Introduction to World Religions and Belief Systems

Essential Questions:
1. Observation: What is a religious person?
a spiritual person?
2. What is religion?
3. How is religion different from spirituality,
theology, and the philosophy of
religion?
4. What is a belief system or world view?
Observe carefully.
Religious
vs.
Spiritual
What is Religion?
Essential Question No. 2
"By religion, then, I
understand a propitiation
or conciliation of powers
superior to man
which are believed to
direct and control the
course of nature and of
human life."
James George Frazer
"A religion is a unified system of
beliefs and practices relative to
sacred things, that is to say, things
set apart and forbidden – beliefs
and practices which unite into
one single moral community
called a Church, all those who
adhere to them." (b) [Religion is]
"the self-validation of a society by
means of myth and ritual."
Emile Durkheim
"Religion, like culture, is a
symbolic transformation
of experience."
Thomas F. O’Dea
“The Human Way
to God”
Elements of Religion
reflects an effort for a higher dimension of existence

a framework of transcendent beliefs

texts or scriptures
rituals

Sacred Spaces
 “The pursuit of transformation
guided by a sacred belief system”
What, then, is a belief system?
Essential Question No. 3
“Homo religious”
“a particular way of
ordering the realities
of the world”
Belief systems are the stories we
tell ourselves
to define our personal sense of
Reality.
Every human being has a belief
system that
they utilize, and it is through this
mechanism that we individually,
"make sense" of the
world around us
 Religion
vs.
Spirituality,
Spirituality
Theology
The Philosophy
of Religion
Spirituality
What is
Spirituality?
Spirituality is one’s
integrative view of life.
It involves a quest for
the meaning and
ultimate value of life
as opposed to an
instrumentalist or
materialistic attitude to
life.
Elements of
Spirituality
(a) holistic(fully
integrated view to life),
(b) quest for meaning
(including the purpose
of life), (c) quest for the
sacred (beliefs about
God), and (d) suggests
a self-reflective
existence
Theology
What is Theology?

a critical study of the nature of the divine

What is Theology?

a study of God’s way to humans

The Philosophy
of Religion
a philosophical
examination
of religion
a reflection and an
analysis of humans’
lived experience of
God
What is Religion?
You can not believe in
God until you believe
in yourself.
Swami Vivekananda