through Confucius
  (552-479 BC)
• Also Tao Te Ching, Mahavira, Upanishads,
  Zoroaster, Hebrew Prophets, Pythagoras, Socrates,
  Aristotle, Plato
• All these roughly 400-500 years before Christ

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The Axial Age

• John Hick (God Has Many Names) 45-6 In what Karl
  Jaspers has identified as the axial period or
  axial age, from approximately 800 to
  approximately 200 BC, significant human
  individuals appeared through whose free responses
  to the Eternal Onethough always within the
  existing setting of their own culturesmans
  awareness of the divine was immensely enlarged
  and developed.
• Thus, the axial age was a uniquely significant
  band of time in mans religious history.
• One can say that in this period all the major
  religious options (the different forms of our
  awareness of God) were identified and established.

5

• What is the inner (genuine) significance of these
  various religions?
• God is preparing the world to receive the Messiah
  (Jesus the Christ)

6

• p 178 Sunrise on Christology
• If Jesus had not been crucified.
• Jesus would have gone to India, China and the
  Orient, and then to the Western world.
• What would he have encountered?
• Jesus would have encountered teachings which
  believed in spiritual teachers and individuals
  who descend from the gods, teachings which
  emphasize inner purity of thought, etc. and which
  were more into the human spirit, heart, and
  purity than into textual authority
• In Israel, Jesus, who gave the impression of a
  street person in reality encountered a
  religious leadership (Pharisees, Saducees, etc.)
  which expected Elijah first, before the
  Messiah, and which regarded him as a heretic, a
  blasphemer, a liar, and a dangerous charlatan,
  who used the power of the Devil, all based upon
  their strict textual authority interpretation
  of their Scripture (Torah)

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• Jesus was to come upon the worldwide foundation
  of preparation, and through his teaching was to
  unify all religions and civilizations into one.
• Buddhism (Dhammapada)
• Hinduism (Bhagavad Gita)
• Confucianism (Analects of Confucius)
• These Scriptures all are resonant with Jesus
  teachings
• He would have been seen as an avatar by Hindus,
  the Maitreya Buddha by Buddhists, the New
  Confucius by Confucians, etc.

8

• DPr 104
• God helps ignorant, fallen people to elevate
  their spirituality and enlighten their intellect
  through spirit and truth
• In the course of history, peoples spiritual and
  intellectual levels have gradually been elevated
• Spirit and truth are unique, eternal and
  unchanging. However, the degree and scope of
  their teaching and the means of their expression
  will vary from one age to another as they restore
  humanity from a state of utter ignorance.
• Jesus himself was the way, the truth and the
  life (and the love, SMM), not his words. His
  words were just the means by which he expressed
  himself.
• Thus, the scope and depth of his words, and his
  teaching method varied according to whom he was
  speaking
• The bible literally is simply paper and ink (just
  as any scripture text)
• The verses in the Bible which express information
  (truth) are only one means of expressing the
  truth, and are not the truth itself. We are to
  embody the word of God, just as Adam and Eve were
  meant to (FF believe FS embody)
• Other scriptures (Dhammapada, Lotus Sutra, Vedas,
  Bhagavad Gita, Koran, Analects, Adi Granth, etc.)
  also express the truth, directly or indirectly,
  but with a different scope, depth, and/or means
  of expression

9

• p 96 Divine Principle Signs of the restoration
  of the 3 great blessings in the Last Days
• Huston Smith Accents of the Worlds Religions
• India psychological aspect first blessing
• Far Eastern social aspect second blessing
• Western nature, natural third blessing
• Inescapably, a person is involved in three basic
  encounters with nature, with other people, and
  with him/herself. These may be identified as
  humanitys natural, social, and psychological
  problems.
• The great surviving cultural traditions are also
  three The Far Eastern, the Indian, and the
  Western.
• We can think of each as having attended to one
  problem more diligently than to the other two.
• Specifically, the religions of the West (Judaism,
  Christianity, and Islam) have accented the
  problem of humanitys relationship to nature
  those of the Far East (Confucianism, Taoism, and
  Shinto) have stressed its social problem and
  those of India (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism) have
  attended primarily to its psychological problem,

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• What gave these traditions their distinctive
  slants or perspectives?
• probably God, Who, in His wisdom, gave to each
  culture the religion suitable to its needs,
  mission, capacity, etc.
• This question probably does not have a complete
  answer.
• p 136 In the end all three traditions are
  brought to the brink of disaster because each has
  succeeded so well on one front that it felt safe
  in neglecting the other two.
• the three blessings must be fulfilled together
  fulfillment of the 3 blessings will bring all the
  religions together
• p 138 It would appear that an adequate culture
  must strike all three notes as a chord. In
  developing this chord of a fully adequate world
  culture, each of the three great traditions
  appears to have something of importance to
  contribute. Perhaps each has something to learn
  as well.

