A History of the Religions of the World

By Harold E. Lurier

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 2, 2002
• ISBN: 9781469107264

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Copyright © 2002 by Harold E. Lurier.

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This book was printed in the United States of America.

Front Cover: Temple of Poseidon (c. 440 B.C.), Sunion;

southernmost tip of Attica, 36 miles from Athens

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Contents

Remembering a Colleague and Friend

1

The Nature of Religion

2

Religion, Magic and Primitive Man

3

The Religion of Ancient Egypt

4

Religions of the Classical World

5

Christianity and the

Primitive Church

6

The Roman Catholic Church

7

The Protestant World

8

The Eastern Orthodox World

9

Islam

10

The Religions of India

11

The Religions of China

12

The Religions of Japan

13

Obstacles in Achieving World Religious Tolerance

Remembering a Colleague and Friend

Harold Lurier was a memorable teacher in everyone’s book. It is impossible for me to capture in words what the total Harold was like, but what I can do is attempt to sketch a portrait of the qualities which made him so memorable a teacher.

The feature which initially captured my attention when I first met Harold over thirty years ago was the quality of his classroom presentations and the way he got students involved in discussions. Students and colleagues would often stand outside of his classroom to listen (a soft voice was not one of his attributes). I was one of them, but I went inside and returned for many a session—the most memorable fringe benefit I ever received from Pace University.

Harold was so adept at expressing the views of historical figures that he continually had to reaffirm that the views he represented were not to be taken as his own. After all these years I still vividly recall his portrayal of Pope Urban II launching the first crusade.

It’s not that history repeats itself, Harold would reaffirm, but that the human condition repeats itself and that we can gain insight into our attempts to deal with contemporary problems by examining how those in the past attempted to come to grips with similar ones. What might at first sight seem to be dead and dull ancient history would come alive in Harold’s hands as he skillfully explored the connections between the old and the contemporary. Harold had an extraordinary talent for posing questions which pertained to but often transcended the particular historical period under study. They exemplify education in the very best sense of the word. The following are some examples from his exams.

A newly emerged African people are determined to establish itself as a modern state. They have invited the men you have read about this term [Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero] to assemble as an advisory council on matters of statehood, constitutions, systems of justice, rights, etc.

1.   What will each of these men contribute to the discussion?

2.   What will be the main points of difference and what arguments will ensue?

3.   What will be the final consensus and how will it be modified to fit the present situation?

Two famous books that cover the period of the Renaissance and Reformation are named The Waning of the Middle Ages and The Dawn of a New Era. Moreover, your own textbook makes the statement; ‘The study of any past epoch requires an effort to balance the work of death and renewal.’ Discuss this proposition in terms of at least two of the following; Economic factors, political factors, intellectual factors, and religious factors.

Some historians believe that the dynamism of History lies in economic determinism, that society develops as economic factors direct it. Other historians believe that History is determined by the actions of men and the ideals that motivate them. Illustrate these two propositions in terms of the transition from the Late Roman Empire into the early Middle Ages.

Write a balanced essay on the following theme as it applies to the later Middle Ages: ‘… no civilization falls from outside pressure alone; it is invariably due to internal decay and corruption, to the loss of its own ideals and integrity, that any nation or civilization has succumbed.

The Greek conception of art rested on the assumption that it was didactic, that it taught, just as philosophy taught. Analyze with illustrations this proposition, including in your analysis references to the Iliad.

New ideas can stimulate and strengthen a civilization. They can also lead to disillusion and decay. Contrast the intellectual developments of the 12th and 14th centuries in terms of these two ideas.

President Ford and Governor Carter, disturbed by the lack of general interest in their campaigns, have decided to consult with Machiavelli on how to construct winning campaigns. Each man has also decided to present to the people a program of effective presidential policies to govern the United States well. Machiavelli accepts the commission and advises the two men on how to win the presidency. He also draws up a program to govern the United States effectively.

What do you think he wrote to the two men?

A newly emerged African people is determined to establish itself as a modern state. They have invited Machiavelli, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Engels, Mill and Thoreau to assemble as an advisory committee.

1.   What will each of these men contribute to the discussion?

2.   What will be the main points of difference and what arguments will ensue?

3.   What will be the final consensus and how will it be modified to fit the present situation?

Would you consider the city-state a successful form of government or not? Illustrate your answer with references to the history of both Athens and Sparta.

