World religions: Учебное пособие

МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ ОМСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

УДК 42(075.8) ББК 81.432.1-923 Р 368

Р 368

World religions: Учебное пособие / Сост. М.Х. Рахимбергенова. – Омск: Омск. гос. ун-т, 2003. – 156 с. ISBN 5-7779-0422-X Пособие ставит своей целью развить навыки англоязычного общения по теме “Религии мира”. Предназначается для студентов первого, второго курсов дневного и вечернего отделения факультета теологии. Может быть использовано как для аудиторной, так и для самостоятельной работы. Основная часть пособия включает тексты и разнообразные упражнения, призванные научить беседовать на тему различных религий: христианства, иудаизма, ислама, буддизма, синтоизма, индуизма и т. д. Вторая часть состоит из аутентичных текстов, представляющих собой как богатый словарный и информативный материал, так и возможность развития навыков и умений перевода теоретических текстов.

WORLD RELIGIONS Учебное пособие

УДК 42(075.8) ББК 81.432.1-932

Издание ОмГУ

Омск 2003

ISBN 5-7779-0422-X

© Омский госуниверситет, 2003

2

Un i t on e Part I Before you read this excerpt from an essay that offers a general definition of the word “religion”, answer the question below. Write a short definition and discuss it with a partner. Although there can be diverse views on this question, the passage tries to make broad generalizations applicable to many religions and different periods of history. How would you define the word Religion? RELIGION from Compton’s interactive encyclopedia 1. It has been said that thoughts of death lead necessarily to the development of religion. It is difficult to imagine what need there would be for religion in a world in which no one ever died or became ill. The literatures of all religions attempt to give answers to basic questions: From where did the world come? What is the meaning of human life? Why do people die and what happens afterward? Why is there evil? How should people behave? In the distant past, these questions were answered in terms of mythology. In literature, they are dealt with in poetry. Modern sciences try to investigate them. 2. As a word religion is difficult to define, but as a human experience it seems to be universal. The twentieth century German-born American theologian Paul Tillich gave a simple and basic definition of the word. “Religion is ultimate concern”. This means that religion encompasses that to which people are most devoted or that from which they expect to get the most fundamental satisfaction in life. Consequently, religion provides adequate answers to the most basic questions posed above. 3. Four centuries earlier the German social reformer Martin Luther spoke in similar terms about God. He stated that to have a god was to “have something in which the heart trusts completely” putting Tillich’s and Luther’s definitions together, it is possible to see that religion does not necessarily have to be involved with shrines, temples, churches or synagogues. It does not need complex doctrines or clergy. It can be anything to which people devote themselves that fills their lives with meaning. 4. In Western civilization, religion has traditionally been defined as belief in and worship of one God. This is true for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The statements by Tillich and Luther make it clear, however, that such a definition may be too narrow. In original, Buddhism in India and Confucianism in 3

China, there was no recognition of a supreme being. Both of these philosophies were basically concerned with patterns of human behavior. 5. Regardless of definition, all religions (as the word is normally used) have certain elements in common: rituals to perform, prayers to recite, places to frequent or avoid, holy days to keep, means by which to predict the future, a body of literature to read and study, truths to affirm, charismatic leaders to follow, and ordinances to obey. Many have buildings set aside for worship, and there are activities such as prayer, sacrifice, contemplation, and perhaps magic. 6. Closely associated with these elements is personal conduct. Although it is possible to separate ritual observances from moral conduct, worship has normally implied a type of relationship with a god from which certain behavior patterns are expected to follow. A notable exception in history is the official state religion of ancient Rome, which was kept separate from personal commitment and morality. Paul Tillich: protestant theologian (religious thinker) (1886–1965). Martin Luther: German leader of the Protestant Reformation (1483–1546). Task 1. On a separate piece of paper, write an explanation of the following quotes from the text: 1. “In the distant past, these questions were answered in terms of mythology. In literature, they are dealt with in poetry. Modern sciences try to investigate them”. (Paragraph 1) 2. “Putting Tillich’s and Luther’s definitions together, it is possible to see that religion does not necessarily have to be involved with shrines, temples, churches or synagogues. It does not need complex doctrines or clergy. It can be anything to which people devote themselves that fills their lives with meaning”. (Paragraph 3) 3. “Although it is possible to separate ritual observances from moral conduct, worship has normally implied a type of relationship with a god from which certain behavior patterns are expected to follow”. (Paragraph 6) Compare your answers with those of a partner. Task 2. Make up 15 questions about the text. Task 3. Work in pairs. Read the sentences and match the underlined word or expression with a synonym from the list. The first one has been done for you: 1. The Buddhist religion believes in the idea that individual people can come back in a new life form after death. – e

4

2. Spiritual concerns are usually associated with religion, but worldly, material concerns are usually identified with government authority. In some cultures, however, the spiritual leader is also the head of government. 3. When someone asks you to guess what the future will bring, you are being asked to theorize about what may happen. 4. In some countries, an unpopular political, spiritual, or artistic leader can be forced into leaving his country and living in a foreign land. 5. In many religions, the leaders are not elected. The heads of the religion choose their successors. 6. Many parents give their children a religious education, hoping that when the children grow up they will be observant members of the religion. 7. Some young people feel that religious concerns are no longer related to modern life. 8. History shows that brutal dictators do not think much about the longterm interests of their people. They are often reckless and interested only in the moment. 9. Some religions are practiced only among their own people, but other religions seek to spread their ideas among as many people as possible.

Religion Religion is one of the phenomena that influences and excites the human mind since the time immemorial. One of the many definitions of religion regards it as human being’s relation to what people consider holy, sacred, or divine, namely God or gods or spirits. Worship is probably the most basic element of religion, but moral conduct, right belief, and participation in religious institutions are generally also constituent elements of the religious life. A lot of scientists throughout the 19th and 20th centuries tried to give classifications of religion from different points of view. Considerable progress toward scientific classifications of religions was marked by the emergence of morphological schemes, which assume that religion in its history has passed through a series of discernible stages of development, each having readily identifiable characteristics and each constituting an advance beyond the former stage. So essential is the notion of progressive development to morphological schemes that they might also be called evolutionary classifications. The pioneer of morphological classifications was E.B. Tylor, a British anthropologist, whose Primitive Culture (1871) is among the most influential books ever written in its field. Tylor developed the thesis of animism, a view that the essential

element in all religions is belief in spiritual beings. According to Tylor, the belief arises naturally from elements universal in human experience (e. g., death, sleep, dreams, trances and hallucinations) and leads through processes of primitive logic to the belief in a spiritual reality distinct from the body and capable of existing independently. Of immediate interest is the classification of religions drawn from Tylor’s animistic thesis. Ancestor worship, prevalent in preliterate societies, is obeisance to the spirits of the dead. Fetishism, the veneration of objects believed to have magical or supernatural potency, springs from the association of spirits with particular places or things and leads to idolatry, in which the image is viewed as the symbol of a spiritual being or deity. Totemism, the belief in an association between particular groups of people and certain spirits that serve as guardians of those people, arises when the entire world is conceived as peopled by spiritual beings. At a still higher stage, polytheism, the interest in particular deities or spirits disappears and is replaced by concern for a “species” deity who represents an entire class of similar spiritual realities. Polytheism may evolve into monotheism, a belief in a supreme and unique deity. Tylor’s theory of the nature of religions and the resultant classification were so logical, convincing, and comprehensive that for a number of years they remained virtually unchallenged. The morphological classification of religions received more sophisticated expression from C.P. Tiele, a 19th century Dutch scholar and an important pioneer in the scientific study of religion. His point of departure was that of distinguishing between nature and ethical religions. Ethical religion, in Tiele’s views, develops out of nature religion and falls into two subcategories. First are the national nomistic (legal) religions that are particularistic, limited to the horizon of one people only and based upon a sacred law drawn from sacred books. Above them are the universalistic religions, qualitatively different in kind, aspiring to be accepted by all men, and based upon abstract principles and maxims. In both subtypes, doctrines and teachings are associated with the careers of distinct personalities who play important roles in their origin and formation. Tiele found only three examples of this highest type of religion: Islam, Christianity and Buddhism. Tiele’s classification enjoyed a great vogue and influenced many who came after him. The past 150 years have also produced several classifications of religion based on speculative and abstract concepts that serve the purposes of philosophy. The principal example of these is the scheme of G.W.F. Hegel in his famous Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (1832). In general, Hegel’s understanding of religion coincided with his philosophical thought; he viewed the whole of human history as a vast dialectical movement toward the realization of freedom. The reality of history, he held, is Spirit, and the story of religion is the

5

6

a) designate b) exile c) practicing

d) propagate e) reincarnation f) relevant

g) short-sighted h) speculate i) temporal

Part II

process by which Spirit comes to full consciousness of itself. Individual religions thus represent stages in a process of evolution directed toward the great goal at which all history aims. Hegel classified religions according to the role that they have played in the self-realization of Spirit. The historical religions fall into three great divisions, corresponding with the stages of the dialectical progression. At the lowest level of development, according to Hegel, are the religions of nature, or religions based principally upon the immediate consciousness deriving from sense experience. They include: immediate religion or magic at the lowest level; religions, such as those of China and India plus Buddhism, that represent a division of consciousness within itself; and others, such as the religions of ancient Persia, Syria and Egypt, that form a transition to the next type. At an intermediate level are the religions of spiritual individuality, among which Hegel placed Judaism (the religion of sublimity), ancient Greek religion (the religion of beauty), and ancient Roman religion (the religion of utility). At the highest level is absolute religion, or the religion of complete spirituality, which Hegel identified with Christianity. The progression thus proceeds from man immersed in nature and functioning only at the level of sensual consciousness, to man becoming conscious of himself in his individuality as distinct from nature, and beyond that to a grand awareness in which the opposition of individuality and nature is overcome in the realization of Absolute Spirit. Many criticisms have been offered of Hegel’s classification. An immediately noticeable shortcoming is the failure to make a place for Islam, one of the major historical religious communities. The classification is also questionable for its assumption of continuous development in history. Nevertheless, Hegel’s scheme was influential and was adapted and modified by a generation of philosophers of religion in the Idealist tradition. Sociological studies of religion were undertaken by Auguste Comte who is considered the founder of modern sociology. His general theory hinged substantially on a particular view of religion, and this view has somewhat influenced the sociology of religion since that time. In The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte he expounded a naturalistic Positivism and sketched out the following stages in the evolution of thought. First, there is what he called the theological stage, in which events are explained by reference to supernatural beings; next, there is the metaphysical stage, in which more abstract unseen forces are invoked; finally, in the positivistic stage, men seek causes in a scientific and practical manner. To seek for scientific laws governing human morality and society is as necessary, in this view, as to search for those in physics and biology. A rather separate tradition was created by the German economic theorist Karl Marx (1818–1883). A number of Marxists, notably Lenin (1870–1924) and K. Kautsky (1854–1938), have developed social interpretations of religion based

on the theory of the class struggle. Whereas sociological functionalists posited the existence in a society of some religion or a substitute for it (Comte, incidentally, propounded a positivistic religion, somewhat in the spirit of the French Revolution), the Marxists implied the disappearance of religion in a classless society. Thus, in their view religion in man’s primordial communist condition, at the dawn of the historical dialectic, reflects ignorance of natural causes, which are explained animistically. Religion, both consciously and unconsciously, becomes an instrument of exploitation. In the words of the young Marx, religion is “generalized theory of the world…its logic in popular form”. One of the most influential theoreticians of the sociology of religion was the German scholar Max Weber (1864–1920). He observed that there is an apparent connection between Protestantism and the rise of capitalism, and in The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism he accounted for the connection in terms of Calvinism’s inculcating a this-worldly asceticism, which created a rational discipline and work ethic, together with a drive to accumulate savings that could be used for further investment. Weber noted, however, that such a thesis ought to be tested; and a major contribution of his thinking was his systematic exploration of other cultural traditions from a sociological point of view. He wrote influentially about Islam, Judaism, and Indian and Chinese religions and, in so doing, elaborated a set of categories, such as types of prophecy, the idea of charisma (spiritual power), routinization, and other categories, which became tools to deal with the comparative material; he was thus the real founder of comparative sociology. Because of his special interest in religion, he can also be reckoned a major figure in the comparative study of religion. In the study of religious psychology the most influential were the psychoanalysts. A considerable literature has developed around the relationship of psychoanalysis and religion. Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, maintained that inner conflicts-often the result of repression, particularly in relation to sex – become expressed in peculiarities of behavior and mood, especially in the vivid imagery of dreams that erupt from the unconscious area of one’s personality. By comparing the symbolism of dreams and mythology, Freud held that belief in God – in particular, the father image – merely perpetuates in fantasy what the individual must in actual fact overcome as part of his growth to maturity, thus giving religious belief a treatment that not only made belief in God unnecessary but positively unhelpful. The Swiss psychoanalyst C.G. Jung (1875–1961) adopted a very different posture, one that was more sympathetic to religion and more concerned with a positive appreciation of religious symbolism. Jung considered the question of the existence of God to be unanswerable by the psychologist and adopted a kind of agnosticism. Yet he considered the spiritual realm to possess a psychological reality that cannot be explained away, and certainly not in the manner suggested

7

8

by Freud. Jung postulated, in addition to the personal unconscious (roughly as in Freud), the collective unconscious, which is the repository of human experience and which contains “archetypes” (i. e., basic images that are universal in that they recur in independent cultures). The irruption of these images from the unconscious into the realm of consciousness he viewed as the basis of religious experience and often of artistic creativity. Religion can thus help men, who stand in need of the mysterious and symbolic, in the process of individuation – of becoming individual selves. Among other psychoanalytic interpreters of religion, the American scholar Erich Fromm (1900–1980) modified Freudian theory and produced a more complex account of the functions of religion. Part of the modification is viewing the Oedipus complex as based not so much on sexuality as on a “much more profound desire” – namely, the childish desire to remain attached to protecting figures. The right religion, in Fromm’s estimation, can, in principle, foster an individual’s highest potentialities, but religion in practice tends to relapse into being neurotic. Authoritarian religion, according to Freud, is dysfunctional and alienates man from himself. Summing up the above said it is necessary to note that the classification of religions that will withstand all criticism and serve all the purposes of a general science has not been achieved. Each classification presented above has been attacked for its inadequacies or distortions, yet each is useful in bringing to light certain aspects of religion. Even the crudest and most subjective classifications throw into relief various aspects of religious life and thus contribute to the cause of understanding. The most fruitful approach for a student of religion appears to be that of employing a number of diverse classifications, each one for the insight it may yield. Though each may have its shortcomings, each also offers a positive contribution to the store of knowledge and its systematization. And it must be kept in mind that classification should be viewed as a method and a tool only. Although a perfect classification lies at present beyond scholars’ grasp, certain criteria, both positive and negative in nature, may be suggested for building and judging classifications. First, classifications should not be arbitrary, subjective, or provincial but objective to the extent possible. It is not just to divide religions into lower and higher or primitive and higher religions. Second, an acceptable classification must concern itself with the fundamentals of religion and with the most typical elements of the units it is seeking to order. Third, a proper classification should be capable of presenting both that which is common to religious forms of a given type and that which is peculiar or unique to each member of the type. Fourth, it is desirable in a classification that it demonstrate the dynamics of religious life both in the recognition that religions as living systems are constantly changing and in the effort to show, through the 9

categories chosen, how it is possible for one religious form or manifestation to develop into another. Few errors have been more damaging to the understanding of religion than that of viewing religious systems as static and fixed, as, in effect, historical. Fifth, a classification must define what exactly is to be classified. If the purpose is to develop types of religions as a whole, the questions of what constitutes a religion and what constitutes various individual religions must be asked. Since no historical manifestation of religion is known that has not exhibited an unvarying process of change, evolution, and development, these questions are far from easily solved. With such criteria in mind it should be possible continuously to construct classification schemes that illuminate man’s religious history. Task 1. Answer the following questions to check how carefully you have read the text: 1. What is religion? 2. How does religion influence human life? 3. Why do people believe? 4. What approaches to the study of religion are offered in the text? 5. Speak on each classification mentioned. Which one do you favour? 6. Why isn’t there a classification, which withstands all criticism? 7. What criteria should be kept in mind while building a classification? Task 2. Match the quotations with their authors: 1. The belief in spiritual arises naturally from elements universal in human experience and leads to the belief in a spiritual reality capable of existing independently. 2. In their view, religion reflects ignorance of natural causes, which are explained animistically. 3. A major contribution of his thinking was systematic exploration of different cultural traditions from a sociological point of view. 4. He classified religions according to the role they played in the selfrealization of Spirit. 5. He considered theological thinking to be only the first stage in the evolution of thought. 6. He held the spiritual realm to possess a psychological reality that cannot be explained away. 7. The belief in God, in particular, the father image, is part of a man’s growth to maturity, which is to be overcome. a) Jung b) Comte c) Marxists d) Freud e) Hegel f) Tylor g) Weber 10

Task 3. Translate the words and word-combinations given in brackets into English. Consult the prompt in the box: To withstand criticism; to concern oneself with; phenomena; since the time immemorial; the cause; fundamentals; to illuminate; to construct a scheme; the crudest; second; fixed; to throw into relief; beyond scholar’s grasp; criteria; first; arbitrary; the dynamics; third; to appreciate; few errors have been more damaging; to define; to excite; perfect; shortcomings; to contribute to; summing up the above said. Religion is one of the (явлений) that (волнует) the human mind (с незапамятных времен). And the man always (занимался, интересовался) analyzing and estimating religious experience. There were a lot of attempts to build classifications but all of them do not (выдерживают критики) as they have a lot of (недостатков). But even the (самая грубая) and most subjective classifications (рельефно, выпукло отражает) various aspects of religious life and thus (вносит вклад в) (дело) of understanding. Although a (совершенная) classification is (недосягаемая для современных ученых), certain (критерии) may be suggested for building classifications. (Во-первых), a classification should not be (случайной, произвольной). (Вовторых), it should (интересоваться, заниматься) (основным, главным) of religion. (В-третьих), it is desirable that a classification demonstrate (динамику) of religious life. (Мало какие ошибки были более вредны) than viewing religious systems as static (неподвижные) and ahistorical. In addition it must (определить) what exactly is to be classified. (Учитывая все вышесказанное) it should be possible to (создать такую схему) that (прольет свет, разъяснит) man’s religious history. Task 4. Translate the following text into Russian: Religion is invariably theistic. It involves belief in a personal living, and spiritual God, distinct from the world that he has created as the human mind is felt to be distinct from what it knows. Various forms of theism exist, however. The Old Testament shows a progress from henotheism (belief that the community must be loyal to one god only) to monotheism (belief that this god is the one and only God). Other forms of theism are polytheism, belief in many gods, which includes usually at least a vague apprehension that the many are aspects of one; pantheism, the belief that God is simply all things in the universe (although this type of belief is historically a philosophical idea rather than a religious belief); and panentheism, the belief that every creature is an appearance or manifestation of God, who is conceived of as the divine actor playing at once the innumerable parts of humans, animals, plants, stars, and natural forces. 11

Religion is therefore communal faith in and conformity to the pattern that thought discovers, or has revealed to it, as the will or commandment of the intelligence behind the world. The community binds itself to this pattern as its rule of life consisting of three elements – the creed, the code, and the cult. Creed is faith in the revealed pattern and in the divine intelligence that gave it. Code is the divinely sanctioned and authorized system of human laws and morals comprising the rules of active participation in society. Cult is the ritual of worship, or symbolic acts, whereby the community brings its mind into accord with the mind of God, either by ceremonial dances or dramatic reenactments of the deeds of God, or by sacrificial meals held in common between God and his people. It is from this last-mentioned type of cult that, for example, the Christian Mass or communion service is derived. Task 5. Write an essay on one of the following topics: 1. Construct your classification of religions. 2. Role and place of faith in the life of people. 3. Speak on any religion, its origins and influence on the life of people. 4. The role of religion in historical development.

Part III What is a definition? When writing a definition essay, the writer enters the world of classification. Through classification, we analyze a subject by dividing it into categories. First we find what all of the categories have in common – the “common characteristics” – and then we seek to determine how each of the categories can be distinguished from one another. This is precisely what a definition is: the process of putting nouns in categories or “classes”. In a definition, we show how the item or concept to be defined is part of a broader category and how it is different from the other members of this category. The box that follows gives examples. Classification Member\Smaller class

Larger class

Specific details

1. a rabbi

a religious leader

Judaism

2. a mullah

a religious leader

Islam

3. rabbis and mullahs

religious leaders 12

1. “A rabbi is a religious leader in the Jewish community”. 2. “A mullah is a religious leader in the Islamic community”. 3. “Rabbis and mullahs are religious leaders”. Research and preparation The writer of the definition essay “Religion” went through a similar process of analysis throughout the research stage. After studying “all religions” and analyzing their “common characteristics” and differences, as in the classification box above, the writer was then ready to write an essay defining “religion”. ESSAY STRUCTURE The definition essay goes from the realm of the “indefinite” (a religion is … / religions are …) to the realm of the “definite” the Moslem religion, unlike the Buddhist religion, is … provides a thesis statement (“As a word religion is difficult to define, but as a human experience it seems to be universal”). The writer also permits his point of view to surface. For example, at the beginning of the essay “Religion”, the statement (“It is difficult to imagine what need there would be for religion in a world”). The writer first tells us what “all religions” have in common (“all religions attempt to give answers to basic questions”). Then, after interpreting the quotes by Paul Tillich and Martin Luther, the writer shows that the Western belief in one God is not shared by followers of the Eastern religions. The writer then refers to other “elements in common: rituals to perform, prayers to recite, holy days to keep”. It is apparent from the way this brief excerpt unfolds that in the rest of the essay the writer will continue to show a pattern of common characteristics and specific differences. In a definition essay, as in all other kinds of essays, the writer introduces examples, shows similarities and differences, uses quotations, and so on, in order to make sure the information is communicated as effectively as possible. The writer in which no one ever died or became ill – immediately familiarizes the reader with the writer’s point of view. Thus, despite the difficult task of objective analysis that the writer must go through when preparing a definition essay, one thing is certain: The writer’s point of view remains very important.

Classification Member\Smaller class

Larger class

1. self-love 2. the love of a parent for a child 3. 4. 5. Definition of Love: _______________________________ Task 2. Write an essay defining and explaining the meaning of love to you.

Task 1. Work in a small group. Brainstorm a definition for the word love. Many religions preach “love your fellow man”. But what exactly is love? Analyze at least five types of love. Two types of love have been suggested to you below. Find the common characteristics and differences of each type of love. Then write down the definition of love that the group agrees upon. 13

Specific details

14

UNI T TW O Part I Christianity Christianity is one of the major world religions, arising out of Judaism and founded on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christians regard the Bible as authoritative, but the place given to the tradition and reason varies. Early Christians suffered persecution until the Emperor Constantine proclaimed freedom of worship throughout the Roman Empire (313 A.D.). He made Christianity Rome’s official religion in 324 A.D./C.E. Almost from the beginning the Church had been divided into the Greek-speaking East and the Latin-speaking West. This division finally led to the Great Schism of 1054. In medieval Western Europe the increasing secular power and corruption of the Roman Church sparked the Reformation of the 16th century and Protestantism emerged as various national churches separated from the Roman Catholic Church. Modern Ecumenical Movement among the Christian churches encourages greater cooperation and eventual unity. But substantial progress was not made until 1948, when representatives of 147 world churches agreed to form the World Council of Churches. Orthodox Christianity is characterized by monasticism and veneration of icons. It rejects papal claims, the “immaculate conception”, purgatory and does not require clerical celibacy. Task 1. The following are the definitions of words from the text bellow. What are the words? – state of living unmarried as a religious obligation; – pure, faultless; – regarding with deep respect; – division of an organization; – immoral, dishonest; – condition after death in which the soul has to be purified by temporary suffering; place where souls are so purified; – punishing, treating cruelly, esp. because of religious beliefs; – reverence and respect paid to God. The Christian View of Life Although we have described Christianity as a religion of Semitic origin, this is only partly true. Christianity has two roots. One is the Jewish world of ethical monotheism; the other is the classical world of the Roman Empire. Christianity began as a reform movement within Jewish religion, a movement aiming to call the Jewish people away from inessentials and back to what 15

was most central in their faith. In the process it developed a message of universal significance, and one which found much of a response outside the Jewish community, in the Graeco-Roman world. The Christian view of life can perhaps be summed up in the phrase, the humanity of God. The God who made the heavens and the earth has become human, born as a child, growing to a man, teaching us the ways of God, and sharing our fate in suffering and death, for love of mankind. Although we are by nature sinful, he himself has made atonement for our sins, and has reconciled us to himself. “There is no greater love than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends”. To understand the meaning of Christianity, it is helpful to understand both the condition of the Jewish community in Jesus’ time, and also the state of religion in the Graeco-Roman world, which provided its larger context and eventually became its home. Some Christian terms It may be useful at this point to explain some Christian terms in common use. The language spoken by the early Gentile Christians was predominantly Greek, which is the language of the New Testament and other early Christian documents. Christ. This is not a personal name, but a title, meaning in Greek “the Anointed One”, that is, the Messiah. In classical Hebrew religion, anointing with olive oil was a ceremony of special importance, setting a person aside for a special purpose. Kings, priests, and prophets were anointed. The Hebrew word for “anointed” is “messiah”, the Greek translation of which is “christos”. Church. The Greek term for the Christian community was “kyriake ekklesia”, “ekklesia” meaning “community”, and “kyriake” coming from “kyrios”, a lord or master, and meaning “belonging to the Lord”. “Kyriake ekklesia” thus means “the community of the Lord”. The word “church” derives from “kyriake”, a fact that can perhaps be seen more clearly in the Scottish word “kirk”. Christianity. The early followers of Jesus called their religious faith simply “the Way”. The word “Christian” came into use first in the city of Antioch, toward the end of the first century. Catholic. The Greek word “holos” means “the whole”. “Kata” means “according to”. The two words are combined into the adjectival form “katholikos”, meaning “universal”. Philosophy and theology As it became the religion of the European peoples, Christianity inherited the European tradition of philosophical inquiry. The use of philosophical methods to understand and explain religious belief is called theology. This theologi16

cal tradition, which shows itself in the wrestling over the doctrines of the Incarnation and Trinity, as well as many others, has resulted in an exceptional development of the theoretical side of Christianity by comparison with many other religions, especially with Judaism and Islam. For example, it provided Christianity with a philosophical understanding of such concepts as person and nature. Christ, as God incarnate, was one person, namely the divine person of God the Son, but a person with two natures, one divine and one human. The Trinity by contrast was three persons with one nature, namely the divine nature. The nature of a being represents the kind or species of being that it is, while the person represents the acting subject, the individual who is responsible for the being actions. These concepts were applied not only to the understanding of the divine, but also of human beings. One of the noteworthy achievements of Christian thought was the philosophical elucidation of the concept of God, carried out especially by St Thomas Aquinas (1224–1274). God, said Aquinas, making use of conceptions developed by Aristotle, is Pure Actuality, without trace of potentiality, Pure Being, without any element of becoming. Aquinas insisted that there can be no hostility between religion and reason, the true religion must be reasonable, because the same God created both. In defense of this view he developed the theory of the Analogy of Being, which explains how it is possible for our human minds and conceptions, which are limited, to attain some knowledge of God by reason. When we say that God is good, for example, while it is true that there is an infinite gap between God’s goodness and anything we can possibly mean by “goodness” on the basis of our limited human experience, and so the word “good” used of God cannot not mean precisely what we normally mean by it, nonetheless the statement can be meaningful and true because there is an analogy between our meaning and the reality of God. In other words, there can only be one universe, the finite and the infinite do not exist in separate worlds but necessarily stand in some relation.

have a reason for allowing evil, which we do not comprehend, and they have pointed out that faith in a life after death holds out the hope that justice will finally be done. But in its conception of the suffering God, Christianity offers what might perhaps be called an existential response to the problem. The God who made the world, and who by nature was far above all experience of evil, nonetheless, out of love for mankind, took on himself the full burden of human existence, and with it suffering and death. While this does not solve the problem, Christians feel that it sets it in a new light. Purgatory and prayers for the dead Through Christ God offers us the grace necessary to attain salvation. Whether we accept that grace, however, depends on us. A person who accepts God’s grace and leads a good life will acquire merit before God, and will deserve to enter heaven, while one who rejects God’s grace and leads an evil life will deserve the eternal punishments of hell. Between the saint, so devoted to God that he or she enters heaven immediately after death, and the person who deserves hell, will be many who deserve neither the one nor the other. The souls of these at death will enter temporarily an in-between state known as Purgatory, in which they will experience sufferings designed to expiate their guilt, and after a time, when they have been sufficiently purified, they will enter heaven. On the basis of this doctrine it is possible for the living to help the dead by their prayers. The living can intercede with God to have pity on the souls in Purgatory, and even offer their own present sufferings and merits in this life so that the dead may be released the sooner from their sins. The chief form that this intercession for the dead takes is the offering of the sacrifice of the Eucharist or Mass on their behalf.

Christianity and the problem of evil Our sense of the meaningfulness of the life is threatened fundamentally by our experience of evil. This is of two general kinds, physical and moral. On the one hand human beings, like the rest of the animal world, are condemned by the course of nature to eventual death, and often to extremes of suffering during their lives, as the result of illness and accident. On the other, they inflict harm and death on one another, often without cause. If there was a God both all-good and all-powerful, it is often objected, he would not permit this state of affairs, for he would have both the desire and the power to prevent it. Christianity does not offer a theoretical solution to this problem, although theologians have argued that we cannot rule out the possibility that God might

The split between East and West By the end of the third century the Roman Empire had become too big for one emperor to manage. The Emperor Diocletian split it into two, an eastern half including Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, and Egypt, where the predominant language was Greek, and a western half including Italy, Spain, and Gaul, where the predominant language was Latin. This political division had a farreaching effect on the Christian Church. Gradually the two corresponding halves of the Church began to drift apart. Although nominally united, significant differences developed between them. The Church in the Eastern Empire came to be more closely identified with the state, becoming in effect a department of the imperial government, a system, which has been called Caesaro-papism: the emperor was the practical head of the Church. In the West the Church retained its independence. Especially, the Eastern Church had a different conception of the government of the Church. It

17

18

maintained the earlier arrangement of the collegiality of the bishops. While it honored the Bishop of Rome as the chief bishop, it considered his authority was limited to his own region, and it looked to the Patriarch of Constantinople as its leader. The Western Church, on the other hand, came to attribute to the Bishop of Rome more and more authority. Eventually, in 1054, the two churches excommunicated one another. The Eastern Church is now referred to as the Orthodox Church, the Western Church as the (Roman) Catholic Church. Although there are many minor differences of spirit and emphasis, the two Churches teach essentially the same doctrines. Both adhere to the seven Sacraments and to the Nicene Creed (with the exception of one phrase about the Holy Spirit). The worship of both centers on the Eucharist. The decisive differences are in organization and authority. The split between them is not termed heresy, but schism. The Germanic tribes and the Middle Ages Roman Christianity contained elements which emphasized both the merit of the individual and the unmerited grace of God. It could be described as holding a certain balance between saviorist and Palagian tendencies. In the course of the fourth and fifth centuries, however, the western Roman Empire collapsed. Northern Europe was inhabited by Germanic tribes, many of whom migrated into the Roman territories, took over the reins of power, and became Christians. This admixture of Germanic culture changed the character of Western Christianity profoundly. One effect was to emphasize even more strongly the sacramental aspects of Christianity. In addition to the seven Sacraments properly so called, many other rituals of a quasi – sacramental nature, called “sacramentals”, were added, such as the veneration of relics, pilgrimages to distant shrines, and the practice of indulgences. (An indulgence is a promise that, in return for certain prayers or good deeds, God will lessen the punishment inflicted after death.) The general effect of this was to give a greater role in the Christian life to the virtuous actions and the merit of the individual, rather than the unmerited grace and mercy of God. In medieval Christianity Pelagian tendencies became more manifest. The Reformation: Luther and Calvin In 1517 Martin Luther (1483–1546) raised the standard of protest against this development. Inaugurating a movement that swept through northern Europe, he cast off the authority of the Catholic Church. Previous individuals who had attempted that had run afoul of the political power of the Catholic Church and had typically lost their lives, but Luther succeeded in obtaining the support of a German prince, who protected him. John Calvin (1509–1564) developed a re19

lated viewpoint in a more systematic fashion, making explicit some assumptions, which Luther had made tacitly. Calvin was able to convert the independent Swiss city of Geneva to his views, which gave him the political protection he needed. While there are important differences between the two on secondary matters, their main doctrines are very similar, and amount essentially to a strict interpretation of the faith that it is God who saves us, and not we ourselves. Salvation by grace alone. We are saved, not by our own actions, however virtuous, nor by actions of other men, such as the priests of the Church, but only by the grace and mercy of God, which is entirely undeserved. Human beings contribute nothing to their own salvation. This view involves a doctrine of predestination: since the decision whether a particular individual will be saved or damned rests entirely with God, and in no way depends on the individual’s behavior, the individual’s fate must have been decided even before the person was born. Nature and reason are corrupt. No human activity can be of help toward salvation because human nature has been corrupted by Adam’s sin. In consequence of this corruption, every human being is condemned by God as a sinner. This corruption extends not only to our moral character but also to our reason, which is of no avail for salvation. Whereas the Catholic tradition has assumed, for example, that we could know through rational argument that God exists, the view of the Reformers was that this is possible. We can come to know God effectively only through his revelation of himself to us. The grace of God comes only through Jesus Christ because of the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, God overlooks the corruption men have inherited from Adam, forgives the sin of those destined for salvation, and bestows righteousness on them. Jesus Christ and he alone is the savior of mankind. Salvation by faith alone. The grace or mercy of God of given to the individual through faith. Our first obligation is to believe in God’s mercy. Having faith in God means, for the Reformers, in the first place having confidence in His compassion, and only secondarily signifies an intellectual assent to the doctrines of Christianity – which is what it primarily means for the Catholic tradition. Certainty of salvation: According to Catholic doctrine, we can never be certain in this life that we will attain salvation, since it is always possible for us to reject God’s grace, and to sin. According to Luther and Calvin, by contrast, we cannot reject God’s grace if it is once given, otherwise God would not be sovereign. While only God knows with certainty who has been destined for salvation and who for damnation, there are powerful signs or indications that we have been saved that may be available to us. The first of these is just the fact that we have faith in Christ. Later Puritans saw other signs in the blessings of God bestowed in this life, such as material prosperity. 20

Reduction of the sacramental system. The Reformers abolished all sacramentals, because of their Pelagian character, and five of the seven Sacraments, keeping only the two explicitly mentioned in the New Testament: baptism and the Eucharist. These are effective only through faith. Different understanding of the Church. The Church is not the intermediary between God and man, but only the association of those who believe. It exists wherever the word of God is preached sincerely and the Sacraments are duly administered. Consequently the Church does not possess any absolute authority. The word of God comes to us authoritatively from the Bible, not from the Church. In principle the Reformers believed in the right of the individual to interpret the Bible as his or her own conscience dictates, but they assumed that all men of good faith would agree with the Reformers, and were extremely distressed to find that this was not the case. The Reformers’ doctrine of the right of private interpretation of the Bible made possible the multitude of divisions that have since taken place within Protestant Christianity. Virtue the consequence of being saved. In the view of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, whether a person is saved depends on the kind of life he lives. The Reformers rejected this view. Instead they taught that if a person leads a good life that is a sign and consequence of the fact that God has decreed his salvation and granted him faith. God does not save us because of our good deeds; instead, he saves us first, and that leads us to follow His commandments. For the Catholic, salvation takes place only at death; for Luther and Calvin, however, it takes place essentially during life, though it does not reach completion till death. The elimination of prayers for the dead. Since our salvation is entirely the work of God’s grace, and owes nothing whatsoever to human achievements, there is no place for a doctrine of Purgatory, that intermediate state of purification into which, according to Catholic doctrine, the soul enters when it has merited neither heaven nor hell. In the view of the Reformers the individual is either saved or not saved, is either chosen by God or not chosen. At death, then, the soul must immediately enter either heaven or hell. Thus there is nothing to be gained by praying for the dead. Task 2. Use the following cliche to agree or disagree with the statements: If we want to make it clear we agree, we can use these expressions: – I fully (quite) agree with you. – Beyond all doubt (no doubt). – Exactly! Just so. – Quite so. – I suppose so. 21

– Up to the point. – It looks very much like it. We often agree by continuing with the same opinion or adding to it: – That’s just what I was going to say. And I’d like to point out that…. It’s very common in English to begin with a short expression of agreement, and then give a different opinion. Here are some expressions used to introduce the disagreement: Perhaps/ maybe/ possibly, but don’t you think… Yes, that’s true, but I’m not sure that… You could be right, but don’t forget… If you strongly disagree with someone you can say: – I’m afraid you are wrong (mistaken). – I disagree with you (on that point). – On the contrary. – It is (just) the other way around. – Far from it. – Certainly (surely) not. – Oh, but you’ve got it all wrong, I’m afraid. – I (rather) doubt it. When you want to disagree but not completely, we can use these phrases: – Yes, I partly agree (with you), but… – I agree to some extent, but… – There’s something in what you say, but… Practise them in pairs, giving your partner right or false statements about the text below.

