Topic: Universalizing Religions

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Topic Universalizing Religions

• Aim In what ways are universalizing religions
  distributed throughout the world?
• Do Now How would you define a religion?

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3 Religious Traditions

• Animist Traditions Various ethnic, tribal forms
  of nature worship (Native American/Voodoo)
• Hindu-Buddhist Traditions many levels of
  existence (reincarnation) - began in same
  geographic region (India)
• Abrahamic Traditions Judaism, Christianity,
  Islam - similar origin stories, core
  beliefs/codes of conduct, monotheistic, same
  geographic area of origin

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How do Universalizing and Ethnic Religions Differ?

• Ethnic
• Has meaning in particular place only.
• Unknown source.
• Content focused on place and landscape of origin.
• Followers highly clustered.
• Holidays based on local climate and agricultural
  practice.

• Universalizing
• Appeal to people everywhere
• Individual founder (prophet)
• Message diffused widely (missionaries)
• Followers distributed widely.
• Holidays based on events in founders life.

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Universalizing Ethnic

• Based on the previous definition, can you list
  some universalizing and ethnic religions based on
  your study of global history?

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• Branches of Universalizing Religions
• Three principal universalizing religions divided
  into branches, denominations, and sects.
• A branch is a large and fundamental division
  within a religion.
• A denomination is a division of a branch that
  unites a number of local congregations in a
  single legal and administrative body.
• A sect is a relatively small group that has
  broken away from an established denomination.

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Amish Renegades Are Accused in Bizarre Attacks on
Their Peers By ERIK ECKHOLM and DANIEL
LOVERING Published October 17, 2011 ---New
York Times
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Christianity
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Christianity

• 2 billion adherents make it most practiced in
  the world.
• Originated in Bethlehem (8-4 BC) and Jerusalem
  (AD 30) with Jesus Christ.
• Spread by missionaries and the Roman Empire
  (Constantine A.D. 313).
• It is the most practiced religion in Africa
  today.

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• Christianity
• Hierarchical Diffusion
• Emperor Constantine helped diffuse the religion
  throughout the Roman Empire by embracing
  Christianity.
• Relocation Diffusion
• Missionaries, individuals who help transmit a
  religion through relocation diffusion, initially
  diffused the religion along protected sea routes
  and the excellent Roman roads.
• Migration and missionary activity by Europeans
  since 1500 have extended Christianity all over
  the world.
• Permanent resettlement in the Americas,
  Australia, and New Zealand

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DIFFUSION OF CHRISTIANITY Christianity began to
diffuse from Palestine through Europe during the
time of the Roman Empire and continued after the
empires collapse. Paul of Tarsus, a disciple of
Jesus, traveled especially extensively through
the Roman Empire as a missionary.
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• Branches of Universalizing Religions
• Branches of Christianity in Europe
• Three major branches include
• Roman Catholic (51 percent of the worlds
  Christians)
• Protestant (24 percent of the worlds Christians)
  
• Orthodox (11 percent of the worlds Christians)
• Distributions in Europe
• Roman Catholicism dominant branch in southwestern
  and eastern Europe.
• Protestantism dominant branch in northwestern
  Europe.
• Orthodoxy dominant branch in eastern and
  southeastern Europe.

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Notice that the Roman Catholic and Protestant
areas have sharp, distinct boundaries
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• Branches of Christianity in the Western
  Hemisphere
• 93 percent of Christians in Latin America are
  Roman Catholic.
• 40 percent in North America
• Protestant churches have approximately 82 million
  members in the United States.
• Baptist church has largest number of adherents
  (37 million).

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The shaded areas are U.S. counties in which more
than 50 percent of church membership is
concentrated in either Roman Catholicism or one
Protestant denomination. Baptists are
concentrated in the Southeast, Lutherans in the
Upper Midwest, Mormons in Utah and contiguous
states, and Roman Catholics in the Northeast and
Southwest. The distinctive distribution of
religious groups within the United States results
from patterns of migration, especially from
Europe in the nineteenth century and from Latin
America in recent years.
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Islam
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Islam 1.3 billion adherents

• Originated in Saudi Arabia (Mecca and Medina)
  around AD 600 and remains the dominant religion
  of the Middle East from Northern Africa to
  Central Asia
• ¾ of Muslims live outside the Middle East
  (Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India)
• Spread originally by Muslim armies to N. Africa,
  and the Near East.

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Islam
Prophet Muhammad
Holy Text Koran

• Islamic Calendar
• Begins in AD 622 when Muhammad was commanded to
  Mecca from Medina (Hijra).
• Lunar calendar makes Ramadan move through the
  seasons (30 year cycle - 19 years with 354 days
  and 11 with 355).

• Five Pillars of Islam
• There is one God and Muhammad is his messenger.
• Prayer five times daily, facing Mecca.
• The giving of alms(charity) to the poor.
• Fasting during Ramadan for purification and
  submission.
• If body and income allow, a Muslim must make a
  pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca in his lifetime.

