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Senior World Religions:
Dr. King
2014-2015
Webpage:
http://teacherweb.com/NY/PrestonHigh
School/DrKing/t.aspx
Reading Quiz #1
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
The root word for ‘religion’ comes from what
language?
The root meaning of the term is __?
Public Catholic ritual such as the Eucharistic
celebration and the other Sacraments are an
example of :_____
Which pope called Vatican II in 1962?
Why was Vatican II considered ecumenical?
Reading Quiz 1 continued
6.
Who was the first pope to visit a synagogue
and a mosque?
7.
From the root word for “gospel”, the “sharing
of the good news”, is known as _____
8.
Giving testimony to one’s religious faith is
known as ____
9.
Ancient, traditional stories that provide a
worldview of a people by explaining their creation,
customs, ideals is known as _____
10. _____ is asked of us to study the world’s
religions?
Unit I Elements of Religion and
Vatican II
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Essential Questions:
Why study the religions of the world?
What are the characteristic elements of most religions?
What is the Catholic attitude towards other faiths?
What does Nostra Aetate say about the other major faith
traditions of the world?
What criticisms have Catholics had concerning Nostra Aetate?
What relevance does knowledge and understanding of other
religious traditions have for our society today?
What makes Judaism, Christianity, and Islam theistic? What
makes them similar? Different?
What makes the eastern traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and
Taoism different from the Abrahamic traditions?
Elements of Religion:
 1.
Belief System: Scripture and
Doctrine: Bible: Hebrew and
Christian, Quran (Koran),
Mahabarata, Tao Ching
 2. Community
 3. Sacred Myths: Divine Person
comes down bringing
salvation/enlightenment
 4. Rituals/Liturgy
 5. Ethics/Moral system
Basic Elements of Religion:
 6.
Religious Experience: founder’s
experience of God:
Jesus/Buddha/Muhammad)
 7. Material Expressions: church,
mosque, temple, shrines, art work
 8. Sacredness: sacred times, and
places
 9. Treatment/View of women (?)
Beliefs in God:
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Monotheism -belief in one GOD
Polytheism- belief in many Gods
Pantheism- belief that God is in all
Theism-belief in a personal god: (both
imminent and transcendent)
Henotheism: belief in and worship of one God
but also recognizes existence of other gods
Trinity? Relational: God both One and many
Agnosticism: belief that existence of God can
be neither proved or disproved
Gnosticism? 1st Christian heresy; belief that
God can be known
Atheism: belief that God does not exist: New
Atheists?
Catholic Attitudes Towards
Other Faiths?
 Spelled
out in Vatican II document:
Nostra Aetate
 Attitude is Inclusivistic (?)
 While Catholic Church has fullest and
best expression of God’s revelation,
other faith traditions may have
divine truth
 Salvation may be possible outside of
Church: Very controversial for some
Catholics
Three Approaches to
Interreligious Dialogue
 1.
Exclusive Approach
– Your faith tradition is the one and only
“True Faith”, all others are false, if not
evil
 2.
Inclusive Approach
– Other religious traditions may have
some divine truth but yours has the
fullest and best Truth
 3.
Pluralistic Approach
– All religious traditions are equally valid
Three Benefits from Vatican II
 Dignitatis
Humanae (Declaration on
Human Freedom): right to choose
one’s religion
 Unitates Redintegratio (Decree on
Ecumenism): desire for greater unity
 Nostra Aetate (Declaration on the
Relation of the Church to NonChristian Religions
 Know what each says
What is Ecumenism?
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Dialogue with Christian Churches and
Ecclesial Communities such as
– Lutheran
– Episcopalian
– Reformer
– Orthodox (Greek – Russian etc)
– Methodist
– Pentecostal
– Baptist
– Other
*goal of ever-greater unity (in Christ)
between Christian churches and rest of
the world’s religions
Evangelize, Witnessing, Dialogue
 What
is the challenge of
evangelization?
 Goal? Problem?
 How do we dialogue with people
from other religions without trying to
convert them? Should we even try?
Religions of the World?
 Western
 Judaism
 Christianity
 Islam
 Theistic
 Abrahamic:
Eastern
Hinduism
Buddhism/Taoism
Confucianism
Non-Theistic
Abrahamic Traditions
 Judaism
 Christianity
 Islam
 All
claim descent from Abraham
 First Hebrew; First Muslim/First
Christian
Similarities/Differences
 Similarities
Monotheistic: One
God
 Revelation: God
communicates
 Covenant
 Nature of Sin
 Judgment Day
(Apocalypse)
 Messianic Figure
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Differences
 Who has covenant?
 Universal (Islam
and Christianity) vs
Ethnic (Judaism)
 Moral/Ethical
differences
 Scripture and
Tradition
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Remaining Questions
 Is
there only one covenant with the
One God?
 Are Jewish, Christian, Islamic
revelations different or three limited
versions of the One Revelation?
Ultimate Questions:
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What is the human condition?
Where do we come from?
Where are we going?
Where does evil come from?
Why is there suffering?
What is the meaning of life?
Ultimate Questions: East and West
 What
is the cause of evil in the
world?
– Judaism, Christianity, Islam: Sin:
Rebellion from God’s Divine Will
– Hinduism, Buddhism: Ignorance: of
one’s True Nature
 What
is the difference between
salvation and enlightenment?
In the End……
 All
religions attempt to
answer same fundamental
questions:
 Faith is our response
 Why
do they come up with
different answers?