Elements of Religious Traditions

Mircea Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane analyzes a wide variety of components that are found within various world religions. Eliade uses the history of religion to support his ideas as the the book itself is a brief introduction to religion as a whole, particulary the religions of primitive societies. Nonetheless, when looking to the past one can see that mankind’s desire to associate itself with the sacred has been occuring for thousands of years. From temples to passages of intiation, religious man is a unique microcosm that follows and repeats the structure of the religious macrocosm, the creation of the cosmos. One can conclude that Eliade views religion as the “paradigmatic solution for every existential crisis.” (p210) and

Within many known religions, the devotional practices has been known to acquire great importance. The essence of practicing what you preach has scolded many religious groups, introducing true beliefs, righteousness, and a wider connection to the supreme being . In the book entitled “ Living religions” by Mary Pat Fisher, clarified and firm descriptions were introduced about religious rituals. Surprisingly; the author utilized small parts of modern concepts, limiting the reader from a full comprehension of religious practices today, therefore; I will only discuss the basic and traditional rituals. To elaborate; in this paper, I will be providing an opinionated but also, comparative description of the major practices and rituals that undergo in both the Abrahamic and indigenous religions.

The first chapter of Mircea Eliade’s book The Sacred and The Profane educates the reader on the general idea of what a sacred space is, how it affects religious and secular man, and how it came to be. He describes sacred space in the perspective of a religious man and the difference between it and profane space. Sacred space is commonly known to appear through the use of hierophany and theophany; however, Eliade presents several other ways they may come about.

Although there are many Islamic and Judaism similarities in regards to the places of worship there are also differences in the places of worship, which will be explored. Muslim and Jewish adherents evidently have distinct places of worship. In a Mosque the adherents perform prayers on a prayer mat which is laid on the floor of the mosque, the prayers are led by the Islamic clergy called an Iman. In a Synagogue there are seats which adherents sit on to worship and perform prayers, the prayers are led by the Judaism clergy who is called a

Religion manifests itself everywhere around the world. Although all beings are different we come together as one transcendence being the host. Sacred rituals are performed, honoring beliefs in accordance to ones religion. Rituals are performed for a wide array of reasons, some being a sort of rite of passage, healing the sick and even birth or death rituals. Judaism, Santeria, and Christianity all have ceremonies and rituals, some carried out as different as night and day, and some for the same purposes. These religions in depth have more in common than the eye can see, devotion, transcendence and worship to a higher absolute power. All participating in Sacred Ritual.

Scholars prefer to focus on religious traditions rather than just “religion” because religious traditions are “a tradition is an historical context or network of linguistic, personal, and cultural relationships” (Portier 19). Traditions can be limiting like the legal tradition in America where we carry it around because it shapes our ideas of what is right and what is wrong. Traditions can also be freeing like the civil rights movement which ended slavery and ended a limiting tradition. Traditions are used as a resource to answer the deeper questions about life. Also, scholars prefer to focus on religious traditions due to a problem associated with “religion”. The problem with “religion” is what does the term “religion” actually refer to?

Rituals play a significant role in all cultures. A ritual ‘is the practice or embodiment of beliefs expressed in structured action or prescribed procedures that often link to the sacred.’ Rituals are created by taking events from everyday life and giving them some sort of symbolic meaning. As one of the founding concepts of our discipline, ritual has long been a cornerstone of anthropological thought: from the works of Emile Durkheim through Arnold van Gennep, Victor Turner and Terry Lovat. Within this presentation I will be outlining the similarities and differences between Bar Mitzvah and Confirmation, and I will also explain the impact which the ritual has on the individual and society

Two religions that are more related than any other religions are Christianity and Judaism. Both religions have similar beliefs. They also both believe in God and Jesus. This is where there is a difference: Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah and died to save its followers from sin. Jews believe that Jesus is only a prophet, and the Messiah has not yet arrived. Another similarity is the sacred site. Jerusalem is a sacred city for three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In addition to Jerusalem, Islamic people travel to Mecca and the city of Medina to pray as well. Another important site for Christians is Bethlehem—the birthplace of Jesus.