Part II Task 1. Read this entry from the dictionary, then the definition of the word “orthodox” from the same dictionary and state suitability of the word ORTHODOX as the equivalent of the Russian word “православный”. The Orthodox Church The phrase is used in reference to the Eastern or Greek Church, having the Patriarch of Constantinople as its head, and the national Churches of Russia, Romania, etc. in communion with it. Separation from the Western Church came in the 4th century, originally through cultural and political factors, focused from the 5th century onwards on differences of doctrine and ritual, and took formal 22

effect in 1054 when the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other. In the latter part of the 20th century the Orthodox Churches have taken an active part in the ecumenical movement; the mutual excommunications of 1054 were abolished in 1965 (OEED) Orthodox Church. Orthodox 1. (a) holding correct or currently accepted opinions, especially on religious doctrine, morals, etc.; (b) not independent – minded; unoriginal; unheretical. 2. (of religious doctrine, standards of morality, etc.) generally accepted as right or true; authoritatively established; conventional. 3. (also O-) (of Judaism) strictly keeping the traditional doctrine and ritual (OEED).

sian rulers popularized the concept of Moscow as the Third Rome (successor to the second Rome, Constantinople). The first Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus was to be metropolitan Iov of Moscow. In the 16th century the Church became closely linked with the state. Russian rulers struggled against the influence of the Church. Ivan the Terrible demonstrated cruelly his power not only by dismissing the Metropolitan Iov of Moscow, Filipp, but by having him strangled. The last attempts to return the supremacy of the Church in Russia were made by Patriarch Nikon. His efforts proved to be abortive and created the Schism in Russian Christianity, with a large group of Old Believes, i. e. adherents of old traditions, splitting from the Church. Nikon’s failure cleared the way for the ecclesiastical reforms of Peter the Great. After that tsar, the Church remained subordinate to the state until the end of the Russian Empire (based on: CamEnc, 1994).

Task 2. Translate into Russian. The Russian Pravoslavnaya Church Christianity was brought to Slavs by the missionaries, Kirill and Mefody (known in the West as Cyrill and Methodious) in the 9th century. They created the alphabet for the Slavs, so-called Kirillitsa (Cyrillic), and translated the Bible into Old (Church) Slavonic. Russia was baptized in 988 under prince Vladimir of Kiev. The small principality of Kiev was surrounded by powerful neighbours, who tried to influence Vladimir in his choice of a new religion. Thus Vladimir’s option was Byzantine Christianity, Islam, or Judaism of Khazars. Vladimir started negotiations with Constantinople and that led him to the marriage to the emperor’s sister (989), but the necessary precondition was his baptism (988). It was a baptism, which was to determine the religion of the Russian people for centuries to come. The choice in favour of Eastern Christianity also influenced the character of Russian writing – it was to Kirillitsa, not the Roman writing of the Roman Catholic Church. As Russia had close links with Constantinople, it became still more separated from Rome after the Great Schism of 1054, which divided Christianity into two parts – Western, with the Roman Pope at its head, and Eastern, with Constantinople as its leader. During the Mongol-Tatar invasion the Church became the center of resistance. The most significant church figure of the 14th century was not a metropolitan but a humble monk, Sergy Radonezhsky (1314–1392). One of the greatest of Russian monasteries, Troitse-Sergrieva Lavra dedicated to the Troitsa (Holy Trinity), was to develop around his hermitage 70 km north-east of Moscow at the place subsequently named after him – Sergiev Posad. Constantinople was soon to fall to the Turks (1453). In Muscovy it was said that this was a punishment for acceptance of the Union with Rome. Rus23

Task 3. Make up plan to this text and be ready to speak on any point of it. Task 4. Translate into Russian. Peter I (1672–1725), of the Romanov dynasty, was Tsar since 1682, the Emperor of Russia since 1721. He carried out reforms of all the spheres of state life. Some of these reforms were justified and necessary, however his ecclesiastical reforms dealt a heavy blow to the Russian Pravoslavnaya Church, so that the consequences of them have not been fully overcome up to now. He abolished the patriarchate and subordinated the Church to the Synod, a state body governed by a bureaucrat appointed by tsar, he introduced unbearable taxes of monasteries; the best craftsmen were taken from the monasteries to carry out Peter’s construction plans, he appointed as Church hierarchs his own people, who were faithful to him and not to the Church, and, finally, Peter made his own interests prior to the ecclesiastical holiness and placed himself above the Holy Church Fathers by abolishing the secrecy of the confession and ordered the clergy to answer all the questions of his investigators. Thus it is not by chance that many Pravoslavnyi believers, particularly those observing old traditions, were convinced that Peter was Antichrist.

Part III Task 1. Several words are missed here. Try to restore them to their places. Council; Third Rome; the Cathedral of the Dormition; clergy; deprived; patriarchate; situation; Civil War; Established; confiscation; separated; metropolitan; militancy; ideology. 24

The October Revolution and the Era of Atheism In the summer of 1917, soon after the February Revolution, the first (1)…… of the Russian Orthodox Church for two and a half centuries was held. It took place at the very heart of the old (2)……, in (3)…… in the Moscow Kremlin. It reestablished the (4)…… and chose Patriarch. The choice fell on Tikhon, newly elected metropolitan of Moscow (1865–1925). The Church which he was called upon to lead was faced with unprecedented problems. With him began a new line of martyrs and confessors, for although the Church was suddenly (5)…… from the state the new establishment was to subject it to every kind of indignity and constraint. The Bolshevik government decree of 23 January 1918 on the separation of Church and state and of schooling from the Church affected all religious bodies, but none so obviously or so immediately as the formerly (6)…… Church of the Russian Empire. Now the Church found itself (7)…… even of the rights of a person at law. The (8)…… of Church property (legitimized by the same decree) soon led to confrontation. The newly elected patriarch’s first encyclicals expressed a severity, which bordered on (9)…… (19 January and 7 November 1918). But his insistence that the new leaders acted “in a manner contrary to the conscience of the people” could only serve to confirm the Bolsheviks in their resolve to mould that conscience in accordance with their own (10)…… . An intensive (generally crude) antireligious propaganda campaign was put into operation as soon as the (11)…… ended in 1922. There followed clashes, deaths and arrests. Among those to be tried and executed, in 1922, was the meek and popular (12)…… of Petrograd, Veniamin Kazansky. The 1930s saw a drastic reduction in the number of churches, the dissolution of the monasteries, and the imprisonment of countless (13)……. At the outbreak of war, hardly four bishops were at liberty to exercise their pastoral role within the narrow limits permitted by the authorities. The war created an entirely new (14)…… .

6. Why was the separation of the Church from the State so damaging for the Church? 7. What decision of the Bolshevik government led to the open confrontation of the State and the Church? 8. What was the response of the Church to the decision of the Bolshevik? 9. How did the Bolshevik government conduct their struggle against the Church? 10. What was the position of the RPCh during the Great Fatherland War?

Part IV

1. Why had the Russian Pravoslavnaya Church held no Council for two and a half centuries? 2. Why does the author refer to the Dormition Cathedral as “the Old Third Rome”? 3. What is the Russian name of “the Dormition Cathedral”? 4. Who became the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus in 1917? 5. What was the position of the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution towards the RPCh?

The Church Preaches Accord Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Aleksy II is interviewed by MN’s Vladimir Shevelev, editor of the morality and law desk. – Usually in our “Leader” section MN introduces prominent politicians, military people, scientists and cultural workers. But for the first time we are featuring a clergyman. How do you, the first person of the biggest and most influential Church of Russia, appraise your leadership? – The position of the Patriarch has never been easy in our country – both after the institution of the Patriarchate by Fyodor Ioannovich in 1589, and after its abolition by Peter the Great in 1718. And it has been especially difficult in postrevolutionary Russia. From the first steps of my patriarchate I clearly came to understand what heavy work was in store for me and what responsibility. Feelings of complacency, selfadmiration and superiority over other people are alien to me. Although you could say that I have been lucky: my election coincided with very important positive changes in the life of our country. – But, after all, you yourself contributed to these changes. – Of course, I did. In the mid – 1980s the Church began to emerge from rigid isolation and occupy an ever more visible place in society. There was a need to re-establish normal church life and adopt a law on the freedom of conscience which would not in words as before but in practice stand up for the rights of believers and the Church. At that time, clergymen – and not only those of the Orthodox Church – took part in elections, becoming people’s deputies, and did much for the revitalization of society. – Today, both in church and, especially, around the church one can hear people saying: perestroika and reforms in Russia have led to disorder and instability, to stratification into the poor and the rich, to the victory of vulgar materialism, etc. There are some who ask in embarrassment: perhaps, it would have been better not to begin this at all? – Those who have grown weak spiritually do not want to remember what existed in the past – the sway of fear and hypocrisy, total, compulsory atheism,

25

26

Task 2. Answer the questions:

genocide in relation to the Church. Departure from the totalitarian system signified people’s return to the faith of their fathers, and a search for the road to the Church. However, it is not society’s sound forces alone that have shaken off the fetters, everything unkind that there is in man – aggressiveness, brutality, vanity – has come to the surface as well. Some politicians – pleasing their ambitions and neglecting the interests of ordinary people – have begun isolating themselves off from the world and announcing the sovereignty of the territory or spiritual space on any occasion. There has arisen the real threat of a split, disarray and disruption of all ties – economic, human and national. What must be done to guard ourselves against this terrible calamity? The Russian Orthodox Church has found that particularly great in these conditions is the danger of plunging ourselves into the stormy waves of political passions. A clergyman cannot belong to any party – this will hinder him from taking an impartial attitude towards all parishers, and listening to everyone with similar attention and sympathy. A politicized Church is an inevitable source of discord, whereas the Church’s most important function is reconciliation and unification. We have strongly advised clergymen to stay away from political battles. That’s the reason why the Patriarchate reacted to Gleb Yakunin’s decision the way it did – despite our advice – to run for the State Duma. – But only quite recently Metropolitan Ioann of St. Petersburg and Ladoga, member of the Holy Synod, publicly gave his blessing to a political movement known as Accord in the Name of Russia. The newspaper, which published his opinion, was very pleased: “For the first time a church hierarch of such a high rank has interfered in politics, moreover, on the side of the “left-of-centre opposition”. – The position of the Rev. Ioann has baffled many people. It is strange, of course: the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) takes part in drafting a Memorandum calling for unity among all of the country’s political forces, but at the same time Metropolitan Ioann supports and blesses the political forces opposed to the Memorandum. It should be kept in mind, however, that no matter how high a position the Rev. Ioann may hold in the church hierarchy, he cannot speak on behalf of the Church. This is only the right of the Local and Bishop councils. In the intervals between the councils this right is vested solely in the Holy Synod and the Patriarch, or in anyone whom the Synod will authorize to voice its opinion. Nobody gave such an instruction to Metropolitan Ioann. – One more oddity: judging by the recent statements of the Rev. Ioann, the core of world cataclysms is the “religious war” between Judaism and the Christian Church. Reconciliation, Metropolitan Ioann believes, is impossible here: “The spiritual principles of the two sides are directly opposed and irreconcilable”. Metropolitan Ioann’s statements can hardly be placed among theological research studies or among searches for truth. Avowedly and persistently he has

been trying to reanimate old prejudices and awaken one people’s suspiciousness of another. – At the nearest Synod we shall necessarily speak about the importance for a church hierarch to weigh each of his words. Someone will gladly jump on this dubious passage and say: look, the Church engages in antisemitic activities. And he will be driving a wedge between the Church and society. The ROC, however, is free from racial prejudices. To whom is it not clear that it is madness to foment inter-ethnic strife in the chaotic times? And let me repeat the opinion of one official is not the opinion of the Church. – A religious war – this has a sinister ring. – We flatly reject the inevitability of inter-religious wars, between any denominations. It is even more pointless to look for some incarnated carriers of evil in our country. As a pastor, I know that evil thoughts nestle in the hearts of people, and there is nothing more complicated and more important than to cure the human heart. Peacekeeping has been and is a major activity for the Russian Orthodox Church. This is perhaps the only domain where a clergyman has a right to intervene in the spheres of politics. No matter where I may go, I constantly call upon people (all people) to reach accord. And I hope that I will be heard. Recently I visited the Mari Republic where a half of its population is Orthodox and the other half is heathen. I was asked: would not the arrival of the Orthodox patriarch spark confrontation between heathenism and Orthodoxy? I replied: if we begin dividing people on the basis of religion – but Christianity and heathenism have old scores to settle and old mutual injuries – this will lead to internal war. God forbids. But apprehensions of this kind will be groundless if people see that we treat the faith of everyone with respect. We must build our society on the basis of toleration, particularly relevant in our country, which is so rich in denominations and religions. – You are being criticized for the fact that in the recent past the ROC’s peacekeeping activities had been merely a screen for the closed, aggressive state. – This is not so. Even in those times our thoughts were clean and at that time we managed to do quite a lot although, indeed, quite often this activity had a formal, showy character. Not so now. When I interrupted my visit to the USA last October at the time of the events in Moscow, I did not even think that I would have to take part in negotiations. Simply at that trying hour I understood that I had to be with my people, with my Church. Very soon it became obvious, however, that the Church alone, and confidence in it, could bring the opposing forces together at the negotiating table – Voronin and Filatov, Abdulatipov and Luzhkov. On the night of October 3 we were near an accord. But subsequent events divided people. In those dark days I clearly came to understand – and I spoke about this - that the Motherland was threatened with two terrible threats:

27

28

the threat of bloodshed – blood divides people – and the threat of Russia’s disintegration into independent princedoms – many years will be needed to come together again. This summer we are going to hold in Moscow a conference of Christian churches “Christian Faith and Human Enmity”. If it proves to be successful, we will enlarge it by inviting other religions and religious associations to take part in it. It is important to show that faith – any faith – can infuse a conciliatory spirit into human relations. Last week the Russian Orthodox Church initiated talks between the spiritual leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia at Moscow’s Danilov Monastery. They proceeded not without difficulties but, I hope, they brought some benefit: notably, a change is in the offing in the matter of exchanging hostages. – One more difficult question – the organization of life in a church parish. What are the possibilities for the priest to display his independence and creativity? – In different churches priests take different approaches towards their pastoral duties. For instance, Father Dimitry Smirnov performs them one way, but Father Alexander Borisov in a different way. Yet pastoral experience is given precisely for this purpose: a priest is constantly searching for his own approach towards human souls. It is impossible to declare and regulate everything, as it is impossible to impose a minimum standard on everyone. The difference of mind exists and will exist. But when it transcends the framework of the permissible, it may give rise to temptation in the Church. This is particularly dangerous now that, after the 70-year spiritual vacuum, people have come to trust any preacher. The White Brotherhood became popular precisely because its leaders masqueraded as religious preachers. However, a religious preacher cannot carry malice, curses and hatred. The pastoral approach cannot be reduced to one common denominator. But neither is it possible arbitrarily, as one sees it fit, to change the character of church service – and exactly this was done by Father Georgi Kochetkov. The problem was discussed in the press, but – as I see it – in a rather one-sided way. The ROC leadership is not at all against innovations and their discussion – church life, like everything else in the world, needs improvement. But, first, changes must not be introduced at a moment’s notice and, second, questions of this kind are a subject for Bishop and Local councils. These issues need to be raised with them. There is also a need to reckon with the fact that any innovation was greatly hampered by the notorious renovation – a church movement inspired by the NKVD. For many people any attempt at modernization arouses dark associations, with the result that the label of renovation is immediately pasted on any, even harmless subject. – You said that it was inappropriate for a religious preacher to incite hatred among people. Regrettably, this reproach can be levelled not at the White Brotherhood alone. Some leaders of the Union of Orthodox Brethren have

lately been extremely intolerant of those who do not share their radical views on the organization of church life and on relations between different creeds. Those who disagree are easily labelled as godless, satanists, antipatriots. – This alarms me. At the latest congress of Brotherhoods I saw with what embitteredness some spoke. The speech of a female represantative of the Chelyabinsk Brotherhood was completely untrue and directed against the Church. Addressing the congress, I said that the very word “brotherhood” largely defined its character, ruling out enmity and suspicion. As far as true Christian patriotism is concerned, it must not be profaned with national pride, a desire to monopolize the idea of patriotism in the pursuit of narrow egoistic ends... On the other hand, it should be kept in mind that the brotherhoods have a big part to play, being called upon to help the Church in the circulation of religious literature, in the conduct of enlightening activities, and in aid to sick and lone people. – The ROC and you, Your Holiness, have fairly often been reproached for harboring an intention to make the Russian Orthodox Church a state church. Is this fair? – No, it isn’t. The existence of a state church would be very problematic. Such a church would have against its own will to answer for all the imperfections of the state machinery. If the Church begins interfering in state affairs, it is natural that the state will meddle in the affairs of the Church. And we know well what this leads to. The Church must be in fact completely separated from the state. Only then will it be able to appraise events taking place in the country from the positions of spirituality and morality. Only then will it be able to testify to the truth and, among other things, to tell the truth to the government instead of unconditionally supporting it. – What would you like to say to conclude? – There is a verbal formula which probably is fully clear solely to those who believe in God. However, I hope that now it can become equally accessible to many nonbelievers as well. Here it is: Love alone may be above the Law. Mercy alone – above the Right. And Foregiveness alone – above Justice.

29

30

Patriarch Aleksy II (his secular name is Aleksei Mikhailovich Ridiger) was born on February 23, 1929, in Tallinn, Estonia, where his family emigrated from St. Petersburg in 1917. In 1953 he graduated from the Leningrad Theological Academy when he was still a student, he was consecrated to the ministry of the gospel. In 1961 took monastic vows and in the same year became the Bishop of Tallinn and Estonia. In 1964 – The Business Manager of the Moscow Patriarchate, a member of the Holy Synod. Between 1986 and 1990 – the Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod. In 1990 the Local Council elected him Pariarch. He is the author of about 200 theological works and works on church history. He holds a doctorate in theology. From 1989 to 1991 he was a people’s

deputy of the USSR. He is Chairman of the Presidium of the Conference of European Churches. Among his many awards there is the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and two Orders of Friendship of Peoples (from Moscow News, April 22 – 28, 1994). Task 1. Resume the main idea. Task 2. Make up 15 questions. Task 3. Make up the plan and be ready to speak on any point of it.

Part V The Bible The Bible (Greek biblia “books”) is a set of books comprising the Christian Scripture. The Bible consists of two parts, the Old Testament (50 books) and the New Testament (27 books). The Old Testament is written in Hebrew, while the New Testament is written in Greek. The first Biblical texts appeared in the 12th century B.C., and the latest texts date back to the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. The content of the Bible is presented in the form of message of God to the people, and the narration of the way people listened to their Creator. The Old Testament is the expectation of Christ and the prophecy of his Advent. The Gospel describes Christ’s life, sermons, sufferings and His Resurrection. The Acts of the Apostles and their letters depict the first steps of the early Christians. The Apocalypse brings reader to the events preceeding the second coming of Christ. Each Biblical book has its title: Exodus, The Book of Daniel, The Gospel According to Luke, and The letter of Paul to the Romans. As a rule, when quoting the Bible, they never supply the full title of the book, using instead its abbreviation (e. g. “Ex”, “Dan”, “Rom”). So that to make it easier to find the exact source of the quotation used by the preacher, the reference is made to the title of the book, the number of the chapter and that of the verse in question. For instance, the reference to “Rom”. 12:9 signifies that the text quoted is taken from the Letter of Paul to The Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 9. The Old Testament was originally written almost entirely in Hebrew, with a few short elements in Aramaic. That language became the lingua franca of the area when the Persian Empire controlled the Mediterranean region. The New Testament books were first written in Greek, with some parts appearing in Aramaic, which was the native language of Jesus Christ. The first major step towards making the Old Testament known worldwide was made by the translation of it into Greek. The miraculous work is said to 31

have been requested by Ptolemy II, king of Egypt (285?–247?) and was the work of 70 Jewish translators who spent 72 days in isolation from each other but finally produced the versions that turned out to be identical. The translation is known under the name of “Septuagint” and became the base of the first part of the Christian Bible. The early Christian Church, whose language was Greek, used the Septuagint as its Bible, and it is still the Standard version of the Old Testament in the Greek Church. The Latin version of the Bible was prepared mainly by Jerome (c. 342– 420) in the late 4th (c. 384–405), who translated it directly from Hebrew text of the Old Testament making use of the Septuagint Greek translation as well. This version, known as “Vulgate” (from the Latin word vulgata, “public”) is used by the Roman Catholic Church in the recension of 1592, the Council of Trent having decreed in 1546 that the Vulgate was to be the sole Latin authority for the Bible. The spread of Christianity necessitated translations of the Bible into Coptic, Ethiopian, and Gothic. Later on the Church successfully resisted further translation of the Bible till the era of the Reformation when new versions of it in European languages were made. The Russian Pravoslavnaya Church uses in its liturgy the translation which was basically made by the enlighteners of Slavs Kirill and Mefodii (Cyril and Methodius). The Church Slavonic language of the translation has never been vernacular but was very close to this status and comprehensible to all Slavs, and that made the basic difference between Russian and Western cultures, because the latter had used the Latin translation of the Bible up to the period of Reformation. The Elizavetinskaya Bible, published in 1756, has been accepted as the canonical text of the RPCh. The complete translation of the Bible into Russian (The Synodal Translation) was published in 1876. There have been made several attempts in the 20th century to create a new version, but none has been successful. Task 1. Translate into Russian. Task 2. Be ready to give information about (on) any proper name mentioned in the text.

32

The Christian Bible At the time of Jesus the definitive form of the Hebrew Bible had not yet been agreed on. For the Sadducees the only authoritative scripture was the Five Books of Moses. The Pharisees recognized in addition the books of the Prophets, and after the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 the Pharisaical view predominated. The remaining books, called the “Writings”, such as the Psalms, were added about the end of the first century. The Christians accepted the Jewish Bible as the “Old Testament”. At first, following the Pharisees, this contained only the Law and the Prophets. When the Jew added the Writings, the Christians did too. In addition the Christians produced their own writings. The first Christian writings to be circulated widely were the letters of Paul to the various Churches he founded, which they would pass on to others. The first was the letter to the Church of Thessalonica, written about the year 50. The lives of Jesus, which we call the Gospels were written somewhat later, the earliest being the Gospel of Mark, written perhaps about the year 70. The last writing to be accepted as part of the Christian Bible was the “Second Letter of Peter”, written perhaps about the year 135. Around the year A.D. 180 the list of books was finally settled, after some debate. Christians considered these books authoritative and divinely inspired, and they were called the “New Testament”. Since the Church produced the Bible, and decided what books should be recognized as belonging to it, the attitude of the Church at this time was that the Church was superior to the Bible. The rule or criterion of the true faith was not in the first instance the Bible, but the faith of the Church. Task 1. Read and discuss.

33

UNI T T H REE Part I Judaism Judaism is the religion of the ancient Hebrews and their descendants the Jews, based, according to the Old Testament, on a covenant between God, the transcendent creator of the world, and Abraham about 2000 B.C., and the renewal of the covenant with Moses about 1200 B.C. God delivered the Israelites out of their bondage in Egypt and chose them to be a light to all mankind. Judaism rests on the concept of one eternal invisible God, whose will is revealed in the Torah and who has a special relationship with the Jewish people. The Torah comprises the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch), which contains the history, laws, and guide to life for correct behaviour. Besides those living in Israel, there are large Jewish populations today in the USA, the former Soviet Union, the UK and Commonwealth nations, and in Jewish communities throughout the world. There are approximately 18 million Jews, with about 9 million in the Americas, 5 million in Europe and 4 million in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. The Talmud, which is next in importance to the Hebrew Bible, combines the Mishna, rabbinical commentary on the law handed down orally from 70 AD and put in writing about 200, and the Gemara, legal discussions in the schools of Palestine and Babylon from the 3rd and 4th centuries. The Haggadah is a part of the Talmud dealing with stories of heroes. The Midrash is a collection of commentaries on the scriptures written in 400–1200, mainly in Palestine. Along with the Torah they are regarded as authoritative sources of Jewish ritual, worship and practice. The synagogue is the local building for congregational worship (originally simply the place where the Torah was read and expounded); its characteristic feature is the Ark, the enclosure where the Torah scrolls are kept. Rabbis are ordained teachers schooled on the Jewish law and ritual who act as spiritual leaders and pastors of their communities; some devote themselves to study. Religious practices include circumcision, daily services in Hebrew, observance of the Sabbath (sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday) as a day of rest, and, among orthodox Jews, strict dietary laws. High Holy days include Rosh Hashanah marking the Jewish New Year (first new moon after the autumn equinox) and, a week later, the religious fast Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Other holidays are celebrated throughout the year to commemorate various events of Biblical history. In the late Middle Ages when Europe and Western Asia were divided into Christian and Islamic countries, the Jewish people also found itself divided into two main groups. Jews in Central and Eastern Europe, namely in Germany and 34

Poland, were called Ashkenazi. Sefardic Jews can trace their tradition back to the Mediterranean countries, particularly Spain and Portugal under Muslim rule. When they were expelled in 1492 they settled in North Africa, the Levant, the Far East and Northern Europe. The two traditions differ in a number of ritual and cultural ways but their theology and basic Jewish practice is the same. In the 19th and early 20th centuries there was a move by some Jewish groups away from traditional or orthodox observances. This trend gave rise to a number of groups within Judaism. Orthodox Jews, who form the majority, assert the supreme authority of the Torah, adhere to all the traditions of Judaism, including the strict dietary laws and the segregation of women in the synagogue. Reform Judaism rejects the idea that Jews are the chosen people, has a liberal interpretation of the dietary laws, and takes a critical attitude toward the Torah. Conservative Judaism is a compromise between Orthodox and Reform in its acceptance of the traditional law, making some allowances for modern conditions, although its services and ceremonies are closer to Orthodox than to Reform. Liberal Judaism, or Reconstructionism, goes further than Reform in attempting to adapt Judaism to the needs of the modern world and to interpret the Torah in the light of current scholarship. In all the groups except Orthodox, women are not segregated in the synagogue, and there are female rabbis in both Reform and Liberal Judaism. In the 20th century many people who call themselves Jews prefer to identify Judaism with an historical and cultural tradition rather than with strict religious observance.

according………, to be closer………, the covenant………, to adhere………, to deliver………, to give rise………, to rest………, to divide………, to reveal………, to devote………, guide………(life), to be schooled………, to be next……… importance………, to be regarded………, commentary………, to deal………, to hand……… .

Task 1. Find the words that mean the same as the following:

(Hebrew, influential, foundation, death, ancestor, interpretations, Commandments, kosher, spirits, belief, satisfy, resurrection, festival, influential)

– slavery, involuntary servitude, captivity; – cling, be fixed in attachment or devotion; – invested with priestly functions; – affirm positively; – release or save as from evil or trouble; – the act of cutting off the foreskin (of males) as a religious rite; – positive, peremptory, dictatorial; – the agreement or engagement of God with man; – occupy oneself or itself with, take action with respect to a thing or a person; – based or founded; – pass on in succession. Task 2. Read the words and constructions and put the correct preposition from the box into the gap: to

with as

out down

on into 35

in

Task 3. Give definitions of the following words and learn them (both) by heart: Descendant, renewal, congregation, to expound, to ordaine, pastor, observance, equinox, Atonement, segregation, acceptance, synagogue, worship, spiritual. Task 4. Make up 15 statements to the text to agree or disagree with them. Work in pairs. Task 5. Give as much information as possible about the following: The Pentateuch, the Torah, ancient Hebrews, Judaism, synagogue, Holy Days, religious practices.

Part II Task 1. Restore the omitted parts of the texts using the words given in brackets.

Judaism This is the religion of the Jews; the most ancient of the world’s surviving monotheistic religions and as such deeply……. on Christianity and Islam. It sees the world as the creation of a living god and the Jews are his chosen people. Central is the idea of the covenant made between God and Abraham, ……… of the Jews. The first five books of the …… Bible, the Pentateuch (also the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), constituted the Torah, or law, which is the …… of this religion. It contains a history of the Jews until the ……… of Moses, the Ten …… and a corpus of ritual and ethical precepts. The Torah is supplemented by a body of oral traditions and ……… and instructions, the Talmud. An important weekly ……… is Sabbath. Others are Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Hanuka. Jewish food must be ………, which means that it is to ……… the requirements of the Jewish Law. 36

Jewish sects at the time of Jesus Christ Important groups that were ……… during those times were the Sadducees, the Pharisees, Essenes, and Zealots. The Sadducees, priests in the Temple in Jerusalem, were members of a Jewish sect that denied the………. of the dead, the existence of…………, and the obligation of oral tradition, emphasizing acceptance of the written Law only. The Pharisees, teachers of the Law in the synagogues, are held to have pretensions to superior sanctity. They are seemed to have been less hostile than the Sadducees to the nascent Church, with whom they shared ……… in the resurrection. Zealots were members of the sect aiming at a world Jewish theocracy and resisting the Romans until A.D. 70.

Третий период называют обычно эпохой “второго храма”. Он начинается с возвращением иудеев из вавилонского плена в 538 г. до н. э. и восстановлением Иерусалимского храма. В новом еврейском государстве канонизируется Пятикнижие (Тора). Эпоха “второго храма” завершается римским завоеванием Палестины, вторичным разрушением Иерусалимского храма в 70 г. н. э. и насильственным выселением евреев с исторической родины. История становления религии иудаизма завершается так называемым “периодом диаспоры” (рассеяния) – I–V вв. н. э. Лишенные государственности и рассеянные на значительные территории Римской империи, евреи создают в местах поселения синагоги – молитвенные дома. В диаспоре завершается формирование и канонизация Талмуда.

Task 2. Translate from Russian into English. Иудаизм – первая монотеистическая религия, одна из немногих религий древнего мира, сохранившаяся до наших дней с небольшими изменениями. Иудаизм называют иногда религией Моисея – “Моисеевым законом” – по имени духовного и политического лидера евреев, которому, как утверждает библейское придание, были дарованы Божьи заповеди, ставшие основой иудаистского учения. Иудаизм является национальной религией евреев, насчитывая около 20 млн последователей в различных странах мира. Само название “еврей” появилось после уничтожения Иудейского царства римлянами в I в. до н. э. Оно происходит от слова “иври”, т. е. люди, обреченные на бродяжничество. Древняя история еврейского народа наполнена постоянной борьбой за этническую самобытность и политическую независимость. В истории становления иудаизма можно выделить четыре этапа. Древний период – становление монотеизма, связанного с культом Яхве. Он начинается примерно в XV–XIV вв. до н. э. с образованием Израильского царства. Следующий этап – палестинский период. В это время происходит формирования иудаистской религиозной традиции. Ее носителями являлись служители иудаистского храма, многочисленные пророки, предсказатели. Значительным событием стала религиозная реформация царя Иосии (621 г. до н. э.), когда были удалены из Иерусалимского храма предметы культа всех других богов, кроме Яхве. Палестинский период завершается вавилонской агрессией против Иудейского царства, завоеванием Иерусалима и разрушением храма. 37

38

UN I T FOU R Part I Islam Islam, the Arabic word for “submission” to the will of God (Allah), is the name of the religion originating in Arabia during the 7th century A.D. through the Prophet Mohammed. Followers of Islam are known as Muslims, or Moslems, and their religion embraces every aspect of life. They believe that individuals, societies, and governments should all be obedient to the will of God as it is set forth in the Koran, which they regard as the Word of God revealed to his Messenger, Mohammed. The Koran teaches that God is one and has no partners. He is the Creator of all things, and holds absolute power over them. All persons should commit themselves to lives of grateful and praise-giving obedience to God, for on the Day of Resurrection they will be judged. Those who have obeyed God’s commandments will dwell forever in paradise, but those who have sinned against God and not repented will be condemned eternally to the fires of hell. Since the beginning of creation God has sent prophets, including Moses and Jesus, to provide the guidance necessary for the attainment of eternal reward, a succession culminating in the revelation to Mohammed of the perfect word of God. Shari’a is the sacred law of Islam, and applies to all aspects of life, not just religious practices. It describes the Islamic way of life, and prescribes the way for a Muslim to fulfill the commands of God and reach heaven. There is an annual cycle of festivals, including Hijra, the beginning of the Islamic year, and Ramadan, the month during which Muslims fast during the hours of daylight. There is no organized priesthood, and ‘great respect is accorded the Hashim family, descendants of Mohammed, and other publicly acknowledged holy scholars and teachers. Task 1. Find the words that mean the same as the following: – behaviour that is against the principles of morality. – to take smb\ smth. Into one’s arms, as a sign of affection or to accept, make use of … . – smth. treated with great respect or reverence. – a state in which people can no longer do what they want because of being under control of someone else. – to go without food or without certain kinds of food. – supporter, disciple, pursuer. – to say, with authority, what course of action is to be followed. – doing, willing to do, what one is told to do. 39

– achieving of the aim or a skill you have learnt on achievement you have made. – live, have as one’s home. – place of punishment after death. – person who teaches religion and claims that his teaching comes to him directly from God. – place of perfect happiness; the Garden of Eden. Task 2. Match the words in the box with their definitions. Hijra Ramadan Muslim Koran

Mecca Islam Allah Sharia

– The Arabic name of the Supreme Being. – One who adheres to Islam and surrenders to the will of Allah. – The sacred book of the Mohammedans, containing the professed revelations of Allah to Mohammed. – The Arabian city, birthplace of Mohammed, to which the Mohammedans turn in prayer and resort in pilgrimage. – The Arabic word for “submission” to the will of God, the name of the religion originating in Arabia through the Prophet Mohammed. – The ninth month of the Mohammedan year, the great annual Mohammedan fast, kept throughout the entire month from sunrise to sunset. – The sacred law of Islam. Task 3. Fill in the blanks, using the following words: embrace, regard, sin, fast, judge. a) They greeted us with warm … . We … each other. b) I … it as one of my masterpieces. My … for grew day by day. c) You have … against the Lord. They believed they were being punished for their … . d) He … for a whole day every week. During my … I lost fifteen pounds. e) … Arnason set Miss Davis free on bail. I am not in a position to … . Task 4. Complete each of the sentences below with the synonym of one of the following words: holy, compulsory, submissive, praiseworthy, principal, superhuman, essential. – The … beliefs of Islam are contained in the creed: “There is no god but God and Muhammad is the Prophet of God”. 40

– The Koran is not a book in the ordinary sense, it is an expression of … – Returning from a battle, the Prophet commented, “We are back from the minor jihad to the … jihad”, referring to conquering one’s moods and passions. – Even obedience to government, … as it is in Islam, may become a crime if the government disobeys God. – Individuals, societies and governments should all be … to the will of God. – The Koran, the … book of Muslims, contains guiding principles, which allow a man to live and die decently if he seeks inspiration from it. – Zakat or … almsgiving is prescribed by God on those Muslims, who posses enough means to distribute a certain percentage of their annual savings or capital in goods or money among the poor and needy.

there are some 5 million Shi’ites in Azerbaijan and a few thousand Ismailas, a (13)…… group of Shi’ite Muslim sect, in Tajikistan. About 60 percent of the Muslims inhabit Central Asia, 20 percent Transcaucasia and Northern Caucasus, 20 percent the Volga Region and Siberia. Baha’ism. This religion was founded by the Persian Mirza Husain Ali, (14)…… as Baha’u’ulla (“glory of god”), in the second part of the 19th century. It developed from the teaching of the prophet Bab (1820–1850) who preached in Persia until Islamic leaders (15)…… him executed. Mirza Husain Ali (1817–1892) succeeded him and founded Baha’I, proclaiming himself a manifistation of God. The Baha’I faith is based on belief in (16)…… brotherhood and promotes peace and racial justice. It has world – wide following. The seat of the governing body is in Haifa in Israel, not far from the golden domed (17)…… of the Bab.

