Download World Religions

© Robert J. Brym and John Lie, Sociology: Your Compass for a New World, 2nd ed. (Belmont
CA: Wadsworth, 2005) pp. 450-7.
World Religions
There are five major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and
Buddhism. They are major in the sense that they have had a big impact on world history and,
aside from Judaism, continue to have hundreds of millions of adherents. They are world religions
in the sense that their adherents live in many countries.
Other religions have many adherents too. For example, some scholars consider
Confucianism a major world religion. Certainly, Confucianism has had a tremendous impact on
East Asian societies, and we still find East Asians who claim to be Confucian, especially in
Singapore. Furthermore, some Confucian rituals such as ancestor worship resemble religious
practice. However, we believe Confucianism is best seen as a worldview or a philosophy of life
(Ivanhoe, 2000 [1993]). Few East Asians regard Confucianism as a religion.
The five major world religions we survey below are similar in three ways. First, with the
exception of Hinduism, charismatic leaders helped to turn them into world religions. Max Weber
defined charismatic leaders as men and women who claim to be inspired by supernatural or
divine powers and whose followers believe them to be so inspired. Second, and again with the
exception of Hinduism, all five world religions had egalitarian and emancipatory messages at
their origins. That is, they claimed to stand for equality and freedom. Third, over time, the
charismatic leadership of the world religions became routinized. The routinization of charisma
is Weber’s term for the transformation of divine enlightenment into a permanent feature of
everyday life. It involves turning religious inspiration into a stable social institution with defined
roles, such as interpreters of the divine message, teachers, dues-paying lay people, and so forth.
The routinization of charisma often involves the weakening of the ideals of freedom and
inequality. Under some conditions it gives way to their opposite: repression and inequality.
Judaism
According to the Bible, the first Jew was Abraham, who lived nearly 4,000 years ago in
ancient Mesopotamia, now Iraq (Roth, 1961; Gottwald, 1979). Abraham’s unique contribution
was to assert that there is only one God; before him, people believed in many gods. The Bible
says that God promised Abraham abundant offspring and a land of their own.
Abraham’s great-grandson, Joseph, was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt. There,
Joseph became a trusted advisor of the Pharaoh. However, a later Pharaoh enslaved the Jews, and
about 400 years after Joseph’s arrival in Egypt the prophet Moses led them out of bondage. The
emancipation of the Jews from slavery still stands today as a defining moment in the history of
Judaism. It has inspired generations of Jews and non-Jews to believe that God sanctions freedom
and equality. Practicing Jews celebrate the emancipation annually during Passover, which has
become one of the most important Jewish festivals.
After 40 years of wandering in the desert, during which time Moses received the Ten
Commandments, the Jews arrived in Canaan, the land that God had promised Abraham.
(Modern-day Israel and ancient Canaan occupy roughly the same territory.) Thereafter, Judaism
spread throughout the Middle East and established itself as a major religion during Roman rule.
Increased persecution in the Roman period led the religious leaders (“rabbis”) to settle in Galilee.
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There, between the second and the sixth centuries, Judaism assumed its contemporary form,
characterized by the centrality of the rabbis and the Torah (the five books of Moses, known to
Christians as the Old Testament).
The central teachings of Judaism rest above all on belief in one God, Yahweh. However,
many commentators argue that the core of Judaism lies less in belief than in the performance of
the 613 divine commandments or mitzvot mentioned in the Torah. The mitzvot include
prescriptions for justice, righteousness, and observance: rest and pray on the Sabbath, honor the
old and the wise, do not wrong a stranger in buying or selling, do not seek revenge or hold a
grudge, do not eat the meat of animals with hooves, etc. Temples or synagogues are common
places of worship for Jews, but they are not essential. Worship can take place wherever there is
an assembly of ten adult Jewish males (or females in the more liberal branches of Judaism).