In view of the atmosphere of crisis and the elements of decline that continually characterized the Byzantine state, how do you account for its persistence until its final collapse in the 15th century? Your answer must be replete with specific illustrations.

Stoicism introduced a fundamental proposition, largely derived from Aristotle, though with significant modification, that all men live in a permanent society that constitutes an eternal community. All five political theorists that we have read in this course [St. Augustine, John of Salisbury, Dante, Thomas Aquinas, Marsiglio of Padua] accepted this concept, and each in his own way attempted to describe the origins, the purpose, the organization and the maintenance of the community. However, the historical context in which each developed his ideas led to sharp differences in the theories of the five in spite of their common acceptance of the basic proposition. Analyze these circumstances with as much detail as you can manage.

The apogee of Byzantine history is usually placed in the era of the Macedonians. Such a watershed can only be understood in terms of a broad understanding of Byzantine history. Demonstrate that you have that view.

It is customary to arrange the events of Byzantine history into dynasties, a practice, which reflects a particular view of the past. Selecting three dynasties, choose in each instance a specific principle of order and illustrate this philosophy of history.

The final question is, whether justice (now admitted to be a virtue) or injustice brings happiness. The argument turns on the doctrine (adopted as fundamental in Aristotle’s Ethics) that man, like any other living species, has a peculiar work or function or activity, in the satisfactory exercise of which his well-being or happiness will consist; and also a peculiar excellence or virtue, namely a state of his soul from which that satisfactory activity will result. Aristotle argues (Eth. Nic. I. 7) that, a thing’s function being the work or activity of which it alone is capable, man’s function will be an activity involving the use of reason, which man alone possesses. Man’s virtue is ‘the state of character which makes him a good man and makes him do his work well" (ibid. ii. 6). It is the quality which enables him to ‘live well’, for living is the soul’s function; and to live well is to be happy.

This passage describes the main theme of the political works of Plato and Aristotle. How do you understand this theme and how would you characterize the way Plato develops it in the Republic and the Laws and Aristotle in the Ethics? What adaptation of this theme did Cicero make?

The development of towns became one of the main instruments whereby the most characteristic institutions of the Medieval World were destroyed. Demonstrate and comment.

Accessible to mere mortals? Yes; Harold’s questions provide a serious challenge to the little grey cells, as Hercule Poirot would put it, and in so doing assist the student to reach the highest level of thought and perspective his ability and industry would permit. Of his objectives this one ranked as primary.

After putting the final touches on the manuscript of his book The Emergence of the Western World, Harold planned to return to his history of religions work and do the same. But his last illness did not allow this to be. The envisioned chapter on Judaism was not completed, the final review of the other chapters that he wished to undertake could not be carried out, and the foreword to the book was not composed. Still, we have before us a remarkable work that reflects the insights and perspectives of a master scholar and extraordinary teacher expressed in the engaging, compelling prose that characterizes Harold’s writing.

There is the ennobling diversity of man’s religious thinking and there is the dark side of religious intolerance. Harold gave an insightful talk to the International Interfaith Fellowship on Obstacles in Achieving World Religious Tolerance in the fall of 1972. His talk was extemporaneous, which is illustrative of another of Harold’s talents, but fortunately for us today it was taped. A transcript of the tape appears as chapter 13.

The qualities that made Harold Lurier so memorable a teacher were bound together by his sense of humor and deep sense of humanity. He cared deeply about his profession, his students, and Pace. I feel privileged to have been able to call him colleague and, though my name will not appear on any transcript, to be able to call him my teacher. I feel privileged to have been able to call him my friend.

William J. Adams

Professor of Mathematics

Pace University

1

The Nature of Religion

In the 19th century the German philosopher Hegel postulated that man’s earliest reaction to the universe around him was one of fear and intimidation. Surrounded by forces he could not understand, let alone control, man resorted to incantations, mystical formulae and sorcery to maintain himself in a hostile world. This phase of man’s history Hegel called the age of magic. As time passed, however, it became slowly and painfully clear to man that his own powers were quite inadequate for the task. He then turned for help to spirits and gods that were supernatural, hence infinitely more powerful than himself. Instead of the witch doctor’s coercive use of magic, man now sought the sacrifices and supplications of the priest. The age of belief had arrived.

Sir James Frazier in his still valuable The Golden Bough undertook to amplify Hegel’s theory. The history of religion, he suggested, was one of orderly development in which all peoples of the world passed from magic to religion through a succession of stages, each progression taking place when a proper intellectual level had been attained. Thus, the religious practices of a people at any moment could be understood only as survivals from an earlier period. Why they had survived at all and why these, rather than others, were mysteries Sir James could not unravel.

