St. John the Evangelist Parish

In the last blog post, we looked at what religious faith is and the variety of religions we find in the world. In this post, I want to explore some commonalities among religions. Religions tend to use the similar vehicles to transmit their beliefs and practices. These vehicles are scripture, myth, creed, liturgy, and theology.

Scripture: The word scripture comes from the Latin scriptura, the act of writing. So the scriptures of a religion generally refers to the official or holy writings of a religion. Scriptures are vehicles for the transmission of a religion in that they contain the stories, myths, rules, and liturgies of a religious community. The book of Scripture for Christianity is the Bible, which is divided into two sections, the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament and the New Testament.

Myth: Myth is one of the most misunderstood and misused words in our religious vocabulary. All too often people think that a myth is a fable, a fairy tale, or a fictional story. But a myth is a great deal more than that. Myths are fictional stories, but they are stories that are trying to explain a major religious concept. Myths are true in that, while the details of the story are not scientifically or historically accurate, they are conveying an important religious truth, usually a truth about human nature or the relationship between God and humanity. For example, in the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box, Zeus gives Pandora a box and tells her not to open it. Pandora is overwhelmed by the temptation and opens the box, letting loose all of the bad things in the world: envy, hatred, etc. However, just before everything can escape from the box, Pandora slams it shut keeping hope safe in the box. This myth is not historically or scientifically accurate, but it does try to explain, in terms that regular people can understand, how all those bad things came into the world and why hope is more important and more powerful than the bad. Let us now look at a myth from Christianity. We are all familiar with the story of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. In the story, Adam and Eve, the first people to be created by God, are told not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve, however, is tempted and eats; she then convinces Adam to eat from the tree as well. God punishes their behavior by expelling them from the Garden of Eden and by sentencing them to labor throughout their lives. What is important about this myth is not whether or not Adam, Eve, the Garden, and the tree really existed. What is important is that this story tries to explain to regular people why there is sin in the world, why people must continue to work really hard to survive, and why there are rules and punishments. These religious truths are the point of this myth, not the details that were used to get those religious truths across.

Creed: The word creed comes from the Latin word credo, which means “I believe”. A creed, then, is a statement of belief. It is an explanation or recitation of the important beliefs of a religion. The creeds of Christianity are long but careful summaries of what all Christians believe. The Apostle’s Creed was the first one to be written and the Nicene Creed is an expansion of it. Both of these creeds are very ancient; the Nicene Creed was written at the Council of Nicea in the early 4th century.

Liturgy: A liturgy is the formal and ritualized worship of a religion. Liturgies are made up of a number of ritual actions and prayers that are done in the same or a similar way every time. Liturgies allow the community to come together to celebrate their religious faith and to remind themselves of the fundamental truths of their faith. Think of the Liturgy of the Word, which is the first part of the Mass in Catholicism. At a Mass on a Sunday, the Liturgy of the Word is almost always made up of a reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, a Psalm, a reading from one of the letters in the New Testament, a reading from one of the four Gospels, a homily or sermon, a recitation of the creed, and a series of community prayers. This format is the same in every Catholic Church on every Sunday of the year. It is a liturgy.

Theology: The word theology comes from two Greek words, theos (god) and logos (word or study). Therefore, the word theology means words about or study of God. Theology is not just something that is done by professionals; anyone who thinks, talks, and studies about God is a theologian. Theology is the attempt by the people of a particular religion to understand their faith better and to explain it in a way that helps others deepen their faith. In Christianity, theology means trying to understand who God is, how God is related to human beings, and what God wants human beings to do.

Over the next few weeks, we will begin to take a look at the first person of the Trinity, God the Father.  But before we can start that, I would like to lay some groundwork – some preliminary ideas that help us when we start to think more specifically about God.

A good synonym for faith is trust.  Religious faith, then, is trust in a god.  For Christians, religious faith means trust in our God, the god of Christianity.  Faith in a god or gods is the foundation of most of the major religions of the world.  In general, religious faith or trust means that the individual recognizes his or her powerlessness and createdness in the face of the supernatural.  In other words, the believer understands the god or gods to be in control of reality as creators of reality and the ones who sustain or keep it going.

Based on this definition of faith, we can begin to understand what a religion is.  In the broadest sense of the word, a religion is a community of people who share a religious faith in a god or a specific group of gods.  For example, Christianity is the community of people who profess their faith in the Triune God (the Trinity).  As you can see, a religion requires a group of people.  In addition, the practice of a religion takes place within the community.  While all religions do emphasize the internal faith, devotion, and prayer life of the individual, all religions are also defined by the outward signs of faith, devotion, and prayer of the community as a whole.  In Christianity, all Christians, no matter what their specific denomination, gather to worship God on Sundays.

Some of the religions of the world are monotheistic.  Monotheistic religions believe in and worship only one God.  There have been several monotheistic religions in history; the three most common monotheistic religions today are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  These three monotheistic religions are related historically and share many similar beliefs.  Polytheistic religions are much more common in the history of the world.  Polytheistic religions believe in and worship more than one god.  The largest polytheistic religions today are Hinduism, Shintoism, and the native religions of the indigenous populations of the Americas, Africa, and Australia.  The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians, among many other civilizations, were also polytheistic.  Finally, there are several religions that do not fit either of these two categories.  They are called religious philosophies because they tend to focus more on the proper behavior for this world or on the individual’s development of their own social or meditative skills.  Buddhism is a religion that is not at all concerned about the gods, although they do recognize the existence of gods; Buddhists focus on meditation to clear the mind and reach enlightenment.  Confucianism is another religious philosophy.  Again, Confucianism doesn’t deny the existence of the gods, but it focuses on how an individual is supposed to live a good and proper life for the benefit of all in the community.