Like some other Middle Eastern peoples, the Jews were involved in international trade long
before the birth of Christ. They therefore settled in many places outside the area that is now
Israel. However, after the Romans destroyed the Jewish temple in Jerusalem in 70 c.e., the Jews
dispersed even more widely to the far reaches of Europe, Asia, and North Africa, forming what
became known as the Diaspora (“dispersion”). Jews retained their identity in the Diaspora
because in pre-modern times they specialized in mercantile activities that separated them from
peasants and landowners, because they tended to be strictly observant, and because they were
periodically persecuted, mainly by Christians. (In general, Muslims were more tolerant of Jews
until recently.) In 1948, Israel was returned to Jewish sovereignty.
Just over 5 million Jews live in the United States -- about the same number as in Israel. The
considerable diversity among Jews in the United States derives from disagreements that began
more than 400 years ago. In 17th century Eastern Europe, ecstatic and mystical sects of Chasidim
broke away from the staid and bookish Judaism of the time. Today in New York and other large
American cities, one can still see Chasidic Jews dressed in their characteristic black robes and
broad-brimmed hats (ironically, the garb of 17th century Polish noblemen). In 19th century
Germany, the Reform movement also broke with traditional Jewish practice. Influenced by
Lutheranism, Reform Judaism was a liberal movement that involved a loosening of strict rules of
religious observance, prayer in the German language, the integration of men and women in
worship, services that followed the kind of decorum associated with Protestant worship, and the
introduction of choirs and organs to enhance prayer. The Reform movement transplanted itself to
the United States with the immigration of German Jews and is now the most popular Jewish
denomination in this country. Orthodox Judaism emerged as a reaction against the liberalizing
tendencies of the Reform movement. It involved a return to traditional observance, including
strict adherence to dietary rules, the segregation of men and women in prayer, and so forth.
Conservative Judaism crystallized in Britain and the United States in the 19th century as an
attempt to reconcile what its practitioners regard as the positive elements in Orthodoxy with the
dynamism of Reform. Finally, Reconstructionist Judaism is a smaller, 20th century American
offshoot of Conservatism, known chiefly for its liberalism, social activism, and genderegalitarianism.
Christianity
Observant Jews believe that God promised them a Messiah, a redeemer whose arrival would
signal the beginning of an era of eternal peace, prosperity, and righteousness. Jews believe the
Messiah has not yet arrived. Christians believe he has. In the Christian view, the Messiah is Jesus
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(McManners, 1990; Brown, 1996).
Jesus was a poor Jew and his early followers were all Jewish. Yet he criticized the Judaism
of his time for its external conformity to tradition and ritual at the expense of developing a true
relationship to God as demanded by the prophets. Believe in God and love him; love your
neighbor -- these are the two main lessons of Jesus. What made his teaching novel was his
demand that people match outward performance with inner conviction. Thus, it was not enough
not to murder. One could not even hate. Nor was it enough not to commit adultery. One could
not even lust after a neighbor’s wife (Matthew V, 21-30).
These lessons made Jesus anti-authoritarian and even revolutionary. Criticizing ritual by rote
put Jesus at odds with the established Judaism of his time. Admonishing people to love their
neighbors impressed upon them the need to emancipate slaves and women. It also challenged
people to recognize the essential equality of the beggar and the wealthy merchant in the eyes of
God. Roman authorities could hardly be happy with such teachings because they attracted the
poor and the dispossessed and they were a direct challenge to the legitimacy of the Roman
Empire, built as it was on slavery and privilege. Little wonder that the Romans persecuted Jesus
and his followers, eventually executing him by crucifixion, a cruel and painful death reserved for
slaves and the worst criminals. Christians interpret the death of Jesus as atonement for the sins of
humanity.
For at least a century after Jesus’ death, the Christians formed a minor Jewish sect. Aided
by twelve of Jesus’ main followers, the apostles, Christianity gained adherents largely from
within the Jewish community. However, because they encountered opposition from Judaism, the
Christians soon began to preach their message to non-Jews. This required that they redefine
Jesus’ message as a correction and fulfillment of Greek and Roman philosophy. This helped
Christianity spread, but even as it did, the Roman Empire continued to persecute Christians.
Many heresies and schisms also beset the Christians in these first centuries after the death of
Jesus. There thus arose the need for stable, recognized leadership and set, recognized holy texts.
The bishop and the canon date from this period. They were the routinization of Jesus’ charisma
in practice.