The inaccuracy of this interpretation of religion was already clear before the turn of the century. Scholars found as they studied texts, tomb paintings and cave drawings that illuminated cultures that stretched back ever farther into the past, even into Palaeolithic times, that in every age they uncovered they found magic and religion existing side by side. Twentieth century anthropologists were impressed by the fact that this was true even in the cultures that exist in the present. Obviously there were no simple chronological relationships between them. The works of Boas, Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, Durkheim and others began to outline a functional approach to religious practices. Religion existed and was important because it served a function in the society. Either it helped maintain law and order, or it fostered civic virtue and morality. Others more recently have suggested that religion made it possible for man to attain his most deeply felt biological needs for food, clothing, housing, etc. Still others added the thought that all social cohesion and political stability rested on religious beliefs and loyalties.

The emphasis has been most recently on the utility of present practices with almost no importance placed on their development from the past. There has been left little room, to be sure, for the historical perspective that alone can give a real explanation of contemporary practices by showing how they came to be what they are.

Furthermore, social scientists have turned away from the use of theology and philosophy as such, and indeed, these two ancient approaches to religion have little to offer as an explanation of man’s religious impulse itself. Throughout the history of Western thought faith and reason have been the traditional paths to religion. Yet today these words have both lost their medieval connotations. Faith, in an age of science, implies the lack of concrete and definite knowledge. Hence, it implies doubt. Reason, on the other hand, as the term is used today, refers only to the small part of man’s personality, his conscious mind, which deals with the world of phenomenal experience. There is a serious question, in the first place, as to how much of man’s thinking is consciously rational and not subconsciously irrational. But apart from this, even those proofs and verbal demonstrations of the existence of God, which have been the most impressive products of reason, are intricate, often beautiful, logical structures based on axioms and preconceptions arising from within man’s experience. Surely these can hardly contain the object of man’s religious impulse. Whatever we may decide what that is; it must transcend any single image of it postulated by an intellect that is itself a part of it. Reason then cannot know the object of religion, since it lies beyond the reach of reason, a part of the whole. Furthermore, the logical proofs of God seem hardly calculated to convince anyone who is not already convinced.

The Religious Experience

Thus, it would seem that the object of religion lies outside the scope of the social scientist just as it transcends the working of man’s faith, which is today a form of doubt, and his reason, which is not capable of grasping its transcendent nature.

Man, it is true, does live within a vast conglomeration he calls the universe. From the beginning he has sought to approach this environment in an orderly way, imposing upon it arrangements and systems of arrangements. This activity, however, is not the fundamental phenomenon of man’s existence. It is, rather, that very existence itself. That man is, that the world around him is, these breathtaking realities are far more wondrous to man than his later attempts to categorize and define them. The universal essential being of all that is, the fact that all that is really is, this actuality when realized by man strikes him with overwhelming force. It is the immediate contact with totality that produces in man a sense of the sacred. It is what Rudolph Otto in his The Idea of the Holy calls the numinosum. By this word he indicated his belief that the totality of all that is is contained in a certain Something which is itself at the same time beyond all that is contained in It. It is like light that shines through a pane of glass. Obviously every particle of glass contains light, yet the light exists beyond the glass in both directions. So too the whole of the universe contains It, but It exists beyond. There is no place, no time, no matter involved in It, and man cannot grasp It, but It does come to man’s attention. Religion, then, is man’s attempt to express this It and his reactions to it. Religion is also an attempt by those who have experienced It to bring It to the attention of those who have not yet done so. Since It is actually inexpressible in man’s terms, he must resort to various symbols or poetic substitutes, and these give rise to sacred scripts, rituals, etc.

