Comparative Religions

Christianity

Christianity is the most widespread religion and has the largest number of followers.

There are three major divisions in Christianity:Roman CatholicismEastern OrthodoxyProtestantism

Christianity centers on the life of Jesus of Nazareth

The Historical Jesus

JesusCharismatic wonder-workerMediated between the everyday world and the

Spirit world Drew upon the Spirit world to alleviate

suffering and seek a new social order“The spirit of the Lord is upon me.”

The spiritual order dominated the biblical tradition in which Jesus stood

It included angels and other invisible beings, but it centered in YahwehThe two were no spatially separateYahweh spoke through prophetsFasting and solitude were important in

communications

The most important fact for the understanding of Jesus’ historical career is that he stood squarely in the tradition of these Spirit-filled mediators.John the Baptist baptized Jesus, causing the heavens

to open and the Spirit of the Lord to descend and declare the Lord’s pleasure with Jesus

Jesus then went into the wilderness for 40 daysWhen he returned from the wilderness, he was empowered

“By the Spirit of God I cast out demons”Jesus accepted without question the supremacy of

Spirit over natureHealed diseasesCast out demonsQuelled stormsParted watersBrought the dead back to life

Jesus used this spiritual power to heal humanity, beginning with the Jews

“Thy kingdom come, on earth”The Jews were in desperate situations. Four sects of

Jews developed from this desperation:Sadducees – made the best of a bad situation.

Accommodated themselves to Hellenistic culture and Roman rule.

The other three hoped for change Essenes believed the world was too corrupt to allow for

faith’s reflowering, so they withdrew into property-sharing communes and devoted themselves to piety

Pharisees remained within society and sought to revitalize Judaism through adhering strictly to the Mosaic law, especially its holiness code

The fourth group were rebels who sought change through armed rebellion It was their revolt in 70 ce that brought the second destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem

Jesus introduced a fifth option for the JewsHe wanted changed where the Sadducees did notHe stayed in the world while the Essenes left itHe promoted peace where the rebels wanted warHe taught Yahweh’s compassion where the Pharisees

taught his holinessThe Pharisees thought since Yahweh was holy, He

wanted the world to be holy too. He chose the Jews to make the world holy.

Jesus disagreed with the Pharisees because of the social lines/classes that were created by it.Pharisaic belief created

The clean and uncleanThe pure and the defiledThe sacred and the profaneJew and GentileReligious and Sinner

Jesus saw the social barriers as an affront to the compassion of Yahweh.

“He went about doing good”He performed miracles but did not emphasize them

He performed them quietly, apart from the crowdHe used them as demonstrations of faith, not power

Jesus was comfortable amongOrdinary peopleSocial misfits

Jesus Healed themCounseled them

Jesus’ disciples and followers thought that if divine goodness were to manifest itself in human form, this is how it would behave

The Christ of Faith

“Never spoke man thus”It was what Jesus said

All of his teachings have counterparts in the Old Testament or Talmud

All together, they are vivid, urgent, and appear newReally, Jesus didn’t say much, but it was HOW

he said it…Love your neighbor as yourselfWhat you would like people to do to you, do to

themCome unto me, all you that labor and are heavy

laden, and I will give you restYou shall know the truth and the truth shall set you

free

Jesus told stories too that amazed those who listened…Stories of

Buried treasureSowersPerl merchantsA good Samaritan

He advised people the opposite of what human nature tended to leanDon’t fight, turn the other cheekLove your enemies and bless those who curse youThe sun rises on the just and the unjustOutcasts and harlots will enter the kingdom of God before

the fake righteousThe way to salvation is narrowHappy people are meek, they cry and are merciful and

pure in heart

The only way to make sense of what Jesus said is to realizeHe saw God as one who loves human beings

absolutelyHe saw God as one who doesn’t look at what

someone was worthThink about this…

Why should we give someone our cloak and our coat?Because God has ministered far more to our needs

Why should we go that extra mile for others?Because we know God has stayed with us for a lot

longerWhy should love our friends AND our enemies?

