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REL 1220: World Religions
University of Toledo
Summer 2015 Sections: 912 and 911 ( June 29 – August 7)
Instructor: Dr. Ovamir Anjum
[email protected]
Ph: 419-530-4598 (office and voice-mail)
Note: Email is the best way to contact me. I will not be in my office regularly during the summer, but
your voice messages will reach me immediately by email. If you wish to talk to me over the phone,
please email me and leave a number and time to reach and give me a 2-day period to call back. From
experience, I think that written emails work the best. If it is an urgent issue, send me an email with
“urgent” in the subject line and provide a good way to reach you in the body of the email.
The premise of this course is that in the modern world there has been a resurgence of religion. This has
occurred against the predictions that as premodern worldviews met with urbanization, secularization,
the modern scientific worldview, colonialism, and finally, the postmodern collapse of all metanarratives,
religions will lose significance and eventually disappear. Instead, today we meet religious and cultural
diversity constantly—at our workplaces, in our neighborhoods, and in our schools. This course focuses,
in part, on the clash of traditional religions with modern scientific and secular society because that is
paramount to understanding interactions between religions and cultures in the world today. To
understand the new, or postmodern, era just emerging, we must have some understanding of the
premodern period in each religious tradition, including its responses to and changes brought about by
modernization.
After the first week, we will spend the next four of our total six intense weeks covering four of the
world’s major religious traditions: Judaism and Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. During the last week,
we will cover the impact of modernity and globalization on the world’s religions, and get ready for the
final exam.
Getting Started…
1. Make sure you have access to Blackboard, that you are comfortable using it, and your
utoledo.edu email is functional.
2. Once on Blackboard: check the [Start Here] tab. Here (this document) you will find all the
important information for the course. Print it out, but also double check the webpage
frequently in case there is an update.
3. Get the textbook. Study the right topic/chapter for the weekly quiz. See the “Schedule” given
below.
4. Do not forget to use “study aids”. Use “flash cards” to help remember important vocabulary
and “Review Quizzes” to check yourself.
5. Contact me for any questions.
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Textbook
World Religions Today by Esposito et al. Oxford University Press. Fourth Edition.
SCHEDULE
Week (Tuesdays) and Theme
Wk 1.
Introduction (ch. 1)
Wk 2.
Judaism (ch. 3)
Wk 3.
Christianity (ch. 4)
Wk 4.
Islam (ch. 5)
Wk 5.
Buddhism
Wk 6.
Prepare for the exam.
Final Exam
Chapter # (WRT, Fourth Ed.)
1
3
4
5
7
GRADING
Five weekly quizzes
Final Exam
50%
50%
KEY THEMES AND TERMS
Judaism (ch. 3)
Judaism is the oldest of the existing Abrahamic traditions, and even though its numbers do not match those of Islam or
Christianity in today’s world, its significance does. We will consider the unity and diversity of Judaism, with particular focus
on examining both the secular and religious forms of Judaism in relation to modernity and postmodern trends. The
monotheism of both Christianity and Islam has its roots in Judaism, but while Christianity teaches the concept of original
sin, that concept does not exist in either Islam or Judaism. In the case of Judaism, the ideal of life is living in harmony with
the will of God, and God gave Jews a gift to tip the balance between good and evil in favor of good. The gift was the dual
Torah, the sacred oral and written teachings that established the covenant with Israel, making them a holy people. For
premodern Rabbinic Judaism, to choose to walk in the way of God was to follow his 613 commandments. But within the
diversity of modern Judaism, the one path has opened onto many paths.
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Judaism
bar mitzvah: boy's ritual, at age 13, that moves him into full membership of the religious community
and adulthood
bat mitzvah: extension of bar mitzvah ritual to females by the Conservative and Reform Jewish
communities
circumcision: ritual called Bris or Brit milah required for every male at 8 days old, when the child is
circumcised and named
covenant: a mutual agreement between two parties that is both an expression of mutual love and
care and a legal agreement on the model of a marriage contract
Diaspora: Jews who were dispersed in the Roman Empire
dual Torah: the sacred oral and written teachings that established the covenant with Israel
gentile: a non-Jewish person
halakhah: the premodern Talmudic tradition; Jewish law
Hasidism: a movement marked by piety, great devotion, and expression of great joy in response to
God's presence, which is found everywhere in creation
Holocaust: literally means "burnt sacrifice"; long-standing Christian anti-Judaism, the rise of
secularism, and scientific-bureaucratic forms of social control all contributed to Hitler's attempt during
World War II to rid the world of Jews
Israel: "wrestler with God"; Jacob renamed by God
Kabbalah: Jewish mysticism, emerged in the late medieval period; defining work is the Zohar, Book
of Splendor
kosher: rules for dining
Marranos: in Spain in the late 1400s, 13,000 Jews, most of whom had been forcibly baptized as
Christians, were condemned as Marranos—Jews masquerading as Christians while practicing their
Judaism in secret
Mishnah: the writings that form the core of the Talmud, primarily written by students of Hillel
Rabbinic: the Judaism of the dual Torah under the leadership of the rabbis
Sephardic Jews: the first wave of Jewish immigrants to the United States, starting in 1654, were the
Sephardic Jews, of Spanish or Portuguese extraction, seeking religious freedom
Shema: Judaism's creed that states, "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one"
synagogue: house of study and prayer
Talmud: insights of the oral tradition written down, from second to fifth centuries, initiated by the
Pharisees; emergence of Rabbinic Judaism
Tanak: Jewish Bible that came into existence at end of first century; called the Old Testament by
Christians
temple: center of Jewish life until its destruction in 70 CE
Tzaddik: Hasidic term for a righteous man
Zionism: form of nationalism that returns Israel to Jews exclusively
Christianity (ch. 4)
The challenge of this chapter for students is twofold: to understand both the unity and diversity
among people who call themselves Christians, and to understand the unique relation that exists
between the history of Christianity, now the world's largest religion, and the emergence of modernity.