In 312 c.e., the Roman Emperor Constantine I the Great converted to Christianity. He soon
turned Christianity into a state religion. It then spread rapidly throughout Europe. By allying
itself first with the Roman Empire and then with other earthly powers -- European royalty and
the landowning class -- the Church became the dominant institution, religious or secular, in
Europe until the 16th century. It also contributed to gender inequality insofar as women played a
marginal role in its affairs. Just as Judaism had been transformed from an emancipatory religion
into one that could be criticized by Jesus for ritualistic staleness, so Christianity was transformed
from a revolutionary force into a pillar of the existing order.
In the 16th century, a German priest by the name of Martin Luther challenged the Christian
establishment by seeking to establish a more personal relationship between the faithful and God.
At the time, ordinary people were illiterate and they had to rely on priests to hear the holy word
and have it interpreted for them. However, by insisting that Christians come to know God
themselves, as Jesus demanded, Luther called into question the whole Church hierarchy. His
protests and his ideas quickly captured the imagination of half of Europe and led to the split of
Christianity into the two major branches that persist to this day, Catholicism and Protestantism.
This is by no means the only division within Christianity. In the Middle Ages, Christianity
split into Western and Eastern halves, the former centered in Rome, the latter in Constantinople
(now Istanbul, Turkey). Various Orthodox churches today derive from the Eastern tradition.
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Protestantism has been especially prone to splintering because it emphasizes the individual’s
relationship to God rather than a central authority. Today, there are hundreds of different
Protestant churches.
Christians retained the Jewish Bible as the Old Testament, adding the gospels and letters of
the apostles as the New Testament. The Bible is the most important text for Christians.
Especially for Protestants, reading the New Testament is an important part of what it means to be
a Christian. Traditionally the most important holiday for Christians was Easter but increasingly
Christians have celebrated Christmas, originally a pagan holiday that became especially popular
in the 19th century.
Christianity remains the dominant religion in the West. Because of its successful missionary
efforts, it can be found virtually everywhere in the world. Yet Christianity remains a truly
heterogeneous religion. Some Christians are fundamentalist and conservative, others are
mainstream and more liberal, while still others are socialist and even revolutionary. Some
support feminists and homosexuals, while others regard them as abominations. Its success is due
in part to its ability to encompass diverse and even contradictory currents.
Islam
Christianity emerged in a society dominated by Roman conquerors, a society in which
ordinary people were burdened by heavy taxes and temple levies. Several military revolts against
the Romans took place in this period, and some scholars view Jesus’ message as a religious
response to the oppressive social conditions of his time.
Islam originated more than 600 years later in the city of Mecca in what is now Saudi
Arabia. It, too, may be seen as a religious response to a society in crisis. Mecca was a rich center
of trade, and the powerful merchants of that city had become greedy, overbearing, and corrupt.
The merchants ignored the traditional moral code that originated in the surrounding nomadic
tribes (the Bedouin). The Bedouin themselves were heavily indebted to the merchants and
became so poor that some of them were sold into slavery. On a larger canvas, many people in
Arabia thought that the Persian and Roman Empires, which dominated the Middle East, might
soon fall, heralding the end of the world (Rodinson, 1996).
Into this crisis stepped Muhammad, who claimed to have visions from God (Hodgson,
1974; Lapidus, 2002 [1988]). His teachings were later written down in the Qur’an. Certain
episodes and personalities that appear in the holy books of Judaism and Christianity also appear
in the Qur’an; Muslims recognize both Moses and Jesus as prophets, for example. The central
belief of Islam is that there is one true God, Allah, and that the words of his Prophet,
Muhammad, must be followed. Islam also emphasizes important teachings of Christianity, such
as egalitarianism and universal love. Even more than Judaism or Christianity, however, the
Qur’an is important for devout Muslims because they believe it is the direct word of God.
Like Judaism with its Talmudic commentaries on the Bible, Islam stresses the significance
of hadith (traditions), a corpus of anecdotes and commentaries about Muhammad. Like rabbis in
Judaism and priests in Catholicism, ulamas (scholars) maintain religious authority in Islam.
Unlike Christianity, however, Islam has never had a central Church. Although any place can
become a site of prayer and learning, mosques are the traditional places of worship.
