INTRODUCTION TO WORLD RELIGION Topic 1

INTRODUCTION
TO WORLD
RELIGION
CIARRA MAY M. BRIONES
Understanding the Nature
of Religion (Part I
 Every human being is unique.
 How do you see the world? Are you aware of the many things
around you? Do
 you think differently from other people?
 What is a worldview?
 worldview-- that is “a collection of beliefs about life and the

universe being held by people” (Ong and Jose, 2016). This basic
definition of worldview will give you an idea of the reason behind
how different people understand religion and the existence of the
divine or a deity.
 “why can’t people just believe in one faith and religion?”
 Can you think of something that makes you unique from your
siblings, or from your classmates, or from the people around you?
What makes you the way you are?
Understanding Beliefs and
Religious Worldviews
 According to Manaloto and Rapadas (2016) “religious beliefs,
expressions, and
 worldviews have inspired and influenced humanity’s artistic,
philosophical, ethical,
 political, scientific and economic endeavors”. Thus, a person’s
worldview is shaped by
 their own cultural upbringing that formed the way one sees
things.
Common Characteristics of
Religious Worldviews
 1. Ways of dealing with people’s relationship to an unseen and
transcendent realm of existence, usually inhabited by spirits,
deities, demons, and ancestors.
 2. A set of myths or stories about this unseen world and rituals to
commune with it or to appease it. 3. A system of organized
rituals celebrated in holy places by consecrated persons and
embodied in their texts.
 4. Statements of life beyond death, either as survival in some
shadowy world of the dead, in some version of heaven and hell,
or through reincarnation.
 5. A code of ethical behavior or moral order.
 6. Large followings, either currently or at some time in past
Belief Systems/
Worldviews
 MONISTIC
 There is no real distinction between god and the universe.

Example: Nature worshippers/ pagans
 POLYTHEISTIC
 The belief and worship of many gods. Example: Hinduism
 MONOTHEISTIC
 The doctrine or belief in one supreme god. Example: Judaism,

Christianity, and Islam
 ATHEISTIC
 Disbelief or denial of the essence of a personal god. Example:
Theory of Evolution by Charles Darwin
 AGNOSTIC
 God cannot be known.

Definition and Nature of Religion
 You may wonder the reason behind the existence of every

religion in the world. Yet, knowing their similarities and
differences might confuse you regarding the truths and
worldviews they are teaching. On the one hand, it will give a
glimpse of what it means to believe in God. People may have
different interpretations of the god or deity they know. But the
mere fact that people are in constant search for the divine is a
proof that religion is a concept that people widely accept and
believe.
 Filipinos are known to be religious. But many elderlies still believe
in superstitions or pamanhiin (folklores). Do you know any
superstitious beliefs that you still hear from your grandparents,
from your parents, or from any other people around you? List
down in your notebook at least three (3) examples:
 1.____________________________
 2.____________________________
 3.____________________________
 Superstitions or folklores are common among many people. They
are believed and accepted even without scientific basis. For this
reason, people believe them not because they are true and real,
but only because people usually say “wala naman masamang
maniwala bilang pagrespeto sa mga nakatatanda.” On the
contrary, religion is far beyond superstitious beliefs since it is
systematic and organized. Although people might think
superstitious beliefs and religion are two identical concepts, still,
they are two entirely different things. The following definitions
you will learn will help you understand the very nature of religion.
Definition of Religion
 What is Religion? According to Reese (1996), religion is literally

derived from the Latin word religare which means “to bind fast”,
that “refers to an institution with a recognized body of
communicants who gather together regularly for worship, and
accept a set of doctrines offering some means of relating the
individual to what is taken to be the ultimate nature of reality.”
 Religion, on the one hand, can also “range from one’s innermost
and subtlest feelings to large and powerful institutions that can
seem as much political as religious, to folk customs that appear
on the borderline between religion and culture” (Ellwood and
Alles 2007).
 This explains the deep profoundness of religion in the history of
mankind. The Catechism of the Catholic Church #27 (1994)
explains that “the desire for God is written in the human heart,
because man is created by God and for God; and God never
ceases to draw man to himself.”
 Moreover, religion is also deeply rooted in culture, for it is in the
different human expressions and cultural perspectives that we
see how religious and spiritual human beings can be. According
to (Manaloto and Rapadas 2016), “religion may be understood as
an institutionalized system of beliefs and practices from which an
individual or community derives meaning and significance and to
which it adheres in response to ultimate questions and struggles
of everyday life in the light of transcendent reality.”
 These definitions will help you understand that religion connects
a person to a higher being whom they believe is the source of all
things and realities. That is why, most people believe in the
power of prayer, for it is in this very action that a person can
truly lift up to God the innermost desires that they have as a
human being. What do you feel whenever you pray? Do you think
you are really talking to God whenever you pray? This experience
will help you realize the questions you
Summary of Various Definitions of
Religion
 Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917)
 English Anthropologist, founding figure of the science of social
anthropology
 The belief in spiritual beings.
 James George Frazer (1854-1941)
 Scottish social anthropologist; one of the founding figures of
modern anthropology
 A propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are
believed to control and direct the course of nature and of human
life.
 Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski (1884-1942)
 French Sociologist; father of sociology
 A unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred
things.
Common Characteristics Among
Religions
Religio
n

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INTRODUCTION

 worldview-- that is “a collection of beliefs about life and the

 There is no real distinction between god and the universe.

 The doctrine or belief in one supreme god. Example: Judaism,

 God cannot be known.

 You may wonder the reason behind the existence of every

 What is Religion? According to Reese (1996), religion is literally

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