Confucianism: The Ethos, And Telos Of Religions

There are many religion on this Earth , but finding the one that fits you could be the hardest part. Every Religion has different interactions with a Sacred. In defining Religions , there are technical terms that apply to all of them. The arche, cosmos, ethos, and telos of religions define religion as a whole. The arche refers to a traditional understanding of why and how the world or universe exist. The arche is the leader or scared of the religion. The cosmos refers to a “ ordered totality”. The cosmos help us understand how the universe came to order. The cosmos defines the nature of the type of God that created your universe from good to bad. The Ethos of a religion refers to how the human world is understood by the religion. The ethos
also includes sacred places, rites, ideas, and different traditions of the religion. The telos of a religion refers to the “ end” or outcome of you practicing the religion . The telos is the last step of the cycle and defines your future. These four ideas are used to describe every religion and break it down into different sectors that help people understand the actual power o f the religion. Nearly , ⅓ of The western world is of Jewish ancestry. Some of the most famous individuals of all time : Abraham, Noah, Rebecca were of Jewish descent.The Jewish history moved from obscurity to a permanent religion by affirming their beliefs. The Arche of Judaism is YHWH (God). YHWH is characterized as an all powerful God that is loving, merciful and good in nature. According to The World’s Religion, YHWH is extraordinary , orderly, unified, caring , and moral. For the Judaism , the world is a created order. The world is created as a good place “ it was good”. The world was created by a personal power ( created by intelligence) who brought purposeful creatures onto the land. In the Beginning , there was a covenant between Abraham and Yahweh that chose his people to be the descendants of God.The covenant opens up a history which affects all life and then opens up society. The four basic sectors of the Judaic ethos are faith, observance, culture, and nation. The Jewish tradition is comprised of 10 commandments that serves as a governing body of how to live a just and stable life.They have prophets who speak for the people about justice. They have 3 types of prophets( guild, prewriting, and writing) in Judaism. The guild prophet acts in groups while the prewriting prophets express displeasure through moral messages. Finally, the writing prophets express displeasure of the people.The Messianic expectation and idea in Judaism is through the hallowing Life. The hallowing Life is hope for a kingdom , national restitution , and world upgrade.Through it God’s power, love, and concern for humans is revealed. Some of the key places in Judaism is Israel and Jerusalem. The main text in Judaism is the Torah ( five books of Moses) , Tanakh ( Hebrew Bible), and the Talmud ( rabbinic discussions). The key rituals in Judaism are Rosh Hashanah, Bar and Bat Mitzvah, circumcision and kosher dietary laws. There are 5 different forms of Judaism, Orthodox, conservative, reform, reconstructionist, and liberal. Some believer of Judaism adhere to the idea that there's an afterlife and others don't believe so. There is no uniformity of the belief. Buddhism is a religion to nearly 300 million people around the world. It was created nearly 2,500 years ago when Siddhartha Gotama, known as the Buddha, was enlightened. Buddhism is known to go beyond religion and also a philosophy about the “ way of life .” Buddhism denies such a thing as God and believes such questions aren’t in desire to enlightenment. The cosmos of Buddhism is” Everything rises and goes away.” Karma refers to good or bad actions a person takes during her lifetime. Good actions, such as generosity, righteousness and bad actions, such as lying, stealing or killing. Samsara refers to the wheel of life, reincarnation. The Dharma are the basic rules of life. These three things were relative to Hindu tradition while the next three are not relative.In Buddhism, the three marks of existence (anicca, anatto, dukkha) are three characteristics living beings. Annica refers to impermanence , annatto refers to no-self, and dukkha refers to life as suffering.According to Buddhist tradition, a full understanding of the three marks of existence can bring an end to suffering.The ethos of Buddhism deals with the teaching of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The first truth ( Dukkha) is that life is suffering which includes pain, fear, anger, disease and death.The second truth (Tankh) is that suffering is caused by craving and desire. In other words, would translate to, getting what you want doesn't always make you happy.The third truth is that suffering can be overcome and happiness can be attained.The fourth truth is that the Noble 8-fold Path is the path which leads to the end of suffering. The Eightfold Path teaches the idea of being moral, focusing the mind on being aware of thoughts, and developing wisdom. The Eightfold paths ideas are : obtain the right view, right intent, right effort, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right mindfulness, right concentration. Buddhism also has two forms: Theravada and Mahayana. The Telos of Buddhism in Nirvana.Nirvana is the goal of the Buddhist Path. This means all the struggles are extinct and suffering is complete and one is released to rebirth. Confucianism was formed around 5oo C.E.
in China, which importantly shaped China’s social relationship and moral thought. The Arche of Confucianism is the Tao. The Tao is the “ truth” and it serves as a particular approach to life , tradition, and politics. The Tao is an emphasis of the “ fascinans” aspect of the sacred. IT fascinates our attention through good and beautiful things such as a sunrise. The cosmos of Confucianism are also the Tao. The Tao is the principal concerns of human life. The main ethos of Confucianism is the Silver Rule ( Shu).The Silver Rule is “ Don't do on to another, as you wouldn't want one to do unto you.” The Confucius response to the warring states of China was “ deliberate tradition teach people the way.” Deliberate tradition is the modern way of looking at a problem. The first way would be to accept the tradition as it is while the second way is to complete throughout the tradition. The deliberate tradition serves as a middle path.There are 5 aspects of Confucianism: Jen, Chun Tzu, Li, Te, Wen. Benevolence ( Jen) deals with the ideals of relationship of individuals. Gentlemanliness (Chun Tzu) deals with trying to observe, being nice and unselfish to individuals. Ritual ( Li) deals with treating others as people worth respecting. Power ( to) deal with exerting power over yourself. the arts of peace ( wen) refers to the art of peace such as music, poetry, art in its spiritual mode. Confucianism has 5 constant relations which refer to
parents relating to children with care, a husband's relations with wife, older/ younger sibling relations, older/ younger friends relations, and a rulers relation to one another . Confucius said “heaven and the afterlife were beyond human capacity to understand, and one should therefore concentrate instead on doing the right thing in this life.” Religion is a belief in and the worship of a superhuman controlling power. The person subscribes supreme importance to the religion. Religions gives people stability and allows people to believe in some order to live in the future. Huston Smith argues about a concerning question “ “Is Confucianism a religion or an ethics?” Some religions are mistaken as merely ethics but in the case of Confucianism, I believe it is a religion because it has a personal sacred, concern about societal problems, and woven around peoples ultimate concerns. The sacred of Confucianism is the Tao.
The tao is an impersonal sacred which emphasis to the believer or follower they are personally attached to the belief of the religion. The impersonal sacred “ a matter of power , alike for good and evil” as Van der Leeuw argued (26). The sacred has the power to relate to people and things of the world. The tao is a Fascinous that fascinates and cause a positive reaction. Fascinus is one of the traits of the “numinous” that Otto argues that Sacred must posses . The tao stands at the center of confucianism and all the religious practices are connected to it. The tao is the arche and cosmos of Confucianism. Durkheim argues that the religion sacred must play a role in the formation or preservation of the society. Confucius Sacred has a close tie to moral order and personal conduct in its society (183).Through the Silver rule and the deliberate tradition, one can infer that Confucianism attempts to civilize the world. Freud argues that religions are civilizing mechanism that attempt to solve world’s problems.The five aspects of Confucianism attempts to protect us and comfort us as Freud argued. Confucian qualifies as a religion because it serves as a way of life that is concerned with peoples ultimate goals( 183). Confucianism is built on a religious foundation to establish the social values and institutions of chinese culture and their society. Though people may consider Confucianism as an ethic, I believe that Confucianism is a
religion.