Christians believe that there is one God who rules over history and is the maker of all things. The
highest goal of life is to act in harmony with the will of God. While Judaism, Islam, and Christianity all
believe in one God, a unique belief of Christians is that the one God is three persons: Father, Son, and
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Holy Spirit. Distinguishing Christianity from Judaism and Islam again is the belief that God revealed
himself uniquely and fully only in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
Life's problem is "sin," or the failure to live in harmony with the will of God. Christianity defines sin
and how to overcome it a little differently than Judaism and Islam. For Christians, the good will of all
humans is corrupted by Adam and Eve's original sin of disobeying the will of God. The only way to
overcome sin and death and reestablish harmony with the will of God is through spiritually dying and
rising with Jesus Christ, whom God sent into the world for this very purpose.
Christianity
Augustinianism: the view that the task of Christianity is to transform every society into a Christian
society composed of two branches: church and state
Catholic: one who believes that the way to know God is by faith and reason, scripture and tradition,
and guidance from papal authority
Christ: the anointed one, or messiah
Constantinianism: Constantine was the first monarch to legally permit Christianity; he created a
model in which the church is ruled by the state, through the Christian emperor, as the form Christian
civilization should take
deism: belief that God made a perfect machine when he made the world and it runs on its own
without further assistance from God; God does not actively guide or influence events in the world
evangelical: form of pietist Christianity that emphasizes the centrality of the "born again" experience
of spiritual transformation rather than dogma as the key to Christian authenticity and union among
Christians in all their diversity
fundamentalist: rejects modernism and believes in inerrancy of the Bible
Gospel: stories of the life of Jesus found in the New Testament, traditionally believed to be written by
apostles and disciples of Jesus, but in fact written over two to three generations, with each Gospel
beginning from shared oral traditions
grace: the undeserved gift of God's acceptance of the sinner given through faith for Protestants. For
Catholics it is an undeserved gift that transforms the sinner and enables the sinner to cooperate in
God's work of spiritual renewal of the individual
heresy: a teaching that does not follow prescribed dogma
homoousios: from the Council of Nicaea, "same as," that is, the Word through which all things were
created was the same as God; Used to describe the one nature shared by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
justification by faith: Luther's teaching that knowledge of God can be obtained only through faith
and scripture, untouched by reason, became the central doctrine of the Protestant Reformation
Kingdom of God: according to Christian canon, Jesus inaugurates the Kingdom of God, which is
completed at the Second Coming when all injustice is overcome and suffering and death will be no
more
original sin: the will to do good in all human beings was corrupted by Adam and Eve when they
disobeyed God's will
Pentecostal: form of Christianity that focuses on personal conversion and the ecstatic experience of
"speaking in tongues" as the signs of God's gift of grace in the Spirit
Protestant: one who believes that the way to know God is through faith and study of scripture, and
no mediator such as the Catholic Church hierarchy is needed
Protestant ethic: a demand that one live simply and work hard, based on teachings of John Calvin
sacraments: in Catholicism, seven sacraments are believed to be outward and visible signs of God's
inward, invisible grace; can only be administered by ordained clergy. Protestantism reduced the
number to two: baptism and communion
Second Coming: when Christ will return to raise the dead and judge the heavens and earth
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Son of God: to explain the uniqueness of Jesus, and after debate at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and
the Council of Chalcedon in 451, it was decided that in the one person of Jesus there were two
natures, divine and human, united yet distinct
syncretistic: some beliefs and practices of a religion are Christianized versions of indigenous preChristian religious elements
Trinity: God is one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; through the trinity God is not
all things (pantheism) but is in all things (panentheism)
two natures, one person: the Council of Chalcedon decided that in the person of Jesus the two
natures of divinity and humanity were united yet completely distinct
Islam (ch. 5)
Muslims today are found in fifty-seven predominantly Muslim countries extending from North Africa to
Southeast Asia, and Islam is the world's second largest religion. While the vast majority—about 80
percent—of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims live in Asian and African societies, Islam in recent years has
become an increasingly visible presence in the West.