Reactions to the Numinosum

Rudolph Otto also categorized the two ways in which man reacts to the numinosum. The first of these he called the tremendum. Man is at once terrified when he is aware of pure existence. It is so outside his ordinary life; so different from anything he can conceive that he reacts, not so much in fear, which implies knowledge, but with a deep pious awe. The Old Testament describes in many passages this reaction to the transcendent especially as felt by the prophets. Furthermore, many who sense It are so overcome by Its strange form of existence, which is not within man’s understanding, that they are convinced that God, if It is God, is beyond the world that we know and that He can have no existence anywhere in it (transcendentalism). His existence is in a world other than ours, a world so fine, so wonderful that ours pales into nothing in comparison. They would deny, then, our world and would place God far beyond us, far beyond any knowledge we might have of Him, any names we might give Him. Western mystics have traditionally reacted to God this way. On the other hand, Otto points out, man reacts to It with fascinosum. Even though awed, terrified, yet must man return again and again to It with fascinated attention. Man wants to know what It is, and thinking that he knows, he wants to describe It. But how to describe what is by it’s nature indescribable? Such is the paradox that has led man to the use of symbols. So long as the symbolic language used to describe God is understood to be merely symbolic, the paradox is to a degree resolved. The danger is, however, that the symbols will be confused with their objects. This has happened far too often, even to the creators of the symbols themselves.

Contact with the Absolute

In the last analysis man can make no contact with the Absolute either by following the transcendentalist, who removed It to another world, or the immanentist, who sees the Absolute in all things but because It is in all things, It cannot be isolated in any one and, therefore, is incomprehensible. These views confused the symbols with which they indicate the Absolute with It itself. As if It could be contained in this world or in any other! But, It is implicit in all that is, for It is being itself. Man himself is part of this very Being. Contact must follow, then, an opening of one’s inner self, a dissolving into the totality of Being, a penetration beyond the symbolic levels. To go beyond a concept of time. To realize that man is immortal, not as a person, but as part of the total Being. Here is the path toward the Absolute, and it has been seen by at least some people in all societies from primitive man to the esoteric mystics of the east.

2

Religion, Magic and Primitive Man

The history of religion properly begins with the history of man himself. We call man in his earliest condition primitive by which we imply a state of underdeveloped or simple culture, a prejudice connected with our own concept of progress. It is probably more accurate to consider primitive man as following cultural patterns different from our own, but quite complete and adequate in terms of the world that he himself sees. Another difficulty in our study of primitive man is our inability to find him. There are, for instance, small groups of people living in out-of-the-way places of our present world—Australia, Africa, Micronesia, etc.—whom we call primitive. We study their culture patterns and find that they are often quite sophisticated, complex and the product of long historical processes. In another context we study children’s behavior, seeking clues to underdeveloped behavior patterns. Yet the children are really not the same as adult primitives, not only biologically but psychologically as well. We seek the primitive in ancient Egyptian texts or the Vedas, which describe very ancient cultures, it is true, but which are hardly primitive as we understand the term. Finally, we have findings of the archeologists, who analyze material that stretches back to Palaeolithic times of some 20,000 years ago. Yet even this material must be used with great caution since it yields its evidence only after intensive interpretation by the archeologist.

Yet, all these reservations apart, much can be said about religion in primitive society.

Mana

Primitive man is quite capable of glimpsing the numinosum, which he expresses in his own terms. He sees it as power, great power which is diffused throughout the phenomenal world. He expresses this symbolically, but unlike men of more sophisticated cultures, he is not able to separate the symbol and its object. Thus, every object of unusual interest contains within itself some of this power. Every such object has a natural and a supernatural identity at the same time. The power that resides within is called mana. Unusual people possess this power as exceptional strength or intelligence; unusual rocks, trees, streams, etc. have the sacred power within them and thereby can harm man.

Furthermore, primitive man sees power as a neutral force. It is neither good nor bad in itself. It is simply safe or dangerous. Its operation is automatic and is to be avoided whenever possible. Thus, objects containing mana are generally tabu. Perhaps the most famous description of the operation of mana is the famous passage in the Old Testament (II Samuel 6) which describes the death of Uzzah:

"And they set the ark of God upon a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.

And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was at Gibeah, accompanying the ark of God and Ahio went before the ark.

And David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals.

And when they came to Nachon’s threshing floor,

Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it.

And the anger, of the Lord was kindled against

Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God."

Uzzah was killed because he had touched the tabu object and had no protection against its great power.

Animism

The concept of mana is a refinement of a general attitude of primitive man toward the world around him. He believes that every object in this world has a soul, not only men, but animals, plants and things as well. Confused by his dreams and misled by his misinterpretations of natural phenomena, primitive man sees the sun, the stars, the winds, rivers, mountains, the seas as containing spirits, which animate them in the same way that he has life within himself. Associating this with his concept of mana, he soon sees the world peopled by a host of spirits, some relatively weak, others very powerful. This stage of his religious development would appear to be polytheism. It has been suggested that this development continued and his desire to simplify the plurality of gods led primitive man to the worship of supreme gods and then finally to the worship of the one creating and controlling principle behind all forms of power or gods, a form of monotheism.

