The Study of Religion

Discuss about the Comparative Study of Religions.

Comparative religion is an independent section of religious study that is involved with doctrine comparisons and also practices of religions not only in a local set up but also globally as well. It compares the method of interpretation and religious practices that surround different religions from Christianity to Buddhism. Religion is quite diverse and also highly sensitive in its interpretation. It’s always subject to misinterpretation and misconception due to the elements that form the structure and foundation of the study. Studying religion involves certain skills as it is a multifaceted study and quite diverse as well. Therefore, one needs to rely on the factual basis that exists in the religion through use of literary criticism, anthropology, histography, and theology. At one time or the other, man is bound to feel lost or overwhelmed by emotions. During such time, many take time to reflect and meditate on a life that present happiness and freedom to live within serenity. One of the main focus during such times for man involves religion. As many would have it, the main goal of religion tends to be redemption from a sinful and lost life and salvation of oneself and others through believed in God, worship and obedience to the set commandments and rules (Rusell, 2004).

There are many religious doctrines that defines man. From Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam amongst others, the diversity in religion is quite broad. Taking an in-depth look into Hinduism, there is more focus to the soul and what the religion defines in terms of living or adopting a religious lifestyle. In Hinduism, sin is treated as an act of ignorance and it is overcome by way of caste and salvation. It is treated not as an act of disobedience against God but against the moral order (karma). Salvation isn’t dependent on one man and atonement for any sin as in the case of Christianity but on Karma. As one sins, the universe will find ways to make the person undergo suffering of a similar magnitude and form of his sin. Therefore, to safe the soul, one is required to know the Brahman fully, devote themselves to love and obedience to a deity, or perform the dictated rituals as in the passage of life (birth, death and re-birth), one can atone for sin through multiple re-births until he or she gains atonement. This means that one’s soul reaps what he or she sowed in the previous life in either blessings or misery during re-birth. There is a deep-rooted faith in recantation in form of animals as opposed to rebirth into little children as in Buddhism. Therefore, animals are held with a deeper reference as opposed to any other religion (Shouler, 2009).

Hinduism: Focus on the Soul and Caste System

The religion exists in different groups which are based on beliefs of different relics that existed long before the birth of Jesus Christ over 1000 years. Its referred to as the Caste system. The system divides the Hindus into hierarchical groups that are rigid and based on their work (Karma), as well religious duty (dharma). It is justified by the Manusmriti, that dates back to over 1000 years before the birth of Christ and it divides the Hindus into four main categories. The Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Shudras, who all originated from the Hindu God of creation. The Brahmins were teachers and intellectuals that are believed to have hailed from Brahma’s head. The Kshatriyas who were warriors and rulers from his arms, Vaishyas or traders from his thighs and the Shudras Brahma’s feet and hence their work is menial jobs. The four main groups would branch out to their castes and sub castes that were defined by occupation. There was the achhoots who were not part of the Caste system and thus they were referred to as Dalits or the untouchables (BBC News, 2017).

In the Hindu religion, there isn’t more reference made to hell for penance of wrongful deeds during one’s lifetime. There is however a great belief in rebirth where one gets rewarded for good deeds or pays back for wrongful deeds that are done while one is still alive. Karma is the doctrine and belief of re-birth. The process of re-birth is referred to as samsara and is cyclic in nature. To it, there is no beginning and ended and its defined by attachments to desire and appetite binds one’s spirits to a series of births and deaths. Interactions which are fueled by desire either result to good or bad karma. An emancipation from misery and payment of deeds, that is salvation, is referred to as Moksha. There several rituals conducted to commemorate an event that is important example rituals for blessing of marriages, birth of a baby, celebration of a god amongst others. An example of such rituals includes the Shinto worship (BBC News, 2009).

Shinto worship consists of rituals and follows strict conventions of protocol, order and control. It consists of the spirit of Shinto worship. This compromises of sincerity, cheerfulness and purity. This is meant to staffs the senses and minds of those taking part and every set up has meaning to the worship. It can be a private of public worship. It can be a worship at home where a shrine is set aside for the offerings of flowers to the deity, and prayers are said then. It also can be a worship at a shrine at no special day of the week with as the is understanding of the natural world. Moreover, it involves rituals among them Jhansi held before construction of a building, Norioto held before formal ceremonies and their typical rituals like adoration, and purification among others (BBC, 2009). 

Karma and Re-birth in Hinduism

In his mediation under the Bodhi tree, buddha came about with the four truths. The truth of suffering (dukkha), the truth of the origin of suffering (samudaya), the truth of the cessation of suffering (nirodha) and the truth of the path to cessation of suffering (magga). Buddha identifies suffering and that it comes from many forms and also the kinds of suffering from things such as age, sickness and death. He explains the origin of suffering like pain from loss of a love ones and the causes from greed, delusion to hatred and he then explains the cessation of suffering from lifestyle behaviors like estrangement. The fourth truth magga, is the understanding of the end of suffering that is divided into 8 supports and reinforcement from right understanding, right intention, right speech, right action, livelihood, effort mindfulness and concertation. All are defined through wisdom under meditation. They are identified as the eight-folds of Buddhahood (Kozak, 2011).