Islam belongs to the family of monotheistic religions, along with Judaism and Christianity. And while
all three traditions trace their religious roots back to Abraham, Judaism and Christianity claim descent
from Abraham's son Isaac and Islam through Abraham's son Ismail. The word "islam" means "to
surrender" or "to submit." A Muslim, therefore, is one who submits himself or herself to follow and
actualize God's will in history, both as an individual and as a member of the transnational Muslim
community (ummah), whose mission is to spread and institutionalize an Islamic Order. Muslims
believe God has given the earth as a trust to humankind, and as God's representatives on earth,
Muslims have a divine mandate to spread God's rule on earth and create a socially just society.
The Quran is believed to be the fulfillment, correction, and completion of the earlier revelations given
to Moses and Jesus. Thus, rather than being the newest of the three monotheistic faiths, Islam defines
itself as being the oldest. Historically, Islam has significantly formed and informed politics and
civilization, hence the common occurrence of Islamic empires and states.
Allah: Arabic word for God
caliph: a successor to Muhammad who served as political and military head of the community
dar al-Islam: a vast land or region of Islam
dhimmi: one of three choices given to conquered non-Muslims was to become "protected people," or dhimmi, by paying a
special tax
fatwa: official legal opinions or interpretations of Islamic law
fiqh: literally, "understanding"; Muslim jurisprudence, or the human interpretation of God's divinely revealed law, sharia
hadith: tradition, narrative stories about what Muhammad said and did that make up the Sunnah
hajj: fifth pillar of Islam, the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim who is physically and financially able is expected to
make at least once
hijab: the headscarf worn by many Muslim women
hijrah: Muhammad's emigration from Mecca to Medina in 622
hudud: Quranically prescribed crimes and punishments
ibadat: the division (one of two) of Islamic law that concerns a Muslim's duties to God, consisting of obligatory practices
ijma: consensus about an issue from the majority of religious scholars who represented religious authority
ijtihad: a reinterpretation of Islamic law to meet the needs of the modern world, promoted by Islamic modernist reformers
imam: one who leads the prayer and is paid to look after the mosque, generally at larger mosques
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Islam: literally means "submission" or "surrender"
jihad: means to "struggle" or to "strive"; generally means the obligation of all Muslims to fulfill God's will, as well as
armed struggle to defend oneself, community, or religion when under attack
khutba: sermon that is a special feature of Friday prayer
Mahdi: divinely guided one; an eschatological figure who Muslims believe will usher in an era of justice and true belief just
prior to the end of time
majlis al-shura: a consultative assembly of senior members to select leaders and governments
masjid: literally means "place of prostration," another term for mosque
minbar: pulpit that the Friday sermon is preached from
mosque: or, masjid—"place of prostration"
muamalat: the division (one of two) of Islamic law that concerns a Muslim's duties to others, including regulations
governing public life
muezzin: the chosen person who calls the faithful to prayer five times daily from the mosque's minaret
mufti: an Islamic legal expert
mujaddid: literally, a "renewer" of Islam; may be a caliph, saint, teacher, scholar, or another influential person; one who
practices tajdid
Muslim: one who bears witness that "There is no God but the God and Muhammad is the messenger of God"
People of the Book: Jews and Christians, as people who shared the same God as Muslims, were automatically entitled to
receive protective status (dhimmi) when their territory was conquered by Muslims
qiyas: analogical reasoning, the third source of Islamic law
Quran: the Islamic book of scripture, as revealed to Muhammad over a period of twenty-two years; considered to be the
very word of God; the primary material source of Islamic law
Ramadan: the ninth month of Islam's lunar calendar; the month-long fast is the fourth pillar of Islam
salat: prayer or worship five times a day, the second pillar of Islam
shahadah: "to witness or declare"; first pillar of Islam, confession of faith, "There is no God but the God and Muhammad
is the messenger of God," allows one to become a Muslim
sharia: Islamic law
shaykh: a teacher in the Sufi tradition, whose authority is based on direct personal religious experience
Shiah: followers of Ali, fourth caliph and Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law; this major branch of Islam was a minority
from its beginning and operated from a worldview based on suffering, oppression, and being victims of injustice; believes
that the imam or leader must be a direct descendant of Muhammad's family and is a religiopolitical leader
shura: a traditional Islamic concept of consultation
Sufi: one who practices Islamic mysticism, a major religious movement within Sunni and Shii Islam
Sufism: Islamic mysticism; began as a reform movement to counter a trend of the Umayyad caliphs to live lavishly
Sunnah: the second source of Islamic law, the example of Muhammad, what he said and did, who serves as a living model
for Muslims to follow
Sunni: the majority branch of Islam, 85 percent today, believes that the caliph is the selected or elected successor of
Muhammad, not as prophet but as political and military leader
surah: Muslim scripture consisting of 114 chapters (surahs) of 6,000 verses, arranged by length, not chronology
tajdid: the Arabic word for "renewal"; in Islamic context, refers to the revival of Islam in order to purify and reform
society
tariqah: the interior path or way of Sufi mysticism
tawhid: the oneness or unity of God, monotheism
ulama: "learned ones," religious scholars
ummah: Muslim community
wali: Sufi saints, who are said to have had the power to bilocate, cure the sick, multiply food, and read minds
zakat: almsgiving, the third pillar of Islam
Buddhism (ch. 7)
Buddhism is the oldest of the world's missionary religions and, from its founding, has been extraordinarily accommodating
of other religious beliefs and varying community situations, even teaching that there are many different paths to reach
nirvana and there are multiple interpretations of the truth the Buddha revealed. Its central institution has been the
sangha, and a dynamic of exchange between the sangha and society was largely responsible for the rise and spread of
Buddhism.