Part II

Task 2. Make up 15 statements about this text to agree or disagree with them. Work in pairs.

Task 1. Restore the omitted parts of the text using the word given in brackets.

Task 3. Render from Russian into English.

(shrine, worldwide, former, prophet, worship, the Prophet, observance, orthodox, human, the pilgrimage, prescribed, fasting, had, codified, known, split, teachings) Islam The monotheistic religion founded by the (1)…… Muhammad in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century A.D., which incorporates elements of Judaic and Christian belief, is now the professed faith of nearly one thousand million people (2)…… . The Muslim performs the prescribed acts of (3)…… and strives to fulfil good works within the group. The “Pillars of Islam” include profession of the faith in a (4)…… form, (5)…… of ritual prayer (five obligatory prayer sequences each day as well as non – obligatory prayers), giving alms to the poor, (6)…… during the ninth month of the Muslim year, Ramadan, and performing (7)…… to Mecca. These ritual observances, as well as a code governing social behaviour, were given to Muhammad as a series of revelations, (8)…… in the Koran and supplemented by the deeds and discourse of the (9)…… . Muhammad is seen as the Seal of the Prophets, building upon and perfecting the examples and (10)…… of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Modern Muslims are divided into (11)…… Sunnities, the majority of followers of Islam, and Shi’ites who concentrate mainly in Iran and Iraq. There were some 65 million Muslims in the (12)…… USSR, one of the largest Muslim populations in the world. The great majority are Sunnites, but

Text 1 Уже в начальный период существования мусульманской общины сложилось представление о пяти важнейших положениях вероучения. Это исповедание веры (шахада), молитва (салат), пост (саум), налог в пользу неимущих (закат) и паломничество (хадж). Шахада – словесное свидетельство, удостоверение веры, выражаемое фразой “Нет Бога, кроме Аллаха, и Мухаммад – посланник Аллаха”. Шахада утверждает, что мусульманин должен поклоняться только Аллаху и повиноваться всему, что предписано Мухаммадом от имени Аллаха. Каноническая молитва, салат, совершается по строго определенному ритуалу, который сложился при жизни Пророка. В зависимости от времени суток каждая молитва включает два–четыре цикла поз и движений, сопровождаемых произнесением установленных формул. Коллективная молитва предпочтительней индивидуальной, и в пятницу полуденную молитву необходимо совершать в мечети. Третье предписание ислама – пост, обязательный для всех совершеннолетних мусульман в течение месяца рамадан (девятый месяц лунного календаря). Пост был установлен Пророком Мухаммадом в 624 году. Он состоит не в воздержании от некоторых видов пищи, как во многих других религиях, а в полном отказе от еды, питья и любых удовольствий в светлое время суток. От поста освобождаются путешественники, воины во время битв и походов, пленные, больные, немощные, беременные и кормящие женщины и вообще все те, кому пост может принести вред. Закат, налог в пользу нуждающихся мусульман, – обязательная милостыня, ко-

41

42

will.

торая “очищает”, дает тем, кто платит налог, моральное право пользоваться богатством, благоприобретенным имуществом. Хадж – паломничество в Мекку – хотя бы раз в жизни должен совершить каждый мусульманин. Text 2 Основоположник Ислама Мухаммад – реальное историческое лицо. Он призвал отказаться от поклонения идолам и обратиться к Аллаху. Имя Аллаха является лишь одним из обозначений Бога, истинного же Его имени не знает никто из живущих. Мухаммад объявил, что других богов просто не существует, а верующие в них будут наказаны Аллахом. В мире всё совершается по воле Аллаха. Он сотворил мир, и он положит ему конец. Тогда умершие воскреснут и будут приведены к Аллаху на суд. С каждого спросится по его делам, и всем воздается сполна. Праведники навечно поселятся в райских садах, а грешников ждут адские муки. Коран – священная книга мусульман, запись пророческих откровений, произнесенных Мухаммадом между 610 и 632 гг. Коран содержит 114 сур разной величины. Коран является основой ислама, ибо устанавливает религиозные обряды, правовые и моральные нормы, жизненный уклад и правила поведения для миллионов мусульман. Наряду с Кораном руководством для всей мусульманской общины и каждого мусульманина в решении насущных проблем общественной и личной жизни является Сунна (буквально – “образец”, “пример”). В первую очередь это свод текстов, описывающих жизнь Мухаммада, его слова и дела, а в широком смысле – сборник благих обычаев, традиционных установлении, дополняющих Коран и почитаемый наравне с ним как источник сведений о том, какое поведение или мнение является богоугодным, правоверным. Обучение Сунне – важная часть религиозного воспитания и образования, и знание Сунны и следование ей – один из главных критериев авторитетности предводителей верующих. Поскольку Коран давал ответы далеко не на все вопросы и к тому же в нем встречались противоречия, требующие разъяснений и дополнений, то получить их можно было из воспоминаний ближайших сподвижников Пророка об аналогичных случаях. Но живых свидетелей с годами становилось все меньше, и приходилось довольствоваться сведениями, полученными от тех, кто слышал то или иное предание из уст людей, близких к Пророку. Хасиды собирали и записывали их. Именно своды хасидов составили со временем Священное предание Ислама – Сунну. В раннем исламе не было четкого различия между вероисповедальными и правовыми установлениями. Смерть Мухаммада вызвала среди мусульман ожесточенные споры о принципах духовной и светской власти. Прелюдией открытого раскола стало выступление недовольных воинов из частей, квартировавших в Египте, против третьего праведного халифа 43

Умана ибн Аффана. После его смерти община разделилась на враждующие группировки, каждая из которых стремилась придать своим политическим интересам религиозную окраску. Разногласия по вопросу передачи верховной власти породили течения шиитов, суннитов и хариджитов уже в VII веке. Позже внутри движения шиитов и из среды суннитов сформировались течения. Большинство течений к настоящему времени практически утратили свое значение. Особняком стоят ордена суфиев, поскольку суфий – это не только принадлежность к тому или иному направлению, сколько состояние души человека, посвятившего жизнь поискам Бога в своем сердце.

Part III Texts to be read and translated Islam Major world religion belonging to the Semitic family; it was promulgated by the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the 7th century A.D. The Arabic term islam, literally “surrender”, illuminates the fundamental religious idea of Islam – that the believer (called a Muslim, from the active particle of islam) accepts “surrender to the will of Allah (Arabic: God)”. Allah is viewed as the sole God – creator, sustainer, and restorer of the world. The will of Allah, to which man must submit, is made known through the sacred scriptures, the Qur’an (Koran), which Allah revealed to his messenger, Muhammad. In Islam Muhammad is considered the last of a series of prophets (including Adam, Noah, Jesus, and others), and his message simultaneously consummates and abrogates the “revelations” attributed to earlier prophets. Retaining its emphasis on an uncompromising monotheism and a strict adherence to certain essential religious practices, the religion taught by Muhammad to a small group of followers spread rapidly through the Middle East to Africa, Europe, the Indian subcontinent, the Malay Peninsula and China. Although many sectarian movements have arisen within Islam, all Muslims are bound by a common faith and a sense of belonging to a single community. The foundations of Islam The legacy of Muhammad From the very beginning of Islam, Muhammad had inculcated a sense of brotherhood and a bond of faith among his followers, both of which helped to develop among them a feeling of close relationship that was accentuated by their experiences of persecution as a nascent community in Mecca. The conspicuous socioeconomic content of Islamic religious practices cemented this bond of faith. In A.D. 622, when the Prophet fled to Medina, his preaching was soon accepted, and the community-state of Islam emerged. During this early pe44

riod, Islam acquired its characteristic ethos as a religion uniting in itself both the spiritual and temporal aspects of life and seeking to regulate not only the individual’s relationship to God (through his conscience) but human relationships in a social setting as well. Thus, there is not only an Islamic religious institution but also an Islamic law, state, and other institutions governing society. Not until the 20th century were the religious (private) and the secular (public) distinguished by some Muslim thinkers and separated formally, as in Turkey. This dual religious and social character of Islam, expressing itself in one way as a religious community commissioned by God to bring its own value system to the world through the jihad (“holy war” or “holy struggle”), explains the astonishing success of the early generations of Muslims. Within a century after the Prophet’s death in A.D. 632, they had brought a large part of the globe – from Spain across Central Asia to India – under a new Arab Muslim empire. The period of Islamic conquests and empire building marks the first phase of the expansion of Islam as a religion. Islam’s essential egalitarianism within the community of the faithful and its official discrimination against the followers of other religions won rapid converts. Jews and Christians were assigned a special status as communities possessing scriptures and called the “people of the Book” and, therefore, were allowed religious autonomy. They were, however, required to pay a per capita tax called jizyah, as opposed to pagans, who were required to either accept Islam or die. The same status of the “people of the Book” was later extended to Zoroastrians and Hindus, but many “people of the Book” joined Islam in order to escape the disability of the jizyah. A much more massive expansion of Islam after the 12th century was inaugurated by the Sufis (Muslim mystics), who were mainly responsible for the spread of Islam in India, Central Asia, Turkey, and sub-Saharan Africa (see below). Besides the jihad and Sufi missionary activity, another factor in the spread of Islam was the far-ranging influence of Muslim traders, who not only introduced Islam quite early to the Indian east coast and South India but who proved as well to be the main catalytic agents in converting people to Islam in Indonesia, Malaya, and China. Islam was introduced to Indonesia in the 14th century, hardly having time to consolidate itself there politically before coming under Dutch colonial domination. The vast variety of races and cultures embraced by has produced important internal differences. All segments of Muslim society, however, are bound by a common faith and a sense of belonging to a single community. With the loss of political power during the period of Western colonialism in the 19th and 20th centuries, the concept of the Islamic community, instead of weakening, became stronger. The faith of Islam helped various Muslim peoples in their struggle to gain political freedom in the mid 20th century and the unity of Islam contributed to later political solidarity.

Sources of Islamic doctrinal and social views Islamic doctrine, law, and thinking in general are based upon four sources, or fundamental principles (usul): (1) the Qur’an, (2) the sunnah (“traditions”), (3) ijma’ (“consensus”), and (4) ijtihad (“individual thought”). The Qur’an (literally, Reading, or Recitation) is regarded as the Word, or Speech, of God delivered to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. Divided into 114 surahs (chapters) of unequal length, it is the fundamental source of Islamic teaching. The surahs revealed at Mecca during the earliest part of Muhammad’s career are concerned with ethical and spiritual teachings and the Day of Judgment. The surahs revealed at Medina at a later period in the career of the Prophet are concerned with social legislation and the politico-moral principles for constituting and ordering the community. Sunnah was used by pre-Islamic Arabs to denote their tribal or common law; in Islam it came to mean the example of the Prophet; i.e. his words and deeds as recorded in compilations known as Hadith. Hadith (a Report, or collection of sayings attributed to the Prophet) provide the written documentation of the Prophet’s word and deeds. Six of these collections, compiled in the 3rd century A.H. (9th century A.D.) came to be regarded as especially authoritative by the largest group in Islam, the Sunnah. Another large group, the Shi’ah, has its own Hadith. The doctrine of ijma, or consensus, was introduced in the 2nd century AH (8th century A.D.) in order to standardize legal theory and practice and to overcome individual and regional differences of opinion. Though conceived as a “consensus of scholars”, in actual practice ijma’ was a more fundamental operative factor. From the 3rd century AH ijma’ has amounted to a principle of rigidity in thinking; points on which consensus was reached in practice were considered closed and further substantial questioning of them prohibited. Accepted interpretations of the Qur’an and the actual content of the sunnah all rest finally on the ijma’. Ijtihad, meaning “to endeavor” or “to exert effort”, was required to find the legal or doctrinal solution to a new problem. In the early period of Islam, because ijtihad took the form of individual opinion, there was a wealth of conflicting and chaotic opinions. In the 2nd century AH ijtihad was replaced by giyas (reasoning by strict analogy), a formal procedure of deduction based on the texts of the Qur’an and the Hadith. The transformation of ijma’ into a conservative mechanism and the acceptance of a definitive body of Hadith virtually closed the “gate of ijtihad”. Nevertheless, certain outstanding Muslim thinkers continued to claim the right of new ijtihad for themselves, and reformers of the 18th and 19th centuries, because of modern influences, have caused this principle to once more receive wider acceptance.

45

46

Sacred places and days The most sacred place for Muslims is the Ka’bah sanctuary at Mecca, the object of the annual pilgrimage. It is much more than a mosque; it is believed to be the place where the heavenly bliss and power touches the earth directly. According to Muslim tradition, the Ka’bah was built by Abraham. The Prophet’s mosque in Medina is the next in sanctity. Jerusalem follows in third place in sanctity as the first qiblah (i.e. direction in which the Muslims offered prayers at first, before the qiblah was changed to the Ka’bah) and as the place from where Muhammad, according to tradition, made his ascent to heaven. For the Shi’ah, Karbala’ in Iraq and Meshed in Iran (where Imam ‘Ali ar-Ria is buried) constitute places of special veneration where the Shi’ah make pilgrimages. The mosque The general religious life of the Muslims is centered around the mosque, and in the days of the Prophet and early caliphs the mosque was, indeed, the center of all community life. Small mosques are usually supervised by the imam (one who administers the prayer service) himself, although sometimes also a muezzin is appointed. In larger mosques, where Friday prayers are offered, a khatib (one who gives the khutbah, or sermon) is appointed for Friday service. Many large mosques also function as religious schools and colleges. Mosque officials are appointed by the government in most countries. In some countries – e.g. Pakistan – most mosques are private and are run by the local community, although some of the larger ones are being increasingly taken over by the government departments of awqaf. Holy days The Muslim calendar (based on the lunar year) dates from the emigration of the Prophet from Mecca to Medina in A.D. 622. The two festive days in the year are the ‘ids, Id al-Fitr celebrating the end of the month of Ramaan and the other, ‘Id al-Aha (the feast of sacrifice), marking the end of the pilgrimage. Because of the crowds, ‘id prayers are offered either in very large mosques or on specially consecrated grounds. Other sacred times include the “night of determination” (believed to be the night in which God makes decisions about the destiny of individuals and the world as a whole) and the night of the ascension of the Prophet to heaven. The Shi’ah celebrate the 10th of Muharram (the first month of the Muslim year) to mark the day of the martyrdom of Husayn. The Muslim masses also celebrate the death anniversaries of various saints in a ceremony called ‘urs (literally, “nuptial ceremony”). The saints, far from dying, are believed to reach the zenith of their spiritual life on this occasion.

Doctrines of the Qur’an God The doctrine about God in the Qur’an is rigorously monotheistic: God is one and unique; he has no partner and no equal. Trinitarianism, the Christian belief that God is three persons in one substance, is vigorously repudiated. Muslims believe that there are no intermediaries between God and the creation that he brought into being by his sheer command: “Be”. Although his presence is believed to be everywhere, he does not inhere in anything. He is the sole Creator and sustainer of the universe, wherein every creature bears witness to his unity and lordship. But he is also just and merciful: his justice ensures order in his creation, in which nothing is believed to be out of place, and his mercy is unbounded and encompasses everything. His creating and ordering the universe is viewed as the act of prime mercy for which all things sing his glories. The God of the Qur’an, described as majestic and sovereign, is also a personal God; he is viewed as being nearer to man than man’s jugular vein, and, whenever a person in need or distress calls him, he responds. Above all, he is the God of guidance and shows everything, particularly man, the right way, “the straight path”. This picture of God – wherein the attributes of power, justice, and mercy interpenetrate – is related to the Judeo-Christian tradition, whence it is derived with certain modifications, and also to the concepts of pagan Arabia, to which it provided an effective answer. The pagan Arabs believed in a blind and inexorable fate over which man had no control. For this powerful but insensible fate the Qur’an substituted a powerful but provident and merciful God. The Qur’an carried through its uncompromising monotheism by rejecting all forms of idolatry and eliminating all gods and divinities that the Arabs worshipped in their sanctuaries, the most prominent of which was Ka’bah sanctuary in Mecca itself. Prophecy Prophets are men specially elected by God to be his messengers. Prophet hood is indivisible, and the Qur’an requires recognition of all prophets as such without discrimination. Yet they are not all equal, some of them being particularly outstanding in qualities of steadfastness and patience under trial. Abraham, Noah, Moses, and Jesus were such great prophets. As vindication of the truth of their mission, God often vests them with miracles. Abraham was saved from fire, Noah from the deluge, and Moses from the Pharaoh. Not only was Jesus born from the Virgin Mary, but God also saved him from crucifixion at the hands of the Jews. The conviction that God’s messengers are ultimately vindicated and saved is an integral part of the Qur’an doctrine. All prophets are human and never part of divinity: they are simply recipients of revelation from God. God never speaks directly to a human: he either sends an angel messenger to him or makes him hear a voice or inspires him. Muhammad is accepted as the last prophet in this series and its greatest member, for in him all the messages of earlier prophets were consummated. He had

47

48

no miracles except the Qur’an, the like of which no human can produce. (Soon after the Prophet’s death, however, a plethora of miracles was attributed to him by Muslims.) The angel Gabriel brought the Qur’an down to the Prophet’s “heart”. Gabriel is represented by the Qur’an as a spirit, but the Prophet could sometimes see and hear him. According to early traditions, the Prophet’s revelations occurred in a state of trance when his normal consciousness was in abeyance. This state was accompanied by heavy sweating. The Qur’an itself makes it clear that the revelations brought with them a sense of extraordinary weight: “If we were to send this Qur’an down on a mountain, you would see it split asunder out of fear of God”.

49

UNI T F I V E OTHER RELIGIONS Part I Hinduism This religion originating in North India about 4,000 years ago which is superficially and in some of its forms polytheistic, has a concept of the supreme spirit, Brahman, above the many divine manifestations. These include the triad of chief gods: Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva (creator, preserver, and destroyer). Central to Hinduism are the beliefs in reincarnation and karma: the oldest scriptures are the Vedas. Temple worship is almost universally observed and there are many festivals. There are over 805 million Hindus worldwide. Women are not regarded as the equals of men but should be treated with kindness and respect. Muslim influence in North India led to the veiling of women and the restriction of their movements from about the end of the 12th century. Hindu belief and ritual can vary greatly even between villages. Some deities achieve widespread popularity such as Krishna, Hanuman, Lakshmi and Durga: others, more localized and specialized, are referred to particularly in times of sickness or need. Hindus believe that all living things are part of Brahman, the Supreme Being: they are sparks of divine life that transmute from one body to another, sometimes descending into the form of a plant or an insect, sometimes the body of a human. This is all according to its karma or past actions which are the cause of its sufferings or joy as it rises and falls in the endless cycle of birth and death. Humans have the opportunity, through knowledge and devotion, to break the karmic chain and achieve final liberation. The creative force of the universe is recognized in the god Brahma. Once he has brought the cosmos into being it is sustained by Vishnu and then annihilated by the god Siva, only to be created once more by Brahma. Vishnu and Siva are, respectively, the forces of light and darkness, preservation and destruction, with Brahma as the balancing force that enables the existence and interaction of life. The cosmos is seen as both real and an illusion, since its reality is not lasting; the cosmos is itself personified as the goddess Maya. Hinduism has a complex of rites and ceremonies performed within the framework of the caste system under the supervision of the Brahman priests and teachers. In India, caste is traditionally derived from the four classes of early Hindu society: Brahmans (priests), nobles and warriors, traders and cultivators, and servants. A fifth class, the untouchables, regarded as polluting in its origins, remained (and still largely remains) on the edge of Hindu society. The Indian 50

Constituent Assembly of 1947 made discrimination against the Schedule Castes or Depressed Classes illegal, but strong prejudice continues. Task 1. Find the words that mean the same as the following: – pertaining to worship of a plurality of gods; – allude, direct to attention; – support, aid or keep from ruin; – having many aspects; – reproduction; – change, transform; – belief that soul returns after death to live in a new body; – covering of fine net or other material to protect or hide a woman’s face. Task 2. Restore the omitted parts of the text using the words given in brackets. (harmony, under, Confucius, ruler, action, cow, behaviour, religions, deity) Confucianism is a philosophical system based on the teachings of (1)…… and practiced throughout China for nearly 2,000 years. Confucianism teaches a moral and social philosophy and code of (2)…… based on peace, order, humanity, wisdom, courage and fidelity. Confucius refused to consider the idea of God but his followers hold there is a state of heavenly (3)…… which man can attain by cultivating virtues, especially knowledge, patience, sincerity, obedience and the fulfillment of obligations between children and parents, subjects and (4)…… . Confucianism encourages the acceptance of the status quo. Hinduism Is one of the world’s major religions. It embraces diverse beliefs and practices with toleration, regarding none as essential. Even other (5)…… are accepted, though not their exclusiveness. Having no dogma, it is hardly definable. Hindus have great respect of all life, many being vegetarian and revering and protecting the (6)…… . The upper – class caste of Brahmins is respected as sacrosanct. The doctrine of transmigration of souls in an endless cycle, (7)…… the law of karma, is universally believed. The three paths of escape from the cycle are duty, knowledge ( sought by meditation and yoga) and devotion to God. True Hinduism began in the 2nd century B.C.E. Krishna is the major (8)…… in later Hinduism, depicted as a blue skinned, sportive youth generally playing the flute. He is worshipped as an incarnation of Vishnu, one of the major gods of modern Hinduism, and advocates selfless (9)…… .

51

Task 3. Render from Russian into English. Даосизм Формирование даосизма в Китае относится к началу эпохи Хань (II в. до н. э.), его развитие и укрепление происходит параллельно с распространением конфуцианства. Даосизм и конфуцианство составили два взаимосвязанных религиозно-философских направления в духовной жизни китайского общества. Общее число их последователей сегодня составляет около 200 млн человек. За пределами Китая они немногочисленны, но постепенно становятся популярными у некоторых интеллигентов и студентов западных стран. На сегодняшний день в России зарегистрировано девять даоских объединений. Даосизм и конфуцианство объединяют прежде всего общие духовно религиозные корни, уходящие в первобытную магию древних китайцев, в представления о единстве мира и человека и гармонии Вселенной, где уравновешиваются противоположности – инь и ян. Кстати, китайская религиозная традиции всячески культивирует непротиворечивость учений конфуцианства и даосизма. Считается, что Конфуций и основатель даосизма Лао-цзы жили в одно время, встречались и пришли к убеждению, что первоосновой мироздания является Дао. Вместе с тем конфуцианство и даосизм нельзя отождествлять. Они различаются по содержанию, по отношению к сверхъестественному. В центре конфуцианской доктрины находятся этико-политические моменты (нормы поведения в обществе и государстве). Даосизм обращается в первую очередь к вопросу о происхождении мира и роли человека в нем. Учение Конфуция более реалистично, оно всегда отражало интересы китайского чиновничества и было идеологической основой политики правителей. Даосизм подвержен мистике, к нему часто обращались народные массы в период острых социальных кризисов. Конфуцианство, даосизм и буддизм составили основу религиозного синкретизма в Китае.

52

Part II Buddhism Buddhism is one of the great world religions, which originated in India about 500 B.C. It derives from the teaching of the Buddha, who is regarded as one of a series of such enlightened beings: there are no gods. The teaching of Buddha is summarized in the Four Noble Truths, the last of which affirms the existence of a path leading to deliverance – from the universal human experience of suffering. A central tenet is the law of Karma, by which good and evil deeds result in appropriate reward or punishment in this life or in a succession of rebirths. Through a proper understanding of this condition, and by obedience to the right path, human beings can break the chain of Karma. The Buddha’s path to deliverance is through morality, meditation and wisdom. The aim is to break the chain of karma and achieve dissociation from the body by attaining nirvana (“blowing out”) – the eradication of all desires, either in annihilation or by absorption of the self in the infinite. The aim is to create the conditions favourable to spiritual development, leading to liberation or deliverance from bondage to suffering. This is generally seen as involving meditation, personal discipline, and spiritual exercises of various sorts. This common purpose has made it possible for Buddhism to be very flexible in adapting its organization, ceremony, and pattern of belief to different social and cultural situations. Reliable figures are unobtainable, but over 1000 million people live in lands where Buddhism is a significant religious influence. Task 1. Make up 10 statement to agree or disagree with them. Task 2. Restore the omitted parts of the text using the words given in brackets. (connection, religion, differs, bringing, themselves, based, goal, buildings, followers) Buddhism is a widespread Asian (1)…… and philosophy developed from Hinduism in the 6th century B.C.E. by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. His monastic disciples shaved their heads, dressed in rags and devoted (2)…… to the philosophy of Enlightenment. The Pali canon is the scriptural basis of Buddhism. Buddhist teaching advocates a middle course between mortification ((3)…… one’s body and soul into subjection by self denial or discipline) and the pursuit of ambition. The basic teachings of Buddhism are contained in the “four noble truths”: 1) all existence is suffering; 2) the cause of suffering is desire; 3) freedom from suffering is nirvana (the final (4)…… of harmony and satisfaction); 53

4) and the means of attaining nirvana is prescribed in the “eightfold path” that combines ethical conduct, mental discipline and wisdom. The religion numbers 3,000/5,000 million (5)……, including those in Buryatia, Tuva and Kalmykia. Zen is a sect of Japanese Buddhism, which developed in China from circa 500 C.E. and spread to Japan circa 1200. The word means “meditation”. Zen (6)…… greatly from traditional Buddhism, rejecting images and ritual, scriptures and metaphysics. Shinto (“way of the gods”) is the indigenous religion of Japan (7)…… on the belief that the royal family was descended from the sun – goddess Amaterasu Omikami. It later absorbed much Buddhist thought and practice. Shinto shrines are plain wooden (8)…… in which priest and people perform simple rites. Worship of the Emperor and the Zen influence on martial arts resulted in a close (9)…… between Shin to and Japanese militarism. Task 3. Give as much information as possible about the following: Four Noble Truth, Buddha, Shinto, Zen, shrines, the law of Karma. Task 4. Before you read the interview with the Dalai Lama, answer the following question in a written paragraph. Then discuss your answer with a partner. Do you think the world will be better or worse 100 years from now? Peace Prevails In the Buddhist tradition, the future counts for little. Nonetheless, when Tenzin Gyatso, fourteenth Dalai Lama and the spiritual and temporal leader of Tiber in exile, was asked to speculate on the landscape of faith a century from now, he gave it his best try. He was interviewed in Bloomington. Indiana, on a brilliant summer morning, after having laid the cornerstone1 for a new Buddhist temple. Question: In the next hundred years, thanks to organ transplants and genetic therapies, people may be able to live much longer lives. It you had the chance to do that. Would you take it? Dalai Lama: The mere living is not so important. The important thing is usefulness. So if I could get another hundred years more and be useful, then . . . good. Otherwise, you just create more problems for others. And then, from the Buddhist viewpoint, isn’t it better to have another young body (through reincarnation)? There is a Buddhist story about an old monk who was dying and everyone was very sad. He said, “Don’t be sad. Right now, I have an old, decaying body. But very soon ... I will get a fresh young body”.

1

Cornerstone: a foundation; a stone laid at a formal ceremony. 54

Question: Three years ago, you predicted that the next hundred years would be a century of peace, hope and justice. Since then, there have been massacres in Rwanda and Burundi, the Northern Irish peace discussions have been blown apart and the Chinese have kidnapped the young boy you designated to be the Panchen Lama2. Are you still optimistic about the future? Dalai Lama: Oh, yes. Of course. A handful of shortsighted people have always existed. But overall, their day is over because the public’s attitude towards war and violence has become much healthier than at any time in history. People used to be much more jingoistic3 and nationalistic compared with the way they are now. Recently I was talking with the English Queen Mother. She is 96, and I asked her, “What changes have you seen in your lifetime?” – She answered, “When I was young, we had not much concern about the outside world. Now people have a great concern about what is happening all over the world”. This is a very positive change. So I believe that due to the revolution in information, generally speaking, any leader, if he tried to mobilize the whole nation for war, would find it impossible. In previous times, it was quite possible. Well, small – scale wars, perhaps they can still do. Bur large scale – wars, I think, are nor likely. I do believe that in the next century we have to seriously think about putting a complete stop to the arms trade. Question: Buddhism has become quire popular in the West. Could you see a future American President who is a practicing Buddhist? Dalai Lama: No, I think someone in the Judeo-Christian tradition would be better. I prefer that people in Western countries follow their own traditions. I have no desire to propagate my religious beliefs. Question: A hundred years in the future, what will be the role of women in religion? Dalai Lama: I think improved. Because the women want it. Question: Can you see a situation where there might be a woman as Pope, a woman as Archbishop of Canterbury, a woman as Dalai Lama? Dalai Lama: In the Buddhist world, there’s not much of a problem. Some of the Lamas of high reincarnation are women. Question: Is it possible that you, the 14rh Dalai Lama, might be the last Dalai Lama? Dalai Lama: It is possible. Not as a result of external force, though. If the majority of the Tibetan people feel that the Dalai Lama institution is no longer relevant, then the institution will automatically cease. Now, if that happens

while I’m alive or just after my death, then I am obviously the last Dalai Lama. But if my death comes in the next one or two years, then most probably the Tibetan people will want to have another incarnation. Of that I’m quite certain. Of course, there is the possibility that Tibetans become insignificant in our land and all decisions are made by the Chinese. It is possible and very sad. Question: Are you concerned that you might have a violent death? Dalai Lama: It is possible, I don’t know. Airplanes trouble me. Dying in the ocean. And ending up in the stomach of a shark. Question: One hundred years from now, what would you like to be remembered for? Dalai Lama: As a Buddhist practitioner, I have no interest in that. So long as I am alive, my time and my life must be utilized properly. Then after my death, I don’t care how people remember me. Question: Is it true that you like to go shopping when you travel? Dalai Lama: I like it. I’m a human being. I think human beings have a lot of curiosity. I go to Los Angeles; sometimes I shop for myself. Shoes . . . small electronic equipment. . . car food. I go to shopping malls just like they were museums. Question: Many people get a sense of God by observing nature. What will religions be like in a hundred years if there is little nature left on earth? Dalai Lama: The world itself is nature. The sun, the moon, they are nature. Even if there were no more animals, nature would still be here. For those religions that believe in a creator, they would have to find reasons to explain why our beautiful blue planet became a desert. If you ask me whether it’s good or bad, of course it’s bad. But in the Buddhist tradition, something like that would not change our attitude. We believe the whole world will come and disappear, come and disappear – so eventually the world becomes desert and even the ocean dries up. But then again, another new world is reborn. It’s endless. On each of the main themes of this reading, give a few sentences summarizing the Dalai Lama’s point of view: – What does the Dalai Lama say about his philosophy of death? – What does the Dalai Lama say about his attitude toward woman? – What does he say about the role of the Dalai Lama in the war? – What does he say about the future of the earth?

2

Panchen Lama: chief spiritual adviser to the Dalai Lama. Jingoism: extreme nationalism, usually marked by an aggressive, warlike attitude toward other countries. 55 3

56

U NI T S I X REVISION Part I Pre-reading vocabulary exercises 1. Match the names of religions with the names of places they are practiced in. Hinduism Judaism Shintoism Buddhism Islam

synagogue mosque monastery shrine temple chapel

e) The problem with ... societies is that they are only interested in material success, according to one priest. f) She stared at the paintings of the ... with their sharp teeth and cruel eyes. They made her feel frightened. g) If you live a good life you will definitely go to ... according to a Christian friend of mine. But I fear that if I go anywhere it will be to… 5. Name the adjective from each of these nouns: heaven, sin, devil, angel, faith, demon, saint, prophet. 6. Find which of the adjectives in exercise 5 can go with these words or phrases. a) ... thoughts c) ... child e) ... friend g) ... acts b) ... behaviour d) ... day f) ... plot h) ... plan

2. Name religions in which you could find these people. Rabbi, imam, priest, monk, guru. 3. Match the verbs in Box A with their complements in Box B. A Sing Chant Say Kneel Preach Confess

B a sin in prayer a hymn a prayer a sermon The holy book

4. Complete the sentences below with words from the following list: martyr, monk, pilgrims, forgiveness, repentance, secular, demons, heaven, hell. a) She knew that she must decide whether she had the courage to be a ... and die for her faith. b) I wouldn’t like to be a ... especially if I had to stay silent with all the other men. c) I watched all the ... making their way to the shrine. They had been travelling for more than two weeks and they were very tired but very happy. d) If you want my ... for the terrible things you have done you must realize your mistakes. Unless I can see genuine signs of ... I will not have you back into this house. 57

7. Read and translate the sentences paying attention to the words in italics, give definitions to the words in italics. a) The temple contains a number of sacred objects, including one of Buddha’s teeth. b) She can’t eat meat. It’s against her religion. c) The priest sprinkled the congregation with holy water. d) Our background, and our cultural and religious beliefs, will all affect the way we raise our children. e) The kids at this school belong to many different religions. f) The company welcomes applications from people of every race, creed and colour. g) A true believer would never eat meat, as killing any living thing is forbidden. h) Leaders of the various Christian denominations are meeting to discuss church unity. i) Suleka has no objections to marrying someone of a different religious faith. j) Devout Muslims pray to Allah five times a day. k) He says he’s a Jew but he’s not a practising one.

58

Part II

Part III

Work with a partner and write a definition for each of the following words. Break down each word according to the “Member/Smaller Class-Larger ClassSpecific Details” categories before you actually write its definition. Use a dictionary if necessary. The first one has been done for you.

Choose one question and write a well-organized essay. Remember to provide a thesis statement and sufficient explanations, examples, and support to develop your definition. Use the vocabulary you have studied in this unit.

1. a synagogue Member/Smaller Class

Larger Class

Specific Details

a synagogue

a house of worship

Judaism

Definition: A synagogue is a house of worship where Judaism is practiced.

2. a prayer Member/Smaller Class

Larger Class

Specific Details

____________________

____________________

____________________

1. Write a brief definition of the religion you follow or the dominant religion in your country. Explain its most important beliefs and practices. 2. George Bernard Shaw4 wrote, “There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it”. Do you agree or disagree? Explain your answer. 3. How has religion influenced and affected your life? Write an essay defining the positive and/or negative effects of religion on various aspects of your life. 4. Would you marry someone of a different faith? Why or why not? What difficulties would you have to overcome, and what would be the positive or negative results? 5. Can a person be “religious” without following a formal religion? Answer the question with reference to the following poem by Emily Dickinson5.

Definition: ________________________________________________________

Some keep the Sabbath going to church; I keep it staying at home. With a bobolink6 for a chorister7, And an orchard for a dome.

3. a sin Member/Smaller Class

Larger Class

Specific Details

____________________

____________________

____________________

Some keep the Sabbath in surplice8: I just wear my wings, And instead of tolling the bell for church, Our little sexton9 sings.

Definition: ________________________________________________________

4. a prophet Member/Smaller Class

Larger Class

Specific Details

____________________

____________________

____________________

God preaches, – a noted clergyman, – And the sermon is never long; So instead of getting to heaven at last, I’m going all along.