Because God’s sun shines on both

“We have seen his glory” Jesus didn’t just teach these things, he LIVED them

His entire life was one of Humility Self-giving Love that was unselfish

He didn’t care what people thought of him, he cared about what people thought of God

He loved people and they love himLoved children

Jesus didn’t like anything that stood in the way or mislead people about God’s compassion and love for people. Jesus hatedInjusticeHypocrisy

His disciples and the people said, “We have seen his glory, full of grace and truth

What happened after the crucifixion?Jesus’ close associates reported that he

appeared to them in a new wayCorporeality – eating, and Thomas’s touching the

wound in his sideVisionary – seeing him pass through closed doors

Jesus seems to have resumed his former body, but it was a resurrection, not a resuscitation

Christology is a result of the faith in Jesus’ resurrection

The End & the Beginning

ChristologyExtended the status of goodness in the

universe because it was omnipotent Resurrection reversed the cosmic position in

which the cross has placed Jesus’ goodness.The love of Jesus was not fragile, it was victorious

over everything – including death

Christians became one of the most dynamic groups in human historyThey exploded across the Greco-Roman world

Preaching the Gospel – translated Good NewsBegan in an upper room in JerusalemIn their own generation Christianity had taken root in every

major city of their regionBecause of persecution Christian used the symbol of

the fish to identify each other.When they drew it, it’s head pointed toward the place

where they would secretly meetBecause the Greek letters for fish were also the first

letters of the phrase “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior”

The Good News

Those hearing the Good News were impressed by what they saw and what they heardThey saw transformed livesThey saw people who had changed overnight by finding

the secret of livingNew Christians seemed to have two qualities that

impacted those around themMutual regard for others “see how these Christians

love on anotherTotal absence of social distance they really did regard one

another as equals Joy – Christians possessed an inner peace that surfaced

in happiness even though they were persecuted

What produced their joy and love?Three intolerable burdens had been lifted from

the Christians shouldersFear – including fear of deathGuiltSelf-centeredness

What freed them from these things?Love

LoveHuman love comes from being bombarded by finite

human loveEarly Christians had felt love in infinite proportions

flowing from Jesus – God’s loveIf we felt ourselves loved vividly and personally by one

who unites all power and perfection that would also reduce our fears, guilt and self-centeredness to zero.

New Christians had felt Jesus’ love and believed he was God incarnate so they had felt God’s love.

A new love was born – Christian loveConventional love is evoked by lovable qualitiesChristian love embraced sinners, outcasts,

Samaritans, and enemiesGood example is I Corinthians 13

Christians never felt alone, they believed that Jesus was in their midst as a concrete, energizing power“I am the vine, you are the branches”The Holy Spirit was the life-blood flowing

through the vineTalents of each Christian were different, but

they all had the same life-giving substance – the Holy Spirit

The Church is the Mystical Body of ChristChrist dropped the human body and exchanged

it for a new physical body – the churchChrist’s mission continued through the church

The Mystical Body of Christ

The development of the church literally incorporated people into Christ’s person – the church

Christians varied then and still vary now in their connection with ChristHoly Spirit might be flowing fully through themThey may be a bit sluggishThey could be apostate – paralyzed in their

connectionThe church and the Holy Spirit bound

Christians together and put them in the closest conceivable relation to Christ himself.

Christians came to see the church as having a double aspectThe Invisible Church – Christ and the Holy Spirit

dwelling in people and giving them grace and loveThe Visible Church – it fell short of perfection and

needed to be criticized because it was full of fallible human beings.

Christians differ on the possibilities of salvationLiberals think salvation is possible outside the

Body of ChristFundamentalists think it is notA lot of Christians are in between.

The reason the disciples were first drawn to Jesus was that they were living in the presence of someone in whom love, joy, and power intersected in a way they believed was divine

What is theology?Religion always includes an ethicEthics springs from a vision of reality that sets it in

motionThe vision is born of experience

Religious experience is invisible so it gives rise to symbols as the mind tries to think about the invisible realities

The Mind of the Church

So…we can define theology as the systematization of thoughts about the symbols that religious experience gives rise to

Christian Creeds are the bedrock of Christian theology for being the earliest attempts by Christians to understand systematically the events that had transformed their lives

Three doctrines that are the Christian CreedsDoctrine of the Incarnation claims something

about both God and JesusJesus – by identifying Jesus with God, they said his

life provides the perfect model for usMaking Jesus God and man wasn’t as foreign to the

people in that day as it is today, Emperors often claimed to be divine.