The folds include Samma ditthi which is the right understanding, samma sankappa – the right thought, samma vaca – right speech, samma kammanta – right action, samma ajiva – right livelihood, samma sati – right mindfulness, samma sammadhi – right concentration. The eight divisions were stated in a numerical order and were intended to be followed as such as they assist in cultivation of each other (Rahula, 2017).

Buddhism is based on concepts that direct Buddha and his followers and they differ greatly from Hinduism. Some of the concepts that Buddhists reject that Hindus follow include:

• Buddha and his followers reject Brahman as a God or Creator of the universe,
• they reject the transmigration of souls from one body to another,
• They reject reincarnation but they believe in rebirth,
• They reject Vedas authority as he rejected Brahmins of the time and
• They also reject caste as they believe in the natural birth of children and not through the mouth.

Being that religion is identified through relationships held between the individual and higher deities, often than not some of the religions perform rituals to improve on their spiritual relationship.  Confucius thought of rituals as the cats of the everyday life are taken as rituals. They may not be arbitrary in nature but they are often routines that one engages in knowingly or unknowingly in the normal course of life. When shaped, the lead to a healthy society. Relationships are foddering duties the arise from one status to another. Individuals are held in different degrees of relationships to different people whether junior to senior relation, students and others. The juniors are seen to owe more duties to the seniors. Apart from the identified religions among them Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism, there are other similar as well as different belief systems, among them Zoroastrianism. It’s a belief that is identifiable to the Islam group of Iran. In the belief, there is the belief that there is a transcendent supreme god, Ahura Mazda or the wise lord that is universal. He is believed to be just and compassionate and the creator of all universe and one who knows everything according to Islamic religion of Iranians.

Shinto Worship and Rituals

Others include the Jewish faith. Their key identifiable features include the fact that they are often viewed as scape goats for societal problems. They also have uniquely large aquiline noses as well as hairy nationals with some of them giving uniquely red hair which gives them the name “red Jews”.  They also are known to be greedy and living in miserly. They are known in ancient relics to charge excessive interests in their loans and this partly because they were restricted to working by Ursula. They hold the Judaism religion with upmost importance, with references to books like Torah and Talmud being made during the course of the study. Talmud means instructions in Hebrew and may refer to Gamara or Mishnah and Gemara together. It is the codes for the Jewish law. Torah are the instructions handed to Moses by God whereas Talmud are the oral word of God that were handed down and repeated to generations.  The Torah documents the instructions that God through Moses passed to the Israelites during the Passover which holds great significance to the Christmas and Jews as well. Passover to the Jews is a special occasion where they commemorate the day that God delivered Jews from suffering and slavery in ancient Egypt, in which they gained freedom from King Pharaoh. Judaism was a religion started in the covenant established between God and the Abraham which gained ground based on Torah after God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Thus, without the great Passover, there wouldn’t be Judaism (Rusell, 2004).

The Jews mostly relate their origin to the ultimate story of Christian and have their lifestyles defined by the Talmud and Torah. The Christian hold the same reverence in terms of creation but have their lifestyles defined by the teachings of Jesus. The birth of Jesus the son of God as in the writings of Luke and Mathew in the New testament was seen and recorded to be a fulfilment on an old testament prophecy where it was claimed that a messiah would deliver Jewish people from captivity. Jesus brought about healing, teachings and freedom of mind. This was the beginning of Christianity or the Christ way of life.  This mode of worship is characterized by prayers and hymns. Christianity expects the church leaders and any other Christian leaders to lead the congregation to the way of Christ, be “shepherds for the flock”. They are expected to lead by example by following the word of God through prayers, sacrifice and self service to others. They are expected to work as a team, to be responsible for those in the church in their walk of faith through biblical guidance and uplifting them when in need (Rusell, 2004).

Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path

For the same, there have been leaders overtime that have taken up roles in defending the Christian virtues especially in terms hey they relate to other people. Amongst them is Martin, Luther. Martin was a great civil rights leader and activist who is greatly remembered for his I have a dream speech that had a great deal of influence to the American society back in the 1950s and 60s. He believed in the need for non-violent protests in changing the tone of movements. He impacted change and gained respect among many political leaders. This is a bid to achieve ecumenism which is the tendency towards the global Christian unity or cooperation that is looked up on by all Christian churches.  There has been transformation that has occurred since 16^th century which involved protestant reformation which means a movement that was imagined ant reforming the beliefs and practices of Roman Catholic Church. Among those great leaders that steer-headed such causes include John Wycliffe. He was a theologian that translated the bible to common language in 1300s and was referred to as the morning star of reformation as he tried to bring together the poor and common folk in the church to be held the same as the elite and thus preached against purgatory and indulgence and transubstantiation. Another is Martin Luther.  He is credited as a great German theologist, composer, author and priest, monk, and a seminal figure that greatly contributed to the protestant reformation and one who had a great belief that salvation was achieved through believe in faith that fear and thus he rejected several teachings and practices of roman catholic churches (Rusell, 2004).

