Lecture #1: Eastern and Archaic Religions

Course: Eastern Religious Traditions

Lecture #1: Eastern and Archaic Religions

Religious studies are no longer considered only in the context of philosophy and theology but are now part of many fields. It is taught in secular universities in connection with other humanities, particularly social science, anthropology and psychology as well as history and literature.

Each discipline has its own approach to religion, some friendly but many hostile

PSYCHOLOGY – Wm. James in the Varieties of Religious Experience defined it as "the feeling, acts and experiences of individuals, in their solitude so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they consider divine."

In other words, from the psychological point of view, religion is purely subjective and can only be interpreted in light of a person's own view of reality.

ANTHROPOLOGY – Clifford Geertz sees religion as "a system of symbols which acts to establish power, pervasive and long. lasting moods and motivations in people by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing those conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem realistic."

SOCIOLOGY – basically agrees with this definition but places more emphasis on what rituals and myths contribute to group cohesiveness, in other words, how they function to create bonding

PROCESS THEOLOGY – spokesman, Alfred North Whitehead says, "Religion is the art and theory of the internal life of man, so far as it depends on the man himself and on what is permanent in the nature of things."

PAUL TILLICH simply says "religion is directedness toward he unconditional" religion is the "ultimate concern" of persons.

KARL BARTH says, from a very sectarian viewpoint, that "religion is unbelief". By this he means that religion is an attempt to find God. He believed that by this definition, neither. Christianity or Judaism are "religions" for in them God has reached down to humans and there is no need to seek thru religion,

To study religion one must take up successive standpoints from which one may assimilate a fresh horizon. Thus, a student must learn to be conscious of the standpoint of the religion being looked at, for a religion only makes sense by seeing it from within its religious understanding.

DEFINITION OF RELIGION: I will define religion as the ULTIMATE CONCERN of a given person. or, more explicitly, the most deeply gripping and most persistently governing attitudes, beliefs, and endeavors of a person and/or group in response to the yearning for reconciliation with Reality, whatever that is conceived to. be. Or else, an ideal situation, which is regarded as bringing the highest fulfillment because it's regarded as the highest value.

MARKS OF RELIGION: This is probably not an exhaustive list, but here are some common characteristics of religion.

SUPREME OBJECT OF LOYALTY A deity or many deities or can be a principle such as the eightfold noble path of Buddhism or the equality of all humanity as in communism.

FAITH is a necessary ingredient if one is to devote their life to something. This can be faith in God, principles, or whatever.

REVELATION comes from some intuitive source, some experience of immediacy of the absolute given either to a founder or, as in the Eastern traditions, something each person should experience. It is how beliefs and values are accepted and made known.

BELIEFS may be implicit as well as overt. This deals with a worldview, a view of the universe and ones place within it as well as the destiny of the individual and the cosmos. Myths are used to relay this understanding to a religion’s adherents.

PATTERNS OF DEVOTION has to do with the rituals people use to give a physical and mental response to the supreme object of devotion. this devotion is regularly repeated.

FELT MORAL DEMANDS morality may or may not occur w/o religion. but religion does not exist w/o a moral dimension. This is how adherents use their religion to make decisions in practical affairs. There are taboos and requirements in every religion. The problem is to not judge religions by what our brand of morality might be.

APPROPRIATE ACTIONS religion gives impulsion, motivation, to carry out these moral demands in action. it energizes people to do something. some persons are very active, others passive in fulfilling these demands.

INTIMATIONS OF FINAL ATTAINMENT w/o this, there is no point or imperative to believe or act. basically, this is the belief that thru some transformation or action, a final fruition will take place, whether now, in a coming life (reincarnation), or in the next life (heaven).

IDEAL LEVEL all that can be done in studying a religion is go by what people say they believe. This is the ideal level. We must realize that the real level may be something else.

for example: one creed in the Christian tradition (presbyterian) states: "the purpose in life is to love and serve God."

This is the ideal level. On the real level a person may actually want "to make all the money he can make before he dies." This may be the real level, but we can only deal with the ideal.

On deepest level it is hardest to relate what goes on. All we can go by is statements made concerning the deepest level. Thus, there can never be a final or normative statement about what religion is.

What religion is not!

Most people have an experience with religion that has a distorting effect upon the study of religion. Since religious studies is a passing over from standpoint to standpoint you have to begin by asking:

"What until now has been my experience of religion?"

"What do I mean by words like "God, "community," myself,

What experiences of my life give me most vividly the sense of who I am?

the Answer to these questions will be your standpoint now. This is not necessarily distorted, of course, but to study religion one has to be able to see other points of view without being judgmental.