Definition: ________________________________________________________ 4

5. a ritual

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Irish-born British playwright and author. Emily Dickinson (1830–1886), American poet. 6 Bobolink: an American songbird. 7 Chorister: a singer in a church choir. 8 Surplice: a loose, white robe worn by clergymen. 9 Sexton: a church officer or employee who takes care of church property and, in some churches, rings the beil for services. 5

Member/Smaller Class

Larger Class

Specific Details

____________________

____________________

____________________

Definition: ________________________________________________________ 59

60

PA R T I CHRISTIANITY

Reader

61

Russian Orthodox Church Although the Russian Orthodox Church marked the millennium of its foundation in 1988 this was an extended process, which began a century or more earlier. Byzantine sources speak of a Russian diocese established by the patriarchate of CONSTANTINOPLE as early as 867. So momentous a development, declared Patriarch PHOTIOS (circa 810 – circa 895), demonstrated that the warlike Russians could now be considered “subjects and friends” of the Byzantine Empire. By 874, these “subjects and friends” had clearly gained sufficient status to be accorded an archbishop, although the location of his seat remains unclear. The evidence of early Russian Christianity is scant; all the more gratifying, then, to learn of Russian Christians acting as co-signatories of a RussoByzantine treaty in 944. Some may have acted as supporters for the Kievan princess Ol’ga when she decided to link herself, and therefore, potentially, her subjects, with the Byzantine world by accepting baptism in Constantinople circa 960. This was the first such symbolic act at her level of society, but it was not to meet with favour among her immediate successors. A determined pagan revival in the Kievan realm over the succeeding twenty-five years is reported in the later chronicles of KIEV and there is some archaeological evidence to support this. In the event, Ol’ga’s policy prevailed. By the end of the tenth century the Kievan elite was driven to accept that the economic, political, cultural and spiritual welfare of the Russian state could no longer be assured unless alliances were made with one of its monotheistic neighbours. These adhered to Islam, to Judaism or to Christianity, in either its Roman or its Byzantine form. According to the stylized account in the Russian Primary Chronicle (probably completed by A.D. 1116) the ruler of the day, Vladimir or Volodimer, sent envoys to each of the relevant religious centres, asking for each to be assessed. Their unqualified preference was for the religion of Constantinople. “We know only that God abides there among them and their worship is superior to that of any other lands”, they reported after attending Hagia Sophia. “For we cannot forget that beauty”. Some might think the narrative hardly more than a literary device. Nevertheless it prompted some historians to read into it a predisposition of the Russian people to treat beauty as a path to revelation. Be that as it may, Vladimir duly accepted baptism (988) as part of a package deal with the Byzantine authorities, which involved urgent military support for the latter. More important, it promoted Russia’s assimilation to the Byzan62

tine world. Thus the infant Russian church was to receive not only its hierarchy, but also its doctrine, liturgy, canon law, art and music from the Byzantine patriarchate, a dependency of which it remained for six centuries. The conversion of Vladimir’s people was accelerated by use of force. The pace of consequent acculturation was also swift, revealing the recipients’ readiness to benefit therefrom. Acculturation and conversion were in turn abetted by the use of Church Slavonic for the translation of scriptural, liturgical, legal and literary texts. Both the new “Cyrillic” alphabet and an imported corpus of translated work derived ultimately from the ninth-century mission of CYRIL AND METHODIUS to Moravia, with Bulgaria, presumably, as Russia’s intermediary for them. Whether Bulgarian clergy made a direct contribution to the Kievan conversion process remains unclear. The contribution may have been of some importance. But the Priselkov hypothesis (1913) that the late tenth-century diocese of Russia was directly administered from OHRID is generally discounted. A Byzantine metropolitan of all Rus took his seat in Kiev no later than 1037. Initially, the metropolitans were almost invariably Greek by origin and speech, though later Greek and Russian primates appear to have alternated. For almost as long as the Byzantine Empire lasted, the metropolitan was to be its agent. He was therefore capable of adopting an independent stance vis-à-vis the local rulers when required. There were seven dioceses under his supervision in the early period, rising to fifteen by the midthirteenth century. Until the end of that century, Kiev was the actual primatial see, and remained the metropolitan’s nominal seat even when displaced by the cities of VLADIMIR (1300) and then MOSCOW (1308). Only when Kiev fell under Polish-Lithuanian rule did the metropolitan adopt the title “of Moscow and all Rus” (1458). A separate metropolitanate of Kiev was established that same year under Roman auspices, later coming once more under Constantinople (1470), but the coherence of the original metropolitanate was not re-established thereby. Some monastic foundations date back to the early eleventh century, if not earlier. The most influential, the Kievan Caves monastery, was founded in 1051. Generally the monasteries adhered to the Studite rule, borrowed from Constantinople. By 1240 there were no fewer than sixty-eight monastic foundations. By contrast with foundations of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the early monasteries were almost invariably urban in location, well placed to contribute to the educational, cultural and philanthropic life of their secular environment. They also produced role models for the spiritual life, several of whom, like Feodosii, abbot of the Kievan Caves monastery itself (1091), were later canonized. But the first saints to gain national recognition (1072) were two young princes, Boris and Gleb, the “PASSION BEARERS”, who chose to die as followers of Christ rather than to resist violence. Many Russian saints were to be canonized over the succeeding centuries; no fewer than thirty-nine were

added to the CALENDAR at the church councils of 1547 and 1549. The recognition of the early saints suggested a precocious maturity in the life of the newly founded local church. The stability of the young church was severely tested by the Mongol invasion. Vladimir was sacked in 1238, Kiev two years later. This was the fate of almost every Russian city except NOVGOROD. More than two centuries were to pass before Mongol suzerainty was brought to an end. In the immediate aftermath of the invasion preachers, such as Metropolitan Kirill of Kiev and Bishop Seraption of Vladimir, saw the cataclysm as a punishment from God. Nevertheless, church leaders soon learnt that unsought and unprecedented gains could now accrue to the church. By 1257 it had become evident that the Mongol conquerors were to levy taxes on all and sundry, with exemptions for church property and personnel alone. Such was the Mongols’ toleration of religious bodies, however alien to themselves. Thus the period of Mongol rule witnessed a marked increase in the prosperity and status of the church. Not unrelated is the flowering of Russian ICON painting at this time, reaching its apogee in the work of Andrei RUBLEV (circa 1360–1430) and his contemporaries. Not unrelated also is the increase in the number and influence of monasteries and monastic land-holdings, much of this involving outreach into virgin lands. No less important were the spiritual achievements of monastic elders like SERGIUS of RADONEZH (1314–1392) and Nil of Sora, inspired by the reception of HESYCHAST teachings from ATHOS and the Byzantine world at large. Nil is remembered also for his firm opposition to monastic land-holdings of any kind, an opposition which initially found favour with the land-hungry state authorities of the day. Monastic accumulation of tax-exempt properties and economic power was favoured by another and more prominent school of monks, the “possessors”. Their most effective spokesman was Iosif of Volotsk (1439–1515). Under the auspices of such possessors, ambitious programmes of charitable work could be effectively promoted. For the present, the state decided to align itself with the possessors and to refrain from interference with inherited immunities. Nevertheless, such immunities were to be increasingly challenged, notably at the church councils of 1580 and 1584 . In the same period, Muscovite diplomacy and duplicity scored a palpable success. In 1589, with the reluctant consent of the patriarch of Constantinople, the Russian metropolitanate was elevated to the dignity of a patriarchate, fifth in seniority among the patriarchates of the East. This confirmed its hitherto selfdetermined status as an “autonomous” church (1448). It also compensated for the fall of Constantinople to the OTTOMANS (1453), and the associated diminution of its ecclesial standing from the Russian point of view. Indeed, there were Russians who argued at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that two Romes, Rome proper and Constantinople, the New Rome, had already

63

64

fallen, while Moscow, the THIRD ROME, had displaced them, and for ever. One thing was sure: Moscow was now alone among the EASTERN ORTHODOX patriarchates in being free of Islamic rule. Not that the first ROME was to be discounted in determining the status and orientation of the Russian church. The 1448 decision about autonomy had been taken in the aftermath of a crisis brought about by Isidor, metropolitan of Moscow (1436–1441). The Moscow establishment, church and state alike, had spurned his initiatives in furthering formal reunion of the Eastern and Western churches at the Council of Ferrara/FLORENCE (1438–1439). Isidor had been deposed and the reunion nullified. By 1458 the southern metropolitanate of Kiev was taking a different view of the matter and accepted the decisions of the Ferrara/Florence council for a time. In due course, being under Polish-Lithuanian rule, the southern metropolitanate accede to a further union with Rome, which was signed ah Brest (1596). The resulting UNIATE church, even when it was in conflict with the local Orthodox population, was still in a position to exercise an influence on the latter, affecting among other things its theological vocabulary, its iconography and its worship. As Muscovy and Ukraine entered into increasingly close relations during the second half of the seventeenth century and the metropolitanate of Kiev came under Moscow’s jurisdiction in the years 1685–1687, the influence of Ukrainian clergy in the Russian church tended to increase. Notable as a channel of this influence was a pioneer school of higher education in the Muscovite realm, the Helleno-Greek Academy (1685). Here was the starting point for the later theological academies of Kiev (1701), St Petersburg (1797), Kazan (1797) and Sergiev Posad (1814). Yet there was also an ingrained reluctance among the Orthodox to accept Western influences in church life, or indeed at all. A spokesman of the orthodox resistance was Patriarch Filaret of Moscow (circa 1554–1634), who had himself been imprisoned by the Catholic Poles for eight years prior to his enthronement in 1618. Opposition to all Western influences was to be most firmly expressed in that conservative milieu which gave rise to the Old Ritualist (OLD BELIEVERS) movement halfway through the century. Patriarch Filaret, father and mentor of the first Romanov tsar, sought a prominent role in church and state alike. He adopted the title Great Lord. One of his successors, NIKON (1605–1681), insisted that the title spoke of the church’s pre-eminence in church-state relations. This went further than the Byzantine theory of “symphony” between the two spheres, reaffirmed at the Moscow church council of 1551. Nikon was opposed by the tsar, deposed (1659) and disgraced (1666). His failure to assert and safeguard the primacy of the church paved the way for the subjugation of the church administration to the bureaucracy of Peter the Great in the eighteenth century.

Nikon is remembered also for the liturgical reforms, which he vigorously promoted in an over-ambitious attempt to bring Russian practice into line with Greek. Well-intentioned though they were, these reforms were widely regarded as heretical and alienated large numbers of the faithful, many of whom, like the archpriest AVVAKUM Petrov (1621–1682), went to the stake rather than accept their legitimacy. Thus was born that schismatic Old Ritualist movement, which, with its various sub-divisions, has not yet been reintegrated with its parent church. At the death of Patriarch Adrian (1700), the role of patriarch was consciously allowed to lapse. Peter the Great placed his hopes successively on two church leaders of markedly Protestant orientation, Metropolitan Stefan Iavorskii (1658–1722) and Archbishop Feofan Prokopovich (1681–1736). It was the latter who provided much of the text for Peter’s Ecclesiastical Regulations (1720), which determined how the Russian church was administered until the fraught summer of 1917. Although it concerned the structure of a church with pronounced conciliar traditions, the text was drawn up in camera at the emperor’s behest. The same emperor nominated his own representative as supervisor of the new governing body of the Russian church, the Holy Synod. No matter how many bishops of that synod subsequently validated them their signatures, the new regulations accorded the signatories themselves little more than titular status. Appropriately enough, the title of the synod’s senior civil servant was given in plain German: Oberprokuror; for the Lutheran G.W. Leibnitz (1646– 1716) was the ultimate source of much of the regulations’ text. The church’s administration now took the form of a government department. No longer was there any question of symphony between church and state, still less of state subordination to the church. In 1762–1764, soon after Catherine the Great’s accession, the church was deprived of extensive land-holdings and, with them, of over 2 million serfs. The church’s economic dependence on the state now matched its administrative subjugation. A symbol of this subjugation was metropolitan Arsenii Matseevich of Rostov (1696–1776), whose protests against these actions of the state led to his demotion and imprisonment. Monasteries were among the bodies hardest hit under the new dispensation. But this did not prevent a fresh flowering of the spiritual life in the monastic milieu by the turn of the eighteenth century. Most influential in its promotion was the elder PAISSII VELICHKOVSKII (1722–1794). His partial translation into Slavonic (1793) of the recently completed PHILOKALIA provided this revival with its textbook. Paissy is remembered also for his advocacy of the JESUS PRAYER and his validation of the informal institution of the monastic elder or STARETS. For much of his life the Ukrainian Paissii lived on the pe-

65

66

riphery of the Russian empire, on Athos and in Moldavia. But his influence was to be felt in many Russian monasteries, especially Optina Pustyn’. Among Optina’s renowned startsy were Leonid Nagolkin (1768–1841), Makarii Ivanov (1788–1860) and Amvrosii Grenkov (1812–1891). No less important was their radiant contemporary at Sarov, SERAPHIM (1759–1833). Optina’s influence was spread also through its publications, including Russian translations of Greek patristic texts. Together with the serial publications initiated by the theological academies, translations such as these paved the way for the work of theologians, something notably lacking in centuries gone by. There were also original writers, such as the Slavophile A.S. KHOMIAKOV (1804–1860), who depended less on patristic sources than on early nineteenthcentury German and romantic though. In the process, Khomiakov helped to develop an ecclesiology centred on communality and catholicity, sobornost. With Khomiakov began a school of Russian religious thinkers, which included P.A. FLORENSKY (1882–1943) and S.N. BULGAKOV (1871–1944). By contrast, a return to patristic tradition was advocated by such theologians as G.V. FLOROVSKY (1893–1979) and V.N. Lossky (1903–1958). The Russian Revolution was to stifle the development of theological thought on Soviet soil, and Florensky ended his days in a Soviet forced labour camp. By contrast, the emigration to the West of outstanding theologians, among them Bulgakov, Florovsky and Lossky, acted as a stimulus to Western thinkers, not least in the ecumenical movements. Until the Revolution of 1917, the Russian state sponsored Orthodox missionary activities in a variety of non-Russian territories linked to the empire by conquest or trade. There were missions in ALASKA (from 1794) and Japan (from 1861), not to mention the Zyrian, Tatar, Chuvash and Votiak areas of the empire’s landmass. Religious propaganda was at a discount after 1917, and in 1929 the right to any sort of religious propaganda was formally withdrawn. In the early part of the twentieth century much thought was given to possible reform-structural, liturgical and social-of the established church. Many churchmen felt that there was room for a plenary council of the Russian church, the like of which had not been seen for two and a half centuries. But the work of an officially sponsored Pre-Conciliar Commission (1907) and a subsequent Pre-Conciliar Consultation (1911–1913) came to nothing. By the existing statutes only the tsar could convene such a council. Yet the tsar temporized and delayed its convocation until “a favourable time shall come”. Paradoxically, the professedly Orthodox monarchy needed to be brought to an end before the council could take place. When it finally assembled in the summer of 1917, its days were numbered and its promise curtailed. Among its decisions was that a patriarch be elected once again to lead and represent the church. But this was carefully qualified: the patriarch, together with his administration, was ulti-

mately answerable to the council itself. Three candidates were elected. The new primate was then chosen by lot. This fell on Tikhon Belavin (1865–1925), only recently elected as metropolitan of Moscow. A Bolshevik decree of 23 January 1918, which brought about the separation of church from state in no way guaranteed the freedom of the church to act as it deemed fit, or even to survive at all. It was subjected to all kinds of indignities and constraints and simultaneously deprived of the rights of a person-atlaw, as were all its clergy. With Tikhon began a remarkable line of martyrs and confessors. Confiscation and destruction of church property brought the secularization programme of Catherine II almost to completion. A distinct programme was organized for the confiscation of church valuables in 1921–1922, allegedly to combat famine; its covert aim was to bring the church into disrepute. In its aftermath, Patriarch Tikhon was arrested (1922) and the state sponsored ambitious pro-communist reformers to supplant him. This they proceeded to do at their own council of 1923. However, their schismatic and fragmented movement found increasingly less grassroots support. By the end of the Second World War it had vanished. When he emerged from prison in 1923, the patriarch was required to affirm that he was “no longer an enemy of the Soviet government”. He reiterated this statement on the eve of his death. But there was no quid pro quo. Tikhon’s deputy Petr Polianskii was exiled and eventually shot (1936). The Soviet authorities were to demand a more abject declaration of loyalty than Tikhon’s from Metropolitan Sergii Stragorodskii (1861–1944) when they released him from prison and recognized his church administration (1927), a declaration ill received by the body of the church. In any case it brought only formal benefits, if any. Furthermore, it confirmed the suspicions of émigré churchmen, many of whom, under the leadership of Metropolitan Antonii Khrapovitskii (1873– 1936), had already formed an independent church administration, the Episcopal synod of the RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH ABROAD, in the early 1920s. Sergii’s declaration prompted yet others, led by Metropolitan Evlogii Georgievskii (1866–1946), to join the patriarchate of Constantinople (1913). New Soviet laws of 1929 confirmed and extended restrictions on church life. The following decade witnessed the dissolution of the few remaining monasteries, the reduction of parish churches to a matter of hundreds and the imprisonment of millions. Anti-religious propaganda presented this “assault on heaven” as a beneficial piece of social engineering. Yet the census of 1937, at the height of the Stalin terror, elicited so positive a response to the question on belief in God that the result simply had to be suppressed. The war of 1941–1945 proved a turning point in the modern history of the church. Stalin recognized the potential of the church to boost morale at home; he also saw the propaganda value of advertising “freedom of religion” to his al-

67

68

lies. In 1943 he allowed the designation of Metropolitan Sergii as patriarch and, more important, the eventual reopening of theological schools. Overt parish life was resumed, often emerging from the “catacombs”. At the same time, the revival of church life which the Germans had permitted in occupied regions was not simply nullified once the invaders were expelled. Continued toleration of the church was conditional on its acceptance of a strictly delimited life, which concerned itself almost entirely with worship. In exchange it was required to offer its services in the diplomatic field and so participated in the World Peace Council (from 1949), the Christian Peace Conference (from 1958) and the World Council of Churches (from 1961). Not that the state honoured its reciprocal, albeit unpublished, obligations; rather, the period of Khrushchev’s ascendancy was marked by a return to overt persecution (1958–1964) and the closure of something like a half of the Orthodox churches then open. The patriarch of the post-war decades, Aleksii Simanskii (1877– 1970) uttered one dignified protest in public (1960), but otherwise maintained a sorrowful silence on the subject. All the more dignified, by contrast, were the dissident statements of Archbishop Ermogen Golubev (1896–1978) and the priests Gleb Iakunin and Nikolai Eshliman. Each in turn was marginalized by the church administration. Iakunin was subsequently imprisoned for his defence of believers’ rights (1979–1988). Throughout the decades the state sought to ensure that the church continued to be docile, inward-looking, loyal. It imposed its views through the agency of a governmental Council for Religious Affairs, founded in 1943, reorganized and renamed in 1965. Contrary to expectations, the millennium of the Russian church (1988) helped to bring it out of its prevailing shadows. It was permitted to adopt new statutes, which offered greater freedom to its constituent parts. A new patriarch, Aleksii Ridiger, was elected, rather than appointed by agreement with the state (1989). By the end of communist rule (1991), the church was well placed to proceed with its programmes, which could now concern education, charity and mission. Its members swelled by many millions, since baptism was no longer monitored by the state. This has had its drawbacks, since not all baptisms were necessarily the result of spiritual zeal. A church, which had become profoundly conservative in Soviet times as a defensive measure, has now become no less conservative by choice. Liberal clergy are at a discount. Some have been disciplined and even, as in the case of Iakunin in 1994, unfrocked. Anti-Semitism, an aberration of pre-revolutionary right-wing grouping in the Russian church, has sometimes been propagated. Various kinds of nationalism threaten at least the administrative unity of the Moscow patriarchate, most obviously in the newly independent UKRAINE. Whereas the present Russian constitution makes provision for a free church in a free state, the Moscow patriarchate would clearly prefer a 69

dominant role among the denominations and religions of the new Russia, even the status of an established church, as of old. Positive use has been made of many opportunities, and there is no longer a paucity of churches, monasteries or theological schools. But the hopes, which were previously entertained by many an observer for the purgation of the church by the trials of communism have yet to be sustained. Russian Orthodox Church Abroad Otherwise known as the Russian Church in Exile, the Russian Synod, the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia (ROCOR) and the Karlovtsians, the ROCA has played a disproportionately important role in the history of the church in the twentieth century for its size, now about 150,000 parishioners, 330 parishes and 24 monasteries in the DIASPORA. Originally formed as a group of south Russian bishops who found themselves in White-held territory and cut off from the patriarch in Moscow during the Russian civil war of 1919– 1921, ROCA received what it regards as a firm canonical foundation through ukaz no. 362 of the patriarch, the Holy Synod and the Higher Church Council dated 7/20 November 1920, which allowed bishops who found themselves out of communication with the higher church administration in Moscow to form autonomous groups of dioceses led by the eldest hierarch among them. The leader of the ROCA from 1919 to his death in 1936 was Metropolitan Antonii Khrapovitskii of Kiev. At the end of the civil war, the ROCA emigrated from Russia together with the retreating White troops, eventually setting up headquarters in Karlovtsy, Serbia, as an autonomous administration under the protection of the Serbian church on the basis of canon 39 of the Sixth ECUMENICAL COUNCIL. The headquarters moved to New York after the Second World War. The church’s right to form such an administration was recognized in the beginning by all the AUTOCEPHALOUS churches except the Romanian. When, however, ROCA began to rebuke, first the Ecumenical Patriarchate for what it saw as imperialism at the expense of the Russian church and for what were claimed to be uncanonical innovations such as the new CALENDAR, and, from 1928, the Moscow patriarchate for what it condemned as submission to the communists, this recognition was gradually withdrawn by all except two local churches – the Serbian and Jerusalem patriarchates, with which ROCA remains in unofficial communion. In the 1960s ROCA came into communion with the True Orthodox (Old Calendar) Church of Greece; but divisions among the OLD CALENDARISTS meant that by 1995 the ROCA was in communion with only one branch of the Greek Old Calendarists, the “Cyprianites”, and with the Romanian Old Calendarists. Although not in communion with the Moscow patriarchate, the ROCA always considered itself that part of the Russian Orthodox church which found 70

itself in freedom and able to speak the truth openly about the situation of the church inside Russia. A fierce critic of the Moscow patriarchate, which it claimed had submitted to the communists and was lying about the true situation of believers, ROCA championed the cause of the TRUE ORTHODOX or Catacomb Church of Russia, which broke away from the Moscow patriarchate in 1927–1928. Since the 1960s the ROCA has been a vociferous opponent of the World Council of Churches and the participation of Orthodox churches in it. In 1981 the ROCA canonized the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. This act and a significant impact in Russia and provided a stimulus to the revival of Orthodoxy in the Gorbachev years. Then, in 1983, the ROCA anathematized ECUMENISM, an act which has so far had less of an impact but which may well become more important as the anti-ecumenism movement in the Moscow patriarchate gathers pace. In 1990 the ROCA decided that the time had come to return to the motherland and open parishes on Russian soil in direct opposition to the Moscow patriarchate. At first, this movement had considerable success, and many parishes from both the Moscow patriarchate and the Catacomb Church joined the ROCA, called in Russia the free Russia Orthodox Church (FROC). However, a variety of factors, determined opposition from the Moscow patriarchate and local political authorities, a questionable choice of bishops for the FROC and poorly managed relations with the Catacomb Church, most of which remains out of communion with the FROC, have contributed to a slowing in the growth of the movement. In February 1995 five FROC bishops broke away from communion with the ROCA, forming their own autonomous administration. It remains to be seen whether the ROCA can recover from this blow and fulfil its aim of becoming the focus of regeneration in the Russian Orthodox Church. Russian religious philosophy Reflection upon the religious dimension of human experience became prominent in Russian thought during the nineteenth century, though it had long existed in the form of saints’ lives and related writings issuing from the country’s strong monastic tradition. Awareness of the need for a type of reflection which could accommodate the insights of Orthodox spirituality and which promoted the integral nature of the person, “wholeness”, “integrality” or in Russian tsel’nost, was expressed in a celebrated article by the Slavophile thinker Ivan Kireevskii (1806–1856) entitled “On the Necessity and Possibility of New Principles in Philosophy”. Petr Chaadaev’s Philosophical Letters, written in 1829 and first published in 1836, had set in motion the increasingly acrimonious dispute that marked Russian polemical writings during the nineteenth century, between advocates of emulation of West European society, the Westernizers or zapadniki, and those

convinced that Russia possessed social structures and spiritual values, adherence to which would secure the nation’ welfare, the Slavophiles or slavyanofily. This dispute, still pursued in the post-Soviet era, amounted to a quarrel regarding what form of society, West European or Russian, provides the optimum conditions for the growth of the human personality (lichnost). These matters engaged the minds of religious and secular thinkers alike, and the debate extended into areas such as the philosophy of history, which has continued to be a prominent element in Russian thought, both in its religious and secular variants. Russian religious philosophy came into its own with Vladimir SOLOVYOV (1853–1900), whose writing spanned the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In his person, his work and his preoccupations he exemplified some of the most characteristic positive features of Russian religious thought. These include an abiding concern with those values that honour and secure the growth of the human person in freedom; a keen awareness of the ethical dimension of social relations and organization; and strong measures of idealism and consistency in applying the tenets of Christian belief to problems of the contemporary world. Solovyov was the first to provide anything in Russian philosophy approaching a coherent system. Highly competent in epistemology and metaphysics and uniquely well versed in the writings of Plato, the Neoplatonists and German idealism, Solovyov wrote numerous works which he intended to serve as the basis for a synthesis of religious and secular thought. He readily acknowledged the achievements of the most far-reaching and inspired preChristian philosophers, Plato in particular, but also set out the deficiencies of their systems from the traditional Christian point of view, aiming to present the agnostic and increasingly secularized Russian intelligentsia with sound reasons for re-examining the nature of Christian belief and values with a view to their adopting these, thus healing the serious rift between intelligentsia and people. Solovyov’s reappraisal of Christian values, carried out after a brief but strong adherence to atheism in his youth, proved decisive for the direction taken by many, though not all, subsequent philosophers in Russia. A succession of gifted thinkers explored the common ground between philosophy and theology and wrote extensively, sharing many preoccupations. Solovyov’s writings were the fruit of deep personal religious experience and, consequently, attach importance to experiential aspects of prayer and sacramental life of the church. As a lay believer with a particularly strong commitment to Christian values, he resembled other religious philosophers in Russia. Sergei BULGAKOV (1871–1944) and Pavel FLORENSKY (1882–1938) were exceptions in being clergy. The Russian Orthodox Church regarded some of Solovyov’s ideas with suspicion, even animosity. Vasilii Rozanov (1856– 1919) and Lev Shestov (1866–1938) were even further removed from the eccle-

71

72

siastical establishment than was Solovyov, yet they too pursued concerns that were religious and philosophical. The spiritual aspirations of the laity represent a singularly important element in Russian religious philosophy, and the laity’s fateful encounter in the mid-nineteenth century with west European secular ideas, radical socialism and utopianism was recorded in fictional form by Fedor Dostoevskii (1821–1881), whose contribution to religious thought is likely to endure longer than the influence of some Russian figures usually deemed theologians and philosophers. Russian religious philosophy is distinctive in its reflections on All-Unity or Pan-Unity (Russian: vseedinstvo). Vladimir Solovyov, Sergei Bulgakov, Pavel Florensky, Semyon Frank (1877–1950) and Lev Karsavin (1882–1952) were the philosophers most concerned with this area of speculation. Based on a close reading of a large body of esoteric literature, including the works of the seventeenth-century German mystic Jakob Boehme, the Russian philosophers’ purpose was to express the interrelatedness and interdependence of all forms of existence. They recognized this insight as expressed in iconographic form within their own spiritual tradition, and sought means to articulate it in a coherent and organic synthesis of theological, philosophical and scientific speculation. The title of Pavel Florensky’s The Pillar and Ground of Truth (1914) reveals the spirit and scope of the enterprise. For Solovyov, Bulgakov and Florensky in particular All-unity was closely bound up with Sophia, the personification of DIVINE WISDOM, and the attendant symbolism they traced in the mystical literature from which they drew inspiration. Other thinkers in Russia (notably Semyon Frank) were less attracted to the Sophianic motif but nevertheless retained a strong emphasis upon the interrelatedness and interdependence of all forms of life. Their Slavophile precursors, and notably Alexei KHOMIAKOV (1804–1860), had underlined the importance in orthodox spirituality of sobornost, that is, the communality-infreedom of believers in Christ. Other prominent characteristics of Russian religious philosophy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have been its anthropocentric nature and, arising from this, its preoccupation with the application of ethical principles at all levels of the organization of society. This overriding concern has rendered some philosophical schemes particularly susceptible to utopianism, but, on the other hand, Russian philosophers have also proved able to discern the negative aspects of utopian thinking. Nikolai BERDIAEV (1874-1948), whose works in English, French and German translations reached a readership beyond his country and his place of exile, achieved fame largely through his writings on the false nature of secular utopias and of the social experiment then being conducted in the Soviet Union.

A further effect of the Russians’ concern with the ethical dimension has been the relative paucity of reflection on legal structures and systems and their role in social organization. That imbalance between the ethical and the legal has been referred to variously as ethical maximalism and legal nihilism, eticheskiy maximalism and pravovoy nigilism. It has numerous variants among religious and secular thinkers, notably among the Slavophiles, and rests upon the notion that ethical imperatives can be understood by the innermost and vital side of the human personality, whereas legal norms are imposed from outside and not infrequently conflict with the individual citizen’s intuition of what is morally acceptable. In their own different ways Dostoevskii and Tolstoy subscribed to this understanding of the relationship between ethics and law, and their ideas on this subject could justifiably be cited as instances of ethical maximalism. Compared to philosophical traditions in other countries, the Russian tradition has placed relatively little emphasis upon epistemology as distinct from other branches of philosophy. In part, this is because Russians tended to value a broader synthesis of knowledge, in which faith also played a role, and worked in the spirit of German philosophers such as Friedrich Schelling. The tendency towards system-building was, however, firmly resisted by Lev Shestov, whose critical articles on Spinoza, Solovyov, Tolstoy and other figures put in question the very nature of the relationship between faith and reason and strongly denied the applicability of reason to the domain of religion. Shestov brought out the contrast by juxtaposing what he called the values of Athens and the values of Jerusalem; he heavily favoured “the God of Abraham and Isaac” rather than the abstract “God” of the philosophers and system-builders. In the 1970s and 1980s, but especially since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, there has been a very marked resurgence of interest among Russians in this entire tradition of religious-philosophical speculation. The early 1990s have seen the publication in accessible editions of works by virtually all the noteworthy Russian philosophers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Furthermore, this interest is reflected in scholarly and ecclesiastical journals. It remains to be seen whether this tradition of thought can or will become truly assimilated by a wider public whose education was completed in the years of Soviet rule.

73

74

Russian sects Collective name conventionally given to a number of religious movements, the oldest of which, the Khlysty or Khristovoverie, goes back to the seventeenth century, the same period as the origin of the OLD BELIEVERS. Khlysty sought Christ’s spirit in the depths of their own souls rather than the rituals of the Orthodox Church, whose doctrine, traditions and authority they rejected, following leaders they called “Christs”. In the early centuries Khlysty and other sec-

tarians sometimes retained a certain degree of contact with the Orthodox Church and occasionally attended services. Their worship used song and dance to attain a state of ecstatic, Spirit-filled exaltation for which they prepared by fasting and ASCETICISM. The Postniki (Easters), an austere, tightly organized group, separated off under the Christ Kopylov in the eighteenth century, then split in the midnineteenth century, producing the Old Israel and then circa 1885 the New Israel, each following a different Christ. The New Israel practiced the re-enactment of events in sacred history, sometimes with great numbers of participants. Many Postniki emigrated to Uruguay in 1911–1912. The Skoptsy (Castrators) emerged from the Khlysty in the late eighteenth century. Led by the Christ Selivanov, who introduced the “baptism by fire”, they practised castration of males, which many women paralleled by cutting away their breasts. In the late eighteenth century the Orthodox Archbishop Amvrosii of Ekaterinoslav denounced as Dukhobors (Spirit-Wrestlers) a group which had emerged in the mid-century in Ukraine and then come under the leadership in Amvrosii’s archdiocese of Silvan Kolesnikov. By the end of the eighteenth century the Dukhobors had become the objects of state persecution and oppression, and when in 1802 Tsar Alexander I offered to resettle Dukhobors in the Tavrida region in Crimea the long saga of Dukhobor migration and resettlement had begun. Other groups were to be resettled in Transcaucasia. Under the leadership of Savelii Kapustin the Tavrida Dukhobors severed all residual involvement in Orthodox religious rites, and practised a life of stern, upright morality. Their emphasis on pacifism, hard work and mutual help was put to a severe test when Nicolas I attempted to force military service and conversion to Orthodox on the Dukhobors. The demand for an oath of loyalty from all citizens of the empire in 1894 furnished the occasion for the great Dukhobor leader Peter Verigin (1859– 1924) to call for a refusal of the oath, a rejection of the power and authority of the state and of all forms of militarism, and a reformation of life involving vegetarianism and abstention from alcohol and tobacco. In 1895 a mass burning of weapons took place among the Dukhobors of the Caucasus, which led to further acts of repression. Eventually in 1897 the government gave the Dukhobors permission to emigrate and several thousand moved to Canada, where in 1903 Peter Verigin joined them. At first they were granted homesteads mainly in Saskatchewan, but when they refused an oath of allegiance imposed in 1905 were dispossessed, many moving to communally purchased land in British Columbia. The community divided into uncompromisingly traditionalist and more assimilationist groups. At the heart of Dukhobor religion is a vivid sense of the presence of the Christ-spirit in all things, especially all living things. They refuse to treat the

Bible as an external authority, emphasizing rather the illuminating presence of God within the individual and the community. Christ is a sinless human being; he and other spiritual leaders they recognize differ from other human beings in the greatness of the divine spark illuminating him. Baptism was abandoned, together with the use of ICONS and all traditional forms of Orthodox worship, the priesthood, hierarchy and ecclesiastical law. The Molokans (Milk-drinkers) or Spiritual Christians emerged in the same regions as the Dukhobors at a similar period. The formation of the community was strongly influenced by the leadership of Semen Uklein. Molokans, though friendly towards the Dukhobors and often similar in lifestyle, differ sharply from them in centring their religious observance on the authority of the Bible. Molokan communities traditionally attempted to maintain biblical dietary rules and had their own butches. Several divisions appeared in the community, the most significant between the Postoiannye, the “Steadfast”, who claim to represent the original Molokan tradition, and the Pryguny, the “Leapers”, named from the jumping, dancing movements used in their worship. The Leapers show great respect to the prophets within the community, who have a significant role in worship; The Spirit and Life is a collection of prophetic works, which the Leapers use in worship. A number of Molokans emigrated to America, and there are several Molokan meeting houses on the west coast. The vast majority of Molokans remained in what became the USSR, where their communities withered under state oppression, but have now reemerged as visible worshipping communities, their known memberships now roughly similar to the number of America Molokans. A much smaller community migrated from America to Australia in the 1960s. Molokan worship is characterized by the recognition of a variety of ministries or functions, elders, singers, readers, and, in some communities, prophets, each of whom has a distinct role to play in the service. Both Molokans and Dukhobors maintain a rich tradition of unaccompanied singing in worship, the Molokans in particular making great use of sing scriptural verses. The doctrine, lifestyle and worship of the Russian sects often resemble those of religious movements, which emerged from the radical Reformation. They represent, however, distinctly Eastern Christian traditions of reform, and maintain a strong sense of ethnic identity.