Ecumenism exists in orders that date back to 20th century that were followed in over 101 religious houses and it combines first order characteristics with a family composition. It composes of the external mission which refers the memory on the word of Jesus Christ and improve understanding of the world of God. It is concerned with the witness of the world. There is the Internal life that is tailored to meet eternal mission by focusing on creation of a corporate body that has definitive roles in human enterprise. It is sustained by visions. There is historical function that seeks to stand present to God. It depicts the journey of the religion and seeks to present to the world through social vision and prefiguring of new societies. In the post lude the order seeks to serve the church and the world as a global servant face though support of local network churches in six continents using mobile units (Rusell, 2004).

Key Differences Between Hinduism and Buddhism, and Judaism and Christianity

Mohammad to Prophethood also called Muhammad Abdullah, is seen as the founder of Islam religion and is said to be a messenger of God and the last of the Islamic prophets after Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. The faith that is believed to have existed was gradually revealed to humanity to several prophets (Rusell, 2004). However, the complete faith and revelation of the Islam faith was made through Prophet Muhammad in the 7^th Century. The Islam faith is based on 6 major beliefs which are: The Belief that Allah is the one and only one God, the existence of angles that are present among people, the existence of the holy books, the existence of prophets that existed throughout time e.g. Ibrahim or Abraham, Musa that is Moses, Dawud that is David, Isa that is Jesus and Adam amongst others. They also believe in the presence of judgement day and predestination.  There are important events to the Islam practicing Muslims which includes Hijrah. It means emigration or migration.  It was the Prophet Muhammad’s migration from Mecca in order to escape persecution from the land of Shirk to the land of Islam. Hijrah means movement and locomotion which is why it is used to describe the movement of Muslims from Mecca to Abyssinia or medina. There are two kinds which include the physical and moral Hijras (Dodge, 2009).

More to that, the Islam faith dies branch out into different autonomous divisions that are based on geographical location. An example is the Bahais. This is a consideration of several theological, spiritual ideas, social set ups in the Bahai faith, founded by Bahaullah. It was passed down to several leaders among them Abdul-Baha and Shogi Effendi who were Bahaullah’s sons. The faith combines Islam and Christianist and is collectively referred to as Bahais which are teachings revealed by God. It includes messages and statements by Gods to humans based on gender, race, class, science of religion, compulsory education and elimination of extreme wealth and poverty amongst others (Dodge, 2009).

Some of the key features that stand put between Bahai faith and Christianity include:

Bahai Faith	Christianity
13th largest faith globally.	Largest faith globally.
Concentrated in India, USA and Iran	Concentrated in Europe, North and South America and there is a rapid growth in Africa.
The founder is Baha’u’llah	The founder is Jesus
Its written in Persian	Its written in Aramaic and Greek
It has no splits	Its split into catholic and orthodox and catholic and protestants.
There is believe of one God	There is belief of one God.
There are no other spiritual beings	There are other spiritual beings like angels and demons.
There is believe in seconding coming of Jesus (Dodge, 2009).	There is believe of second coming of Jesus (Rusell, 2004).
The sacred text is based on inspiration	The sacred text is believed to be inspired a well as original texts in original languages too

References

A.V. (2017, April 20). The Bahai faith. Retrieved from The Economist: https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2017/04/19/the-bahai-faith

BBC. (2009, September 16). Shinto Worship. Retrieved from BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/ritesrituals/worship_1.shtml

BBC News. (2009, November 17). The four noble truths. Retrieved from BBC NEWS: https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/beliefs/fournobletruths_1.shtml

BBC News. (2017, July 20). What is India’s caste system? Retrieved from BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35650616

Dodge, H. C. (2009). The Everything Understanding Islam Book: A complete guide to Muslim beliefs, practices, and culture (Everything®) 2nd Edition, Kindle Edition . U.S.A. : Everything.

Kozak, A. (2011). The Everything Buddhism Book: A complete introduction to the history, traditions, and beliefs of Buddhism, past and present. U.S.A: Everything.

Rahula, W. (2017). The Noble Eightfold Path. Tri-cycle, 1.

Rusell, F. M. (2004). The Everything Christianity Book: A Complete and Easy-To-Follow Guide to Protestant Origins, Beliefs, Practices and Traditions. U.S.A. : Everything.

Shouler, K. A. (2009). The Everything Hinduism Book: Learn the traditions and rituals of the “religion of peace” (Everything (Religion)). U.S.A.: Adams Media.