Jesus’ impact laid in the kind of God he disclosed – a God who was willing to assume the limitations of human life Concerned about humanity Concerned enough to suffer in its behalf

These two concerns caused red flags in the eyes of the Jews and the Romans. These worried them as did the Christians’ radically egalitarian social views

Christians were persecuted, but developed many ways to avoid persecution if possible.

Christians didn’t emphasize Jesus’ divinity, their Creeds took it as their first task to insure his humanity

The first Creed that Christians used to prove Christ’s humanity was the Apostles Creed I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven

and Earth I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our LordWho was conceived by the Virgin MarySuffered under Pontius PilateWas crucified, dead and buriedThe third day he arose from the dead, and is seated at the

right hand of the Father and will come again to judge the living and the dead

I believe in the universal Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins and live everlasting.

Amen

After acknowledging God, the Creed moves immediately to its overriding concern: that part of the God-man splice was human in every respect

The Church felt it needed to retain Christ’s humanity.Christ was a bridge between God and humanity

and the bridge must touch both sides

The Doctrine of the AtonementRoot meaning is reconciliation The recovery of wholeness or at-one-mentChristians believed that Christ’s life and death

had effected an unparalleled rapprochement between God and humanity.

Two metaphors have dominated the Church’s understanding of this realignmentThe legalistic one assumes that disobedience –

depicted by the eating of forbidden fruit in Eden – estranged humanity from GodThe sin was of infinite proportion for having been directed

against an infinite GodOnly an infinite initiative could heal the damage doneChrist accomplished this through his vicarious death on

the cross

The deeper meaning of the word is singularSin is disconnectedness, or estrangement from

GodThe heart’s misplacementA misalignment of its affections

Self-love pulls against our love for othersThe bondage that imprisons us is self-love

The higher power to overcome/bridge the gap between God and humanity came in the form of ChristJesus is credited for the restoration of the

bridge between God and humanity – At-one-ment!

The Doctrine of the TrinityWhile god is fully one, God is also three

This is where Jews and Muslims often believe that Christians are not monotheistic

Christians are monotheistic – water, steam, and ice are all H2O just in different fashions

Christians, most of which were Jewish, affirmed the deity of Yahweh easily enough.

They say Jesus as Yahweh’s extension in the worldThen came Pentecost

While the disciples were together suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind

The wind filled the entire house where they were stayingDivided tongues of fire appeared among themA tongue rested on each of themAll of them were filled with the Holy Spirit

Christians viewed this as the arrival of a third party to the divine assembly – thus, the Trinity!

313 ce – the Church becomes a legally recognized religion in Rome

380 ce – it becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire

1054 ce – the Church divides into the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church

16th Century ce – Roman Catholicism is further divides into Protestantism with the Protestant Reformation

The Three Great Branches areRoman CatholicEastern OrthodoxyProtestanism

The Three Great Branches of Christianity

Roman Catholic Church is the Teaching Authority and the Sacramental Agent

Teaching AuthorityBegins with the concept that God came to

earth in the person of Jesus Christ to teach people how to live in this world so as to inherit eternal life

The Gospels alone don’t do everything here because they contain ambiguities

Bible Study, individually pursued, doesn’t resolve these ambiguities because people come up with different interpretations

Roman Catholicism

AmbiguitiesIs divorce permissible?Was Christ born of a virgin?Did his body ascend after death?Is the fourth Gospel authentic?

The Church stands as the Supreme Court on these issues. This leads to the doctrine of papal infallibilityThe earthly head of the Church is the PopeThe Popes are the successors to St. PeterThe doctrine of papal infallibility asserts that when the

Pope speaks officially on matters of faith and morals God protects him from error

The Pope is NOT endowed with extraordinary intelligenceHe does NOT know the answer to every conceivable questionCatholics do NOT have to accept the Pope’s view on politics

The Church as the Sacramental AgentIt’s one thing to know what to do, but another

thing to be able to do it.The Sacraments help Catholics know how to be

able to DO what needs to be done.Since the 12th Century the Roman Catholics

have had seven Sacraments:BaptismConfirmationHoly MatrimonyHoly OrdersSacrament of the SickReconciliationMass

Reconciliation is confessionMass is the Holy Eucharist or Communion

The Catholic Church teaches that when the eucharist elements are consecrated, they become Christ’s body and blood.