75

76

PA R T I I JUDAISM Although the religion, which we call Judaism today, has its roots in the ancient past, it is very different from the Biblical religion out of which it grew. We must make a distinction between Israelite (or Hebrew) religion and Rabbinic Judaism. Israelite Religion By this is meant the religion we find described in the Hebrew Scriptures or Hebrew Bible (which Christians call the Old Testament). These books were composed over several hundred years, from about 900 B.C.* to about 100 B.C., the earliest being certain portions of the first five books, the Pentateuch, and the latest being the book of Esther. Not all of them had a directly religious origin, but they were subsequently given religious significance by being collected together into a single authoritative compilation. The spirit of Israelite religion It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the king’s house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her… Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am with child”. So David sent word to Joab, “Sent me Uriah the Hittite”. And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered. Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet”. And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of *

Many Jewish scholars prefer to use “B.C.E.”, meaning “before the Christian Era”, and “C.E.” meaning “of the Christian Era”. However, the traditional usage is retained here, for two reasons. One is that use of the terms “B.C.” and “A.D.” need not necessarily imply a faith commitment, just as use of the Christian system of dating events from the putative birth-date of Christ does not necessarily imply a faith commitment. Although literally B.C. means “before Christ” and A.D. means “in the year of the Lord”, in modern times these are mere ciphers and are used by many people who have no commitment to Christianity, just as the dating system is. The second reason is that there are great practical advantages in having a single terminology. 77

his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house”, David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing”. Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart”. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day, and the next. And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die”. And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab; and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite was slain also. Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting; and he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, “Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did not you know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone upon him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?” Then you shall say, “Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also”. So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us, and came out against us in the field; but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall; some of the king’s servants are dead; and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also”. David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, “Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now another, strengthen your attack upon the city, and overthrow it”. And encourage him”. When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she made lamentation for her husband. And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. 78

And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his morsel, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared it for the man who had come to him”. Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity”. Nathan said to David, “You are the man. Thus says the Lord, the god of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul; and I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have smitten Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the sun. For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun”. David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord”. And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child that is born to you shall die”. And Nathan went to his house. (2 Samuel 11,12; Revised Authorized Version) Questions for discussion: 1. How would you describe David’s deeds against Uriah? 2. What does Nathan mean by referring to them as “sin”?

79

The origins of the Israelite people and their religion The historical facts appear to be that a number of tribes of diverse origin, mostly Canaanite and speaking Aramaic, lived in the hill country of Palestine around 1200 B.C., some of them worshipping the god Yahweh among others. In the course of repeated wars against the “Sea Peoples” or Philistines living on the coast, the hill tribes developed a sense of national unity and eventually founded a united kingdom. Their religion gradually became monotheistic, centering on the figure of Yahweh, and was enshrined in a series of sacred writings. These writings recounted legends of earlier figures such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, considered as the fathers of the united people, and stories of a period of slavery in Egypt and of redemption from it by the power of Yahweh – stories which, it must be conceded, modern scholars have largely been unable to verify – as well as the laws promulgated by Yahweh. The worship of a single God probably developed at about the same time as the nation was unified under a single king. According to the Bible the nation reached its widest boundaries during the reigns of David and Solomon, and was subsequently divided into a northern and a southern half. The northern, termed Israel, was destroyed by the Assyrians in the eighth century B.C., and the southern, named Judah, was destroyed in the sixth century B.C. by the Babylonians, who carried the educated and administrative classes off into captivity in Babylon. There some of these writings were brought together and edited in the authoritative collection known as the Pentateuch, Torah, or Books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible. Over the following centuries further compilations of these and similar materials were made, until the Hebrew Bible came to take the form it now has, around A.D. 100. The Israelite view of life Israelite religion was the first to develop the concept of a single personal God who created and governs the entire world. The historic achievement of the Israelites lay not only in their monotheism, however, but above all in the character they ascribed to this God. While the gods of other peoples are often cruel and unjust, given to the whole range of human crimes, the God of the Hebrew people is just and holy, and demands justice and holiness of men. This God, who bears the name Yahweh, showed especial love for the Israelite people over the other peoples of the world by revealing himself to their fathers, redeeming them from slavery in Egypt, and giving them political power over the land of Palestine. In return he requires them to obey his commands. These commands are both ritual and moral, and bear heavy punishments in this life for transgressions. If they obey his commands, god promises them wellbeing in this life. Thus Israelite religion in its traditional form is concerned with 80

the achievement of well-being in this life through obedience to the commands of God. After death the soul of man descends into a shadowy existence in Sheol, where it enjoys neither much sorrow nor much bliss. Israelite religion is a religion animated by the fear of God, but also by trust in God. On the one hand, “it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God”. But on the other, he has shown that he loves his people, and if they carry out his commands, he will be faithful to them. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want… Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; For thou art with me. (Psalm 23) God and creation Yahweh appears to have been at first associated with a shrine on Mount Sinai, before being adopted as the sole god of the Hebrews. During the earliest period of the religion, the Hebrew people accepted that the gods of other peoples existed, such as Baal or Astarte, but the Hebrews for the most part worshipped only their own god. This state of affairs has been called henotheism. In the course of time, however, the religion became genuinely monotheistic: Yahweh came to be considered as the only true God, the creator of heaven and earth. The concept of creation, which characterizes Judaism and its daughter religions, Christianity and Islam, interprets the relationship between the world and the divine differently from the Upanishads and Buddhism. According to the Upanishads and Mahayana Buddhism, the divine is the sole genuine reality and the world is essentially an illusion which our mind impose on that divine reality, in a sense revealing it, but also in an important and obvious sense concealing it. Both forms of religion are monistic. According to the Hebrew concept of creation, by contrast, the world is real, and distinct from God. Creation is not monistic, but perhaps we might say, pluralistic. Although the world is dependent on God for its existence, and continues to be dependent on him throughout its history, god is not the world, and the world is not God. The relationship between God and the world is more like that between a carpenter and a chair that he makes, or an artist and his painting, whereas for the Upanishads and Mahayana Buddhism the relationship is more like that between, say, ourselves as we are in reality, and as we appear in a concave or convex mirror which distorts our image, or between the magician’s stage assistant who is not actually sawn in half, and the illusion the magician produces that she is sawn in half. 81

From early times Yahweh was thought of not simply as the embodiment of physical power, as many gods have been, but as essentially moral: he was just and holy, and demanded justice and holiness of men, as the story of Nathan and David testifies. Hebrew religion was the first to embrace ethical monotheism. An offense against morality is also an offense against God’s command, and therefore against God himself. This is the concept of sin. In the Torah, sin can be unwitting as well as deliberate. Sins are to be atoned for by offering sacrifice. Salvation history A distinctive feature of Israelite religion is its sanctification of the history of the Hebrew people, as salvation history. Yahweh not only created heaven and earth, but he also brought about certain definite events, which were believed to have happened in the history of the Hebrew people. He appeared to Moses in a burning bush, rescued the people from slavery in Egypt, fed them in the desert, revealed his Law to them through Moses on Mt Sinai, led them back into Palestine, and appointed Saul and David as kings. “A wandering Aramean was my father; and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage. Then we cried out to the Lord the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey”. (Deuteronomy 26; Revised Authorized Version) When the nation was all but destroyed by the Babylonians, this event was seen as a punishment inflicted by God for the sins of the people. Eventually, the people hoped, God would send his chosen servant, the Messiah, who would restore Israel to its rightful place among the nations, ushering in an era of lasting peace and prosperity. Just as the Israelite concept of creation is different from that of the Indian religions mentioned, so also is their concept of history. In the Upanishads and Buddhism, the course of the world is cyclical. Samsara is an everlasting cycle of birth, death and rebirth, and the same holds true for the world as a whole: eon succeeds eon, and in each eon the illusory world arises and eventually declines back into nothingness before arising again in the next eon. In the Hebrew concept, by contrast, history is a straight line, beginning with creation, and continuing on to its final consummation. It is more like a drama, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. 82

The covenant The combined emphasis on justice and on history which marks Israelite religion shows itself especially in the fact that the relationship between the Hebrew people and their God Yahweh was described in terms of a legal contract, a solemn agreement which binds both parties in justice. According to this contract, the Hebrew people and the obligation to observe the law which Yahweh would give them. Yahweh, in his turn, obligated himself to increase their number, and to give them possession of the land of Canaan or Palestine. The covenant was not a contract between equals, but of the sort, which a ruler might impose on his subjects or a conqueror on the conquered (rather like the agreement which the victorious United Nations armies imposed upon Iraq after the Persian Gulf war of 1990). The terms of the contract were set forth initially by Yahweh to Abraham, the legendary father of the Hebrew people, on the occasion when, having commanded him to sacrifice his son Isaac, he revealed that this had been only a test of faith. “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you, and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God”. This contract was renewed and enlarged by God with Moses. After rescuing the people from the Egyptians, God had Moses lead them to Mount Sinai (the location of which has proved impossible to identify), where amid thunder and lightning he gave them his complete Law. The Law of Moses The most celebrated part of the Law given by God to Moses is the Ten Commandments, the classic summary of man’s duties towards God and his neighbor: And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your god, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image… you shall not bow down to them or serve them. 83

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain… Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor; and do all work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God… Honor your father and your mother… You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s”. In addition to these ten (which are recorded in the Bible in two slightly different versions, in Exodus 20, the one given here, and Deuteronomy 5), God gave many other laws to Moses for the Hebrew people. The traditional count is 613. These laws cover a wide variety of subjects, including the sacrifices to be carried out, the feast days to be observed, the penalties to be inflicted for various crimes such as murder and robbery, sexual conduct, the obligations of ritual purity, the forgiveness of debts, etc. These laws are not restricted to the purely religious sphere, but also include many that regulate the civil life of the community. In effect, the Mosaic Law provides a sacred constitution for the nation of Israel. The central activity of the religion was the offering of animals, grain, and fruits in sacrifice to Yahweh. The Law prescribes rituals for carrying out several different kinds of sacrifice, including the sacrifice of praise, the peace offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, and the sacrifices to be offered on the various holy days and holy occasions. The feast days prescribed by the Law are described in the following section on Rabbinic Judaism. The Torah The Law of Moses can be found in five books written in Hebrew: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Together these books make up the Pentateuch (the “Five Scrolls”) or Torah. Genesis contains the story of the creation of the world, and the histories of the fathers of the Hebrew people, including the first covenant with Abraham. Exodus tells the story of the rescue of the people out of Egypt. Leviticus contains the main provisions of the Law. Numbers gives a variety of further ordinances and stories, and Deuteronomy is a summary of the material in the preceding books. Scholars have found that these books are largely composed of earlier documents that have been rearranged and edited. The book of genesis, for example, is compiled from sections taken from three main sources, a document scholars call J, which refers to God by the name Yahweh, one called E, which 84

refers to him by name El or Elohim, and one called P, representing the traditions of the priestly caste. The task of collecting these documents together in their present form was probably carried out in Babylon during the Exile in the sixth century B.C. These books, the Torah, make up the core or foundation of the Hebrew Bible and have traditionally been considered its most sacred part. In addition, the Bible contains two other collections: the Prophets and the Writings. The prophets While the basic features of Hebrew religion as described in the Torah were probably created by the priestly caste, another group also played a large role: the prophets. The word “prophet” from its etymology means “one who speaks on behalf of another”, and in its religious sense it means one who speaks on behalf of God. The prophets gave the Hebrew people instruction in the name of God concerning the various courses of action they should take as a people. Above all, the prophets called on the Hebrew people to repent of their sins. The major prophetical books in the Bible are: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel. In addition there are thirteen smaller or “minor” ones (Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi). The earlier prophets addressed themselves to the Hebrew people as a whole, because it was the people as a whole who were committed to observe the covenant with Yahweh. According to the message of these prophets it was permissible to punish the whole people because of the transgressions of some. But with the prophet Jeremiah a stronger sense of the individual emerged. According to Jeremiah a person’s fate depended on his or her own actions. Henceforward Hebrew religion addressed itself more and more to the individual conscience rather than simply to the people as such. The synagogue system In 587 B.C. Israel was conquered by the Babylonians, who destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and sent the bulk of the population into exile in Babylon. As we have remarked, it was probably here that the Torah was compiled. In 538 B.C. the Persian emperor Cyrus conquered Babylon and ended the Jewish captivity. For the next 200 years Israel was part of the Persian Empire. After the return from the Exile work began on rebuilding the temple, but at the same time a novel religious system was set up: the synagogue system. A synagogue is a hall for meeting, prayer, and study. Although the center of the religion continued to be the sacrifices in the temple in Jerusalem, synagogues were constructed in towns and villages throughout the land, and the study of the written Law or Torah became a matter of paramount importance. Alongside the priests a second religious caste developed, the rabbis, or teachers of the Divine Law. 85

However, not all the Jews wished to return to Palestine; some had prospered in Babylon and stayed on there. Subsequently other Jewish communities developed in the Persian Empire, and then in the Greek and Roman Empires, till by the year A.D. 70 there were probably more Jews living outside Palestine than in it. This is called the Diaspora or Dispersion. The religion of these communities also came to center on the synagogue. The rabbinical schools came to develop the view that, alongside the Written Torah, God had communicated to Moses an Unwritten or Oral Torah, which was handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. This unwritten Law contained many precepts and legal regulations not found in the written Law. It provided the basis for the subsequent development of Rabbinic Judaism. By the time of Jesus, Hebrew religion had become markedly diverse in comparison with the Rabbinic Judaism of later times. On the one hand the traditional beliefs and sacrifices, which were concerned solely with obtaining wellbeing in this world, were preserved by the priestly caste, the Sadducees, whose God was still essentially the national God of the Jewish people. But other groups had emerged with different beliefs and practices. As the result of Persian or other influences, belief had developed in a future life, and a judgement beyond the grave leading to Paradise or to Hell. The Pharisees, a group dedicated to keeping the Law of Moses in their personal life, emerged and came to accept this view, and with it a view of God which tended to emphasize his universal character as the God of all mankind. Both the Sadducees and the Pharisees had their Rabbis or Scribes, men who specialized in the knowledge of the Law, interpreting it in the light of their respective principles. A form of Jewish monasticism had developed, known as the Essene movement, which regarded the Sadducees as corrupt. In addition, the belief had become widespread that the messianic age would soon arrive, bringing with it the end of the world, and various messianic communities had developed. Some expected the Messiah to be a human being, while in other writings he is described as a pre-existent heavenly being. In Galilee, in the north, bands of religious guerrillas formed, the Zealots, with the intent of overthrowing the Roman rule. Outside of Palestine, the Jewish community was assimilating Graeco-Roman culture and philosophy, a trend embodied in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, made about 200 B.C., and in the figure of Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary of Jesus. In A.D. 70, after a Jewish revolt, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and forbade it to be rebuilt. After a further revolt was put down in A.D. 135 Jews were forbidden to enter Jerusalem. This left only the Synagogue system and the rabbinate, which were to provide the foundation for the emergence of Rabbinic Judaism. 86

Rabbinic Judaism The Spirit of Judaism Rabbi Bunam used to tell young men who came to him for the first time the story of Rabbi Eisik, son of Rabbi Yekel in Cracow. After many years of great poverty, which had never shaken his faith in God, he dreamed someone bade him look for a treasure in Prague, under the bridge, which leads to the king’s palace. When the dream recurred a third time, Rabbi Eisik prepared for the journey and set out for Prague. But the bridge was guarded day and night and he did not dare to start digging. Nevertheless he went to the bridge every morning and kept walking around it until evening. Finally the captain of the guards, who had been watching him, asked in a kindly way whether he was looking for something or waiting for somebody. Rabbi Eisik told him of the dream, which had brought him here, from a faraway country. The captain laughed: “And so to please the dream, you poor fellow wore out your shoes to come here! As for having faith in dreams, if I had had it, I should have had to get going when a dream once told me to go to Cracow and dig for treasure under the stove in the room of a Jew – Eisik, son of Yekel, that was the name! Eisik, son of Yekel! I can just imagine what it would be like, how I should have to try every house over there, where one half of the Jews are named Eisik, and the other Yekel!” And he laughed again. Rabbi Eisik, traveled home, dug up the treasure from under the stove, and built the house of Prayer, which is called “Reb Eisik’s Shul”. “Take this story to heart”, Rabbi Bunam used to add, “and make what is says your own: There is something you cannot find anywhere in the world, not even at the zaddik’s, and there is, nevertheless, a place where you can find it”. (Martin Buder, Tales of the Hasidim, 1947)

characterized Hebrew religion, was preserved, the conception of the divine law was transformed. The Law of Moses had been given to the Jewish people as the law both religious and civil of an independent political state, the Jewish nation. After A.D. 135, however, this no longer existed. In Palestine only a remnant of the people remained. The center of Jewish population moved first northwards, to Galilee, and then eastwards, to Mesopotamia, the land of Babylon between the two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, now part of the Persian Empire. A Jewish population also existed in the cities of the Roman Empire, and in 212 they were made Roman citizens, but in the fourth century the Empire became officially Christian, and Jewish religion, previously held in honor, came under condemnation. The Jewish community retreated into itself, and the absorption of GraecoRoman culture came to an end. Under these circumstances much of the Law could not be carried out. The temple sacrifices could no longer be offered. The powers of government could no longer be used to enforce the often severe punishments attached to infractions of the Law. The festivals could no longer be the national events they were intended to be. The synagogue, however, could and did survive, and with it the study of the Law. With the synagogue survived the Pharisees, who possessed the only form of Jewish religion that appeared to be still viable.

The emergence of Judaism The religion called Judaism today was developed during the centuries which followed the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, as a result of the new political circumstances in which the Jewish community found itself. Thus Judaism properly so-called developed not before Christianity, but contemporaneously with it, and as an alternative to it. While the ethical monotheism, which

The Talmud The basis for a readjustment and reinterpretation of Jewish religion was provided by the tradition of the Oral Law. This was law, which, it was believed, had been revealed by God to Moses, but not written down, and which had been transmitted from generation to generation by word of mouth. This contained, for example, the “fences of the Law”, various prescriptions regarding the washing of hands, tithings, fasts, etc., which served to “protect” the Torah, and which had been condemned so strongly by Jesus. The concept of an oral law provided the flexibility needed in order to adapt the Torah to the new circumstances. The discussion of this Oral Law by the rabbis of the period, who were called the Tannaim, were collected and codified by Rabbi Judah (135–217) in a document called the Mishnah, or “Repetition”. The discussions of the Mishnah by a later group of rabbis, the Amoraim, were collected in a further document, the Gemara, or “Completion”. The Mishnah and the Gemara together make up the Talmud, a word which means “teaching” or “learning”. It is the Talmud, rather than the Bible directly, which provides the foundation of Rabbinic Judaism. The legal material in the Talmud, including how a Jew must act, is termed “halakhah”; in addition there is material representing the sermons of the rabbis,

87

88

Questions for discussion: 1. What is this thing cannot be found anywhere in the world? 2. If it cannot be found in the “world”, where can it be found?

termed “Haggadah”. Other material related to the Mishnah has been preserved in the Tosephta (“addition”) and in the Targums, Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible. Much of the Talmudic interpretation of scripture follows the method known as Midrash, in which each word and even letter of the scripture is taken as having a definite meaning, indeed many meanings latent or implicit, all complementing one another. Thus each generation can find new lessons in the text. The term Midrash is also used for the class of writings employing this method. Following the arrangement of the Mishnah, the Talmud is organized in six “orders”, each containing a number of “tractates”. These are further subdivided into chapters, and these again into paragraphs or sentences. The Talmud is a multi-volume work, rather like an encyclopedia of Jewish lore. It exists in two versions, the Babylonian and the Palestinian. The Palestinian Talmud, the smaller of the two, and a more irregular collection, was completed around the fourth century A.D.; the Babylonian Talmud, much larger and more authoritative, in the sixth century. References to the “Talmud” without qualifications are usually to the Babylonian. “It is the Talmud which inspires those virtues associated with the Jew, sobriety, benevolence, sense of social justice, strong affection for family ties and desire for knowledge and social education” (I. Epstein). Enlargement of the Torah Correspondingly, the concept of Torah has been enlarged. Originally it meant the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures, and the divine law, which they contain. Now the concept of Torah is widened to include the Talmud. Furthermore, the study of torah is considered a form of worship, and is also called Torah. Indeed the whole of Jewish religious life is now often described as “doing Torah”. The transformation of Jewish religion Although Rabbinic Judaism is continuous in many ways with the earlier Israelite religion, it also differs from it in important respects. Some of these differences have already been touched upon. The most notable is the abandonment of the ritual sacrifices of animals, grain, and fruits, which had been carried out in the temple in Jerusalem. These had been the centerpiece of Israelite religion. Even before the destruction of Jerusalem the Pharisees had already largely lost interest in them, and, although in might have been possible to resurrect them after the destruction of the temple by the Romans in A.D. 70, no attempt was made to do so. In Rabbinic Judaism they are replaced by the rituals of the synagogue. 89

A further alteration was in the enforcement of the Law. Under Israelite religion, many provisions of the Law were enforced by heavy penalties, including the death penalty (see especially Leviticus 20 – although these penalties were probably lighter than the traditional Semitic ones). Adultery, incest homosexual intercourse, witchcraft, blasphemy, and cursing one’s parents, for example, were punishable by death. In Rabbinic Judaism these provisions are superseded by the laws of the larger societies in which Jews live. The law of “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” (the “Lex Talionis”) was transformed into monetary compensation, for example. Under Israelite religion the festivals had been national and agricultural. Now their religious aspect became more emphasized. Previously the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened bread were two distinct festivals, the one succeeding the other; now the name of Passover was extended to include both. The Feast of Weeks became the feast of Revelation. The temple was replaced by the synagogue. But it was also replaced in some respects by the family. Since Judaism is an ethnic religion, the religion of a particular people, the preservation of the religion depends upon the biological preservation of the people, and that in turn depends upon the family. Rabbinic Judaism centers in significant ways on the home. One becomes a member of the religion by being born of a Jewish mother, not by means of any ceremony of initiation, not even circumcision. Many important ceremonies are carried out in the home, such as the Passover Seder. Overall the religious life of the home is as important as the life of the synagogue. A further difference between Israelite religion, at least in its later forms, and Rabbinic Judaism relates to the question of diversity. During the century or so before the destruction of Jerusalem the religion of the Jewish people flourished in a great variety of forms and movements, all of which had some claim to be considered authentically Jewish, including monastic movements and various forms of messianism. With the fall of Jerusalem this diversity was brought to an end. The Talmud created a single paradigm, a single authoritative tradition, for what could be considered genuinely Jewish, and this tradition has been preserved faithfully down to the present day. The best reflection of this mainstream tradition is by general consent the Shulchan Aruch of Joseph Caro, published in 1565. Continuities If Rabbinic Judaism is different in many ways from the earlier Israelite religion, it is also continuous with it in fundamental respects. Above all, it has preserved the Pharisaic conception of God, as the one universal god of all men, the heavenly Father, in whose image man is made. During the Middle Ages this conception was further developed by Jewish philosophers and theologians such 90

as Maimonides, as a being all-good, all-powerful (omnipotent) and all-wise (omniscient). The tendency of Jewish thought about God has been to be more reserved than Christian thinkers have been about our ability to know God. For Maimonides we can know what God is not, but we cannot in any proper sense know what he is.

which is dedicated to preserving the worship of the one true God. Thus Judaism maintains the concept of the “Chosen people”, this is understood, however, to imply more of obligation than of privilege, namely the obligation to carry out the divine will, and to be a light to the gentiles, those who are not Jewish (kiddush ha shem, “sanctify the Name”).

The traditional faith of Judaism Although the Jewish faith has never been enshrined in an official creed, its main outlines are sufficiently clear.

An ethnic religion Although Judaism is a monotheistic religion, and considers that its God is the one true God of all men, it is also an ethnic or national religion, not a universal one. In the ancient world, it is true, Judaism for some centuries had universalistic aspirations, for to the polytheistic culture of the Roman Empire it bore the message of a single God, coupled with high ethical ideas. But from the time when the Empire converted to Christianity, Judaism has been content to be the religion of the Jewish people, and no longer aspires to be a religion for all mankind. It is focused on the unique identity of the Jewish people as that people

The holy days Judaism sanctifies everyday life, by means of many devices designed to provide reminders of the individual’s relationship with God. It accomplished this especially through the celebration of holy days, rites of passage, dietary laws, and the use of symbols in prayer. A prominent part in Jewish life is played by the holy days, days of special significance governed by special regulations, and marked by special customs and ceremonies. In general the holy days are derived from divine commands contained in the Scriptures, but now understood without the animal sacrifices originally commanded. (Many of the holy days were originally secular agricultural observances, predating the Biblical religion.) The chief holy days are: The Sabbath. In the Law, God singles this day out for special enforcement: “Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day”. It is a day of rest, on which no work may be performed, and is in many respects the chief Jewish day of observance. It is celebrated from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, and was probably derived originally from the phases of the moon. Sabbath observance begins in the home, with a ritual lighting of candles shortly before sunset. A synagogue service takes place after this, on the Friday evening, and is followed by a ceremonial meal in the home. The principal service is traditionally conducted in the synagogue on the Saturday morning, and a further one in the afternoon. Synagogue services cannot begin until a quorum, called a minyan, is reached. This may sometimes result in the service starting later than the published time. The traditional minyan consists of ten men. The institution of the Sabbath, and with it of the week as the unit of work, has been adopted throughout the world, and has had a far-reaching influence on human life. Prior to it, holidays from work, though sometimes frequent, were irregular. Rosh Hashanah. This is the Jewish new Year. Usually falling in September, it commemorates God’s act of creation, and inaugurates a period of repentance. Work is prohibited, though not as stringently as on the Sabbath. The regular synagogue service is conducted in the evening, and the main ceremonies are held the following morning, marked by the blowing of the ram’s horn, the Shofar.

91

92

– The world is not the product of mere chance, but is the deliberate creation of a Supreme Being, God. – There is only one God. This fundamental conviction is expressed strongly in the Shema, a proclamation of faith: “Hear, o Israel, the lord our God, the Lord is one”. – God not only brought the universe into being, but also sustains it in existence at each moment. – God is not a material being, but spirit, that is, Mind and Will. – God is supremely wise, good, and powerful. – There is a natural moral law which is the expression of his will. To act contrary to God’s will is sin (het, aberah). – God has revealed his will additionally in the Torah. – God acts constantly in human history, to guide and direct it according to his purposes, and to provide spiritual and material blessing to man. – Because God is so far above men, however, there are severe limitations on the extent to which men can comprehend him. – In the end the Jewish people will somehow be vindicated and liberated by God, in the Messianic Age, when a descendant of David will establish a perfect society. – After death the individual will be judged by God, and rewarded or punished.

Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement, celebrated on the eighth day after Rosh Hashanah. This is the most solemn day of the Jewish year, the prayers and readings emphasizing the necessity of repentance for sin, and the seeking of forgiveness from those one has injured. After a preliminary ceremony in the evening, during which the haunting melody of the Kol Nidrei is sung, the main synagogue service, which includes a commemoration of the cleansing of the Temple, is held the following afternoon, closing with a final blowing of the Shofar. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur together are referred to as the High Holy Days, or Days of Awe. Sukkot. The feast of Tabernacles or Huts, celebrated for eight days after Yom Kippur. Originally commanded in the Book of Leviticus as an autumn harvest festival, it commemorates the shelter and protection God gave the Jewish people during their years of wandering in the desert. Temporary huts are erected, where meals are taken. On the first and last days work is prohibited, and various synagogue services are conducted during the week. Simhat Torah, the “Joy of Torah”, the last day of Sukkot, marks the end and the beginning of the annual cycle of readings from the Torah. Hanukah. This festival commemorates the victory of a Jewish army over an oppressive ruler in the second century B.C. Although traditionally a minor holiday, the only one not derived from Scripture, in the United States Hanukah has become in effect a major one by popular demand, since it falls during the season of Christmas. Pesach, Passover. Originally a spring festival, this was adapted to commemorate the Exodus, the deliverance of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. The Biblical Pesach had lasted for only one day, followed immediately by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Talmud, however, extends the term Passover to include both, and it now lasts for seven days, during which no leaven or yeast (hametz) may be eaten, but only unleavened bread (matzah). The feast is celebrated primarily not in the synagogue but in the home, with a ritual meal, the Seder, during which the story of the Exodus is recounted. Shavuot, Pentecost. Originally a spring harvest festival, Shavuot is celebrated forty days after Passover. As a religious feast, it commemorates the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai.

male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you” (Genesis 17, 10–11). Nowadays circumcision is commonly practiced in many societies by non-Jews also, for reasons of cleanliness and health. For a Jew circumcision is the physical testimony that he is a member of the Jewish people. It is performed on the eighth day after birth by a specially trained practitioner, the “Mohel”, who is now usually also a physician, and it may be performed in his office, in the hospital, or the home. It is at this time that the child receives a name. Circumcision does not make the person a Jew. That happens automatically, according to rabbinic law, by the simple fact of being born of a Jewish mother. Baby girls traditionally receive their names also in the synagogue on the first Sabbath after their birth; today the ceremony is widely held in the home. Bar Mitzvah. Traditionally the obligations of the Jewish Law apply chiefly to males, from their thirteenth year. The Bar Mitzvah ceremony marks the boy’s passage from childhood to this full adult responsibility in the Jewish community. He becomes, for example, capable of being one of the ten men required for the traditional minyan. “Mitzvah” is “a commandment”, and Bar Mitzvah means “son of the commandment”. The focal point of the ceremony, usually held in the synagogue on Sabbath morning, is the reading by the youth of passages from the Torah in Hebrew. In the American Jewish community, in non-Orthodox synagogues, a similar ceremony has been created for girls, the Bat Mitzvah. Mourning for the dead, Shiva. This is a ceremony of prayer and readings from scripture performed in the home of the deceased for seven days after the funeral. For close relatives it is followed by a linger period of mourning, the Sheloshim.

Rites of Passage Circumcision, B’rit Milah. The book of Genesis narrates that when God entered into the covenant with Abraham, He commanded that all made descendants of Abraham were henceforth to be circumcised, that is, to have the foreskin of the male sexual organ surgically removed. “This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your descendants after you: Every

Other features of Judaism Kashrut, the dietary laws Many peoples have developed the concept of ritual purity: in order to take part in a sacrifice or other solemn ceremony, one must be clean. This typically includes a prohibition on certain foods viewed as unclean. Hinduism and Islam, among the religions studied in this book, have regulations concerned with food and eating. The Law of Moses similarly designates some foods as clean, or kosher, and other foods as unclean, and Rabbinic Judaism has preserved these dietary restrictions, while interpreting them in its own way. Clean or permitted foods are: all vegetables and plants, all four-footed animals that chew the cub and have parted hooves, all fish having both fins and scales, all birds or fowl accepted by tradition.

93

94

Unclean or prohibited foods include: all animals and fish that do not meet the above requirements, any animal that has died of natural causes, blood, birds or fowl not accepted by tradition, any mixture of meat and milk, but not of fish and milk. These requirements exclude among other foods the pig and all meat from it, such as ham and bacon; rabbit; horse; all beasts and birds of prey; and all eels and shellfish. Animals and fowl must be slaughtered in a prescribed ritual way that ensures a rapid death and drains the blood from the animal. Symbols used in prayer: Tallit, Tefillin, Mezuzah, Kippah. The Tallit is a prayer-shawl with four corners, with a symbolic tassel, or Tzitzit, on each corner. It is worn by meals during prayer, especially in the synagogue. Tefillin (plural) are straps attached to small cubical boxes, which contain pieces of parchment with portions of the Torah written on them. The straps are wound around the arms and the head during prayer. Their purpose is to fulfill the divine command to keep God’s word always before one’s eyes. The Mezuzah is a small parchment scroll containing biblical texts, attached to the doorpost of the home. The Kippah (Yiddish, yarmulka) is a skull cap worn by men during prayer. Orthodox Jews wear it at all times as a sign of the presence of God. The use of the Divine Name: Yahweh and Adonai. The true name of God is Yahweh, “I Who Am”. Out of reverence, however, Orthodox Jews never utter this name, but substitute for it wherever it may be found one of the other names of God. The commonest substitute is Adonai: Lord. Kabbalah This is an esoteric movement, mystical and highly speculative, that grew up within Judaism especially during the Middle Ages, though its roots may go back into the ancient past. It claims to present the hidden truth of divine revelation (the name “Kabbalah” means “traditional teachings”). The Kabbalah aims to overcome the gap between the infinite God, often referred to as “the boundless”, en sof, who is pure goodness, and the finite world, which contains evil. Instead of viewing the world as the creation of God, and so as fundamentally distinct from him, the Kabbalah tends to see the world as an emanation from God, still remaining in an essential identity with him, only now broken and needing to be restored to its original harmony. The Kabbalah emphasizes God’s immanence in the world, and has affinities with the Upanishads and with Mahayana Buddhism, as well as with Sufi mysticism in Islam. The most important Kabbalistic work is the Zohar, or “Book of Splendor”, published by Moses de Leon in the thirteenth century. 95

Hasidism A movement founded by the Rabbi Israel Baal Shem (1700–1760), and owing much to the Kabbalah, Hasidism views human life and action as cooperation with God in the work of deliverance, and emphasizes prayer rather than the study of Torah in a narrow sense. By contrast with the traditional messianic hopes, which viewed redemption as coming simply by the sovereign act of God, Baal Shem taught that God himself suffers from the sinfulness of the world, and needs human help to overcome it. Every human activity, if performed in the spirit of joyful service of God, contributes to the coming of the Messiah and the world’s redemption. The Hasidic movement continues a lively existence at the present time, with large congregations, especially in New York. Hasids typically follow distinctive conventions in dress.

Branches of modern Judaism Like the other major religious, Judaism emerged in a world, which has now gone. Many beliefs and regulations of the Torah and the Talmud do not fit easily into the changed conditions of modern Western life. On the one hand, Judaism must live in the modern world and cannot totally divorce itself from it; on the other, it may lose its identity if it accommodates itself to that world too completely. The stresses and strains of this situation have led to the emergence of several different branches of Judaism, each representing a different attempt to respond to the problem. Each branch possesses its own organization of rabbis and its own system of synagogues. Orthodox. This is the most ancient and traditional, and the one that has made the fewest concessions to the modern world. Orthodox Jews observe so far as possible the full letter of the Jewish Law as laid down in the Talmud. They keep the dietary rules strictly, for example, follow the Talmudic rules for the observance of the Sabbath, carry out the synagogue services in Hebrew, maintain the ancient separation of the sexes in the synagogue, and do not ordain women as rabbis. They do not recognize other forms of Judaism. The German rabbi, Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–1888) established NeoOrthodox Judaism, which makes some slight concessions to modernity, as a way of allowing Orthodox Jews to participate more fully in the life of the nonJewish societies in which they lived. Reform. Originating in Germany during the nineteenth century, Reform Judaism is a liberal adaption to modern conditions, emphasizing the spirit rather than the letter of the Jewish Law. In place of the authoritative revelation on Mount Sinai, Reform Judaism views revelation as taking place through nature and the human spirit. It largely omits the rituals in the home, though preserving 96

them in the synagogue. Reform Jews do not typically follow the traditional dietary rules, they conduct their synagogue services in the vernacular, perhaps with some Hebrew. They have ordained women as rabbis, and do not separate the sexes in the synagogue. For Reform Jews the main significance of Judaism lies in its ethics, though it also has room for mysticism. Conservative. This form of Judaism, also developed in Germany, stands midway between Orthodox and Reform, preserving some aspects of traditional Judaism but altering others to adjust to modern conditions. Conservative Jews typically use both Hebrew and vernacular translations in the synagogue, respect the dietary rules but do not necessarily feel bound to follow them strictly, have ordained women as rabbis, though more reluctantly than the Reform, and do not separate the sexes in the synagogue. Conservative Judaism is the most widespread form of Judaism in the United States, but does not exist to anything like the same extent elsewhere. Reconstruction. Founded in the United States in the twentieth century by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, Reconstructionist Judaism focuses especially on the Jewish people. It views Judaism as “an evolving religious civilization”, the expression of Jewish life and culture. Kaplan understands God as an impersonal “transnatural power”. Reconstructionist Judaism is committed to the principle that the religious dimension of Jewish life must reflect the advances in knowledge and ethical insight that each age achieves. Reconstructionist Jews typically follow the dietary rules, at least to some extent, as a sign of Jewish identity, but ordain women as rabbis and do not separate the sexes in the synagogue. Ashkenazim and Sephardim Ashkenazim are Jews who live or previously lived in northern and eastern Europe, or their descendants, while Sephardim are those who lived in Spain. These are two distinct cultures within Judaism, having sometimes widely different customs, including different pronunciations of Hebrew. In Israel the Sephardic pronunciation has been officially adopted. The Holocaust During the Second World War the Nazis, viewing the Jewish people as an international conspiracy against Germany, killed several million entirely innocent Jews with methods of mass extermination. This event, which has come to be known as the Holocaust, the Biblical name for a burnt sacrifice, has left a profound wound on the Jewish mind. How could God allow such a thing? How could such an event possibly have a meaning? Many Jewish thinkers and writers have attempted to grapple with this terrible occurrence, but the dismay it has caused continues unabated. 97

The Land of Israel One consequence of the Second World War and the Holocaust, however, has been of epochal significance for Judaism: the foundation of the state of Israel. After two thousand years, the Jewish people again have a homeland in Palestine, the land promised by God to Abraham. If the Holocaust has shaken the Jewish world to its foundations, the successful launching of the state of Israel has brought about a tremendous increase in Jewish self-confidence. If we compare Judaism, or the Hebrew religion, which preceded it, with the religions of Indian or Chinese origin, certain features of it stand out. It emphasizes the superiority of human beings over nature, as beings with a mind and will, capable of exercising personal responsibility, of taking moral factors into account, and subject to moral obligation. Lacking a belief in rebirth or the transmigration of souls, it draws a clear line between human beings and animals. By the same token it emphasizes the significance of the individual. The category of what we might call personhood is of paramount importance for it. (This may be reflected in the widespread modern use of the German and Yiddish term “Mensch”, meaning, “a genuinely human being”, as a term of strong approbation.) It is also reflected in the fact that mainstream Judaism has traditionally interpreted the supreme reality in personal terms: the transcendent reality is not an impersonal force, but knows, speaks and wills*. Correspondingly, Judaism is a historical religion. It emphasizes the significance of human history, the uniqueness of every human action and every historical event. There is no ever-recurring cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. With this it focuses more on moral relationships between human beings, on justice and charity, than on harmony with nature or the liberation of the ego. All of these characteristics were inherited by its daughter religions, Christianity and Islam: 1. Continues the Israelite conception of God. 2. But transforms the conception of the Law to make allowance for the changed political circumstances following the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70. 3. Elimination of the ritual sacrifices. 4. The synagogue system and rabbinate replace the temple and priesthood. *

Exceptions must be made for the Kabbalah, which, like other mystical movements, has tended to regard the concept of personhood as too limited to apply to the divine reality, and to Reconstructionism, which has tended not to believe in a transcendent reality. Maimonides, the eminent medieval Jewish thinker, emphasized that we can know only what God is not, not what he is. It could perhaps be argued that it is just this discomfort with the personal conception of God that has made it difficult for these movements and thinkers to achieve full acceptance in the Jewish community. 98

5. Its immediate basis is the Talmud rather than the Bible. 6. Enlargement of the concept of Torah to include the Talmud. 7. A religion of the individual and the family, and of everyday life, expressed in Holy Days, rites of passage, dietary laws, and the use of symbols in prayer. Questions for discussion: 1. What reasons might incline you to believe in the existence of a personal God? 2. What reasons might incline you not to so believe? 3. To what extend can the idea of human rights be traced back to ancient Hebrew religion? 4. How would you compare and contrast Judaism with Confucianism? Test questions: 1. Explain what is meant by “ethical monotheism”. 2. Explain the concept of revelation. 3. Explain the idea of the covenant. 4. Explain the concept of Torah. 5. What is the Talmud? 6. What was the role of ritual sacrifice in Hebrew religion and Judaism? 7. Describe the worldview of Judaism, comparing and contrasting it to that of Theravada Buddhism.