Some common distortions of religion

Those, (particularly radio preachers and politicians) who use the word "God" to defend or claim the fact that Americans are, or should be, a religious people.

Civil Religion in the U.S. We tend to think of the U.S. as particularly beloved by God so attacks upon the American way of life are taken to be malicious or satanic. Thus, we must deal with the fact that the American way of Life is a religion.

More generally, religion is often made to supply reinforcement to a cultural status quo, like the Spanish Inquisition.

Religion is often made to reinforce morality as "without God everything is permitted" so God is used as a means to moral living.

Religion is often used as the key to peace of soul, the power of positive thinking, the thrust of friendship, dynamic decision and success. Therefore, Religion is the service station of the spirit.

Religion is often made a vehicle of belonging. It has buildings, memberships, rules and gives people something to do, something to organize and feel good about. The various cults (Moonies, etc.) use this appeal on college students.

Religion is often made to serve aesthetic purposes. It indulges the appetite for refined perceptions of art, music, awe and solemnity. however, an aesthetic conversion, of itself is neither a moral or a religious conversion.

Religion is often made to serve dogmatic purposes. The principle of authority tends to occupy the center of attention.

Religion is often made into a function of an individual’s psyche, sort of a “Deus ex machina". This view means that if religion were to present itself this way, then, clearly, each person would be at the center of his universe and God would be a flunky who supports man's ego.

Finally, and more generally, religion is often made into a Coverup. Life itself is deemed to terrible to face and religion is imported to cover over the abyss. Religion, in a word, is made into a means of escaping too much reality.

Common to all of these distortions of genuine religion is the attempt to defend the placid, secure, ordered surfaces of life to make us accept as normal and blessed the pragmatic, given, ordinary world of everyday.

Hebrew Scriptures are the story of the fact that the Jews could tolerate a hidden god only for short periods, then would turn to something they could manipulate and build idols.

World Religions have the same problem. They develop routines, systems, bureaucracies, etc. to cover over the disruptive, awesome terrors of genuine religion.

What RELIGION IS: It is a conversion from the ordinary, given, secure world into a world of nothingness, terror, risk a world in which nevertheless there is strange healing and joy. Religion is a way of perceiving oneself, others, the world. A way of acting. Living comes first, reflection after.

MYTH and RITUAL

All societies, all religions, have their myths and rituals. Even those who claim not to, as the Assembly of God.

Myth is not an untrue story or negative thing as we in the west tend to view it. Rather it narrates a sacred history. It relates an event that took place in primordial time, the "beginnings". Myth tells how, through the deeds of a God or gods or superhuman beings, a reality came into existence, be it all the cosmos or only a part. Myth, then, is always an account of "creation." It relates how something was produced or began to be. (Eliade, "Myth and Reality”).

Etiological in Function

No way of knowing which came first, the myth or the ritual.

A myth is always true in the religious sense, historical sense

A Myth IS, History WAS

Example: to the Hebrews, the myth of Adam and Eve is the concerned with the question about who will be God?

Every culture has its myth.. ours is that science will solve everything, give us all the answers. It will never have to, but we will still believe it.

RITUAL – acts out what is believed. The function is to hold people together.

Example: funeral-is for living, it holds things together when there has been a death, smooths over the disruption.

Initiation rituals

have no formal ones in our society, but some things which function as such. Example: 1. High school graduation, 2. getting a driver's license.

Every initiation will have three elements whether primitive or modern.

1) death (die to old) (graduate)

2) liminal (in middle) something happens (handed diploma or license)

3) re-birth-wake up an adult.

Four questions to ask about each Religion

1. U.C. is experience of the Tao, harmony with the Tao.

2. H.R. is the Tao, in which there are no opposites such as good-bad, beautiful-ugly, etc. these are artificial.

3. H.F. is disorder caused by artificiality.

4. Sol, is get in harmony with the Tao,

Archaic or Primitive Religion

Archaic Religion occurs in small scale societies not shaped by the differentiation of science and myth. That these people tend to explain their reality in terms of stories or myths originating from an imaginative rather than theoretical or scientific penetration of reality.

They do not clearly separate sacred and profane-all reality can be sacred. for ex: both the lightning and the tree it strikes may manifest the sacred. Therefore, reality is tightly one!

Earmarks of Primitive Religion

We must realize that this thinking probably goes back about 3 1/2 million years. Thus the oldest human mentality was oral and artistic, not scriptural. This is true of both prehistoric and contemporary non-literate societies.

It appears that RS SOON as humans evolve to the point of being able to reflect on their condition, they begin to seek meaning, to probe mystery. Religious artifacts have been found on all archaeological levels. This indicates that religion is as old as humanity itself.