People who profess Islam have five duties. At least once in their life they must recite the
Muslim creed aloud, correctly, with full understanding, and with heartfelt belief. (The creed is:
“There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.”) Five times a day they must worship
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in a religious service. They must fast from sunrise to sunset every day during the ninth month of
the lunar calendar (Ramadan). They must give charity to the poor. And at least once in their life
they must make a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca.
By the time of his death, Muhammad had founded an empire, and a dispute broke out over
how his followers could identify his successor (the khalifa or caliph in English). One group
claimed that the caliphate should be an elected office occupied by a member of a certain Meccan
tribe. These were the Sunni Muslims. A second group claimed that the caliph should be the direct
descendant of Muhammad. These were the Shia Muslims. Today, the great majority of Muslims
are Sunni, while the Shia are concentrated in Iran and southern Iraq. The Shia are generally more
conservative and fundamentalist than the Sunni.
Islam spread rapidly after Muhammad’s death, replacing Christianity in much of the Middle
East, Africa, and western and southern Europe. It ushered in a great cultural flowering and an era
of considerable religious tolerance by the standards of the time. Significantly, the Jews
flourished in Muslim Spain and North Africa at the very time they were being persecuted and
expelled from Christian Europe.
Only a few Islamic sects developed in the modern era. The most noteworthy was
Wahhabism, an extreme fundamentalist movement that originated in the 18th century in what is
now Saudi Arabia. Its founder, Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, upheld ritual over intentions,
opposed reverence of the dead, and demanded that prayer and honors be extended only to Allah
and not to Muhammad or the saints. He opposed all music and all books other than the Qur’an,
and favored the extermination of anyone who disagreed with him, especially if they happened to
be Shia. Characteristically, in 1801 Wahhabis stormed the Iraqi city of Karbala, wrecked and
looted the sacred tomb of Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein, and slaughtered thousands of the
city’s Shia residents.
Wahhabism might be ignored as a minor fanatical sect if it were not for one important
historical fact. In 1747, al-Wahhab made a pact with Muhammad ibn Sa’ud whereby ibn Sa’ud
became the political ruler of the Arabian peninsula and al-Wahhab its religious authority. In
effect, Wahabbism became the state religion of what is now Saudi Arabia. This extreme form of
fundamentalism continues to flourish in Saudi Arabia today, where its tenets are taught in the
Saudi school system. It is not coincidental that nearly all of the suicide bombers who attacked the
United States on September 11, 2001 were Saudi citizens, as is Osama bin Laden himself, and
that Saudi money finances schools throughout the Muslim world that propagate anti-Western
ideas (Schwartz, 2003).
Hinduism
Hinduism is the dominant religion of India but it has no single founder and no books that are
thought to be inspired by God. Its major texts are epic poems such as the Bhagavad Gita, the
Mahabharata, and the Ramayama. Like Judaism, Hinduism originated nearly 4,000 years ago, so
we have little sense of the social context in which it first emerged (Flood, 1996). What is clear is
that its otherworldliness and mystical tendencies make it very different from the three main
Western religions.
Hindus believe in reincarnation, a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Only the body dies
according to Hindu belief. The soul returns in a new form after death. The form in which it
returns depends on how one lives one’s life. Hindus believe that people who live in a way that is
appropriate to their position in society will live better future lives. In rare cases, one reaches a
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stage of spiritual perfection (nirvana) that allows the soul to escape the cycle of birth and rebirth,
and reunite with God. In contrast, people who do not live in a way that is appropriate to their
position in society will supposedly live an inferior life when they are reincarnated. In the worst
case, evildoers are expected to be reincarnated as non-humans. This way of thinking helped to
create a caste system, a rigid, religiously sanctioned class hierarchy. Vertical social mobility was
nearly impossible because, according to Hindu belief, striving to move out of one’s station in life
is inappropriate and ensures reincarnation in a lower form.
There are many gods in the Hindu tradition, although all of them are thought to be aspects of
the one true God. This too makes Hinduism different from the Western religions. A final
difference between Hinduism and the Western religions is its propensity to assimilate rather than
exclude other religious beliefs and practices. Traditionally, Jews, Christians, and Muslims tended
to reject non-believers unless they converted. God tells Moses on Mount Sinai: “You shall have
no other gods before me.” In contrast, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that “whatever god a
man worships, it is I who answer the prayer.” This attitude of acceptance helped Hinduism
absorb many of the ancient religions of the peoples on the Indian subcontinent. It also explains
why there are such wide regional and class variations in Hindu beliefs and practices; Hinduism
as it is practiced bears the stamp of many other religions.
Buddhism
By about 600 b.c.e., Hinduism had developed into a system of rituals and sacrifices that
was widely considered a burden. For example, one could escape the consequences of committing
inappropriate or evil acts but only by having priests perform a series of mechanical rituals. In a
sense, Gautama Buddha was to Hinduism what Jesus was to Judaism. Like Jesus in Palestine 600
years later, Buddha objected to the stale ritualism of the established religion and sought to
achieve a direct relationship with God (Gombrich, 1996; Lopez, 2001; Robinson and Johnson,
1997 [1982]). He rejected Hindu ideas of caste and reincarnation, and offered a new way for
everyone to achieve spiritual enlightenment. Rather than justifying inequality, he promised the
possibility of salvation to people of low status and women, who were traditionally marginalized
by Hinduism.
Buddha based his method of salvation on what he called the Four Noble Truths: (1) Life is
suffering. There are moments of joy, but poverty, violence, and other sources of sorrow
overshadow them. (2) All suffering derives from desire. We suffer when we fail to achieve what
we want. (3) Suffering ceases by eliminating desire. If we can train ourselves not to lust, not to
be greedy, not to crave pleasure, not even to desire material comforts, we will not suffer. (4) We
can eliminate desire by behaving morally, focusing intently on our feelings and thoughts,
meditating, and achieving wisdom. Nirvana can be achieved by “blowing out” the futile passions
of existence.
Buddhism does not presume the existence of one true God. Rather, it holds out the
possibility of everyone becoming a god of sorts. Similarly, it does not have a central church or
text, such as the Bible. Not surprisingly, then, Buddhism is notable for its diversity of beliefs and
practices. Numerous schools and scriptures comprise the Buddhist tradition. Many Westerners
are familiar with Zen Buddhism, especially influential in East Asia, which emphasizes the
possibility of enlightenment through meditation.
Buddhism spread rapidly across Asia after India’s ruler adopted it as his own religion in the
3rd century b.c.e. He sent missionaries to convert people in Tibet, Cambodia (Kampuchea),
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Nepal, Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), Myanmar (formerly Burma), China, Korean, and Japan.
Ironically, the influence of Buddhism in the land of its birth started to die out after the fifth
century c.e. and is negligible in India today. In India, as we have seen, Hinduism predominates.
One of the reasons for the popularity of Buddhism in East and Southeast Asia is that Buddhism
is able to co-exist with local religious practices. Unlike Western religions, Buddhism does not
insist on holding a monopoly on religious truth.
Conclusion
Little historical evidence helps us understand the social conditions that gave rise to the
first world religions, Judaism and Hinduism. We are on safer ground when it comes to
understanding the rise of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. Insofar as we dare to make
sociological generalizations about thousands of years of complex religious development
spanning many cultures and virtually the entire globe, we can venture four conclusions. First,
new world religions are founded by charismatic personalities in times of great trouble. The
impulse to find a better world is encouraged by adversity in this one. Second, the founding of
new religions is typically animated by the desire for freedom and equality, always in the afterlife,
and often in this one. Third, the routinization of charisma typically makes religion less
responsive to the needs of ordinary people and it often supports injustices. For this reason, and
also because there is no lack of adversity in the world, movements of religious reform and
revival are always evident, and they often spill over into politics. For example, the Catholic
Church played a critically important role in undermining communism in Poland in the 1970s and
the 1980s, and Catholic “liberation theology” animated the successful fight against right-wing
governments in Latin America in the same period (Kepel, 1994 [1991]; Segundo, 1976 [1975];
Smith, 1991). It is for this reason, too, that we venture a fourth, speculative conclusion, namely
that new world religions could well emerge in the future.
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