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• Ewert H. Cousins (Interreligious Dialogue The
  Spiritual Journey of Our Time)
• Individuals today have embarked upon a spiritual
  journey the common, collective spiritual journey
  of the human community as we approach the 21st
  century (we are now in the 21st century).
• This is a journey that opens up through
  interreligious dialogue
• Interreligious dialogue is the distinctive
  spiritual journey of our time
• Interreligious Dynamics (together with the
  Dialogue Decalogue)
• Must take place on a deep, spiritual level
  (sharing from the heart, solidly rooted,
  supported by wisdom)
• Passing over and coming back
• We will find similarities, as well as differences
  (challenging, but creative)
• We will find ourselves being drawn to an emerging
  global consciousness
• To understand this global consciousness, situate
  interreligious dialogue in a larger context
• Look us look to another great transitional
  period the Axial Period (which we just noted)

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• Karl Jaspers
• It would seem that this axis of history is to be
  found in the period around 500 BC, in the
  spiritual process that occurred between 800 and
  200 BC. It is here that we meet with the most
  deep cut dividing line in history. Man, as we
  know him today, came into being. For short we may
  style this the Axial Period.
• In the Axial Period there emerged great
  spiritual leaders, prophets and philosophers,
  whose teachings represent a change from mythic to
  self-reflective thinking, from union with the
  cosmos and the tribe to individual identity which
  stands apart from nature and collectivity.
• In this age were born the fundamental categories
  within which we still think today, and the
  beginnings of the world religions, by which human
  beings still live, were created.

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• Karl Jaspers
• I believe that we are now going through a Second
  Axial Period, which will be as momentous as the
  First. While the First Axial Period produced
  individual consciousness, the Second Axial Period
  is producing global consciousness.
• The complex consciousness of the Second Axial
  Period is global in two senses
• In a horizontal sense it is encompassing the
  entire human community on the planet in all of
  its historical experience we are to become one
  family, heartistically
• In a vertical sense it is recovering its
  rootedness in the earth. The religions of the
  world must recognize the value of the secularthe
  political, economic, social and biological
  dimensions of life but this secular energy must
  be grounded in spiritual energy so that it will
  not become chaotic and destroy life on our
  planet. we must restore society (the world) in a
  real sense the politics, economics, media,
  education, etc.
• In such a global context, interreligious dialogue
  is not a luxury, but a necessity!

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Can We Know the Religious Faith of Others?

• To know the religious faith of others is to
  understand the existential interpretations of a
  tradition.
• We cannot be an observer, but must be a
  participant (Hyung Jin Nim!)
• The existentialist dilemma you cannot know
  before you leap, and you find it hard to leap
  before you know.
• The participant can see very clearly that the
  outsider may know all about a religious system,
  and yet may totally miss the point.
• From what can faith be inferred? Not from a
  doctrine, or from a book, but from the whole of
  the believers life
• Even a believers own words cannot fully or
  adequately formulate his/her faith. The intensely
  personal quality of life is not open to literal
  representation.
• A faith cannot adequately be expressed in words,
  not even by a person who holds it devoutly.
• Friendship can begin to enable an enquirer to
  directly intuit the quality and depth of personal
  faith.

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• There is a relationship between a persons own
  personal faith and his/her understanding of the
  religious life of other people.
• My capacity to apprehend significantly and truly
  the religious stand of other individuals turns in
  part on the understanding that I bring to itthe
  religious understanding, in short, my own faith.
  cf Subjective action in UT
• The fact of my being a Christian is relevant to
  my understanding the faith of Hindus, Buddhists,
  Muslims, and the like.
• The fact of my being a Unificationist is relevant
  to my understanding the faith of Hindus,
  Buddhists, Muslims, and the like.
• Sunrise on Christology
• p 197 We must know the essence of every religion
• p 200 A life lived with true love
• p 200 Can you ask all believers.
• p 200 Become a true believer
• Of course, the spirit world will help us, if we
  can mobilize it. True Father has told us that we
  must know the Spirit World!