PA R T I I I ISLAM The Spirit of Islam The following excerpt is taken from an autobiographical novel Heirs to the Past by the Moslem writer Driss Chraibi. The occasion is the funeral of the old father of the family, for which the emigre son, Driss Ferdi, has returned from the secular rationalism of Paris, where he has spent the last sixteen years in a steady erosion of his Moslem convictions and identity. Then a man stood up … and began to chant. What he chanted was of no importance. It was not the words, nor the meaning, nor even the symbolism, which moved our hearts, the men, women and children who were there. We forgot why we were there the moment he began to chant. It was the incantation, and the end of our woes and miserable little problems, the aching and yet serene longing for that other life which is ours and to which we are all destined to return, the victors and the defeated, the fully developed and those who are still at the larva state, the faithful and the atheists, through God’s great compassion. There was all of that in the voice of the man who stood chanting in the sun, and we were in his voice, I was in his voice despite the vast legacy of incredulity that I had received from the West. When he reached the end of a verse, he paused, and so it came about – an outburst of fervour. And while he chanted it was like a man in the wilderness chanting his faith. And the voice rose and swelled, changed in tone, became tragic, soared and then floated down on our heads like a seagull gliding gently and softly, little more than a whisper. And so – never again will I go in search of intellectuals, of written truths, synthetic truths, of collections of hybrid ideas which are nothing but ideas. Never again will I travel the world in search of a shadow of justice, fairness, progress, or schemes calculated to change mankind. I was weary and I was returning to my clan. The man who was not even aware of his voice or of his faith was alive and held the secret of life – a man who could not even have been a dustman in this world of founts of knowledge and of civilization. Peace and everlasting truth were in him and in his voice, while all was crumbling around him and on the continents. Question for discussion: Driss Ferdi is here described as being led by the muezzin’s voice to experience some larger perspective than the merely intellectual. What could account for this experience?

99

100

The Moslem View of Life The heart of the Moslem view of life is the duty of obedience to God. God is most great, and deserves our complete and total submission. That submission in turn will bring us eternal salvation. The Emergence of Islam The Arab peoples before Mohammed worshipped numerous gods and spirits. Sacred stones, trees, and springs were venerated, and spirits were believed to inhabit the desert. The inhabitants of Mohammed’s native city, Mecca, worshipped a high god named Allah together with other divinities, including three goddesses known as the “Daughters of Allah”. The name Allah is a combination of “al”, which is the definite article “the”, and “ilah”, the usual word for “God”, and thus means “the God”. An important center of this worship was a cubical structure called the Ka’ba, containing a sacred Black Stone, which remains a center of pilgrimage in Islam. There were also Jews and Christians in Arabia. Furthermore, according to Islamic tradition, there were native Arab monotheists called hanifs, neither Jews nor Christians, whose belief in the one and only God had descended in an independent tradition from Abraham (whom the Koran views as a Moslem). Mohammed (Arabic: Muhammad) Mohammed was born in Mecca, a member of the dominant tribe there known as the Koraish (Quraish), probably around A.D. 570. His father, whose name was Abdullah, or “slave of Allah”, died before he was born, and his mother Aminah died when he was six. He was brought up first by his grandfather, who made a modest living by providing pilgrims with water from a well sacred to Allah, so that the boy was early associated with the religious life. When his grandfather died, after only two years, Mohammed was transferred to the care of his uncle, Abu Talib, also a religious man, and later one of his strongest personal supporters (though Abu Talib never embraced Islam). In his twenties Mohammed came to be employed by a wealthy widow, Khadija, as overseer of her camel caravans, and journeyed with them to Syria. When he was twenty-five, and she forty, they married, and she bore him six children. In time Mohammed became more and more contemplative. He associated with the hanifs, and would go off into the hills for several days at a time in order to pray and meditate. Revelation During these excursions Mohammed began to have a series of extraordinary experiences. One night while he was asleep a spiritual being of great power appeared to him, identifying himself as the Angel Gabriel, and announc101

ing that Mohammed was to be the messenger of God. On subsequent occasions and throughout the rest of his life, Gabriel made many revelations to him, which Mohammed was able afterwards to remember exactly. These revelations were couched in an exalted poetic language, which speakers of Arabic consider of unsurpassed beauty. They were committed to memory by his followers and eventually written down. Collected after Mohammed’s death, they make up the Koran, the Sacred Scripture of Islam. Koran (Arabic: Qur’an) The chief message of the Koran is the absolute supremacy of God. There exists only one God, and His power is unlimited. He is in complete control of the universe, and human beings owe Him total obedience. The Arabic word for obedience is “islam”. The word “Koran” or “Qur’an”, meaning “recitation”, comes from the command of the Angel Gabriel to Mohammed. The Koran is organized in chapters, called Suras, of various length, some very short, some quite long. With a few exceptions, the statements of the Koran are all placed on the lips of God and are addressed to Mohammed. To Moslems (Arabic: Muslims) the Koran is a miracle of beauty and inspiration, the only miracle to which Islam lays claim. The Hegira (Arabic: Hijra) In his native city, Mecca, Mohammed made little headway. His revelations aroused violent opposition from the merchants, who feared for their trade, which depended on the traditional religion. He made few converts. In the city of Medina, some 300 miles to the north, however, he was regarded much more favorably. The city was torn by strife, and leading citizens of Medina secretly invited Mohammed to move there and serve as religious leader and arbitrator, promising to become Moslems and obey him. This he did. In the year 622 of the Christian era, under cover of darkness, he left Mecca and traveled to Medina. This event is called the Hegira (or Hijra), “emigration”. It is considered the founding event of Islam as a religion. The year in which it took place was adopted as the first year of the Islamic calendar. Mohammed in Medina (Arabic: Madina) Gradually Mohammed became the sole ruler of Medina, and transformed it into an Islamic society. The worship of all other gods but Allah was eliminated, the forms of public prayer were established, with Friday as the weekly day of prayer, and the mosque was created as the place of prayer. The brotherhood of all Moslems was stressed, and an official system of almsgiving was organized to help the poor. In addition, Mohammed organized armed raids on the caravans traversing the desert. The owners of the caravans, who were especially Meccans, replied by sending guards to defend them. The armed forces on both sides grew, lead102

ing to a series of battles from which Mohammed’s forces emerged the victors. He became the chief political power in Arabia. The return to Mecca (Arabic: Makka) In A.D. 630 Mohammed resolved to capture Mecca. He gathered together a large army and proceeded to the city, which surrendered to him. He transformed it into an Islamic city on the model of Medina, smashing the images of the gods, and setting the Ka’ba up as the central shrine of Islam. Two years later he died.

Sunna and Hadith Because of Mohammed’s immense prestige, the Koran is not the only authority in Islam. Everything that Mohammed said or did is authoritative, and constitutes a sunna, an approved custom or tradition. As a result, a large body of literature has developed tracing various actions and sayings to him and his companions. A report attibuting some saying or action to Mohammed or his companions is called a “hadith”, or “statement”, and in practice they play as large a role in Islamic life as the Koran itself. The hadith is a special Islamic literary form. Typically it begins by giving the chain of witnesses, called an isnad, who have handed the report on to one another: A told B, who told C, who told D, etc., that Mohammed did or said such and such. (The proper plural of hadith in Arabic is ahadith; however, hadith seems to be widely used in English for both singular and plural.)

The Doctrines of Islam The main doctrines of Islam are usually summed up under five headings. One God The most basic belief of Islam is that there exists a single personal God. This is a belief it shares with Judaism and Christianity. Perhaps even more strongly than those religions, if possible, Islam emphasizes that there is only one God. It rejects polytheism with the utmost intensity. This emphatic monotheism is expressed in the Witness, or Shahada, uttered daily by devout Moslems: There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet. The force of this belief is, first, to assert that all the other divinities that mankind has worshipped in the course of its history are mere myths, empty figments of the imagination. Second, the belief provides the true God with a definite historical identity. God is not a mere abstract idea. One of the gods men have worshipped is actually the true God, namely Allah, the god worshipped specifically in Mecca by Mohammed’s tribesmen even before he was born. It was he, and no other, who revealed the Koran to Mohammed. (The Arabic language has no capital letters, and so no way of distinguishing between “god" and “God”.) Third, the belief implies the absolute supremacy of Allah. He is in complete control of the universe. Whatever happens, happens only by his will. He is unique. Nothing can be compared to him or put in the same category with him. The Moslem theologian Al-Ghazali says: He in His essence is one without any partner, single without any similar, eternal without any opposite, separate without any like. He is One: prior with nothing before Him, from eternity, without any beginning, abiding in existence with none after Him, to eternity without an end, subsisting without ending, abiding without termination… Measure does not bind him and boundaries do not contain Him. (Quoted in Duncan B. Macdonald, Development of Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence and Constitution Theory, New York, 1903, p. 303; see also Cragg, House of Islam, 1975, p. 14) To place any created thing on the same level as God is to commit the sin of shirk, tantamount to blasphemy. This is why polytheism is so strongly detested, because it is felt to insult the unique dignity of God by associating imaginary beings with him. In the Moslem view, Christians also commit this sin by believing in Jesus as the Son of God, for God cannot have a son, that is, another being of the same nature as himself. Angels The Koran was revealed to Mohammed not directly by God, but by the Angel Gabriel speaking on behalf of God. It is therefore a doctrine of Islam that

103

104

The expansion of Islam After Mohammed’s death many Arab tribes began to withdraw their allegiance to Islam. His successors, the Caliphs, declared them apostates, sent armies out against them, and quickly overcame them. Finding they were so easily victorious, the Moslem armies continued to advance into more remote territories subject to the Persian and Roman Empires. Both Empires were unpopular, and the Moslem armies were welcomed. Within a few short years they were masters of an enormous empire stretching from Afghanistan to Egypt and as far west as Spain. The status of Mohammed Moslems do not regard Mohammed as divine, or as a savior, but as a mere man. Although a mere man, however, he is the Prophet, the man through whom God has made His final revelation to mankind. This is expressed by his title “the Seal of the Prophets”, that is, the last and decisive prophet. There are no more prophets after him, for there are no revelations from God after the Koran. Although not divine, Islamic tradition regards Mohammed as sinless, and takes him as the highest model of behavior. The strongest argument on behalf of any belief or action is that it follows Mohammed’s example.

there exist spiritual beings in addition to man. The highest of these are the angels, the messengers and servants of God who carry out his will in the world. The Koran mentions Michael in addition to Gabriel. Some of the angels are fallen, however; the Koran mentions Iblis, or Satan, and Harut and Marut. Besides the angels there is another kind of invisible being called the jinn (a plural; the singular is jinni, the origin of the story of the “genie” in Aladdin’s lamp). The jinn were created by God out of fire, and, unlike the angels, eventually die. They are of both sexes and can be good or evil. Prophets and scriptures Although non-Moslems view Islam as the youngest of the major religions, Islam does not think of itself like that. It sees itself as identical with the first revelation God gave to mankind. The Koran mentions some twenty-five individuals to whom God gave the Koranic message in earlier times. These are the prophets. A prophet in this sense is not necessarily a person who predicts the future, but one who speaks on behalf of God. They include Adam, Noah, Abraham (Ibrahim), Joseph (Yusuf), Moses (Musa), Aaron (Harun), David (Dawud), John the Baptist (Yahya), and Jesus (Isa). All of these were Moslems. To each one God entrusted a scripture, containing essentially the same message as the Koran: to Moses, for example, he gave the Torah; to David the Psalms; to Jesus the Gospel. But in each case the scriptures were corrupted and falsified by evil men. As a result these texts as they now exist are completely unreliable. It was to correct these distortions that God sent Mohammed, revealing to him again the true Koran. It alone is now the pure scripture, possessing the original form given it by God, and so it supersedes all the earlier ones. Islam, then, is simply the true form of what Judaism and Christianity ought to be, and would be if they had remained faithful to their original inspiration. Resurrection and the Last Judgement As mentioned above, the Koran describes itself as a book of warning. What it warns mankind about is the Last Judgement. Almost every page of the Koran contains an urgent reminder that at the end of time, in an earth-shaking cataclysm in which he will raise all the dead to life, God will pass an eternal sentence on every human being. That sentence will hinge on whether the person was a believer. Those who believed the revelation given through Mohammed will be rewarded with the delights of heaven. Those who did not believe will be consigned to the unending torments of hell. A true believer is not a person who merely accepts mentally the truth of the Koran, but one who puts it into practice by carrying out the divine law. The divine decree and predestination Since the Koran lays so much emphasis on the judgement of God, it plainly believes that human beings have free will. Those who are condemned to hell receive that punishment only because they deserve it, since God is just. But this

must not be understood to mean that human actions lie outside the scope of God’s control. Nothing lies outside God’s control, and that includes the free actions of men. It can be said, then, that God predestines some to heaven and some to hell. Yet this does not abolish man’s responsibility for his own deeds and misdeeds. This doctrine is much more controversial than the other four, since it seems to imply a contradiction. In general Moslem thinkers have been content to admit it is a profound mystery, and leave it at that, emphasizing that what counts in Islam is not theory but practice. A consequence of this doctrine is that Moslems will very often react to events, even to the worst of crimes, with die exclamation: It is God’s will! (Insh’Allah).

105

106

The Law: Shari’ah The Koran reveals the will of God for mankind. This constitutes a Law, which all are bound to obey on penalty of eternal condemnation. This Islamic law in its totality is termed the Shari’ah, meaning “the right path”. The Shari’ah includes not only laws concerning strictly religious matters, but also many other aspects of life, such as marriage and the family, inheritance, divorce, and government. The Five Pillars of Islam There are five religious practices that Islam enjoins on its followers as a minimum. The Shahadah This is the Witness or profession of faith mentioned above: There is no God but Allah; and Mohammed is his prophet. The statement itself made in the Witness bears the title of the Kalimah. It is this statement that makes a person a Moslem. Anyone who utters it during the course of his life, even if only once, is accounted a Moslem. It also forms part of the formal daily prayer, described next. Worship: Salat All Moslems, both men and women, are required to perform ritual or formal prayer, called Salat. This prayer is not so much a request for favors or blessings as a public recognition of the sovereignty of God. It includes various bodily postures such as bowing, sitting, standing, and prostration with the forehead touching the floor, while reciting such phrases as “God is most great” (Allahu akbar) and the Shahada. This public prayer is not the same as private prayer (du’a), for which no special formula is prescribed.

The ritual must be performed five times a day: at dawn, midday, midafternoon, sunset, and in the evening before going to bed. The form of this prayer is given in the section on Islamic texts at the end of this chapter. The prayer is to be recited facing Mecca. The direction toward Mecca from wherever one may happen to be is called the qibla. In the mosque it is marked by a niche in the wall, called the mihrab. Ideally the prayer should be performed in a mosque, but if that is not feasible any clean place will do, indoors or outdoors. Moslems often use a prayer mat for this purpose. At a mosque, shortly before the time for prayer, the muezzin (mu’adhdhin) chants the call to prayer (the adhan) from the minaret. The sacred day of the week for Moslems is Friday. It is not a day of rest, unlike the Sabbath in Judaism and Sunday in Christianity. However, all men (though not women) are required to take part in the Friday noon prayer at a mosque, if one is available. The Friday service follows a special form, including a sermon by the leader (the imam). The word “mosque” comes from “masjid”, meaning a place of prostration. Strictly speaking it does not have to be a building but can be simply a piece of open ground dedicated to prayer. The mosque can legitimately be used for many purposes related to religion: as a school, meeting place, or even for eating and sleeping, if necessary. Legal almsgiving: Zakat Moslems are strongly encouraged to provide help to those in need. In addition to private charity, Islamic law requires the payment of a special tax for this purpose, called the Zakat. It is to be paid at the end of each year, in proportion to one’s possessions. It is paid only on certain classes of goods above a minimum, such as animals, agricultural products, precious metals, and objects intended for sale. According to one authority, for example, the taxable minimum of camels is five, and on each group of five a goat is due (Al Firuzabadi, Kitab al Tanbih). As this example may indicate, the traditional prescriptions for the tax were not laid down with a view to a money economy. As a result, in practice today the Zakat is widely considered more as a general obligation to give money to charitable causes than as a law to be obeyed according to the details of the letter. Fasting: Sawm For a month each year Moslems are required to fast. The fast occurs during the ninth month, Ramadan, and consists in abstaining from all food and drink from sunrise to sunset. The fast of Ramadan is not exactly like the Christian Lent. There is no limitation on eating or drinking during the night, and this is usually a partytime, when families and friends get together and celebrate. There is an espe-

cially joyous celebration (the ‘Id al-Fitr) at the end of the month, one of the two chief feast-days of Islam. The official Islamic year is lunar, consisting of twelve months each of four weeks exactly, and is therefore shorter than our regular, solar year. As a result the month of Ramadan cycles backwards throughout the regular year, and occurs in every season. Consequently the length of the fast from sunrise to sunset varies greatly, from the middle of summer to the middle of winter. Ramadan is relatively easy to keep when it occurs in winter, but in midsummer it is more difficult. Pilgrimage to Mecca: the Hajj So far as circumstances permit, every Moslem should go on pilgrimage to the sacred city of Mecca at least once in his lifetime. The city of Mecca is sacred because it was the site of the original, pre-Islamic worship of Allah. In that capacity it had been a center of pilgrimage long before the time of Mohammed. Only Moslems are allowed to enter the city. The proper time for the pilgrimage is a period of four days during the twelfth month of the Islamic year, and so, like Ramadan, it cycles backward through the seasons. Men must wear a distinctive white two-piece garment in place of their usual clothes. Those who have taken part in the pilgrimage agree that this uniform clothing, submerging all outward differences such as race, age, and wealth, conveys a profound experience of the unity and brotherhood of Moslems. Women may wear the costumes of their regions, but also now usually wear white. The high point of the pilgrimage is the commemoration of the sacrifice carried out by Abraham. (As we have seen, Moslems view Abraham as a Moslem.) God had commanded Abraham to kill his only son Isma’il in sacrifice, as a test of faith, and Abraham made preparations to do so, but at the last moment God instructed him to kill a ram instead, which he did. (In the Hebrew Bible the son was Isaac.) To commemorate this, the pilgrims perform animal sacrifices, and thousands of animals are killed in the space of an hour, creating a considerable problem in the disposal of the carcasses. The day on which this is done, the tenth of the month, is celebrated not only in Mecca but throughout the Moslem world as the Feast of Sacrifice, and is the second of the two great Moslem feast-days. Jihad This term, often translated as “holy war”, literally has the broader meaning of “struggle, exertion”. It signifies the general effort to advance the cause of Islam, a duty sometimes ranked as a sixth Pillar. Mohammed spoke of a twofold jihad, one internal or spiritual and harder, the struggle against oneself, against

107

108

the unbeliever within one’s own heart, the other external and easier, against the enemies of Islam. According to the Koran armed warfare should be used only in self-defense. Fight in the way of God With those who fight with you, But aggress not. God loves not the aggressors. (2, 190-1) There shall be no compulsion in religion. (2, 256) In practice, however, self-defense has often been understood loosely. Jihad has often been waged by one Moslem group against another. The People of the Book The People of the Book are those who possess sacred books, chiefly Jews and Christians. Although Islam condemns Judaism and Christianity as distortions of the true religion, it accords them a special tolerance not shown to other religions. Within Islamic territory, according to Moslem law, polytheists must be given the choice of conversion or death. The People of the Book, however, must be allowed to continue to practice their faith. On the other hand they are prohibited from making converts, and they must pay a special tax and wear distinctive clothing. In practice under Moslem governments the enforcement of these rules varied greatly from place to place. In time this classification was extended to the Zoroastrians, in Persia, and to the Hindus, since they also possess sacred books. Clean and Unclean In order to take part in the ritual prayer and many other observances, a person must be ritually clean. Ritual uncleanliness is caused by various events taken to be polluting. It is not the same thing as sin, for it does not necessarily imply any moral guilt, but if it has been contracted it must be removed before prayer. Pollution may be acquired from (a) external sources (this is called najasa), such as contact with a wet discharge from an animal or human being (blood, urine, pus, feces), (b) or it may come about as the result of an action (this is called hadath). Hadath may be major or minor… Purification is obtained by washing, in the case of minor hadath, or by taking a complete bath, with the major hadath. For this reason every mosque has facilities for washing. The left hand is always regarded as unclean. It is never used to greet, to give gifts, or to touch another, but is used for toilet activities. Similarly the left foot is considered to be inauspicious, and is not to be used to make the first step into the mosque or on a journey. 109

Circumcision Circumcision is considered a form of purification (it is often called simply tahara, which means purification) and is obligatory for all Moslem boys, although the age at which it is done varies from region to region; in some areas it is performed in infancy, in others as late as at the age of ten or twelve. The operation is sometimes carried out privately, but often in public, and is traditionally accompanied by some kind of festivity, including music and feasting. Although it is not mentioned in the Koran, it is recommended in the Hadith. The Organization of Islam Ideally Islam has no priesthood or clergy. The prayer service in the mosque can in principle be led by any believer. There is, however, a recognized class of those who are knowledgeable about the religious law. This class is called the ulama. One becomes a member of it mainly by establishing a reputation as an expert on religious matters and attracting disciples. The question as to what belongs officially to Islam and what does not is settled authoritatively by the agreement (ijma’) of the ulama. Mohammed is reported in a hadith to have said, “My people will never agree together on an error”. The title Mufti is sometimes given to an expert outstanding for his knowledge of the law, frequently one who occupies an official position. When consulted on a particular question involving the interpretation of the law, the Mufti issues a formal opinion called a fatwa, which has considerable authority. Official decisions on matters of the religious law in particular cases, such as property, marriage and divorce, and inheritance, are made by a judge called a qadi. The qadi is appointed by the civil ruler from among the members of the ulama. Islam and Society Islam is not only a private or individual religion. Many of its laws can be carried out only in an Islamic society, where the civil law follows Islamic principles. For example, Moslem law requires that property be inherited according to certain rules, with sons typically receiving twice as much as daughters. The Zakat, or Charity Tax, needs to be collected and distributed by the government, as we have seen. Moslem law regarding marriage and divorce has many provisions that can only operate if supported by the civil law; for example, the woman cannot sign the marriage contract, but it must be signed for her by her male legal guardian. This Islamic law in its totality is called the “Shari’ah”, a term meaning “the right path”. Traditionalist Moslems cannot be content to live in a secular society in the Western sense, which provides freedom of religion to all. Islam requires a soci110

ety in which the government is Islamic, and Islam is the official religion. Ideally the whole world should be a single Islamic empire. Further than this, Islam requires not only political dominance but also economic and cultural superiority. The Islamic society ought to be the most advanced, the most prosperous. For many Moslems the combined political, economic, and cultural predominance of the West in modern times is a cause of dismay. This is especially true because of the sexual freedom widely permitted in the West, which is offensive to traditional Moslems. Some Moslems consider that the chief reason why their nations have declined in power is because they have not implemented the Shari’ah strictly and fully. The Ayatollah Khomeni’s rule in Iran was inspired largely by that view. Sunni and Shiite Islam The division between Sunni and Shiite Islam is a question of the form of authority in Islam. On Mohammed’s death, a majority of his followers recognized his kinsman Abu Bakr as his successor or “Caliph”. Abu Bakr in turn was followed by three successors, all four being known as “the rightly guided Caliphs”. Moslems who recognize their authority are termed Sunni, meaning “the tradition”. In Sunni Islam the ultimate source of authority is the Moslem community. This is the most widespread form of Islam. Some of Mohammed’s followers, however, maintained that Mohammed during his lifetime had designated his son-in-law Ali as his successor, and they refused to recognize the authority of Abu Bakr. These were the Party of Ali, the Shi’at Ali. In the view of Shiite Islam, authority resides not in the community but in the divinely appointed leader, the successor of Ali, called the Imam. God provides an Imam in every age, even though sometimes hidden. Shiite Islam predominates in Iran, and has large communities in Iraq and Syria. There are several different Shiite sects, recognizing different Imams. While Sunni and Shiite agree on the broad principles of Islam, Shiite Islam has distinctive practices of its own. One of these is the celebration of the Tenth Day of (the month of) Muharram, commemorating the death of Ali’s son Husayn in battle against other Moslems. Husayn’s suffering quickly came to be interpreted as voluntary self-sacrifice. It is regarded by the Shia as redemptive, and it is celebrated in a dramatic “Passion Play” in which the participants flagellate themselves with chains and smear themselves with blood, ritually sharing in Husayn’s fate. Sufism A Sufi aims to attain spiritual union with God through love. Conscious of God’s love, the Sufi makes it the central goal of his existence to love God in return. The high point of this life of spiritual love is sometimes described as a mystical marriage with God. 111

The Sufi emphasis on love for God and union with him tends to relegate the details of the law to a matter of secondary concern. For the Sufi, it is often the spiritual significance of the law that is important, rather than its literal fulfillment. For similar reasons Sufism is relatively indifferent to political concerns. Sufism exists both in Sunni and in Shiite Islam. It is organized in brotherhoods or orders which each typically owe allegiance to a particular spiritual master. Orthodox Sufism maintains the distinction between the individual and God, viewing them as two separate realities. This is important if the individual is to be said to love God and obey him. Some Sufis have gone further, however, seeing the individual as essentially only an appearance of God, like a reflection in a mirror. This is the conception we earlier termed monism, that there exists only a single reality. As we saw, this view also occurs in Hinduism, for example, in the doctrine of some of the Upanishads, that Brahman alone is real; as well as in Mahayana Buddhism, in the view that the Buddha nature is the true identity of all that is. Consequently there are some fundamental similarities between these otherwise very diverse viewpoints. Some Sufis have expressed this monistic outlook by saying that they were identical with God, a statement that has called savage persecution down on them from orthodox Moslems, for whom it is blasphemy. Sufis have produced some of the finest poetry in Islam, and also, of all Islamic literature, some of the most accessible to non-Moslems. For a nonMoslem who wishes to understand the spiritual life of Islam, Sufi poetry provides perhaps the best introduction. At the present time Sufism is the object of heated dispute. While many view it as the highest and noblest achievement of Islam, others see it as largely responsible for the decline of Islam as a political force, and are bitterly opposed to it. Summary of Islam 1. The chief message of the Koran is the absolute supremacy of God. 2. The main doctrines of Islam are: The existence of a single God, Angels, Prophets and scriptures, Resurrection and the Last Judgement, The Divine Decree and predestination. 3. The principal duties incumbent on a Moslem are the Five Pillars of Islam: Recital of the Shahada. Formal prayer, Salat. Legal almsgiving, Zakat. Fasting, Sawm. Pilgrimage to Mecca, Hajj. 4. Islam is not only a private or individual religion, but a social one.

112

Question for discussion: Several of the Founding Fathers of the United States, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson were Deists, that is, they believed in the existence of God, a divine Providence, and a life after death. How does this differ from Islam? Test questions: 1. Explain the Moslem doctrine of God. 2. Explain what is meant by saying that social Mohammed is the “Seal of the Prophets”. What is the significance of this for the Moslem view of Judaism and Christianity? 3. Explain why Islam is not merely a private religion for individuals, but a social religion requiring adoption by the civil society.

PA R T I V BUDDHISM History Buddhism was founded in Northern India by the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. He was born circa 563 B.C.E. in Lumbini which is in modern-day Nepal. At the age of 29, he left his wife, children and political involvements in order to seek truth; this was an accepted practice at the time for some men to leave their family and lead the life of an ascetic. He studied Brahmanism, but ultimately rejected it. In 535 B.C.E., he reached enlightenment and assumed the title Buddha (one who has awakened). He is also referred to as the Sakyamuni (sage of the Sakya clan). He promoted The Middle Way, rejecting both extremes of the mortification of the flesh and of hedonism as paths toward the state of Nirvana. He had many disciples and accumulated a large public following by the time of his death in his early 80’s in 483 B.C.E. Two and a half centuries later, a council of Buddhist monks collected his teachings and the oral traditions of the faith into written form, called the Tripitaka. This included a very large collection of commentaries and traditions; most are called Sutras (discourses). Buddhist Beliefs Buddhism, like most of the great religions of the world, is divided into a number of different traditions. We will deal in this essay with Theravada Buddhism. Buddhism is a religion which shares few concepts with Christianity. For example, they do not believe in a transcendent or immanent or any other type of God or Gods, the need for a personal savior, the power of prayer, eternal life in a heaven or hell after death, etc. They do believe in reincarnation: the concept that one must go through many cycles of birth, living, and death. After many such cycles, if a person releases their attachment to desire and the self, they can attain Nirvana. The Buddha’s Four Noble Truths may be described (somewhat simplistically) as: to be fulyl/understood – the universality of suffering; to be abandoned – the desire to have and control things which cause, suffering; to be made visible – the supreme truth and final liberation of nirvana which is achieved as the cause of suffering is eliminated. The mind experiences complete freedom and liberation;

113

114

to be brought into being – the truth of the eightfold ariya path leading to the cessation of suffering. His Eightfold Path consists of: 1. right understanding, 2. right thinking, 3. right speech, 4. right conduct, 5. right livelihood, 6. right effort, 7. right mindfulness, 8. right concentration. Buddhist Sects Buddhism is not a single monolithic religion. Many of its adherents have combined the teachings of the Buddha with local religious rituals, beliefs and customs. Little conflict occurs, because Buddhism at its core is a philosophical system to which such additions can be easily grafted. After the Buddha’s death, splits occurred. There are now three main systems of thought within Buddhism which are geographically and philosophically separate. Each tradition in turn has many sects. One source (J.R. Hinnels, A Handbook of Living Religions, Penguin, 1991) divides the religion into three main groups by their location: Southern Buddhism (known as Therevada Buddhism) has 100 million followers, mainly in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka and Thailand, and parts of Vietnam. It started in Sri Lanka when Buddhist missionaries arrived from India. They promoted the Vibhajjavada school (Separative Teaching). By the 15th century, this form of the religion reached almost its present extent. Concepts and practices include: Dana – thoughtful, ceremonial giving; Sila – accepting Buddhist teaching and following it in practice; refraining from killing, stealing, wrong behavior, use of drugs. On special days, three additional precepts may be added, restricting adornment, entertainment and comfort; Karma – the balance of accumulated sin and merit, which will determine one’s future in the present life, and the nature of the next life to come; The Cosmos – consists of billions of worlds grouped into clusters; clusters are grouped into galaxies, which are themselves grouped into super-galaxies. The universe also has many levels: four underworlds and 21 heavenly realms; Paritta – ritual chanting; Worship – of relics of a Buddha, of items made by a Buddha, or of symbolic relics; 115

Festivals – days of the full moon, and three other days during the lunar cycle are celebrated. There is a new year’s festival, and celebrations tied to the agricultural year; Pilgrimages – particularly to Buddhist sites in Sri Lanka and India. Eastern Buddhism is the predominant religion in China, Japan, Korea and much of Vietnam. Buddhism’s Mahayana tradition entered China during the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E. to 220 C.E.). It found initial acceptance there among the workers; later, it gradually penetrated the ruling class. Buddhism reached Japan in the 6th century. It underwent severe repression during the 1960’s in China during the Cultural Revolution. Eastern Buddhism contains many distinct schools: T’ein-t’ai, Hua-yen, Pure Land teachings, and the Meditation school. They celebrate New Years, harvest festivals, and five anniversaries from the lives of Buddha and of the Bodhissattva Kuan-yin. They also engage in Dana, Sila, Chanting, Worship and Pilgrimage. Northern Buddhism has perhaps 10 million adherents in parts of China, Mongolia, Russia and Tibet. It entered Tibet circa 640 C.E. Conflict with the native Tibetan religion of Bon caused it to go largely underground until its revival in the 11th century. The head of the Gelu school of Buddhist teaching became the Dalai Lama, and ruled Tibet. It has been, until recently, wrongly dismissed as a degenerate form of Buddhism. Ceremony and ritual are emphasized. They also engage in Dana, Sila, Chanting, Worship and Pilgrimage. They developed the practice of searching out a young child at the time of death of an important teacher. The child is believed to be the successor to the deceased teacher. They celebrate New Years, harvest festivals and anniversaries of five important events in the life of the Buddha. Buddhist and Tibetan culture suffered greatly during the Cultural Revolution when an attempt was made to destroy all religious belief. Buddhism in the West Southern Buddhism became established in Europe early in this century. The Zen Buddhist tradition of Eastern Buddhism has also developed a large following, particularly in North America. Canadian Buddhists totaled 163415 in the 1991 census. History of Buddha Siddhartha (Buddha) was born around 563 B.C.E. in the town of Kapilavastu (located in today’s Nepal). Siddhartha’s parents were King Shuddhodana and Queen Maya, who ruled the Sakyas. His history is a miraculous one... One night, Queen Maya dreamed that an elephant with six tusks, carrying a lotus flower in its trunk, touched her right side. At that moment her son was con116

ceived. Brahmins (learned men) came and interpreted the dream. The child would be either the greatest king in the world or the greatest ascetic (a holy man who practices self-denial). The future child would be named Siddhartha, which means “he whose aim is accomplished”. Later when Queen Maya was going to her father’s home to prepare for the birth, she stepped off her chariot in the Lumbini Gardens and held the branch of a sal tree to rest. In that instant, Siddhartha emerged from her right side without any help. The infant walked seven steps each in four directions of the compass, and lotus flowers sprouted from where his foot touched the earth. Then the infant said, “No further births have I to endure, for this is my last body. Now shall I destroy and pluck out by the roots the sorrow that is caused by birth and death”. Seven days later Queen Maya died. Mahaprajapati, Maya’s sister, looked after Siddhartha. King Shuddhodana shielded Siddhartha from all kinds of suffering and hardship. When Siddhartha was about 20, he married Yasodhara, daughter of one of the King’s ministers, and one year later they had a child named Rahula (meaning “fetter” or “impediment”). At age 29, Siddhartha asked his charioteer, Channa, to take him out of the city two times without the consent of the king. During these two trips, Siddhartha saw “Four Sights” that changed his life. On the first trip, he saw old age, sickness, and death. The second trip, he saw a wandering holy man, an ascetic, with no possessions. Siddhartha started questioning the holy man, who had a shaved head, wore only a ragged yellow robe, and carried a walking-staff. The man said, “I am... terrified by birth and death and therefore have adopted a homeless life to win salvation... I search for the most blessed state in which suffering, old age, and death are unknown." That night, Siddhartha silently kissed his sleeping wife and son, and ordered Channa to drive him out to the forest. At the edge of the forest, Siddhartha took off his jeweled sword, and cut off his hair and beard. He then took off all his princely garments and put on a yellow robe of a holy man. He then ordered Channa to take his possessions back to his father. Siddhartha then wandered through northeastern India, sought out holy men, and learned about Samsara (reincarnation). Karma, and Moksha. Attracted to the ideas of Moksha, Siddhartha settled on the bank of Nairanjana River, and adopted a life of extreme self-denial and penances, meditating constantly. After six years of eating and drinking only enough to stay alive, his body was emaciated, and he was very weak. Five other holy men joined him, hoping to learn from his example. One day, Siddhartha realized that his years of penance only weakened his body, and he could not continue to meditate properly. When he stepped into the river to bathe, he was too weak to get out, and the trees lowered their branches to help him. In that instant, a milk-maid named Nandabala came and offered a bowl of milk and rice, which Siddhartha accepted. The five holy men left Siddhartha after witnessing this. Refreshed by the meal, Siddhartha sat down

under a fig tree (often refered to as the Bo tree, or Tree of Enlightenment) and resolved to find out an answer to life and suffering. While meditating, Mara (an evil god) sent his three sons and daughters to tempt Siddhartha with thirst, lust, discontent, and distractions of pleasure. Siddhartha, unswayed, entered a deep meditation, and recalled all his previous rebirths, gained knowledge of the cycle of births and deaths, and with certainty, cast off the ignorance and passion of his ego which bound him to the world. Thereupon, Siddhartha had attained enlightenment and became the Buddha (enlightened one). His own desire and suffering were over and, as the Buddha, he experienced Nirvana... “There is a sphere which is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor air ... which is neither this world nor the other world, neither sun nor moon. I deny that it is coming or going, enduring, death or birth. It is only the end of suffering”. Instead of casting off his body and his existence, however, Buddha made a great act of selfsacrifice. He turned back, determined to share his enlightement with others so that all living souls could end the cycles of their own rebirth and suffering. Buddha went to the city of Sarnath and found the previous five holy men that deserted him earlier at a deer park. When they saw Buddha this time, they realized that he had risen to a higher state of holiness. The Buddha began teaching them what he had learned. He drew a circle in the ground with rice grains, representing the wheel of life that went on for existence after existence. This preaching was called his Deer Park Sermon, or “Setting in Motion the Wheel of Doctrine”. Siddhartha revealed that he had become the Buddha, and described the pleasure that he had first known as a prince, and the life of severe asceticism that he had practiced. Neither of these was the true path to Nirvana. The true path was the Middle Way, which keeps aloof from both extremes. “To satisfy the necessities of life is not evil”, the Buddha said. “To keep the body in good health is a duty, for otherwise we shall not be able to trim the lamp of wisdom and keep our mind strong and clear”. Buddha then taught them the Dharma, which consisted of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The five holy men and others soon joined Buddha, accompanying him everywhere. As more joined, Buddha organized the Sangha, a community of bhikkus (dedicated monks and later nuns). The Sangha preserved the Dharma, and allowed bhikkus to concentrate on the goal of Nirvana. On raining seasons they would settle in Viharas (resting places in cave dwellings). Upasaka, followers who believed in Buddha’s teachings, but could not follow the strict rule of the Sangha, were taught to follow the Five Precepts. Buddha returned to his birthplace in Kapilavastu, and his father was mortified to see his son begging for food. Buddha kissed his father’s foot and said, “You belong to a noble line of kings. But I belong to the lineage of buddhas, and thousands of those have lived on alms”. King Shuddhadana then remembered the Brahmin’s prophesy and reconciled with his son. Buddha’s wife, son, and cousin (Ananda) later joined the Sangha.