Totemism

Another aspect of primitive man’s view of the universe is totemism. This concept arises from his lack of a strong belief in his own individual ego. He allows his own personality to merge very easily into the group to which he belongs. Each such group is under the protection of a special animal (totem) which is tabu or forbidden to the members of the group. An individual may, moreover, merge his own personality with the totem. He becomes the totem itself. This becomes an important concept in the practice of magic, because the implication is that the personality of a man and that of a bear, or even of an object are equal and interchangeable. Thus, they are all subject to the same laws of causality, and the effects on the one can be interchanged with those of the other. Stick a pin into a doll and the man whose image it is will feel the pain. A part of man can stand for the whole. Red earth can stand for blood, etc. etc. It is of such stuff as this that magic is composed.

Magic and Religion

Magic and religion, as we have seen, are not connected in chronological relationship, the one growing out of the other. Both exist side by side and differ in the nature and function of their rituals. Religion is involved with the existence of some absolute state of being that is focused in a symbolic representation. The priest attempts to come into contact with the Absolute through these symbols. He may supplicate or pray or in any way seek assistance, but at no time, does he feel, as a priest, that he is the origin of the power that may flow through him and his actions from the Absolute to man.

The magician, on the other hand, believes exactly that. He views the universe as a close-knit series of cause and effect relationships. He believes that by using secret formulae and powers, he can force the non-objective or supra-natural world to change the world as it is. His instruments, in turn, are of the phenomenal world. In other words, objects such as a doll and pin can be used to force their supra-natural nature to cause an effect on the supernatural nature of a man, which, in turn, does harm to the phenomenal aspect of the man himself. The world of magic is coercive and is restricted to its own formulae and rituals. The world of religion is involved with a world of reality, which is phenomenal only by analogy and symbol. Yet, both worlds, dealing as they do with transcendent being, tend to overlap. Often a witch doctor in performing some incantation may feel that he is only the vehicle by which some supra-natural power is affecting the phenomenal world. To this degree, at least, he is acting religiously. On the other hand, the priest, himself, often produces, he thinks, a change in the essential nature of the phenomenal world. The trans-substantiation of bread into flesh in the Catholic Mass or the transmission of power at ordination by the laying on of the bishop’s hands are acts of this sort. To this extent, at least, the priest is involved in the world of magic.

Magic itself tends to become more sophisticated as it develops. At first, magic operates by touch. The power of the sorcerer or the magical object operates directly and immediately, as in the case of objects containing mana. The next stage is homeopathic magic. A man and his likeness are considered one. What is done to the one affects the other. Or if the witch doctor wishes to produce rain, he will sprinkle water on the ground or even urinate and since he is doing what the rain does, he will make it rain. The famous caves of the Pyrenees foothills in southwestern France contain magnificent paintings of hunts and totem animals. It seems quite certain that these paintings were used in this way to ensure successful hunts and the propagation of new herds to replace those destroyed in the hunts.

Finally, magic turns to the use of incantations and verbal, rather than material representations of the objects involved. This reflects the primitive attitude that an object or a person and the names of these are in a special relation. The name is an extension of the person. Therefore, it must be closely guarded. Primitive man will keep his real name secret and will use publicly a false name to make sure that no one will possess his real name and use it against him.

Birth and Death

Primitive man lives in a world that is shot through and through with magic. Nothing happens by accident. Even his dream world is a part of it so that he is responsible and liable for what he does when he is asleep in the phenomenal world. Death is never considered the result of natural causes. It is always murder and must be avenged, hence the characteristic blood feuds of primitive society.

Primitive man early connected death with loss of blood. To him it seems that life can be restored by supplying the corpse with blood. Mourners often gash themselves to pour blood over the grave, or they may sprinkle red earth over it instead. The corpse is often buried in a crouched position, not to reproduce the fetal position as a sign of rebirth, but rather to prevent the corpse from walking and doing harm to the living. Some belief in life after death exists among primitives, for the dead are often buried in red soil, a symbolic blood bath to restore life, in the midst of all the objects they will need after they are reborn.

Birth is aided in much the same way as other acts of magic are accomplished. Figurines with grossly exaggerated sex and maternal organs have been found among primitive settlements ranging from those of 30,000 years ago to those of the tribes of