World Religious Traditions

Religious Traditions
Ruben Rodriguez
REL 133 World Religious Traditions
June 7, 2013
Michael Raburn

Religious Traditions

Religion is a word according to the text that was created in western civilization. The word “religio” means “awe for the Gods” in Latin. Religions have many faces, faith, and rituals that specifically recognize them and make them unique to the world. In many religions they have a text or a scripture that becomes part of their lives and is used to teach children’s and adults as they gather which is part of their rituals. Many of this scriptures or books are based on stories that were told by the creator and real stories that have lessons within them that are communicated thru time to ensure the same values are
(Paul Tillich) This is a powerful statement since it states that religion is the main ingredient of a culture, however the culture is the one that forms the religion to fit its needs or the beliefs of the people. Religions have many traditions that were written in their books or they have been passed along from generation to generation. There are many symbols that describe many religions, example of those symbols are how a Christian person creates the cross by pointing with their right hand first in their forehead down to the chest than to the left shoulder and then to the right shoulder. This as simple of a symbol you will find very few Christians that do not create this cross with their right arm before saying “Amen”. Same with the symbol of a circle which in some religions such as the Buddhism is symbol of eternal life and there is no end to life just constant change and that things will happen over and over as we learn from them so time is not an issue so their focus is on the moment unlike like Christians that believe as the world in a straight line and it has an end so their focus is on the constant future. All religion has objects, animals, gods that they worship and also places of worship like the church for many Christians. In these places of worships as the groups of people gather they share prayers, rituals such baptism, first communion, confirmation, and
These approaches all have led to a better understanding of the many religious followings throughout the world. As you might think studying religion seems to be a straightforward approach by reading the scriptures, interviewing practitioners and observing there rituals; however in the early studies of religion this became a critical issue. Since traveling was not as common as it is today interviewing was a challenge, not all religions have a book of scripture and the translation in many occasions can be misunderstood. Also the lack of archeology research which in the first century was just starting was not there to confirm some of the findings by supporting the text. The research approach is great because of all the findings and also the many different techniques used, however it raises some concerns and questions like “are we listening to the researchers only or the voices of the people are being heard? Can an outsider no matter how sensitive be truly objective? Doesn’t a researcher automatically contaminate the research? And is it possible that informants might give false answers if they feel the question is inappropriate?” These questions are part of the issues that the study of religion