Four characteristics of archaic mind or four foci of this mind

1. The Sacred-for archaic peoples, is what is truly real. It is the basis of vitality and order.

First, then, as a religious problem is the fact that humans can live in passionate union with the sacred, so they feel whole, or they can be distracted from the sacred and feel divided or "fallen.”

This is a primary archaic equation: To live in harmony with the sacred, which courses through everything is to experience peace, joy and fulfillment. To be unsynchronized with the sacred, through ignorance or bad will, is to court disaster. It is not a "Sunday only" sort of reality.

Thus, rain, successful hunting, and good crops prove their harmony with the Real. The opposite shows something wrong.

The sacred is concretized-thus, everything is seen in the context of the sacred: birth, death, work, sex, etc.

Finally, archaic peoples generally see the sacred as androgynous-both male and female. In fact, androgyny is a universal archaic formula for wholeness, strength and autonomy.

For example: a sky father and earth mother are both considered androgynous as they are both primally divine and whole, so they have to be.

2.second foci is fertility- since the primary need is survival, fertility is very important. Think of the neolithic figurines of pregnant women found from Siberia to the middle east.

Life after death is a big concern of archaic fertility. People buried at times in a fetal position as if being born again. Definite concept of soul that lingers or goes on. Sometimes buried with things needed for the journey.

Fertility is the matrix for archaic concerns of life against death.

Most general archaic conception is of a universal bounty a source of the natural and human life that keeps being replenished.

Two carriers of this are the Sky and Earth. Usually, it is Father Sky and Mother Earth because of birth. This is why women are almost always associated with the earth and men the sky. However, in Egyptian mythology it is reversed.

3. Mytho-ritualism is archaic peoples' basic mode of expressing their meaning. their oneness with the sacred.

Ritual refers to the conduct of ceremonies. In archaic context it connotes the actings-out, the dances and dramatic modes of participation, thru which tribes indwell their mythic histories and realities.

Myth and ritual fix the characteristic ways that archaic peoples have situated themselves in the world.

4. The Shaman–is a specialist in archaic techniques of ecstasy. --term originated in Siberia. --they gain powers by "conquering" death.

Method of selecting a shaman varies. Can be hereditary or for some he or she is designated because of some other reason (epileptic seizures, being struck by lightning, etc.)

Many shamans are male, but most cultures will admit either. In Japan, women (often blind) have predominated.

A. In Siberian shamanism, the prototype, the candidate, after selection, is taught traditional lore and techniques.

b. Next, he/she is initiated-going through what amounts to an ecstatic, ritualized experience of suffering, death and resurrection.

he/she may be dismembered, wrapped in icy sheets which he/she must dry with "magical heat".--have certain organs replaced or renewed (heart, liver, bone depending on what the tribe considers the vital core of life.)

What is constant in the ordeal is bodily sundering and death. Candidate dies, is taken to the realm of gods, and restored by divine agency. Thus he/she becomes a mediator between heaven and earth.

After being returned from gods, the shaman functions for the community, healing, guiding the dead to gods, etc.

Generally, shamanism suggests that ecstasy activates something archaic peoples find perennially possible and desirable. To go out of oneself to deal with the supernormal paranormal or abnormal powers is a way of extending one's world, of transcending oneself and serving others.

The shaman has shown the way to the holy, the really Real.

The Concept of Deity

The starting point of religion is found in a belief in a sacred power which transcends the universe and is its ground and support.

May not have been personified but thought of as a vague providence with creative and recreative power operating in the food quest, sex, fertility, birth, death and the sequence of seasons.

When this idea of potency acquired an independent life of its own it found expression in spiritual beings, ghosts of the dead and departmentalized divinities.

The recurrence of this conception of deity in all states of culture and phases of religious development from prehistoric times onwards suggests that it arose spontaneously.

Expression of inborn thought and feeling, rather than a developed kind of knowledge.

Highest expression has been in monotheistic idea of God as sole creator and sustainer.

Evolutionary theory of religion says that animism evolves into polytheism, which then becomes monotheism and then a belief in science. Where there is evidence, this is proven wrong. In India there are more gods now than in the early Vedic times. Most archaic religions are monotheistic.

Speculation about the cosmos and its processes have led to the belief in a multitude of spirits and gods, or to pantheism as in India with an impersonal absolute.

Early Mother-Goddesses

Don't know for sure if the mother-goddess is the first expression of the concept of deity, but her symbolism was the most prominent feature in prehistoric religion in the Upper Paleolithic age with sculptured "Venuses' and other emblems in decorated caves.