Ambedkar: Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar is the founder of a social reform movement in Maharashtra, in which Mahar caste
groups, relegated to the bottom of the caste system, convert to Buddhism en masse, rejecting Hinduism and its
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institutionalization of social inequality
anatman: "no-atman" or "nonself"; rejection of Hindu concept of atman, or an essential, unchanging interior entity at the
center of a person
arhat: an enlightened disciple of the Buddha
bhikkhuni: Buddhist nuns
Bodh Gaya: temple built at the site where the Buddha was enlightened under the bodhi tree
Buddha: one who has "awakened," ended karmic bondage, and will not be reborn
Buddha-nature school: a Mahayana school that said if nirvana and samsara cannot be separated, then nirvana must
interpenetrate all reality; therefore, all beings have a portion of nirvana and so possess the latent potential for its
realization
caitya: a stupa or any Buddhist shrine
dana: the first stage in punya, a merit-making donation, "dana" means "self-less giving" to diminish desire
Dharma: the teachings of the Buddha
Eightfold Path: consists of eight ways of thinking and acting that can be categorized as morality, meditation, and wisdom
"engaged Buddhism": a movement started by Thich Nhat Hanh that asserts that when faced with the inevitable suffering
in the world, Buddhists must take action and engage their society
enlightenment: the elimination of ignorance, which completely clears the mind to see reality as it truly is
Four Good Deeds: a doctrinal statement that provides guidance for how to live, aimed at the laity
Four Noble Truths: a diagnosis of the human condition and a prescription for liberation, which involves following the
Eightfold Path
Gelug-pa: also known as the Yellow Hats, is the youngest of the Tibetan schools, but the largest and the most important,
and is headed by the Dalai Lama
Madhyamaka: deconstructive philosophically based school of thought founded by Nagarjuna
Mahayana: name given to the Great Vehicle division when the sangha aligned under two main divisions after the death of
the Buddha
mantra: a short text or sound chain, known for its spiritual powers, and meant to be chanted
nirvana: the final state of liberation
Pali Canon: the only complete version of the Buddha's teachings, recited and corrected at the Fifth Buddhist Council in
1871
pap: "demerit"
prajna: insight or wisdom—the full development of prajna is essential to salvation
"Protestant Buddhism": modern reformation of Buddhist tradition begun in colonial Ceylon
punya: the merit system for measuring spiritual advancement
Pure Land: a form of Mahayana Buddhism founded in India but spreading more widely to China and then Japan; it
promoted deferring enlightenment seeking from the human state until rebirth in a heaven; must rely on "other power" of
celestial Buddhas to reach nirvana
sangha: Buddhist monastic community
shramana: a person who pursues ascetic practices in seeking enlightenment
stupa: relic mound shrines, eight of which contain ashes of the Buddha
Theravada: name given to the elder traditionalists, or Sthaviravadins, when the sangha aligned under two main divisions
after the death of the Buddha
Three Marks of Existence: suffering, impermanence, and nonself
Three Refuges: a recitation used to mark conversion to Buddhism, to affirm one's devotion, or to start Buddhist rituals;
the Buddha, the Dharma, and the sangha
Thunderbolt Vehicle: a branch of Mahayana Buddhism, also called tantra; emphasized realizing salvation fast and in this
lifetime
Zen: formed as Ch'an in China; reaching nirvana is an individual effort; stresses meditation as the means