Richter Chapter Four

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Richter Chapter Four

• Origins and Founders

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When I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I
discovered a light appearing in my room, which
continued to increase until the room was lighter
than at noonday, when immediately a personage
appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for
his feet did not touch the floor. . . He called
me by name, and said unto me that he was a
messenger sent from the presence of God to me,
and that his name was Moroni that God had work
for me to do and that my name would be had for
good and evil among all nations. --Mormonism
from The Origin of the book of Mormon (Joseph
Smith)
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I am the Creator, the true and real God. I have
the preordination for this Residence. At this
time I have appeared in this world in person to
save all mankind. I ask you to let Me have your
Miki as My living Temple.. --Shinto (Spoke to
Zenbei Nakayama concerning his wife Miki, as she
was possessed by a god kami to become the
foundress of the Tenrikyo sect of Shinto
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Wanblee the Eagle Spirit kept the beautiful
girl with him and made her his wife. The eagles
wife became pregnant and bore him twins, a boy
and a girl. When the waters of the flood
finally subsided, Wanblee helped the children and
their mother down from his rock and put them on
the earth, telling them Be a great nation,
become a great Nation, the Lakota Oyate..
--Religion of the Brule Sioux Indians How the
Sioux Came to Be (Erdoes and Ortiz 95).
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The speech is measured out in four quarters, the
sages with insight know it. The three kept in
close secret cause no movement, the fourth is the
division that is talked about. God is one, but
the sages call Him by various names. --Hinduism
Rig Veda I.164.
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Read in the name of your Lord Who created. He
created man from a clot. Read and your Lord is
Most Honorable, Who taught (to write) with the
pen Taught man what he knew not. --Islam Holy
Koran 961-5.
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The picture of Jesus and the picture of the
Buddha counting on his fingers represent both as
teachers. How are they the same? How are they
different?
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Miki Nakayam becomes a vehicle for the revelation
of the true and real God. Does this seem to be
much different from the call of Muhammad or the
revelation to Joseph Smith? In what way?
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Note there are two pictures of the Buddha.
Traditionally, his hand positions tell us that in
the first he is teaching but in the second he is
not. How do both pictures tell something about
the Buddhist religion?
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The wife of the Eagle, along with her twin
children, becomes the source of the nation and
the religion of the Lakota Oyate. Would you
consider them prophets, like Muhammad? Why, or
why not?
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Lao Tzu appears very jolly on his ox. Would you
be surprised to see a picture of Jesus so jolly?
Why?
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What different roles do the many human figures
play in these pictures and quotations? See if
you can generally describe how people become the
sources for their religious truths. Are there
nonhuman sources of religious truths?
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External and Internal Approaches
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Phenomenological Approach

• Attempts to avoid reductionism
• Tries to describe the phenomena of religion as
  they are found, not as they are explained by
  outside disciplines
• Takes seriously what believers say about the
  origins of their religion

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Founders
Jesus
Confucius
Sidhartha Gotama
Founders are humans through whom new religious
insight came.
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Prophets
One who brings the message of God.
Muhammad
Jeremiah
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Sages
Extraordinary people who have seen a sacred
truth.
Lao Tzu
Confucius
Buddha
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Other Founding Figures . . .
Paul
Jesus
Ramakrishna
Martin Luther
Hindu Avatars
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Other Origins
Ancestors
Natural Order
Nature
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Gobalization Two Trends

• The re-enchantment of nature as a reaction
  against materialistic and mechanical visions of
  the universe.
• The spread of the modern ideal of doing
  scientific, objective history.
• Wicca A Case Study.