This symbol became the central feature in the cult of the Great Mother in the ancient near east, the Aegean, Crete and Western Asia.

As the necessity of both male and female in procreation was recognized she became associated with the young god as consort/son. She remained the crucial partner, but both played their respective roles in the seasonal drama of creative energy, the female passive and receptive the male active.

From neolithic times on phallic symbols were increasingly prevalent, though maternal imagery was predominant in Western Asia and the eastern Mediterranean, where the male god was subordinate to the goddess.

She was always supreme because she was the source of life and her male partner was only secondarily her spouse.

The creative powers were secondary and dependent upon forces over which man had but a limited control. All life was born for death. Even the Great Mother became a tragic figure as many myths portray her pursuing her search for her lover-son amid lamentation and woe.

The goddess is called by many names but the similarities in myth and ritual far outweigh the differences. The symbols (tree, snake, etc.) associated speak of a unified religious understanding centering in the Middle East.

The hypothesis to explain this pervasiveness links to archaic peoples' belief that reproduction is solely the 'creation of the female. The female role in reproduction was obvious but the males not so much.

Hypothesis that the Great Goddess represented an archaic conclusion, arrived at from the human experience, that early peoples found most mysterious, awesome, and crucial the creation of new life.

Female deities are credited with creation and also with cultural arts such as the alphabet and writing, medicine, and agriculture.

Women's role in archaic religion–She is valued as one whose sacred fertility affects the tribe's survival, and whose economic role is vital. As shamans and diviners, many have high status.

Military Power–Amazon myths came from Libya, Anatolia, Bulgaria, Greece, Armenia and Russia. Don't know if they really fought alongside men or if their sexual power and female societies' authority raised a certain militancy in the early consciousness of women's potential.

Many groups had goddesses of intelligence, knowledge, and wisdom. Demeter (Greek) and Isis (Egypt) were lawgivers.

There is evidence that archaic cultures did indeed treat women more equitably than most later societies. EX: the birth of a female was a blessing, women had prestigious religious ceremonies, could be scribes, healers or counselors.

Many scholars opinion is that the great goddess cultures were more pacifist than warlike and more democratic than autocratic.

The Change to Patriarchy

The Aryans were not a distinct ethnic group but the people who had lived on the Caucasian steppes since around 4500 BCE. By the middle of the third millennium some tribes began to roam, reaching most of Europe and arriving in India around 1500 BCE.

Even though they were dividing, they all spoke versions of Indo-European languages. These, of course, are what most of northern Europe speak today, including English and, for our purposes, Sanskrit in India.

Their early religion was the feeling of the divinity in animals, storms, etc. Over time they developed a more formal pantheon of Gods, mostly male. Dyahs pitr was the creator and high god but was so remote that other more accessible gods were more important.

Varuna preserved order, Mithra was the god of storm who later became the god of contracts, Mazda was lord of justice and wisdom, and Indra brought order out of Chaos. Fire was so important that Agni was both the god of fire and the fire itself. These are all deities that were carried by the Aryans as they migrated south.

As the Aryans discovered technology, mainly the making of bronze weapons from the Armenians as well as new ways for transportation: taming the horse and developing the chariot, they became warriors. They found being raiders, cattle rustlers and mercenaries far more lucrative than stock breeding.

The old Aryan religion was no longer appealing. Indra, the dragon slayer who rode on a chariot above the clouds became the divine model for these raiders.

Thus as these people spread out from the Iranian plateau to India and the middle east they brought with them their warlike deities, male and extremely patriarchal.

As a result, women were made subordinate, and women's sexuality was circumscribed and devalued. Children in a matrilineal society were never illegitimate but in a patriarchal society children had to have a bloodline proven.

Menstruation in archaic societies was considered a powerful force, both constructive and destructive. The taboo attached to women's menses was because they emanate a dangerous "woman power" which, in most native American understanding, is the opposite of men's "killing power" needed for hunting or war.

This view has been distorted by the so-called "higher religions" making women "unclean" rather than equal in power. Thus, to the measure that humanity lost vivid contact with such fertility and its importance, women tended to lose religiously based status.

Traditional Africa

Two Examples – the Nuer and Dinka

The Nuer are cattle herding people in the Southern Egyptian Sudan while the Dinka are in the Central Nile Basin and also rely on cattle. Though the semantics differ, both have similar belief systems, and both are typical of traditional African religion.

Nuer believe in Spirit (Kwoth) who created the world. There are other spirits also who fall into two main categories, those above (kuth nhial) and those below (kuth piny). The spirits above are powerful and can attach themselves to a person and enter the mind either temporarily or permanently.