Reading the Koran, Brunei

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• Diffusion of Islam
• Muhammads successors organized followers into
  armies and led a conquest to spread the religion
  over an extensive area of
• Africa (mostly northern)
• Asia (mostly central)
• Europe (mixed areas)
• Relocation diffusion of missionaries to portions
  of sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia
  transmitted the religion well beyond its hearth.

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DIFFUSION OF ISLAM Islam diffused rapidly from
its point of origin in present-day Saudi Arabia.
Within 200 years, Muslims controlled much of
Southwest Asia North Africa and southwestern
Europe. Subsequently, Islam became the
predominant religion as far east as Indonesia.
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The black, cube like structure in the center of
the mosque, called al-Kaba, once had been a
shrine to tribal idols until Muhammad rededicated
it to Allah. Muslims believe that Abraham and
Ishmael originally built the Kaba
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Sunni and Shiite (Shia) Muslims
The Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, is the
chief centre of Sunni Islamic learning in the
world.
After Muhammad, Ali is credited as the first
young male to accept Islam

• Sunni (83) Arabic for orthodox, majority
  throughout the Muslim world concentrated in
  Southwest Asia and Northern Africa
• Shiite 16 of all Muslims - Greatly
  concentrated in the Middle Eastern countries of
  Iran, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Oman, and Bahrain

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DISTRIBUTION OF MUSLIMS At least 80 percent of
the population adheres to Islam in Southwest Asia
North Africa and selected countries in
Southeast Asia
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Islam in North American Europe

• 5 of European population are Muslim. France has
  the largest population with approx. 4 million, a
  legacy of immigration from predominantly Muslim
  former North African colonies
• North America home to approx. 5 million Muslims,
  a rapid increase from the 1990s

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Muslim women protesting the legal banning of the
burqua in France.
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With the exception of their veils, these girls of
Barfurush, near Meshed-i-Sar, look, dress, and
act like American girls in an Italian districtan
interesting sidelight on the New Persia.
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The Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims

• Founded in Detroit in 1930 and led by Elijah
  Muhammad who called himself the messenger of
  Allah
• Promoter of segregation and black power during
  the civil rights era
• Divisions between Muhammad and Malcolm X split
  the sect in the 1960s
• Group split into American Muslim Mission and the
  Nation of Islam after Muhammads death

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Buddhism
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Buddhism

• 300 million adherents primarily in China and
  S.E. Asia
• Originated near modern Nepal around 530 BC by
  prince Siddhartha Guatama.
• Spread originally in India and Sri Lanka by
  Magadhan Empire (250 BC).
• Indian traders brought it to China in 1st
  century AD.
• By 6th century it had lost its hold on India,
  but was now in Korea and Japan.

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• Diffusion of Buddhism
• Diffused relatively slowly from its origin in
  northeastern India.
• Emperor Asoka accredited with much of its
  diffusion throughout the Magadhan Empire (273 to
  232 B.C.).
• Missionaries sent to territories neighboring the
  empire.
• Buddhism introduced to China along trade routes
  in the first century A.D.

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DIFFUSION OF BUDDHISM Buddhism diffused slowly
from its core in northeastern India. Buddhism was
not well established in China until 800 years
after Buddhas death.
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• Branches of Buddhism
• Three major branches include
• Mahayana
• 56 percent of Buddhists
• Located primarily in China, Japan, and Korea
• Theravada
• 38 percent of Buddhists
• Located primarily in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri
  Lanka, and Thailand
• Vajrayana
• 6 percent of Buddhists
• Located primarily in Tibet and Mongolia.

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DISTRIBUTION OF BUDDHISTS AND SIKHS At least 40
percent of the population adheres to Buddhism in
East Asia and Southeast Asia. At least 40 percent
of the population adheres to Sikhism in
northwestern India
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Buddhism
Four Noble Truths 1. All living beings must
endure suffering.2. Suffering, which is caused
by desires (for life), leads to reincarnation.3.
The goal of existence is an escape from suffering
and the endless cycle of reincarnation by means
of Nirvana.4. Nirvana is achieved by the
Eightfold Path, which includes rightness of
understanding, mindfulness, speech, action,
livelihood, effort, thought, and concentration.

Buddhism is in large part a rejection of the
Indian caste system. It stresses tolerance,
humility, and compassion for all.
Karma - your past bad or good actions determine
your progress toward Nirvana through
reincarnation. You are your own God.
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• In some regions of Japan, more than two-thirds of
  the people are Buddhists and more than two-thirds
  are Shintoists (right). This is possible because
  many people adhere simultaneously to both
  religions. In most places people are either more
  likely than average to be both Shinto and
  Buddhist or less likely than average to be both.

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DIFFUSION OF UNIVERSALIZING RELIGIONS Buddhisms
hearth is in present-day Nepal and northern
India, Christianitys in present-day Israel, and
Islams in present-day Saudi Arabia. Buddhism
diffused primarily east toward East Asia and
Southeast Asia, Christianity west toward Europe,
and Islam west toward northern Africa and east
toward southwestern Asia.