Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Irving Hexham is professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary and adjunct professor of World Christianity at Liverpool Hope University. He has published twenty-seven academic books, including The Concise Dictionary of Religion, Understanding Cults and New Religions, and Religion and Economic Thought, plus eighty major academic articles and chapters in books, numerous popular articles, and book reviews. Recently he completed a report for the United Nations’ refugee agency on religious conflict in Africa and another for the Canadian Government’s Department of Canadian Heritage on Religious Publications in Canada. He is listed in Who’s Who in Canada and various scholarly directories. In 2008, he was honored at the historic Humboldt University in Berlin with a Festschrift, Border Crossings: Explorations of an Interdisciplinary Historian (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag).

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Standard introductions to academic fields, such as Anthropology, Economics, History, or Sociology bristle with debates about both facts and interpretations. Yet similar Religious Studies textbooks strenuously avoid anything that might be considered controversial. The virtue of this book is that it removes Religious Studies from the dream world of academic irrelevance into the nitty gritty world of daily life where religions play a major role in shaping social attitudes and behavior. This text helps students to understand the vital role of religion in contemporary society. Recognizing that existing textbooks structure the way course are taught, this text provides the reader with a standard overview of world religions. But rejecting the approach that sees all religions as a reflection of the values of Liberal Protestantism, Irving Hexham recognizes that uncritical descriptions fail to prepare students for the reality of events like the attacks of September 11, 2001, or the ongoing war between Buddhists and Hindus in Sri Lanka. Therefore, he combines empathic description with critical analysis. In his view, understanding precedes criticism, but this does not mean that criticism should be avoided.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Understanding World Religions

Zondervan

Contents

Acknowledgments...........................................................7Introduction..............................................................91. Introductory Issues in the Study of Religion...........................152. A Biased Canon.........................................................313. African Religious Traditions...........................................494. Witchcraft and Sorcery.................................................655. God in Zulu Religion...................................................796. The Case of Isaiah Shembe..............................................977. The Origins of Yogic Religions.........................................1158. The Richness of the Hindu Tradition....................................1299. Rethinking the Hindu Tradition.........................................14510. Gandhi the Great Contrarian...........................................16111. Buddhism..............................................................17912. The Development of Buddhist Belief and Practice.......................19513. The Moral Quest of Edward Conze.......................................21314. Other Yogic-Type Traditions...........................................23315. Early Judaism.........................................................25116. Rabbinic and Other Judaisms...........................................27117. Jewish Faith and Practice.............................................29318. Martin Buber's Zionist Spirituality...................................31119. Christianity..........................................................32520. Christian History.....................................................34321. Christian Faith and Practice..........................................36722. Christian Politics according to Abraham Kuyper........................38723. The Challenge of Islam................................................39924. Muslim Beliefs and Practices..........................................41925. Muslim Piety..........................................................44126. Sayyid Qutb and the Rebirth of Contemporary Islam.....................453Conclusion: Whither Religious Studies?....................................465Suggestions for Further Reading...........................................477Credits...................................................................487Index.....................................................................497

Chapter One

WHAT IS RELIGION?

Most people have a clear idea of what they mean by religion and can usually identify religious behavior when they see it. Nevertheless, when we have to define religion, we soon discover that the task is quite difficult, because religion is manifested in many different ways in our world. Thus, while for most people religion involves a belief in God, this is not true for certain forms of Buddhism. Indeed, to the educated Buddhist, God is quite unimportant.

Yet for many peasants living in Buddhist countries, the role of gods in their daily lives is important. Therefore, a distinction has to be made between Buddhism as a great tradition and the many little traditions embedded in a predominantly Buddhist culture. The educated Buddhist does not seek God, but his peasant neighbor, while acknowledging the importance of Buddhism for liberation, does worship various gods.

Because of the difficulties created by movements, such as Buddhism, that are clearly religious, many students turn to experts for a definitive definition of religion. What they find is a bewildering series of definitions. For example, sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) defined religion as "a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them."

Another author who is often cited for his definition of religion is the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), who defined religion as "the recognition of all duties as divine commands." Similarly, Max Müller (1823–1900), whom many regard as the true founder of religious studies, gave a twofold definition of religion as "a body of doctrines handed down by tradition, or in canonical books, and containing all that constitutes the faith of Jew, Christian, or Hindu" and as "a faculty of faith ... which distinguishes man from animals." Reflecting on these and many similar definitions of religion, one soon sees that most of them reflect both the complexity of the subject and the interests of the person making the definition. Thus Durkheim writes as a sociologist, Kant as a philosopher, and Müller as a historian-linguist influenced by theological discussions.

NINIAN SMART'S MODEL FOR IDENTIFYING RELIGION

It was for this and related reasons that Ninian Smart, who founded the first religious studies department in Britain, proposed that serious students of religion abandon the quest for a clear definition in favor of a workable model, or guide, which would allow the student to identify religion and religions as they are observed in daily life. Instead of defining religion theoretically, Smart argued, we ought to call something a religion when it conforms to certain general characteristics found in similar phenomena which we also call religions. We can say we are in the presence of a religion, he suggested, when we discover

a set of institutionalized rituals, identified with a tradition and expressing and/or evoking sacral sentiments directed at a divine or trans-divine focus seen in the context of the human phenomenological environment and at least partially described by myths or by myths and doctrines.

Each of the key terms in this model for identifying religion can be discussed at great length. All we will do here is briefly discuss their key characteristics. First of all, when we attempt to study a religion, or religions, all we can really do is look at their institutional manifestations. We can observe behavior, but we can never really know what goes on in a person's head. Therefore, for practical purposes, studying religion means studying religious institutions or institutions identified as religious. This means the study of religion is the study of religious movements which are observable within society and therefore are a form of social movement.

The next question is whether a movement is religious or secular. Many secular movements appear religious. For example, a crowd at a hockey game or watching American football often acts in ways that look like those of a religious group. But although some people argue that such actions are "religious at heart," there is a big difference between a secular and a religious gathering. Political parties, the fans mobbing rock stars, and the veneration of nationalist leaders all have similarities to religion, but none are religious in themselves. Therefore, they need to be excluded from our study.

This is why the other characteristics indicated by Smart are important. Let us begin by considering ritual behavior. Rituals are repetitive behavior fixed by tradition. In the study of religion they are, as Smart says, "traditional religious behavior or actions." Probably the most obvious form of ritual is the Roman Catholic...