The anthropological studies of religion show that individuals use religion to serve different purposes, but they rarely note that these functions are different in some cultures. These religions involve both cosmological and transcendental which vary in their beliefs and practices. The transcendental religions view the existence of the universe as strong evidence for God’s presence. This religion assumes a Supreme God created the universe and that he still maintains its existence. Cosmology, on the contrary, is highly individualistic in both character and philosophical outlook and they resist any common doctrinal stance. While transcendentalists believe in ultimate power in supernatural powers, cosmological religions believe in ultimate power from the natural world. The essay will compare between two cosmological religions which include, archaic religion and the primitive religion as well as one transcendentalist religion of Christianity together with how disenchantment de-legitimize cosmological religions.

Religion is a fundamental element of human society. It is what binds a country, society or group of individuals together. However, in some instances it destroys unity amoungst these. Religion is a belief in a superhuman entity(s) which control(s) the universe. Every religion has its differences but most strive for a just life and the right morals. The three major groups are the primal regions which consist of African, Aboriginal and Native American religions, Asian which consist of South Eastern Asian religions and Abrahamic religions which consist of Middle Eastern religions. The foci of this essay are the differences between the Abrahamic religion, Christianity, and the Asian region Buddhism as well as making reference to the Islamic

Throughout the semester, the lived religion approach has enabled our class to analyze what religion is to many different types of people from all sorts of cultures. This method has allowed the class to view each religion in its own unique form. Essentially, the lived religion approach opens the doors to what each different religion/culture can offer, and how each of those groups embody what they get from the religion in their day to day lives. Unfortunately, conventional approaches do not dive into these different religions deep enough to see what the culture practices contribute to a religion. This paper will attempt to answer the question of why does myth and ritual play such important roles when it comes to an

Hinduism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity developed centuries ago and have been practiced since then to today. Groups of people who practice these religions are bound to the conventional norms, beliefs, cultures and way of life of each. Each religion has a particular faith in a supreme being (Woodhead, Partridge & Kawanami, 2016). Muslims believe in Allah, Christians believe in Jesus Christ, Hindus believe in multiple Gods (Coomaraswamy, 2011) and Buddhism follower’s belief in various Gods and their enlightened priests especially the "most high priests" Buddha Almond, P. C. (2007). All these religions regard their places of which as sacred places which

Every religion has had at least one schism or split that separated it into different sects. Therefore one cannot claim to just analyze Judaism, for example; in reality one must then analyze each individual sect and offshoot of Judaism. Again, an essay of that detail and scope would be difficult so it comes down to the process of selecting the proper sect to analyze. In my opinion, there are two important aspects to consider. One, what sect is the most traditional? Which sect dates as far back to the original religion as possible, and therefore has undergone the least change? The second factor to consider is popularity among adherents. One cannot focus on a sect of a religion that only applies to a tiny minority of those who claim to be adherents of the broad religion; the analysis isn’t relevant in that case. Thus it becomes necessary to examine each religion--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—and determine which sect is the best to investigate for the answer to the question: “What is the perception of a ‘sacred space’ in different religions?”

A sacred site is a place that is considered to be "holy" to a certain religion. Religions can shape the cultural landscape differently because of the many type of sacred sitings. Mecca is a sacred site to Muslims. Thisis because it is the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad.It is also the direction in which all Muslims offer their prayers.

To the general public, the meaning of the word sacred falls along the lines of being something that is of high value or something that is exclusively devoted to worship. In IGE, we spent the quarter examining societies of early civilizations and how religions heavily affected them. Through readings and class discussions, we learned that religion was a huge component in the establishment or downfall of a society. Though separate religions do not agree on every moral standard or history of how the Earth came to be and our purpose, what all religions share is the theme of sacredness. Unlike many of the other topics we discuss in class, sacred is not an idea, sacred is an object.