There are also totemic spirits, nature spirits and fetishes. A Totem is an animal, plant, or physical object which is identified with a particular clan.

Nature Spirits are inferior powers connected with natural phenomena (fire, a meteorite, river)

Fetish spirits are in material things in this belief. Called "medicine which talks."

Heart of belief is in Spirit which is everywhere but associated with the sky and "like wind" or "like air" Spirit upholds the moral order of the world but can't be controlled or compelled by any particular ritual or action.

The final destiny of man belongs to 'Spirit' who is always right.

The Dinka use a different term (Nhialic) which means sky but means the name of the mighty being who is addressed as creator and “my father” and to whom prayers and sacrifices are offered.

They also have spirits but maintain that "Divinity is One." However, each spirit is called "divinity' so they have both unity and multiplicity. Basically, monotheistic with suggestions of pantheism, i.e., beliefs that divine reality is an animating power interpenetrating and infusing all beings and entities of the natural world.

Souls, ghosts, and life after death.

Both groups have words for flesh, soul and breath and believe in continued existence. The soul embraces the intellectual and moral faculties and often refers to a person's cleverness or wisdom. It is the center of the personality.

At death, the physical flesh goes into the ground, but a part of the person, the ghost, continues to exist. There are rituals to make sure the ghost of one dead goes on its way to its final destination rather than hanging around.

Important point: is that although they definitely believe in the continued existence of the soul after death, the focus of their concern is with the ongoing life of the community and with the existence of the dead insofar as it affects the living. They are not interested in the survival of the individual as a ghost, but in the survival of the social personality in the name.

Lineage importance – If a man has died w/o children, it is the duty of the next of kin to marry a woman in the dead man's name before taking a wife of his own. In theory, every man must have at least one son to form a link in the chain of genealogical descent.

The living and the dead thus comprise a single cosmic pattern of social existence.

Ritual sacrifice

For both the Nuer and the Dinka animal sacrifice is practiced. It can be goats or ewes, or grain but the principal sacrifice is a bull or an ox.

Sacrifices occur on two occasions.

1. Often, they are attempts to prevent or alleviate some misfortune that may befall a person, usually the result of a fault. (piacular sacrifices – atoning, expiation).

2. A sacrifice may accompany a rite of passage like an initiation or wedding. (confirmatory sacrifices)

These two kinds of sacrifices show an ambivalence common in many religious forms.

Confirmatory sacrifices invoke the presence of Spirit and are, in that sense, a desire for communion.

Atoning sacrifices have the idea of ridding man of Spirit' presence which is disturbing and dangerous. If a man has done something wrong, Spirit is manifested in some affliction that has beset them. The point of the sacrifice is to cause the Spirit to depart and leave man to his ordinary course of life.

Cattle are so important that owning a herd or possessing rights to a herd determines social status, prestige and power in the community. Thus, cattle are not killed and eaten for any other reason than a sacrifice except in times of famine or drought.

The understanding of the meaning of sacrifice is that of a debt, a ransom paid. It is a substitute for the life of the person involved to Spirit.

Religious Functionaries

Two with special importance in both groups. the priest who performs many, but not all sacrifices. Some are performed by the head of a given clan or kinship group. The priest's home is considered 'sanctuary". so if one man slays another, he will seek to stay in a priest's home where violence cannot take place. The priest will help the guilty party come to terms with the kin of the grieved relatives and help him come to terms with Spirit.

The other important functionary is the "possessor of spirit” or the prophet. It is believed that this person has been seized by Spirit and has literally become Spirit's mouthpiece. Ordinary people may have this experience on occasion, but one is a prophet only if it is permanently seized and transformed by Spirit.

Prophets offer divine instructions to assist in warfare, perform healings and exorcism of bad spirits. They may also predict the future and can offer advice helpful to working out problems.

People feel ambivalent toward the prophet because Spirit is believed to be directly present through them. Thus, the prophet is both sought out and avoided.

These two religious roles are found in many forms of religion including the Old Testament.

Considered as ideal types, the priest has essentially conservative role in maintaining the rituals of the cult and the harmonious life of the community, whereas the prophet can be more revolutionary and innovative. The words Spirit speaks through him may generate changes in the patterns of social order or at least help persons with problems not relevant to the social lore.

Summary:

Ultimate Concern => Prosperity, harmony with world (society and spiritual) health and well-being

Highest Reality => Spirit (monotheism), other spirits, made by Spirit, may be called gods

Human Predicament => life affirming accidents are because of something one did; individual suffering

Solution => Society: “I am because we are, and since we are, I am”