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• We shall be able to grasp anothers faith only to
  the extent that we possess the appropriate
  subjective condition that equips us for this
  task. And what is this condition? It is that we
  should ourselves possess a personal faith that
  resembles the quality of the faith we seek to
  understand. We are able to grasp the faith of
  another only to the extent that we share it.
• A secularist, secular humanist, atheist, etc.
  cannot understand someones faith.
• Now, with all of these considerations in mind
• The basic idea behind religion
• The impending second axial period
• The fact that all religions must
  participate/cooperate in creating the new world
• That interreligious dialogue is a necessity for
  our time
• That we can know the faith of another only if we
  possess a personal faith of an equivalent level
• That we must become a better believer than any
  believer of any religion
• And that we need to mobilize the spirit world to
  help us.let us turn to examine the various
  religious traditions that have existed in the
  past, and those which exist today

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Prehistoric Religion (millions of years ago)

• Gods Will the World (millions of years ago)
  p 363 404 445 ??? too
• Neanderthal man
• Graves evidence of belief in an afterlife
• Placement of the body use of red ochre
  coloring
• Cro-Magnon man (Upper Paleolithic age) hunting
  and fishing
• Cave paintings (magico-religious function)
  importance of magic
• Everyday life was lived just inside of caves
• Paintings are in inaccessible places deep in the
  confines of a cave
• Realistic animals (these were their livelihood)
• Unrealistic human figures (of much less
  importance)
• The shaman of Les Trois Freres (a special
  costume)
• Venus of Willendorf (emphasis on productivity,
  fecundity, fertility)
• Neolithic age agriculture becomes important
• Dolmens (such as are found in Korea)
• Cromlechs (Stonehenge, in England)

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Some characteristics of primal religion today

• Primitive society is static and resists change
• Awe before the sacred (an emotional world,
  pre-scientific, the unknown)
• Niagara Falls, a bolt of lightning, a herd of
  buffalo, etc.
• Expression of anxiety in ritual (to appease the
  powers that be)
• Like a small child afraid of the dark
• Ritual and expectancy ritual is very real and
  very serious charter
• Myth and ritual (and symbol)
• Explain and give weight to the supernatural
  origin and authority of the communitys customs,
  ceremonies and beliefs
• Origin of important things in life (food, water,
  etc.)
• Bi-polarity of religion and magic
• Magic an endeavor through utterance of set
  words, or performance of set acts, or both, to
  control or bend the powers of the world to human
  will.
• Types of magic
• Sympathetic magic (law of sympathy)
• Homeopathic magic or imitative magic (law of
  similarity) like influences or produces like
  draw a picture here, make it happen out there
  (i.e. Gen 30 37-42)
• Contagious magic (law of contact) contact
  obtain a strand of hair (which becomes the
  whole person) and set it on fire

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• Prayer (petitionary) and spells (coercive)
• Divination (there are signs, if you can see
  them)
• Belief in mana (a force) often associated with
  taboo
• Fathers mana GsWW, 407 GsWW
• Resembles electricity (neither good nor evil,
  but it can do things)
• Animism (spirits are everywhere)
• It is not a dead universe (Newtons universe
  machine)
• Veneration and worship of powers (powers we dont
  understand)
• Recognition of high gods
• Taboo (a danger) often associated with mana an
  insulator
• Forbidden by convention, not by statute (i.e. II
  Sam 61-7)
• Purification rites (when one does make a mistake)
• Sources of pollution birth, death, blood,
  menstruation, disease, etc.
• Sacrifice
• Attitudes toward the dead (a great unknown)
• Totemism (identification with nature)
• There are some residual holdovers affecting us
  even today
• Do we carry True Fathers picture, UC flag, etc.?

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Dimensions of religion

• Religious traditions possess a variety of
  dimensions
• Doctrinal (dogmas, conceptual, intellectual,
  beliefs)
• Truth claims
• Inter-religious dialogue
• Mythical (universal myths, stories of the gods)
• Myths exist in every culture (Joseph Campbell
  Hero with a Thousand Faces)
• Garden of Eden story in Genesis (this is myth)
  not scientific
• Ritual/liturgical (liturgical calendar)
• Sacred vs mundane
• Sacred time/sacred space
• Unification Pledge service (???)
• Communal/sociological (community of faith set
  apart)
• Ethical/moral (dos and donts of life standards
  of right/wrong, good/evil)
• Dae Mo Nim do not smoke, drink, or take drugs
  never fall (dont look, touch, etc.)
• Aesthetic (art and architecture)
• Paintings (Buddhist, Sistine chapel,
  Michelangelo, etc.)
• Statues (Maitreya Buddha, Hindu gods and
  goddesses, etc.)
• Buildings (temples, churches, cathedrals, etc.)
• Writings (Scriptures, Calligraphy, koan, etc.)

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Classification of religions

• No single method
• Linear and cyclical
• Personal and impersonal
• Monotheistic, polytheistic (henotheism,
  kathenotheism)
• Chronological appearance
• Textual and non-textual
• Individual and communal
• Gods Will and the World
• True Fathers classification (p 554f)
• Primal (ancient, Shamanism)
• Indian religions (Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism,
  Sikhism)
• Japanese (Shinto)
• Chinese (Taoism, Confucianism)
• Semitic (Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity,
  Islam)
• Native American, African Traditional

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Categories for the study of world religions

• In our study of each tradition or path, we will
  consider
• View of God/Ultimate Reality
• View of reality/the cosmos/nature of the universe
• View of the human being
• View of the human problem (fall, ignorance,
  illusion, sin, etc.)
• View of salvation/liberation/enlightenment/healing
  
• View of conduct (what is the correct conduct
  leading to enlightenment?)
• View of history (linear, cyclical, etc.)
• View of art (statues, temples, scriptures,
  paintings, etc.)
• Providential role/situation/mission/importance,
  etc.

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The Origin and Purpose of Religion

• Gods Will and the World
• The origin and purpose of religion
• Sunlight on Christology, p 172-
• Religion is
• a mending process
• an interim tool
• to help us dominate the body and free the mind
  (conscience)
• If you are living with true love, then you have
  already achieved the highest goal of any
  religion. (GsWW, p. 635)

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Shamanism

• An archaic religion
• Found in earliest cultures worldwide (medicine
  man, witchdoctor, etc.)
• Apparently inherent in human nature itself (not
  produced by culture)
• The shaman specializes in techniques of
  (achieving) ecstasy
• Can deliberately enter into states of trance (at
  will)
• Transcending the normal, mundane, everyday
  consciousness
• The shaman is a specialist in the human soul
• Three level universe
• Upper, middle, lower
• Cosmic mountain, world tree, tree of life, cosmic
  pillar, ladder, arrows, Jacobs ladder, rainbow,
  bridge, river, cord, etc.
• Unlike most people, the shaman can freely travel
  in all spheres
• Supernatural abilities, mastery of fire,
  flight, immune to injury, etc.
• The shaman controls the spirit world the
  spirits (can leave body or be possessed)
• The SW is hierarchically organized, with four
  quadrants, numerous spirits
• There are spirits everywhere, constantly
  affecting human beings
• Has learned its secrets, often through a symbolic
  death and dismemberment
• Has cured himself, and thus has the knowledge of
  the spirits
• The shaman protects the psychic integrity of the
  community (?? spirit sickness)
• Can discover the (spiritual) source of problems
  and, more importantly, give solutions

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Shamanism in Korea

• Has existed throughout Korean history
• From Neolithic times Tangun was the first shaman
  (Paektu-san)
• Shamanism (2333 BC), Buddhism, Confucianism,
  Christianity, present (2007)
• Queen Min brought her favorit manshin into the
  palace
• 1992 McAlpine early revival of the stock market
• A full appreciation of Korean culture requires an
  understanding of shamanism (i.e., 10 symbols of
  longevity piles of rock on trails ribbons on
  trees, gold Shilla crown, etc.)
• Mutang (woman), manshin (powerful), paksoo (man),
  pansoo, etc.
• In Korea a transformation from a male-dominated
  activity to a female-dominated activity
• Lowest on the social totem pole
• Most sought after in times of difficulty (it
  fulfills practical human needs)
• ?? (??! 10,000 years) ?? 10,000 (i.e., all)
  spirits
• There are both good and evil spirits
• The most vicious evil spirits are spirits of
  those who die with grievances (han)
• They can become good or bad depending on how they
  are served

