Beginning the Journey

Ch. 1

So What?Now What?

• What’s wrong with our world?• Is religion a major cause of evil in our world?• Does religion make the world a better place?• What can be done to make the world a better

place?• Can religion be defined? Is its expression

limitless?

What is Religious Diversity (pgs. 7-8)

Majority Religion, by Country

Global Catholic Trends

• In 1910 66% of all Christians lived in Europe. In 2010 only 25% lived in Europe.

• In 1910 only 9% (8.5 million) of Africans were Christian. In 2010, 63% (516 million) are Christian, which is an increase of 6000%.

• Sub-Saharan African alone makes up 24% of the total global Christian population

Global Catholic Trends

• Nigeria today has more than twice as many Protestants that Germany (the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation)

• Brazil has more than twice as many Catholics than Italy (headquarters of Roman Catholicism)

• The United States is the largest Christian nation in the world with 247 million Christians.

Global Catholic Trends

• Ten Largest Catholic Countries: 1. Brazil=133 million; 2. Mexico=96 million; 3. Philippines= 76 million; 4. USA=74 million; 5. Italy=50 million; 6. Columbia=38 million; 7. France=37 million; 8. Poland=35 million; 9. Spain=34 million; 10. DR Congo=31 million

• Total World Catholic Population approx. 1.1 billion.

This is Religious Diversity

Is there Religious Diversity in USA or SA, TX?

• http://www.city-data.com/county/religion/Bexar-County-TX.html

World Religions vs. World’s Religions (pg. 8)

• Our study will encompass the world’s religions but not all of them.

• World Religions implies an international reality.• This study will survey those traditions that have

influenced the world in a significant way.• World Religions=the religions we will study.• World’s Religions=all the religions in the world!

So, what is Religion?What a religion is? (pg. 9)

• From the Latin word religio which means “to bind.”

• People bound together for something worthy of reverence and respect.

• The increased separation refers to….

• One does not simply define religion.

Why Study World Religions? [pg. 10]• To gain a clearer understanding of one’s own faith, which in turn

enables a person to be more committed to and thus grow in his or her own religious tradition.

• To assist a person in being more open and accepting of people who, on the surface, seem very different.

• To dispel fears and misunderstandings relating to persons of other religious traditions.

• To gain a better insight into human beings by understanding their religious activities.

• To gain a better understanding of the history of humankind’s various civilizations, since religion is almost always an important factor.

• To gain a better understanding of the various cultures around the globe today.

• To learn from some of the world’s great sources of wisdom.

Nostra Aetate (Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions)

• The Catholic Church rejects nothing which is true and holy in these religions. She looks with sincere respect upon those ways of conduct and of life, those rules and teaching which, though differing in many particulars for what she holds and sets forth, nevertheless often reflect a ray of that TRUTH which enlightens all. (2)– Quote found on pg. 11 of textbook.

The importance of dialogue (head) and empathy (heart) (pg. 11)

• “Walk a mile in the moccasins of another”

• Empathy means to identify and understand the situation of another.

• c : a discussion between representatives of parties to a conflict that is aimed at resolution <a constructive dialogue between loggers and environmentalists>

Significance of Vatican II (pgs. 12-16)

Nostra Aetate (Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions)

• The Church therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men. (3)

Key Terms pgs. 12-16

• Liturgy-a definite set of forms for public religious worship, the official public workshop of the Church.

• Evangelization-from the root word for “gospel,” the “sharing of the good news.”

• Witnessing-giving testimony of one’s religious faith to another.

• Ecumenism-the movement that seeks the union of all Christian faiths and eventually the unity of all peoples throughout the world.

Cults vs. Sects

Difference? (not in textbook)• Cult-an organization

characterized by mind control, charismatic leadership, deception, exclusivity, alienation, exploitation and a totalitarian worldview.

• Sect-a group adhering to a distinctive doctrine or to a leader. A small group of people within a religion who hold beliefs or practices which are considered unconventional.

Sacred Stories and Sacred Scriptures (pgs. 17-18)

• Myths- traditional or ancient stories that help to provide a worldview of a people by explaining their creation, customs, or ideals.

Myth? Fact or Fiction

Assualt on belief…

Literalists?!

Assualt on belief…

Beliefs and Practices pgs. 19-20• Catholicism (Precepts of

the Church)=• Mass on Sundays and Holy

Days• Eucharist at least once

during Easter Season• Recon. At least once a year• Observe fasting and days of

abstinence• Help with the needs of the

Church

• Islam (Pillars of Worship)• Shahada=acknowledging

only one God and his messenger

• Salat=performing ritual prayer

• Zakat-alms to the poor• Sawm-fasting in

Ramadan• Hajj-pilgrimage to Mecca

Sacred Time, Sacred Places and Spaces, and Other Elements or Patterns (pgs. 21-22)

• READ THE TEXTBOOK!

The case for belief.The case for unbelief.

Does Religion Matter? YES!• It is by now a Sunday supplement commonplace that the…

modernization of the world is accompanied by a spiritual malaise that has come to be called alienation…. At its most fundamental level, the diagnosis of alienation is based on the view that modernization forces upon us a world that, although baptized as real by science, is denuded of all humanly recognizable qualities; beauty and ugliness, love and hate, passion and fulfillment, salvation and damnation. It is not, of course being claimed that such matters are not part of existential realities of human life. It is rather that the scientific worldview makes it illegitimate to speak of them as being “objectively” part of the world, forcing us instead to define such evaluation and such emotional experience as merely subjective projections of people’s inner lives.

-Manfred Stanley, Sociologist

The Great Debate

Three inescapable problems for Humanity!!!

• The Nature problem or how to win food and shelter from the environment

• The Social problem or how to get along with one another.

• The Religious problem or how to relate themselves to the total scheme of things.

Making Sense of 2 Competing Worldviews

• Scientific Worldview– Scientific Method– Hypotheses– Theory– Ex. Big Bang Theory– Evolution

• The notion that the scientific method can give us proof to definitively know something. Proof stacked upon proof gives us a huge edifice of knowledge about our world we refer to as the Scientific Worldview.

• Traditional/Religious Worldview– World’s Religions– Religion and Humanity

interrelated– Ex. Sacraments– 16 Documents of Second

Vatican Council• Religious systems seek to

articulate a worldview which help adherents make sense of life and its meaning. This worldview attempts answer the ultimate questions in life.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=niaux+cave+art&ie=UTF-8&ei=VascUuyQLOqisQT3y4G4Dg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg