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Just as it is difficult define "beauty" or "wisdom" it is also difficult to define "religion"

Oxford Dictionary:

belief in the existence of a superhuman controlling power,usually expressed in worship.

Religion – comes from the Latin word "religio" meaning "to bind".

As religious people we bind ourselves to our God and this connection includes obligations like worshiping God and living a moral life.

 

 

5 Reasons to Study the World’s Religions

 

To gain a better understanding of the world.

To gain insight into other human beings by understanding their religious activities.

To gain understanding about one’s own religion.

To seek those things that are common among the world’s various cultures.

To learn from some of the world’s great sources of wisdom.

 

e.g. Gandhi

The Dali Lama

 

 

Seven Common Elements of the World’s Religions

The Catholic Tradition

Sacred Stories

Sacred Scriptures

Community

Beliefs

Actions

Sacred Space

Sacred Time

Religious diversity in the past century in the United States has moved from Christianity and Judaism to Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Pentecostal, Mormon, and Jehovah’s Witness are the fastest-growing denominations with Christian ties. Mainline Protestantism is losing membership, though the drop would be greater if not for the Asian immigrants to these churches. Catholicism has experienced an increase, though much is also due to the increase of integration of Asians and Hispanics. Most striking in the past two decades is a rise of nondenominational Christian mega-churches.

We use the phrase "world’s religions" rather than "world religions" because we are studying religions that are in our world, but not necessarily worldwide religions.

The word "religion" is derived from the Latin word religio meaning "to bind."

Some reasons for studying the world’s religions are:

The common elements or patterns we will be using in our study of the world’s religions are sacred story, Scripture, community, believes, actions, sacred times, and sacred spaces.

In studying the world’s religions we are asked to cultivate and attitude of empathy. We are asked not to judge other religious traditions but to accept them on their own terms.

A class on the world’s religions is different from other religion classes in that in every other religion classes we learned about many aspects of the Catholic Christian religion. In a class on the world’s religions we learned about other religions, too.