The Eucharist conveys grace to Catholics like a boat conveys its passengers

The other six sacraments (except Baptism – which delivers the soul into the supernatural order) convey grace like a letter conveys meaning.

The Eastern Orthodox Church broke officially with the roman Church in 1054 ce.

They honor the same SacramentsShare the same intent regarding the Teaching AuthorityTwo differences arise

The first of these is numericalThe Eastern Church sees fewer issues on which unanimity is called

forOnly ones mentioned in scripture can qualifyOnly 7 times – in the Seven Ecumenical Councils, all before 787 –

has there been need to interpret what scripture says about themThe Roman Catholic Church looks positively on subsequent

pronouncements seeing them as development of doctrineThe Eastern Church sees these as additions which Christians may,

but need not, endorse

Eastern Orthodoxy

The two churches also differ on how these additions are arrived atThe Roman Catholics have the PopeThe Eastern Church has no Pope, they believe God’s truth is

disclosed through “the conscience of the Church” a phrase that refers to Christian consensus

This Eastern view is very corporateAll Christians consider themselves to be “members of one

another”The Eastern Church has taken this more seriously

Each Christian is working, not to save his or her individual soul, but to attain salvation with and through the rest of the Church. “One can be damned alone but saved only with others.” – From Russia

Not only is the destiny of the individual bound up with the entire Church, individuals are responsible for helping to sanctify the worlds of nature and history

The welfare of everything in creation is affected to some degree by what each individual contributes to or detracts from it.

The practical side of this…The Church dogmas reflect the consciences of

Christians generally is one of these, and the principle holds in practical matters as well

The laity in each congregation elect their own clergy It is believed that divine guidance is thought to

suffuse the entire Church in these choicesThe clergy is really on separated by being able

to administer the SacramentsThey can marryEven the “head” of the Church, the Patriarch of

Constantinople, is no more than the “first among equals”

The laity is known as the ‘royal priesthood’

Christianity believes that reality contains two realmsThe naturalThe supernatural

Following death, human life moves to the supernatural domainRoman Catholicism holds that the Trinity

dwells in every Christian soul, but its presence is not normally felt

The Eastern Church actively encourages its members to take the initiative toward the mystical life.

The causes that led to the 16th Century break with Roman CatholicismPolitical economyNationalismRenaissance individualismConcern over ecclesiastical abusesJustification by faithProtestant Principle

Protestantism

The two main reasons for the break were Justification by faith and the Protestant Principle

Justification by FaithProtestant faith is not just a matter of belief It is a response of the entire self

Movement of the mind (believing in certain things)Movement of the heart (loving and trusting those things)Movement of the will (doing things that are prompted by

that loveCreeds have their place, but unless the doctrines one

professes reach one’s heart and change the way life feels, they are mere mouthings

Rituals – prayer, churchgoing, etc – unless they awaken the actual experience of God’s love they are no good either

Where faith is genuine, people want to help others

Protestant Principle warns against idolatryProtestant definition of idolatry is giving one’s life

first and foremost to something in the finite worldIdols cannot deliver on unlimited investments in themIn Biblical times idolatry involved golden calves and

graven imagesToday, idolatry may be sex, success, oneself, an

ideology, an ethnic group, or even one’s nationalityThe chief Protestant idolatry has been bibliolatry –

excessive adherence to the literal interpretation of the Bible

Another instance of idolatry is the deification of private religious experience An example of this is when people think they are Christ or God

or when they do unlawful things because they say God told them to do it.

Holding the Bible in such high, infallible, esteem can also be a form of idolatry Protestants believe that the Bible is the most reliable way they

can enter the divine life - by reading this record of God’s grace with total openness and divine intent

The dangers of misconstruing the Bible is the prospect that they will derive different truths from their encounters The splintering of Protestantism into different

denominations is proof of this hazard Overall, Protestants will take the risk of interpretation to keep

the freedom of interpretation