117

118

When Buddha was about eighty, a blacksmith named Cuanda gave him a meal that caused him to become ill. Buddha forced himself to travel to Kushinagara, and laid down on his right side to rest in a grove of shala trees. As a crowd of followers gathered, the trees sprouted blossoms and showered them on Buddha. Buddha told Ananda, “I am old and my journey is near its end. My body is like a worn-out cart held together only by the help of leather straps”. Three times, Buddha asked the people if they had any questions, but they all remained silent. Finally Buddha said, “Everything that has been created is subject to decay and death. Everything is transitory. Work out your own salvation with diligence”. After passing through several states of meditation, the Buddha died, reaching Parinirvana (the cessation of perception and sensation). Five Precepts: 1. Do not kill. 2. Do not steal. 3. Do not lie. 4. Do not be unchaste. 5. Do not take drugs or drink intoxicants. The Body, Speech and Mind of a Buddha The Body of a Buddha What is a Buddha? A Buddha is someone who has abandoned all unwholesome action, all obstructions to knowledge and their remnants. When one abandons unwholesome action, an imprint remains on the mind which acts as an obstructions to knowledge, just as when one drops an onion from one’s hand, a smell remains on it. The Buddha has abandoned even the last remnants of these obstructions to knowledge. He perceives the reality of all phenomena directly and has fully developed compassion through meditation, so he spontaneously works for the welfare of all beings. Over countless aeons, he has accumulated limitless merit through the practice of the perfections of giving, ethics, practice and effort and has meditated with a firmly stabilized mind on the antidote to the conception of an inherently existent self-emptiness. From the point of view of Tantra, he meditated on deity yoga, employing the many subtle and powerful means of Tantra, which enables one to attain Buddhahood in one lifetime. Although there may be countless Buddhas in any aeon, in the present aeon 1002 Buddhas are to appear as such, of whom four have already appeared. They are already enlightened, but take birth as humans to demonstrate the twelve deeds of a Buddha and guide sentient beings towards enlightenment. The tantric path to enlightenment is peculiar to Shakyamuni’s teaching and is otherwise very rare. Shakyamuni taught the sutras to ordinary disciples, in the form of a

Buddha. However, he taught superior disciples the tantras in the form of a king or in the aspect of various meditational deities. There are many ways of representing the body of the Buddha. Though they may reveal different aspects, all are the Buddha’s body in nature and offerings made to them are equal to those made to Buddhas themselves. Thus, the Buddha may be portrayed as a monk, like Buddha Shakyamuni, as slightly wrathful meditational deities such as Heruka, or Guhyasamaja, or as female deities such as dakinis, as wrathful male or female deities with ugly forms and animal heads, or as embracing consorts. There are also occasions when Shakyamuni Buddha is represented as a rabbit or an elephant, recalling exemplary deeds he performed in such lives during his career as a Bodhisattva. Similarly, religious images are also made of Arhats, those beings who have attained personal liberation, religious protectors and Lamas. If the image is a statue, it can be made of any material, whether clay, stone, wood or metal and while there are no restrictions on size, it must strictly adhere to the prescribed proportions and so forth. Whatever material is used, such images should be respected equally, a statue should not be valued more highly than another because it is made of gold and the other of clay. The same is true of two-dimensional images, which in Tibet were most commonly paintings on cloth, block prints or murals. The Buddha’s Speech or Dharma From the point of view of experience, the Oharma is ultimately the abandonment of afflictions and obstructions to knowledge in a being’s mental continuum. The way to attain this true cessation is to follow a true path. The means of communicating this understanding is the speech of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, which in written form comprises the collection of scriptures. Both of these are also referred to as the Dharma. When the Buddha spoke, countless beings each found in his words what benefitted him or her most and could understand it in his or her own language. Shortly after the Buddha’s passing away, memorised collections of his teachings were recited in four different Indian languages, including Sanskrit. Later these were translated into Tibetan, Chinese, Mongolian, Korean, Japanese and so forth. The Tibetan canon includes the Kangyur, about 108 volumes consisting of translations of Buddha’s own words, and the Tengyur, about 200 volumes of commentries to teachings contained in the Kangyur composed by Indian scholars, and some commentaries to those written by later Tibetan scholars. Recently, translations of Buddhist texts have also begun to appear in Western languages. No matter what language is used to convey them, what distinguishes such texts or teachings is that their meaning is conducive to sentient beings’ achieving enlightenment. This is reflected in the subjects dealt with by Buddhist teaching. The Buddha is said to have given 84000 instructions, which elaborate on all the afflictions and the means of overcoming them. When condensed, these can be included in the Three Baskets of

119

120

Doctrine – so called because the original palm-leaf texts in India were contained in baskets. The Basket of Discourses explains the three trainings of ethics, meditative stabilization and wisdom, the Basket of Discipline explains ethical discipline and meditative stabilization, and the Basket of Knowledge explains the divisions of phenomena. When the Buddha was passing away, some people complained that he was leaving nothing behind to show them the way to enlightenment. To this the Buddha replied that they would find what they needed in the texts recording the meaning of his words. To show appreciation and respect towards the Buddha’s teachings, some texts were written out in gold, silver and other precious substances, especially the Discourse on the Perfection of Wisdom. In general, scriptures are kept carefully in a high clean place, also to denote respect. In temples, the statue of the Buddha, which may form the principal object of offering, is generally flanked by high stacks of books of scriptures which represent his speech. The Buddha’s Mind To represent the Buddha’s mind, which is free of all obstacles and has acquired all knowledge, and to gain merit by paying respect to it, people have built stupas. The many aspects of a stupa symbolize many things, such as the ten wholesome actions, great compassion and the ability to help all sentient beings. Stupas were erected at the sites of Buddha Shakyamuni’s birth, renunciation, attainment of enlightenment and his passing into Parinirvana, as well as being built over the relics of previous Buddhas. Circumbulating them is a means of accumulating merit. In Magadha, an Indian kingdom at the time of the Buddha, there was an old stupa reduced to a mere mound. The Buddha circumbulated it, and when asked why, answered that there were holy relics within it. In response to a question from the gods of the Heaven of Thirty-three, the Buddha explained what to place as relics in a stupa. These are the four types of relics: – Mantras written out on paper, – Physical relics of a Buddha such as hair or nails, or objects used by him, – Fragments of his bones, teeth and so forth, – Other relics remaining after his cremation. After the Buddha’s passing away and the cremation of his body, the people of many kingdoms argued over possession of his remains. A disciple finally settled the dispute by dividing the remains into eight, each portion being enshrined in a stupa in each kingdom. The custom of erecting stupas over the remains of great saints and lamas also continued in Tibet. In some cases, for example the Dalai Lamas, the whole body was enshrined. Stupas can be of any size and can

be made of any suitable material. Relics, other than the four described above, such as statues, clothes or scriptures are also acceptable. For example, in Tibet, sets of thousands of stamped clay images would commonly be made to be placed in stupas.

121

122

The Vajra and Bell and beads The Vajras Vajras may have nine, five or three spokes. The spokes of a peaceful Vajra meet at the tip whereas those of a wrathful vajra are slightly splayed at the end. When paired with a bell their length can vary from four finger-widths to twenty-eight finger widths. The upper sets of spokes of a five-spoked vajra symbolize the five wisdoms, which are: • The mirror like wisdom-that which reflects all sense perceptions is purified when one attains enlightenment and becomes the mirror like wisdom. • The wisdom of equality-arises after all the feelings of pleasantness, unpleasantness and indifference have been purified. • The wisdom of individual analysis-arises when the factor of discrimination, which distinguishes one object from another is purified. It enables one to benefit each sentient being according to his or her needs and disposition. • The wisdom of accomplishing activity-arises when the basic ability to perform acts according to particular circumstances is purified. • The wisdom of the sphere of reality-arises when consciousness is purified and becomes the mind that is the seed of the wisdom truth body of a Buddha. The five lower spokes symbolize have five mothers. The Bell A bell can be eight, twelve, sixteen, eighteen or twenty two finger-widths in height. Its base must be round, above which is a vase surmounted by the face of the goddess Prajnaparamita. Above these are a lotus, a moon disc and finally a vajra. The hollow of the bell symbolizes the wisdom cognizing emptiness. The clapper represents the sound of emptiness. The eight lotus petals are the four mothers and four goddesses and the vase represents the vase containing the nectar of accomplishment. Paired with the vajra the bell represents wisdom, and as wisdom and method are an undivided unity so the vajra and bell are never parted or employed separately. Beads Beads are mainly used to count mantras which can be recited for four different purposes: • To appease, • To increase,

• To overcome, or • Tame by forceful means. The beads used to count mantras intended to appease should be of crystal, pearl or mother of pearl, and should at least be clear or white in colour. A rosary for this purpose should have one hundred such beads. Mantras counted on these beads serve to clear away obstacles, such as illness and other calamities, and purify one of unwholesomeness. The beads used with mantras intended to increase should be of gold, silver, copper or lotus seeds and a rosary is made of 108 of them. The mantras counted on these serve to increase life span, knowledge and merit. The beads used with mantras which are intended to overcome are made from a compound of ground sandal wood, saffron and other fragrant substances. There are twenty-five beads on this rosary. The mantras counted on them are meant to tame others, but the motivation for doing so should be a pure wish to help other sentient beings and not to benefit oneself. The beads used to recite mantras aiming at subduing beings through forceful means should be made from raksha seeds or human bones in a string of sixty. Again, as the purpose should be absolutely altruistic, the only person capable of performing such a feat is a Bodhisattva motivated by great compassion for a being who can be tamed through no other means, for example extremely malicious spirits, or general afflictions, visualized as a dense black ball. Beads made of Bodhi seed or wood can be used for many purposes, for counting all kinds of mantras, as well as other prayers, prostrations, circumambulations and so forth. The string common to all beads should consist of nine threads, which symbolize Buddha Vajradhara and the eight Bodhisattvas. The large bead at the end stands for the wisdom which cognizes emptiness and the cylindrical bead surmounting it, emptiness itself, both symbolize having vanquished all opponents. Eight auspicious symbols The white conch which coils to the right symbolises the deep, far-reaching and melodious sound of the Dharma teachings, which being appropriate to different natures, predispositions and aspirations of disciples, awakens them from the deep slumber of ignorance and urges them to accomplish their own and others’ welfare. The precious umbrella symbolises the wholesome activity of preserving beings from illness, harmful forces, obstacles and so forth in this life, and all kinds of temporary and enduring sufferings of the three lower realms, and the realms of men and gods in future lives. It also represents the enjoyment of a feast of benefit under its cool shade. The victory banner symbolises the victory of the activities of one’s own and others’ body, speech and mind over obstacles and negativities. It also

stands for the complete victory of the Buddhist Doctrine over all harmful and pernicious forces. The golden fish symbolises the auspiciousness of all living beings in a state of fearlessness, without danger of drowning in the ocean of sufferings, and migrating from place to place freely and spontaneously, just as fish swim freely without fear through water. The golden wheel symbolises the auspiciousness of the turning of the precious wheel of Buddha’s doctrine, both in its teachings and realizations, in all realms and at all times, enabling beings to experience the joy of wholesome deeds and liberation. The auspicious drawing symbolises the mutual dependence of religious doctrine and secular affairs. Similarly, it represents the union of wisdom and method, the inseparability of emptiness and dependent arising at the time of path, and finally, at the time of enlightenment, the complete union of wisdom and great compassion. The lotus flower symbolises the complete purification of the defilements of the body, speech and mind, and the full blossoming of wholesome deeds in blissful liberation. The treasure vase symbolises an endless rain of long life, wealth and prosperity and all the benefits of this world and liberation.

123

124

The Church of England There are two established or state churches in Britain: the Church of England, or Anglican Church as it is also called, and the Church of Scotland, or “Kirk”. In 1533 the English king, Henry VIII, broke away from Rome and declared himself head of the Church in England. His reason was political: the Pope’s refusal to allow him to divorce his wife, who had failed to produce a son. Apart from this administrative break, the Church at first remained more Catholic than Protestant. However, during the next two centuries when religion was a vital political issue in Europe, the Church of England became more Protestant in belief as well as organisation. Ever since 1534 the monarch has been Supreme Governor of the Church of England. No one may take the throne who is not a member of the Church of England. For any Protestant this would be unlikely to be a problem, since the Church of England already includes a wide variety of Protestant belief. However, if the monarch or the next in line to the throne decided to marry a Roman Catholic or a divorcee, this might cause a constitutional crisis. It has always been understood that if such a marriage went ahead, the monarch or heir would have to give up their claim to the throne, and to being Supreme Governor of the Church. In 1936 Edward VIII, who had only just succeeded to the throne, abdicated in order to marry a divorcee. Today it is more likely that the monarch or heir would marry the person he or she loved, and would renounce the title of Supreme Governor of the Church. It might pose a constitutional crisis, but is less likely to be one for the Church. The monarch is crowned by the senior Anglican cleric, the Archbishop of Canterbury, but if the monarch renounced Supreme Governorship of the Church, this ceremony might be abandoned or radically changed.

As Head of the Church of England, the monarch appoints the archbishops, bishops and deans of the Church, on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, who might well not be an Anglican. The Prime Minister makes a recommendation from two nominee candidates, put forward by a special Crown Appointments Commission (composed of bishops, clergy and lay members of the Church). All Anglican clergy must take an oath of allegiance to the Crown, a difficult proposition for any priest who is a republican at heart. Thus Church and Crown in England are closely entwined, with mutual bonds of responsibility. The most senior spiritual leaders of the Church of England are the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is “Primate of All England”, and the Archbishop of York, who is “Primate of England”. They are head of the two ecclesiastical provinces of England, Canterbury and York. Both provinces are divided into dioceses, each under a bishop. Canterbury is the larger province, containing 30 dioceses, while York contains only 14. The choice of Canterbury and York is historical. Canterbury is the site of where St Augustine reestablished the Christian church in England at the end of the sixth century. The see of York was founded in the early seventh century by an envoy of St Augustine to this capital of Northumbria. (The Celtic churches which survived in Ireland and Scotland were well established two centuries earlier.) The senior bishops are those of London, Durham and Winchester, but there is no guarantee of promotion according to seniority. George Carey, for example, the present (103rd) Archbishop, was previously Bishop of Bath and Wells, no longer considered a senior bishopric. Because of the growth in population, some bishops are assisted by deputies assigned to a geographical part of the diocese. These are “suffragan” bishops. Each diocese is composed of parishes, the basic unit of the Church’s ministry. Each parish has a vicar, or sometimes a team of vicars, if it includes more than one church. The Archbishop of Canterbury is head of the Anglican “Communion”. This Communion is composed of the various independent churches which have grown out of the Church of England in various parts of the world. In fact England accounts for only two of the 28 provinces of the Anglican Church. In theory, about 40 per cent of the English might say they were members of the Church of England. Far fewer ever actually attend church and only one million regularly attend, a drop of over 13 per cent since 1988. It is also a small proportion of the 70 million active Anglicans worldwide. More Nigerians, for example, than English are regular attenders of the Anglican Church. Within the worldwide Anglican Communion are some famous people, for example Desmond Tutu, head of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and once Archbishop of Cape Town. It is said that most of the “ruling establishment” of Washington belong to the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of the United States. The Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales and the

125

126

PA R T V RELIGION IN BRITAIN Barely 16 per cent of the adult population of Britain belongs to one of the Christian churches, and this proportion continues to decline. Yet the regional variation is revealing. In England only 12 per cent of the adult population are members of a church. The further one travels from London, however, the greater the attendance: in Wales 22 per cent, in Scotland 36 per cent and in Northern Ireland no fewer than 75 per cent. Today there is complete freedom of practice, regardless of religion or sect. However, until the mid-nineteenth century, those who did not belong to the Church of England, the official ‘established’ or state church, were barred from some public offices. The established church still plays a powerful role in national life, in spite of the relatively few people who are active members of it.

Church of Ireland are members of the Anglican Communion but are not “established” churches and have memberships of not more than about 100,000 each. Once in every 10 years the Archbishop of Canterbury invites all the bishops of the Anglican Communion to a conference at Lambeth in London to exchange views and debate issues of concern. Rather like the Commonwealth Conference, the Lambeth Conference provides an opportunity for the sister churches from every continent to meet and share their different concerns and perspectives. The Church of England is frequently considered to be a “broad” church because it includes a wide variety of belief and practice. Traditionally there have been two poles in membership, the Evangelicals and the Anglo-Catholics. The Evangelicals, who have become proportionately stronger in recent years, give greater emphasis to basing all faith and practice on the Bible. There are over one million British evangelicals of different Protestant churches belonging to an umbrella group, the Evangelical Alliance. The Anglo-Catholics give greater weight to Church tradition and Catholic practices, and do not feel the same level of disagreement as many Evangelicals concerning the teaching and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. There is an uneasy relationship between the two wings of the Church, which sometimes breaks into open hostility. Yet most Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics are united in their deeper dislike of the liberal theologians within the Church of England. These have challenged the literal validity of several beliefs of the Church, and have argued that reinterpretation must constantly take place, partly as a result of recent biblical scholarship, but also because they maintain that theological understanding changes as society itself changes and develops over the years. In that sense, one can divide the Church of England in a different way, into conservatives and modernists. It is estimated that 80 per cent of the Church of England are of evangelical persuasion, and the balance is divided almost equally between Anglo-Catholics and liberals. However, a large number of church-goers either feel no particular loyalty to any of these traditions, or feel more comfortable somewhere between these poles. Since most bishops are theologians, the liberals are more strongly represented among the bishops than sheer numbers in church membership justifies. The Church of England is above all things a church of compromise. It is, in the words of one journalist, “a Church where there has traditionally been space on the pew for heretics and unbelievers, doubters and skeptics”. It takes a long view and distrusts zealous theological or ideological certainty. It prefers to live with disagreements of belief rather than apply authoritarian decisions. It fudges issues where it can, to keep its broad body of believers together. Most of its members are happy with the arrangement. In that sense the Church of England is profoundly typical of the English character. It distrusts the rigid logic of a

particular tradition of theology and prefers the illogical but practical atmosphere of “live and let live” within a broader church climate. Consequently there is always a concern to ensure that all wings of the Church are represented among the bishops, and that those appointed as archbishops shall be neither too controversial in their theology, nor too committed to one particular wing of the Church as to be unacceptable to others. The Church is governed by its bishops. In that sense it is a hierarchical organisation. Nevertheless its regulating and legislative body is the General Synod, made up of three “Houses”, the House of Bishops (53 diocesan and suffragan bishops), the House of Clergy (259 representatives of the clergy) and the House of Laity (258 representatives of lay members of the Church). The General Synod meets twice yearly with two functions: (1) to consider matters concerning the Church of England, and to take any necessary steps for its effective operation; (2) to consider and express its opinion on any matters of religious or public interest. In order to reach agreement on any issue, General Synod requires a majority in each House, in the words of one religious commentator, “a clumsy and largely ineffective cross between a parliament and a democracy. It is a typical Anglican compromise”. This has been particularly true in the two areas of greatest controversy within the Church since the mid – 1980s: the ordination of women and of homosexuals (and the acceptance of homosexuals already in the priesthood). In both cases the modernists are ranged against the conservatives. After a long and often contentious debate, the Church finally accepted the ordination of women in 1992, and the first were ordained in 1994, long after the practice had been adopted in other parts of the Anglican Communion. Some 200 clergy, fewer than expected, chose to leave the Church of England rather than accept women priests. They were almost all Anglo-Catholic. While great passion was aroused among some clergy and lay people on this issue, the large majority of churchgoers did not feel strongly enough, either way, to force a decision. It is unlikely that any woman will become a bishop for some years. Having accepted women priests, a fresh controversy arose over the question of homosexuality with, if anything, even greater vehemence. This time the contest is primarily between modernists and evangelicals, but the essence of the debate is the same: biblical and traditional values versus contemporary social ones. The director general of the Evangelical Alliance claims that “a vast number of churches stand by 2,000 years of biblical analysis which concludes that homosexual sex is outside the will and purpose of God”. The modernists argue that it is ludicrous to pick one out of many culturally specific prohibitions in the Old Testament, and that a judgmental posture excludes Christians who quite sincerely have a different sexual orientation and perspective from heterosexuals. Modernists say the

127

128

church should listen and learn from them. It is a controversy likely to persist well into the twenty-first century. The Church of England was traditionally identified with the ruling establishment and with authority, but it has been distancing itself over the past 25 years or so, and may eventually disengage from the state. “Disestablishment”, as this is known, becomes a topic for discussion each time the Church and state clash over some issue. Since 1979 the Church has been ready to criticise aspects of official social policy (see below). Nevertheless, the Church of England remains overwhelmingly conventional and middle class in its social composition, having been mainly middle and upper class in character since the Industrial Revolution. Most working-class people in England and Wales who are religious belong to the nonconformist or “Free” Churches, while others have joined the Catholic Church in the past 140 years. Because of its position, the Anglican Church has inherited a great legacy of ancient cathedrals and parish churches. It is caught between the value of these magnificent buildings as places of worship, and the enormous cost of their upkeep. The state provides about 10 per cent of the cost of maintaining the fabric of historic churches. The other Christian churches The Free or nonconformist churches are distinguished by having no bishops, or “episcopacy”, and they all admit both women and men to their ministry. The main ones today are: the Methodist Union (400,000 full adult members); the Baptists (150,000); the-United Reformed Church (110,000) and the Salvation Army (50,000). These all tend towards strong evangelicalism. In the case of the Methodists and Baptists, there are also smaller splinter groups. In addition there are a considerable number of smaller sects. Most of these churches are, like the Anglicans, in numerical decline. In Scotland the Church, or Kirk, vehemently rejected the idea of bishops, following a more Calvinist Protestant tradition. Its churches are plain. There is no altar, only a table, and the emphasis is on the pulpit, where the Gospel is preached. The Kirk is more democratic than the Anglican Church. Although each Kirk is assigned a minister, it also elects its own “elders”. The minister and one of these elders represent the Kirk at the regional presbytery. Each of the 46 presbyteries of Scotland elects two commissioners to represent it at the principal governing body of the Church, the General Assembly. Each year the commissioners meet in the General Assembly, and elect a Moderator to chair the General Assembly for that year. Unlike the Church of England, the Church of Scotland is subject neither to the Crown nor to Parliament, and takes pride in its independence from state authority, for which it fought in the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries. In keeping with its democratic nature, it admits women as well as men to the ministry. Among all these Protestant churches, but particularly among the larger English ones, there has been a recent important development called the “house church” movement. This began in the 1970s and has a membership of roughly 90,000, although attendance is far higher. This movement is a network of autonomous “churches” of usually not more than 100 members in each. These churches meet, usually in groups of 15 or 20, in members’ homes for worship and prayer meetings. Most of those joining such groups are in the 20–40 yearold age range and belong to the professional middle classes – solicitors, doctors and so forth – who have felt frustrated with the more ponderous style of the larger churches They try to recapture what they imagine was the vitality of the early church, but it is doubtful how long these house churches will last. If they are anything like some of the revivalist sects of the nineteenth century, they in their turn will lose their vitality, and discontented members may return to the churches which their predecessors left, or drift away from the Christian church altogether. The Protestant churches of Britain undoubtedly owe part of the revival taking place in some evangelical churches to the vitality of the West Indian churches. West Indian immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s were not welcomed into Anglican churches, and many decided to form their own churches Their music and informal joyfulness of worship spread quickly in evangelical circles. As Philip Mohabir, a West Indian, describes: Congregations that would have been cold, dull and boring, would now sing to guitar music, clap their hands, and even play tambourines. Those were things that only West Indian churches did… Now people would raise their hands in the air and clap and even dance. English, white, evangelical Christians dancing and clapping their hands, praising God. That in itself is a miracle we West Indian Christians never thought would happen. The Roman Catholic Church only returned to Britain in 1850. During the preceding 300 years the few Catholic families which refused to accept the new Church were popularly viewed as less than wholeheartedly English. The English Protestant prejudice that to be Catholic is to be not quite wholly English only really disappeared in the 1960s. The Roman Catholic Church grew rapidly after 1850, particularly among the industrial working class. By the mid 1980s it had about 5,7 million members, of whom 1,4 million were regular attenders. By the mid 1990s this had fallen to 1,1 million attenders, a decline of over 17 per cent. Alongside growing secularism in society, many have left the Catholic Church because of its authoritarian conservatism, particularly in the field of sexual mores. It is estimated that attendance will barely exceed 600,000 by the year 2005. The Catholic

129

130

Church in England is composed of four main strands: immigrants from Ireland, working-class people in deprived areas among whom Catholic effort was concentrated in the nineteenth century; a few upper-class families; and finally middle-class converts, for example a bishop of London and two government ministers who all left the Anglican church and became Catholics over the Anglican ordination of women in 1992. The senior English cleric is the Archbishop of Westminster. All the formal churches are in numerical decline. Each time there is a census of church attendance and membership, the numbers in almost every church have fallen. In 1970 there were an estimated 8,6 million practising Christians. By 1994 the figure had fallen to 6,5 million. At Christmas, the major festival, perhaps 5 million will attend church, but on a normal Sunday it is barely half this figure. One must conclude that numerical decline will probably continue in an age when people feel no apparent need for organised religion. But the decline may not be as dramatic as the figures suggest. Many church – goers have ceased to be regular simply because they often go away at weekends. Within the Church the debate is bound to continue between the modernists who wish to reinterpret religion according to the values of the age they live in, and conservatives who believe it is precisely the supernatural elements which attract people in the age of science. On the national stage the Church has made its greatest mark in recent years in the area of social justice. In 1985 the Church of England produced a report, Faith in the City: A Call for Action by Church and Nation, which examined inner-city deprivation and decline, and recommended measures both by church and state to reverse the trends. The Roman Catholic and Free Churches showed similar concern at increased social deprivation in the 1980s. Today the Church is no longer seen as an integral part of the establishment but as possibly its most formidable critic. Besides these “orthodox” churches which accept the doctrine of the Trinity, there are others which have their own specific beliefs, and are consequently viewed as outside orthodoxy. The Mormon Church which is strong in the United States, has doubled its membership to about 200,000 in the past 20 years. Other non-Trinitarian churches have also grown, part of an alternative form of spirituality which has been attractive to many people since the 1960s. Other religions Apart from Christianity, there are at least five other religions with a substantial number of adherents in Britain. These are usually composed of either immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. The oldest is the Jewish community, which now numbers barely 300,000, of whom fewer than half ever attend synagogue and only 80 000 are actual

synagogue members. Today the Jewish community in Britain is ageing and shrinking, on account of assimilation and a relatively low birth rate, and is in rapid decline. A survey in 1996 revealed that 44 per cent of Jewish men under the age of 40 are married to or are living with a non-Jewish partner. Between 20 and 25 per cent of Jewish women in this age range also marry outside the community. Even so, it is the second largest Jewish community in Western Europe. Two-thirds of the community live in London, with another 9,000 or so in Manchester and Leeds respectively, and another 6,000 in Brighton. Jews returned to England in the seventeenth century, after their previous expulsion in the thirteenth century. At first those who returned were Sephardic, that is, originally from Spain and Portugal, but during the last years of the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century a more substantial number of Ashkenazi (Germanic and East European) Jews, fleeing persecution, arrived. Ashkenazis form 70 per cent of British Jews. As a result of these two separate origins, and as a result of the growth of Progressive Judaism (the Reform and Liberal branches), the Jews are divided into different religious groups. The largest group, approximately 120,000, are Orthodox and belong to the United Synagogues. They look to the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain for spiritual leadership. A much smaller number of Sephardic Orthodox still recognise a different leader, the Haham. The two Progressive groups, the Reform and Liberal Jews, which roughly equate with the broad church and modernists of the Anglican Church, have no acknowledged single leader, but they do have a number of rabbis who command a following among those who admire their wisdom. The Progressives account for 17 per cent of the entire community. Thirty-seven per cent of Jews claim no religious affiliation at all. There is also a Board of Deputies of British Jews, the lay representation of Anglo-Jewry since 1760, to which 250 synagogues and organisations in Britain elect representatives. It speaks on behalf of British Jewry on a wide variety of matters, but its degree of genuine representation is qualified in two ways: fewer than half of Britain’s Jews belong to the electing synagogues and organisations; and none of the community’s more eminent members belongs to the Board. In fact many leading members of the community are often uneasy with the position the Board takes on issues. As in the Christian church, the fundamentalist part of Jewry seems to grow compared with other groups, especially among the young, and causes similar discomfort for those who do not share its certainties and legal observances. The most obvious concentrations of orthodox Jews, who are distinguishable by their dress, are in the north London suburbs of Golders Green and Stamford Hill. There are also more recently established religious groups: Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Muslims. The most important of these, not only on account of its size, is the Muslim community. There are 1,5 million Muslims and over 1,000

131

132

mosques and prayer centres, of which the most important (in all Western Europe) is the London Central Mosque at Regent’s Park. There are probably 900,000 Muslims who regularly attend these mosques. Most are of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin, but there are also an increasing number of British converts. Apart from London, there are sizeable Muslim communities in Liverpool, Manchester, Leicester, Birmingham, Bradford, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Islam gives coherence and a sense of community to people of different ethnic origins. It also gives Britain informal lines of communication with several Muslim countries. During the past quarter century, since large numbers of Muslims arrived in Britain, there has been a tension between those Muslims who sought an accommodation between Islam and Western secular society, one might call them modernists, and those who have wanted to uphold traditional Islamic values even when these directly conflicted with secular social values. The tension has been made worse by the racism Asian Muslims feel in British society. Until 1989 it might be said that those Muslims who were relatively successful economically and socially were the prevailing example of how Muslims could live successfully in the West. However, in 1988 many Muslims were deeply offended by the publication of Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses, which they considered to be blasphemous. Many Muslims were offended by the reaction they saw from the rest of society and from government. The blasphemy law, mainly on account of its age, only applied to Christianity, so they were unable to prosecute Rushdie. But perhaps what they found most offensive was the patronising attitude of nonMuslim liberals, who lectured them on the values of a democratic society in a way which was dismissive of Muslim identity and feeling. Muslims found themselves in conflict with those who had previously been perceived as their friends, those of the secular left who had championed immigrant rights and most strongly opposed racism. After the Rushdie affair other external factors also stimulated a Muslim revival, including the Gulf War (1991) and also the suffering of Bosnian Muslims (1994–1996). Within the British Muslim community as a whole, which like Jewish and Christian communities, is divided into different sects and traditions, modernists lost influence to traditionalist leaders. Mosque attendance increased and religious observance became an outward symbol of Muslim assertion. In 1985 only about 20 per cent of Muslims were actually religiously observant. By 1995 that figure had risen to about 50 per cent. Yet the Islam of young British Muslims is different from that of their parents. It is less grounded in the culture of the countries from which their parents came. Young Muslims come from several different ethnic origins but they all

share their religion and their British culture and education. This is leading to a “Britain-specific” form of Islam. As a result, in the words of one religious affairs journalist, “For every child who drifts into the moral relativism of contemporary Western values, another returns home with a belief in a revitalised form of Islam. Many parents find the second just as difficult to come to terms with as the first”. British Islam is sufficiently vibrant that a Muslim paper, Q-News, now appears regularly. One of its editors is a woman, Fozia Bora, itself a statement on the relatively liberal culture of British Islam. Indeed, a new sense of selfconfidence emerged out of the initial feeling of alienation over The Satanic Verses. It is partly self-assertion against anti-Islamic prejudice, but it is also the comfort felt in a relatively tolerant environment. Fozia Bora believes that “Britain is a good place to be Muslim. There is a tradition of religious and intellectual freedom”. In the opinion of Dr Zaki Badawi, one of Britain’s foremost Muslims, “Britain is the best place in the world to be a Muslim – most Muslim states are tyrannies and things are harder elsewhere in Europe”. Anti-Islamic feeling, however, remains a factor in racial tensions in Britain. In the words of the Runnymede Trust, which concerns itself with race relations, “Islamophobic discourse, sometimes blatant but frequently subtle and coded, is part of the fabric of everyday life in modern Britain, in much the same way that anti-Semitic discourse was taken for granted earlier this century”. There are other areas of Muslim frustration. Some want Muslim family law to be recognised within British law, a measure which would allow Muslim communities in Britain to follow an entirely separate lifestyle governed by their own laws. Others want state-supported Muslim schools, where children, particularly girls, may receive a specifically Muslim education in a stricter moral atmosphere than exists in secular state schools. The state already provides such funding for Anglican, Catholic and Jewish schools within the state system. It was only in 1997 that the first Muslim school obtained financial support from the state. Smaller communities include about 450,000 Sikhs who mainly originate in the Indian Punjab. They live mainly in London, Manchester and Birmingham. There are over 200 gurdwaras or temples in Britain. There are about 320,000 Hindus living mainly in Leicester, London and Manchester. There are about 150 mandirs in which Hindus worship, the largest, in Neasden, north-west London, is also the largest outside India. Outsiders sometimes see possible tensions between one religion and another. They are less aware of the often greater tensions within each religion or sect between conservatives and liberals. In many religious groups there is a conservative wing which has little time for, or interest in, other religions and which disapproves of its own liberal co-religionists. By contrast, these liberals usually welcome dialogue and warm relations between religions, and enjoy the

133

134

rich pluralism of a multi-faith society. But regardless of viewpoint, most people in Britain whether religious or not, consider the matter of faith to be a private and personal matter. Section analysis 1. The Church of England. In what way does the author believe that the Church of England is “profoundly typical of the English character”? 2. The Church of England. What are the two poles of the Anglican Church, and which theologians do they both distrust, and why? 3. The other Christian churches. What are the essential differences between the Church of England and the Church of Scotland, the two “established Churches” of Britain? 4. The other Christian Churches. What is the “house church” movement? 5. Other religions. What are the main religious and secular institutions of the Jewish community in Britain? 6. Other religions. Why do you think there has been a revival of religious observance among British Muslims during the 1990s?

Textual interpretation Unlike member-only denominations, the Church of England is broad enough to offer a spiritual home for those with almost diametrically opposing beliefs – practising gay clergy and those who regard them as sodomites, those who believe the ordination of women is heresy alongside a thousand woman priests. It is a Church where there has traditionally been space on the pew for heretics and unbelievers, doubters and sceptics. People who pray weekly sit next to people who haven’t prayed since childhood. It is all part of what one bishop calls a “grand compromise”. (Martin Wroe and Andrew Adonis. The Observer.) 1. Do you think this is a good formula for the established church, since it must remain at the service of every English person who wishes to join it? 2. Do you think this kind of approach to the questions of theology and belief could operate in your own society, or would the obvious contradictions be unacceptable?

Chapter analysis and discussion 1. Consider the following: For the Church of England to be on its own, self-governing, free from parliamentary oversight, uninvolved in Prince Charles’s affairs, would be a liberation. It could shake off its innate conservatism. Bishops could address their congregations and the wider world without inhibition. They would lose prestige but might. paradoxically, gain self-confidence and speak with greater conviction. The Church of England would be more of an adventure and all the better for it. (Andreas Whittam Smith. The Independent.) What are your reactions to this point of view? Give your reasons. 2. Find evidence from the chapter both for and against this point of view: We have a wonderful opportunity in a country like Britain. We have freedom of expression to develop our own thinking without oppression, in spite of Islamophobia. And we hove the opportunity to live with Muslims from many parts of the world in a multifarious Islamic cultural mix. (Paul Vallely and Andrew Brown. The Independent. Section Two.) 3. Do you think that religious pluralism offers different communities a way to make sense of the world they inhabit? Or is it largely responsible for intercommunal discord? Which do you think is true of Britain? Which is true of your own country? 135

136

Religious Information

PA R T V I RELIGION IN AMERICA In most western societies, modernization has been accompanied by a marked decline in religious observance. America, in contrast, has remained unusually religious. Church buildings representing an astonishing variety of faiths line residential streets, outnumbering even the gas stations. Sunday morning traffic is typically congested as people drive to Sunday School and church. Most bookstores have an entire section of religious books and report a tremendous volume of sales of books about Christianity and Christian living. Bibles continue to be the nation’s best-selling books. Religiousness is conspicuous. Billboards, T-shirts, and bumper stickers bear messages such as “Jesus Saves”. There are even a few Disneyland-type tourist parks, such as South Carolina’s “Heritage USA”, devoted entirely to religious themes. These visible reminders of America’s religious activity are accompanied by impressive statistics: • More than nine out of ten Americans say they believe in God; • One third claim they are born-again Christians; • More than four out of ten attend church or synagogue at least once a week; • Two thirds are members of a local church or synagogue. Interest in religion is high even among young people, whose religious activity has typically been less regular than that of their parents and grandparents. A Gallup poll indicates that young Americans are far more religious than their counterparts in most other countries. About 41 percent of America’s young people feel that religion should be “very important” in life, a percentage far greater than in Australia, Britain, France, Japan, Sweden, and West Germany. Although the Constitution declares the separation of Church and State, religion has always pervaded American political life. The motto of the seal of the United States carries the biblical words, “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God”. When the pledge of allegiance to the American flag is recited, the two words “under God” receive emphasis. American currency bears the inscription “In God We Trust”. Almost all American presidents have claimed affiliation with an established church. During inaugural ceremonies, U.S. presidents take their oath of office on the Bible. Every session of Congress opens with a prayer. Politicians frequently make reference to God and the Bible in their speeches. Religion is bound to have an influence on politics in a society where so many people value religion.

Census of Religious Groups in the U.S. Source : 1987 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. The 1987 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches reported a total of 142 926 363 members of religious groups in the U.S. – 59,3 percent of the population; membership fell half a percent from the previous year. Comparisons of membership statistics from group to group are not necessarily meaningful. Membership definitions vary e.g Roman Catholics count members from infancy, but some Protestant groups count only “adult" members, usually 13 years or older; some groups compile data carefully, but others estimate; not all groups report annually. The number of churches appear in parenthess. Asterisk (*) indicates church declines to publish membership figures; (**) indicates figures date from 1977 or earlier. Group Members Adventist Christian Ch. (368) ............................................................... 28,830 Primitive Advent Christian Ch. (10) ...........................................................546 Seventh-day Adventists (4 009) .......................................................... 651,954 American Rescue Workers (20) ..............................................................2,700 Anglican Orthodox Church (40)..............................................................6,000 Baha’l Faith (1,650) ........................................................................... 100,000 Baptist churches: Amer. Baptist Assn. (1,641) ............................................................ 225,000 Amer. Baptist Chs. in U.S.A. (5,814)............................................ 1,559,683 Baptist General Conference (753).................................................... 132,546 Baptist Missionary Assn. of America (1 367) ................................... 227,720 Conservative Baptist Assn. of America (1,140) ................................ 225,000 Duck River (and Kindred) Assn. of Baptists (85).............................. **8,632 Free Will Baptists (2,548) ............................................................... 217,838 Gen. Assn. of Regular Baptist Chs. (1,571) ...................................... 300,839 Natl. Baptist Convention of America (11,398)............................**2,668,799 Natl. Baptist Convention, USA (26,000) ....................................**5,500,000 Natl. Primitive Baptist Convention (606) ..................................... **250,000 No. Amer. Baptist Conference (258).................................................. 42,863 Seventh Day Baptist General Conference (60)......................................5,008 Southern Baptist Convention (36,898) .........................................14,477,364 Brethren (German Baptists): Brethren Ch. (Ashland, Ohio) (122)................................................... 14,229

137

138

Christian Congregation (la Follette, IN) (1,441)................................ 103,990 Fellowship of Grace Brethren (301)................................................... 41,733 Old German Baptist Brethren (52) .......................................................5,254 Brethren, River: Brethren in Christ Ch. (185) .............................................................. 16,783 Buddhist Churches of America (100) ............................................... 100,000 Christadelphians (850) .................................................................. **15,800 The Christian and Missionary Alliance (1,646)................................. 227,846 Christian Catholic Church (4)..............................................................2,500 Christian Churches and Churches of Christ (5,487)........................ 1,051,469 Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (2,340).................................. 718,922 Christian Nation Church U.S.A. (5) ........................................................226 Christian Union (114) .........................................................................6,000 Churches of Christ (13,150) ......................................................... 1,604,000 Churches of Christ in Christian Union (260)....................................... 11,400 Churches of God: Chs. of God. General Conference (353).............................................. 34,870 Ch. of God (Anderson, Ind.) (2 291) ................................................ 185,593 Ch. of God (Seventh Day) Denver, Col. (135) ......................................5,830 Church of Christ, Scientist (3,000) Church of God by Faith (105).......................................................... **4,500 Church of the Nazarene (4,989)....................................................... 522,082 Conservative Congregational Christian Conference (163) ................... 28,624 Eastern Orthodox churches: Albanian Orth. Diocese of America (10) ..............................................5,250 American Carpatho-Russian Orth Greek Catholic Ch. (70) ........... **100,000 Antiochian Orth Christian Archdiocese of No. Amer. (120)............... 280,000 Diocese of the Armenian Ch. of America (66) .............................. **450,000 Bulgarian Eastern Orth. Ch. (13) ................................................... **86,000 Coptic Orthodox Ch. (28)................................................................ 115,000 Greek Orth. Archdiocese of N. and S. America (535)..................... 1,950,009 Orthodox Ch. in America (440) .................................................... 1,000,000 Patriarchal Parishes of the Russian Orth. Ch. in the U.S.A. (38).............9,780 Romanian Orth. Episcopate of America (34) ...................................... 60,000 Serbian Eastern Orth. Ch. (78)........................................................... 97,123 Syrian Orth. Ch. of Antioch (Archdiocese of the U.S A. and Canada) (22) .............................................................................. 30,000 Ukrainian Orth. Ch. of America (Ecumenical Patriarchate) (28) .......... 25,000 139

Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the US.A. (107).............................. **87,745 The Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. (7,274).................................. 2,739,422 American Ethical Union (Ethical Culture Movement) (23)....................3,500 Evangelical Church of North America (138).........................................2,591 Evangelical Congregational Church of America (566) ........................ 85,150 Evangelical Free Church of America (880)......................................... 95,722 Evangelical associations: Apostolic Christian Chs. of America (80)........................................... 16,916 Apostolic Christian Ch. (Nazarean) (48) ..............................................2,799 Christian Congregation (1,441).......................................................... 39,903 Friends: Evangelical Friends Alliance (217) .................................................... 24,095 Friends General Conference (505) ..................................................... 31,600 Friends United Meeting (536)............................................................ 57,443 Grace Gospel Fellowship (52) .............................................................4,400 Independent Fundamental Churches of America (1,019) ................... 120,446 Jehovah’s Witnesses (8,220) ........................................................... 730,441 Jewish organizations: Union of Amer Hebrew Congregations (Reform) (804).................. 1,300,000 Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (1,700)........ 1,000,000 United Synagogue of America (Conservative) (800) ...................... 1,250,000 Latter-day Saints: Ch. of Jesus Christ (Bickertonites) (53)................................................2,654 Ch. of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) (8,396)............. 3,860,000 Reorganized Ch. of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (1,101) ............ 192,082 Lutheran churches: American Lutheran Ch. (4, 940) ................................................... 2,332,316 Ch. of the Lutheran Brethren of America (108)................................... 11,374 Ch. of the Lutheran Confession (67) ....................................................8,910 Assn. of Evangelical Lutheran Chs. (272) ........................................ 110,934 Evangelical Lutheran Synod (116)..................................................... 19,850 Assn. of Free Lutheran Congregations (156) ...................................... 18,205 Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (59)........................ 13,576 Lutheran Ch. in America (5,817) .................................................. 2,898,202 Lutheran Ch.-Missouri Synod (5,876)........................................... 2,638,164 Protestant Conference (Lutheran) (9) ......................................................959 Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (1,179)................................ 415,389 140

Mennonite churches: Beachy Amish Mennonite Chs. (83) ....................................................5,862 Evangelical Mennonite Ch. (25) ..........................................................3,813 General Conference of Mennonite Brethren. Chs. (128) ...................... 16,942 Hutterian Brethren (77).......................................................................3,988 Mennonite Ch. (989)...........................................................................1,167 Old Order Amish Ch. (598)............................................................... 34,000 Old Order (Wister) Mennonite Ch (38) ................................................9,731

Intl. Ch. of the Foursquare Gospel (1,185)........................................ 177,787 Open Bible Standard Chs (290) ......................................................... 46,351 Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (560) ...................................... **4,500 Pentecostal Church of God (1,142) .................................................... 89,506 United Pentecostal Ch. Intl. (3,408) ................................................. 500,000 Pentecostal Free Will Baptist Ch. (130).............................................. 10,700 Plymouth Brethren (1,150)................................................................ 98,000 Polish Natl. Catholic Church of America (162)............................. **282,411

Methodist churches: African Methodist Episcopal Ch (6,200) ....................................... 2,210,000 African Methodist Episcopal Zion Ch. (6,057)............................... 1,202,229 Evangelical Methodist Ch. (126) .........................................................9,040 Free Methodist Ch. of North America (1,048) .................................... 72,223 Fundamental Methodist Ch. (14) ............................................................700 Primitive Methodist Ch., USA (87)......................................................9,978 Reformed Methodist Union Episcopal Ch (18) .....................................3,800 Southern Methodist Ch. (150) .............................................................7,231 United Methodist Ch. (37,990) ..................................................... 9,266,853

Presbyterian churches: Associate Reformed Presbyterian Ch (Gen Synod) (172) .................... 36,543 Cumberland Presbyterian Ch. (818) ................................................... 98,037 Evangelical Presbyterian Ch. (100).................................................... 27,000 Orthodox Presbyterian Ch. (171) ....................................................... 18,502 Presbyterian Ch. in America (878)................................................... 177,917 Presbyterian Ch. (U.S.A.) (11,572) ............................................... 3,092,151 Reformed Presbyterian Ch. of No. Amer. (71)......................................5,146

Moravian churches: Moravian Ch. (Unilas Fratrum), Northern Province (100) ................... 32,415 Moravian Ch. in America (Unitas Fratrum), Southern Province (56).... 21,714 Unity of the Brethren (27)...................................................................3,006 Moslems ..................................................................................... 2,000,000 New Apostollic Church of North America (457)................................. 33,068 North American Old Roman Catholic Church (130)............................ 62,380 Old Catholic churches: Christ Catholic Ch. (6)........................................................................1,269 Mariavite Old Cath. Ch. Province of North America (166) ................ 357,927 No. Amer Old Roman Cath. Ch (Schweikert) (130) ............................ 62,380

Reformed churches: Christian Reformed Ch. in N. America (650).................................... 219,988 Hungarian Reformed Ch. in America (31).......................................... 11,000 Protestant Reformed Chs. in America (21) ...........................................4,544 Reformed Ch. in America (926)....................................................... 342,275 Reformed Ch. in the U.S. (34) .............................................................3,778 The Roman Catholic Church (24,251)..........................................52,654,908 The Salvation Army (1,088)............................................................ 427,825 The Schwenkfelder Church (5)............................................................2,881 Social Brethren (40)........................................................................ **1,784 Natl. Spiritualist Assn. of Churches (142) ............................................5,558 Gen. Convention. The Swedenborgian Church (49) ..............................2,245 Unitarian Universalist Assn. (948)................................................... 171,838

Pentecostal churches: Apostolic Faith (Portland. Ore.) (54)....................................................4,100 Assemblies of God (10,761)......................................................... 2,082,878 Bible Church of Christ (6)...................................................................4,350 Bible Way Church of our Lord Jesus Christ World Wide (350)........ **30,000 Church of God (Cleveland. Tenn.) (5,346) ....................................... 505,775 Church of God of Prophecy (2,051) ................................................... 73,952 Congregational Holiness Ch. (174) ......................................................8,347 Gen. Council. Christian Ch. of No. Amer. (104) ................................. 13,500

United Brethren: Ch. of the United Brethren in Christ (256).......................................... 26,869 United Christian Ch. (11).......................................................................421 United Church of Christ (6,408) ................................................... 1,683,777 Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Chs. (230) ............. 34,000 Vedanta Society (13) ..........................................................................1,500 Volunteers of America (607) ............................................................. 36,634 The Wesleyan Church (1,714) ......................................................... 109,541

141

142

1) Religion in America today is built primarily on the structure of Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism. Within each of these groups there is great diversity. Among Protestants alone, there are 186 different organizations. Besides the three major groupings of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, there are about 1 500 major and minor sectarian churches. Among these sects are established groups such as the Quakers and Mormons. There are also bizarre groups such as the Holiness Church, which is a snake-handling cult. 2) The degree of religious diversity in America becomes evident when one compares the religious composition of American society with that of its neighbors. Mexico’s population is 96 percent Catholic. Canada’s three largest denominations, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and the United Church of Canada, account for 86 percent of total membership. To account for 86 percent of America’s total church membership, it is necessary to add together 19 separate denominations. The First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits an established national religion and protects the individual’s right to practice the religion of his or her choice. 3) The immigrants who first came to America from countries all over the world brought a variety of religions. Many came with the express purpose of establishing communities where they could practice their own form of worship without interference or fear of persecution. 4) Although the official separation of Church and State provided a climate for these diverse religious practices to flourish, Protestantism, because of numbers and influence, has until recent decades occupied a dominant position in American society. 5) First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”. 6) The first settlers of Massachusetts were members of a radical Protestant group called Puritans. Puritans thought of themselves as God’s chosen people. They believed that God had elected, or “predestined”, only certain persons to be saved. Devoting themselves to work as a way of pleasing God, they viewed their prosperity as an outward sign that God counted them among the saved. Many people trace the American drive for success through hard work to this Puritan, or Protestant, work ethic. 7) Among the immigrants to America were Protestants of many denominations from all over Europe, including Presbyterians from Northern Ireland, Lutherans from Scandinavia and Germany, Episcopals from England, and members of various European Reformed Churches.

8) Along with the Congregationalist Church, which is the denomination established by the early Puritans, the Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal, and Reformed churches constitute what is referred to as “mainstream Protestantism” in America. Baptists and Methodists, once peripheral sects, are now usually considered part of mainstream Protestantism as well. 9) Other Protestant denominations, such as Mennonites, Pentecostals, and Southern Baptists, are sometimes referred to as “radical” Protestants. Worship services of radical churches are less formal and liturgical than services of mainstream Protestants. Many radical churches encourage “speaking in tongues”, faith healing, and “born-again” conversion experiences. Mainstream churches tend to be middle or upper class, while radical churches usually consist of lower-income groups. 10) In 1985, 57 percent of the population named Protestantism as their religious preference. 11) Catholics constitute the second largest religious group. In 1985, 28 percent of Americans surveyed identified themselves as Catholic. 12) The first Catholics in America were missionaries from Spain, Portugal, and France. In the sixteenth century they set up churches in what is now Texas, New Mexico, California, and Florida. In the seventeenth century Catholics from England settled the colony of Maryland. But the greatest influx of Catholics to America occurred in the nineteenth century. Catholics emigrated to the United States from Ireland, Germany, and France between 1830 and 1880 and from eastern and southern Europe during the 1880s. During the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, American society, however, was predominantly white Protestant. White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) set the basic character of national life and were often intolerant of Catholics. 13) Jews constitute 2 percent of the population. Many Jews came to America during the nineteenth century to escape persecution in Europe. Like the Catholics, Jews frequently encountered hostility and resentment. 14) Since the 1960s, America’s religious landscape has undergone major transformations, the most significant being the declining influence of the mainline Protestant churches. They have suffered sizable membership losses, such that the Protestant majority in America decreased from 67 percent of the population to 57 percent in 1985. 15) Many observers link the decline of the major Protestant churches in America to the permissiveness of the 1960s. Mainline churches have tended to be liberal in social outlook and theology. In contrast to more radical churches, mainstream Protestant churches have not insisted on strict obedience to a par-

143

144

ticular code of behavior. During the liberal social climate of the 1960s, many mainstream members abandoned churchgoing altogether. 16) Today, however, there seems to be a growing desire for spiritual direction. An important pattern has emerged. While liberal Protestant churches have lost members, conservative fundamentalist Protestant churches have been steadily attracting members. In the late 1960s and 70s, strict, evangelical and fundamentalist bodies such as the Seventh-Day Adventists, the Church of the Nazarene, Assemblies of God, and Southern Baptists grew at phenomenal rates. By drawing rigid behavioral boundaries, returning to traditional values, and offering absolutist moral teachings, these churches seemed to fill the needs of many Americans who were frustrated by the lack of direction in modern life. 17) To attract members, mainline Protestant churches have been shifting away from their relaxed, liberal stance towards a more conservative theology. Membership has begun to stabilize. 18) The Catholic community has experienced conflicts and developments of its own, as well as a similar shift to conservatism. American Catholics, though increasing in population, do not participate as actively in church activities as they once did. Between 1958 and 1982, the percentage of Catholics attending weekly mass declined sharply from 74 percent to 51 percent. 19) The American Catholic Church has also had to cope with widening differences with Pope John Paul II, whose conservative stance on issues such as birth control, celibacy for priests, and women in the priesthood provoke dissidence and disobedience. American bishops have been outspoken on political issues, challenging nuclear strategy and criticizing the presuppositions and policies of economic and political leaders. 20) In the past decades, America’s Protestants, Catholics, and Jews have become less divided. The decline of mainstream Protestant influence has been accompanied by the rise in status of Catholics and Jews. Anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism are now mainly confined to radical right-wing groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society. 21) In the years after the Second World War, Catholics made spectacular gains in education and income, such that their overall status levels now equal those of Protestants. American Jews, once treated like outsiders, are now more readily accepted. Their acceptance has been facilitated by many immigrant Jews’ willingness to discard those practices that made Judaism seem exotic. Intermarriage between Jews and Christians has also helped to create an atmosphere of tolerance towards Jews. Between 40 and 50 percent of all Jews marry non-Jews. 22) A significant trend in American religious life is one towards increasing pluralism. Coexistence among America’s diverse religious groups and sects is

stressed. The trend towards pluralism has not only meant that Catholics and Jews are gaining acceptance in American society. In addition, tolerance is extended to an even broader range of religious groups, including Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. 23) While open religious prejudice is not as pronounced as it used to be, Americans show little tolerance towards some cults. The Moonies, the Hare Krishnas, and the followers of Bhagwan Rajneesh are commonly regarded as bizarre and potentially dangerous. Their methods of attracting and holding members are controversial. Critics accuse the cults of manipulating and brainwashing their members. 24) One event which intensified the controversy over cults was the 1978 mass suicide that occurred-at a commune in Jonestown, Guyana. By persuasion and at gunpoint American cult leader Jim Jones led more than 900 members of his Peoples’ Temple commune to commit suicide by drinking a mixture of fruit juice and cyanide. 25) Religious fanaticism exists, but events such as these are not characteristic of all cults. Many observers argue that not all sects should be condemned for the abuses of some. 26) Besides the increasing visibility of cults and sects, there has been another recent development in American religious life: the rise of the evangelical, or fundamentalist, movement, and its offspring, the electronic church. This movement has arisen so quickly and has acquired so much influence that it has drawn much national attention. 27) The term evangelical is applied across all Christian denominations to religious alliances that share the belief that a true Christian must have a bornagain experience, that the Bible is the authoritative word of God, and that a personal relationship with Jesus is at the center of every Christian’s life. Evangelicals also share a desire to convert others to their way of believing. 28) The evangelical movement, which has quietly existed for a long time, derived new momentum from the anti-modem, conservative countercurrents that were flowing in the 1960s. In the 1960s, while most churches were experiencing declining memberships, evangelical churches were gaining members and influence. Representing the right-wing of the political spectrum, evangelicals attacked “secular humanism” and crusaded for moral issues, focusing attention on the family and schools. 29) These conservative Christian leaders did not limit their crusades to the pulpit; they gained immediate attention by their involvement in politics and their media skills. Despite the constitutional separation of religious and secular

145

146

life, conservative fundamentalists actively lobbied for anti-abortion legislation and for a constitutional amendment permitting prayer in schools. 30) Fundamentalist minister Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority has been the most influential political lobby of the new Religious Right since the late 1970s. The Moral Majority’s political agenda, based on moral absolutism, opposes homosexuality, pornography, abortion, and the teaching of evolution in schools. In 1986, Falwell merged his Moral Majority with the Liberty Alliance, a conservative lobby group, to form Liberty Federation, a religious-political lobby with an even broader appeal. 31) In the 1980 presidential elections, the evangelical right gave Ronald Reagan and many conservative senators strong support. In the 1980s, evangelist leaders successfully extended their spheres of influence far beyond the church. Some, like TV evangelist Pat Robertson, who was a candidate for the 1988 presidential election, have crossed the boundary between religion and politics altogether.

Ф АК ТЫ О С ТР А НА Х Страна Австралия

Главные языки Английский

Австрия Албания

Немецкий Албанский

Алжир

Арабский, французский, берберский Португальский

Ангола

Антигуа и Барбуда Аргентина

Римско-католическая, анимистическая Каталанский, французский, Римско-католическая испанский Английский Англиканская Испанский Римско-католическая

Афганистан Багамские острова

Пушту, дари Английский

Ислам Баптистская, англиканская, римско-католическая

Бангладеш Барбадос Бахрейн Белиз

Ислам Англиканская Ислам Римско-католическая

Бельгия

Бенгальский Английский Арабский Английский, креольский, испанский Фламандский, французский

Бенин

Французский, фон

Боливия Болгария Босния-Герцеговина

Испанский, кечуа Болгарский Сербохорватский

Ботсвана

Английский, сетсвана

Бразилия Бруней

Португальский Малайский, китайский, английский Французский, моси

Анимистическая, ислам Римско-католическая Православная Православная, ислам Анимистическая, англиканская Римско-католическая Ислам

Андорра

Буркина- Фасо Бурунди Бутан 147

Главные религии Англиканская, римско-католическая Римско-католическая Ислам, православная Ислам

Кирунди, французский, кисуахили Дзонг-кэ 148

Римско-католическая

Анимистическая, ислам Римско-католическая Буддизм

Вануату Ватикан Венгрия Венесуэла Вьетнам Габон

Английский французский Итальянский, латынь Венгерский Испанский Вьетнамский Французский

Гаити

Креольский, французский

Гайана Гамбия Гана

Английский, хинди, урду Английский Английский, ашанти, эве

Гватемала Гвинея

Испанский Французский, сусу, малинке Португальский, креольский Анимистическая, ислам Немецкий Лютеранская Испанский Римско-католическая Английский Римско-католическая, англиканская Греческий Православная Грузинский Грузинская церковь Датский Лютеранская Арабский, французский Ислам Английский, французский, Римско-католическая патуа Испанский Римско-католическая

Гвинея-Бисау Германия Гондурас Гренада Греция Грузия Дания Джибути Доминика Доминиканская республика Египет Заир Замбия Западное Самоа Зимбабве Израиль Индия Индонезия Иордания Ирландия

Арабский Французский Английский Английский, самоанский Английский, чишона, синдебеле Иврит, арабский Хинди, английский Бахаса, индонезийский Арабский Ирландский, английский 149

Протестантская Римско-католическая Римско-католическая Римско-католическая Буддизм Анимистическая, римско-католическая Римско-католическая, вуду Индуизм Ислам Анимистическая, протестантская Римско-католическая Ислам

Ислам Римско-католическая Христианская, анимистическая Протестантская Англиканская, римско-католическая Иудаизм, ислам Индуизм, ислам Ислам Ислам Римско-католическая

Ирак Иран Италия Исландия Испания Йемен Кабо-Верде Камбоджа Камерун

Арабский, курдский Фарси, азербайджанский Итальянский Исландский Испанский, каталонский Арабский Португальский, креольский Кхмерский, французский Французский, английский

Канада Катар Кения

Английский, французский Арабский Суахили, английский

Кипр Кирибати

Греческий, турецкий Английский, кирибати

Китай

Китайский

Колумбия Коморские острова Конго Коста-Рика Кот-д’Ивуар

Испанский Французский, арабский Французский, лингала Испанский Французский, диула, бауле

Куба Кувейт Лаос Латвия

Испанский Арабский Лао Латышский

Лесото Либерия Ливан Ливия Литва Лихтенштейн Люксембург

Сесото, английский Английский Арабский Арабский Литовский Немецкий Люксембургский, французский Английский, креольский, хинди Арабский, французский Малагасийский, французский

Маврикий Мавритания Мадагаскар

150

Ислам Ислам Римско-католическая Лютеранская Римско-католическая Ислам Римско-католическая Буддизм Анимистическая, ислам, римско-католическая Римско-католическая Ислам Анимистическая, римско-католическая Православная, ислам Римско-католическая, протестантсткая Буддизм, ислам, конфуцианство Римско-католическая Ислам Римско-католическая Римско-католическая Анимистическая, ислам, римско-католическая Римско-католическая Ислам Буддизм Лютеранская, римско-католическая Римско-католическая Анимистическая Ислам, христианство Ислам Римско-католическая Римско-католическая Римско-католическая Индуизм, ислам, римско-католическая Ислам Анимистическая, христианство

Малави

Английский, чиньянджа

Малайзия

Мьянма (Бирма) Намибия

Бахаса, малайзийский, английский, китайский Французский, бамбара Дивехи Мальтийский, английский Арабский, берберский, французский Испанский Португальский Французский, монегазскский Халхамонгольский, казахский Бирманский Африкаанс, английский

Науру

Науру, английский

Непал Нигер Нигерия Нидерланды

Непали, майтир Французский, хауса Английский Нидерландский

Никарагуа Новая Зеландия

Испанский, мискито Английский, маори

Норвегия Объединенные Арабские Эмираты Оман Пакистан Панама Папуа-Новая Гвинея

Норвежский Арабский, английский

Мали Мальдиви Мальта Марокко Мексика Мозамбик Монако Монголия

Парагвай Перу Польша Португалия Руанда

Арабский, балучи Урлу, пенджаби, синдхи Испанский Английский, пиджин-инглиш Испанский, гуарани Испанский, кечуа аймара Польский Португальский Французский, кинь-яруанда

Румыния

Румынский 151

Анимистическая, римско-католическая Ислам Ислам, анимистическая Ислам Римско-католическая Ислам

Сальвадор Сан-Марино Сан-Томе и Принсипи Саудовская Аравия Свазиленд Северная Корея

Испанский Итальянский Португальский Арабский Свази, английский Корейский

Сейшельские острова

Креольский, английский, французский Французский Английский

Римско-католическая Анимистическая Римско-католическая

Сенегал Сент-Винсент и Гренадины

Официально никакой религии нет Буддизм Лютеранская, римско-католическая Протестантская, римско-католическая Индуистская, буддизм Ислам Ислам, христианство Римско-католическая, протестантская Римско-католическая Протестантская, римско-католическая Лютеранская Ислам

Сент-Китс и Невис Сент-Люсия

Ислам Ислам Римско-католическая Римско-католическая, протестантская Римско-католическая Римско-католическая Римско-католическая Римско-католическая Анимистическая, римско-католическая Православная

Сингапур Сирия Словакия Словения Соединенное Королевство (Великобритания) Соединенные Штаты Америки Соломоновы острова

Английский Английский, французский, патуа Малайский, китайский, английский, тамильский Арабский Словацкий Словенский Английский Английский

Сьерра-Леоне Тайвань Таиланд Танзания

Английский, пиджин-инглиш Сомали, арабский Арабский Нидерландский, хинди, того, срананг, яванский Английский, крио менде Китайский Тайский Английский, суахили

Того

Французский, эве, кабре

Тонга

Тонганский, английский

Тринидад и Тобаго

Английский, хинди

Сомали Судан Суринам

152

Римско-католическая Римско-католическая Римско-католическая Ислам Христианство Буддизм, даосизм, конфуцианство Римско-католическая Ислам Англиканская, методистская, римско-католическая Англиканская Римско-католическая Буддизм Ислам Римско-католическая, протестантская Римско-католическая Англиканская, римско-католическая Римско-католическая, баптистская Протестантская, римско-католическая Ислам Ислам Индуизм, ислам, моравские братья, римско-католическая Анимистическая Буддизм, даосизм Буддизм, ислам Ислам, римско-католическая Анимистическая, ислам, римско-католическая Методистская, римско-католическая Римско-католическая, индуизм, англиканская

Тувалу Тунис Турция Уганда Уругвай Фиджи Филиппины Финляндия Франция Хорватия Центральноафриканская Республика Чад Чехия Чили Швейцария Швеция Шри-Ланка Эквадор Экваториальная Гвинея Эстония Эфиопия

Тувалу, английский Арабский Турецкий Английский, суахили

Протестантская Ислам Ислам Римско-католическая, протестантская, анимистическая Испанский Римско-католическая Английский, фиджи, хинди Методическая, индуизм Пилипино, Римско-католическая тагалог, себуано, английский, испанский Финский Лютеранская Французский Римско-католическая Сербо-хорватский Римско-католическая Французский, санго Анимистическая, римско-католическая Французский, арабский Чешский Испанский Немецкий, французский, итальянский, ретороманский Шведский Сингальский, тамильский, английский Испанский Испанский, фанг, буби

Ислам, анимистическая Римско-католическая Римско-католическая Римско-католическая, протестантская Лютеранская Буддизм, индуизм

Эстонский Амхарский, арабский

Лютеранская Ислам, эфиопская православная церковь Православная, римско-католическая Христианская, индуизм, ислам Буддизм, христианство Протестантская Синтоизм, буддизм

Югославия

Сербо-хорватский

Южная Африка Южная Корея

Английский, африкаанас, коса зулу, сесото Корейский

Ямайка Япония

Английский Японский

153

Б ИБ Л ИО ГР АФ И ЧЕС К И Й С ПИ С О К 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Religion: Учебные задания по английскому языку для студентов восточного факультета / Сост. ст. преп. А.Ю. Киселёва. – СПб.: СПб. гос. университет, 1998. Кабакчи В.В. Практика английского языка межкультурного общения. Religion, Christianity, Russian Orthodoxy (Pravoslavie) . – СПб., 2001. Английский язык для историков. Civilization. History. State / А.П. Миньяр-Белоручева, Г.Н. Фукс, Л.В. Шейнина. – М., 2000. Религия в истории и культуре: Учебник для вузов / М.Г. Писманик, А.В. Вертинский, С.П. Демьяненко и др. – Пермь: Книжный мир, Б.г. (1995). North Star, advanced, focus on listening and speaking, by Sherry Preiss. Longman. – 1998. America in Сlose-up. Eckhard Fiedler, Reimer Jansen, Mil Norman-Rish, Longman. – 1990. Britain in Close-up. An in-depth stady of contemporary Britain, by David McDowall. Longman. – 1999.

Римско-католическая Римско-католическая

154

ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ Unit one .................................................................................................. 3 Unit two................................................................................................ 15 Unit three.............................................................................................. 34 Unit four ............................................................................................... 39 Unit five................................................................................................ 50 Unit six ................................................................................................. 57 READER ................................................................................................. 61 Part I ..................................................................................................... 62 Part II.................................................................................................... 77 Part III ................................................................................................ 100 Part IV ................................................................................................ 114

WORLD RELIGIONS УЧЕБНОЕ ПОСОБИЕ

Part V ................................................................................................. 125 Part VI ................................................................................................ 137 Факты о странах................................................................................ 148 Библиографический список ............................................................. 154

Технический редактор М.В. Быкова Редактор Г.Н. Орлов ________________________________________________________________ Подписано к печати 20.11.03. Формат бумаги 60х84 1/16. Печ. л. 9,75. Уч.-изд. л. 13,1. Тираж 100 экз. Заказ 3. ________________________________________________________________ Издательско-полиграфический отдел ОмГУ 644077, г. Омск, пр. Мира, 55а, госуниверситет

155

156