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• Manshins are family shamans or professional
  shamans
• Professional shamans become so through
• Heredity
• Training least powerful
• Spirit-appointed (these have had spiritual
  experiences) most powerful
• Calling and initiation of a woman as a shaman
• Revelation experience comes with a mysterious
  untreatable illness (no doctor can cure it)
• Dream-like state, no appetite, sickly, dreams,
  has illusions, weak memory, feels pain in her
  limbs, etc.)
• Only a positive response to the calling can
  bring a cure
• Becomes an apprentice in training (under a
  mentor)
• Must learn many things (chants, dances, rituals,
  etc.)
• Initiation ritual (???) she becomes a
  god-descended person (????)
• The spirit will come, will speak, will act, etc.
  (?/?)
• The kut ceremony (the ritual drama of the séance)
• Main ritual usually at night (a greater ? has a
  number of ?? or ??)
• Calling the god amusing the god (purpose,
  prayer, chants, dances, music, props and
  costume) sending the go
• Can last from a few hours to several days
  usually in stages
• Offerings, music, dancing, drama, chanting,
  acrobatics, theater, etc.

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Kut (?) Ceremony

• Kut ceremony has many varieties (many purposes)
  practical advantage
• New year before a trip before a new job when a
  new house is built to pray for a baby, for
  marriage, when there is a problem of any kind
  (disease, accident, bad grade, etc.) performed
  on a boat for when the head of household is 27,
  37, 47, 57, 67, and 77 years old performed for a
  good crop, etc.
• A most representative ? ritual is to pray for the
  realization of wishes
• The ceremony is very colorful, kinetic, musical,
  dramatic, and entertaining
• A ? ceremony usually has an offering table and
  involves dancing, etc.
• Manshin must learn the choreography, chants, etc.
  of each ?
• Certain equipment is used fans, swords, drums,
  bells, mirrors, trident, costumes
• Costumes are symbolic (it transubstantiates the
  manshin)
• The shamanistic deities are usually depicted on
  the fans
• Care and feeding of ancestors (becomes quite
  complex)
• Both relationships through marriage and through
  birth
• Ancestors, generational relationships, different
  households, etc. (chart)

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• A manshin may have many clients (must know many
  details about her clients)
• Not all manshins are of equal power
• Effective manshins will have more clients
  greater reputation
• A powerful manshin dreams of her clients and
  anticipates their questions before they enter her
  house
• She knows all of the ancestors, ghosts, and gods
  of her clients families
• The sidewalk variety (fortune tellers)
• A manshin has extraordinary energy, mental
  acuity, sensitivity
• Prior purification is necessary for a successful
  ? ritual
• If any pollution, could be extremely injurious
• Someone with a wrong motivation
• Someone who is skeptical, etc.
• Someone impure

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• God A whole pantheon of gods and goddesses
• Hananim O Pang Chang Koon (five divine generals)
• Old man of the mountain (often seen with a tiger)
• Four quadrants of the cosmos and the apex
• Spirits of the air, water, soil, trees, rocks,
  house, etc.
• Reality three story universe (upper world, this
  world, lower realms)
• Human being body and spirit (actually several
  layers of spirit)
• Human problem out of harmony with people,
  ancestors, and the spirits
• Human salvation a here and now salvation, on
  the earth, in this lifetime
• Keep harmony with ancestors, people, and spirits
• A good long, healthy, productive, prosperous life
  with many male children
• Human conduct maintain harmony all around
  oneself
• History is cyclical no view of an end or
  consummation or eschaton
• Considerable religious art, expression of the
  spirit
• The gold Silla Dynasty crowns (cosmic tree and
  reindeer antlers)
• The 10 Symbols of longevity (folding screen)
  turtles, deer, cranes, pines, bamboo, sun,
  clouds, rocks, water, magic pulocho fungus)

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• Unification Shamanism
• 1. Gods truth is fully expressed 1. Partial
  truth
• 2. Purpose of creation is made very clear 2. No
  clear purpose of creation
• 3. The SW is understood in context 3. The SW is
  dealt with as such and as experienced
• a. it is real
• b. suffering opens one
• 4. Messiah/True Parents spiritualistis 4.
  Shamans (manshins, etc.)
• (spiritualists)
• 5. Actions -? benefit one in eternity 5.
  Actions -? bring benefit
• in this world, here and now
• Both traditions include ritual and ceremony
  both traditions involve cultural influences and
  conditioning both traditions have diverse
  expressions
• Shamanism can only give temporary comfort or
  reduce the problem temporarily. It cannot solve a
  problem fundamentally. Unification can give a
  fundamental solution.