I MAJOR WORLD RELIGIONS An essential introduction to the study of religion, this book is designed to answer the perennial questions about the great religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Each chapter describes the fundamentals of the religion it discusses, but more specifically, includes modern developments and understandings of religion. Today, we are witnessing the development of secularism on the one hand, and the revival of religious sentiment on the other. This necessitates a discussion of modernity and postmodernity – ideas which have had a significant effect on religious understanding – and of fundamentalism, and these topics form the basis of the final two chapters. The reader is brought up to date with recent developments and commentaries on religious thought, theology and religious-political movements. The contributors to the book are recognized as experts in their fields, and also write with the benefit of a great deal of teaching experience, thus making the volume highly suitable for the undergraduate student of religious studies. Lloyd Ridgeon teaches Islamic Studies at the University of Glasgow. His main areas of interest include Sufism, modern Islam and contemporary Iranian politics and culture. Previous publications include Persian Metaphysics and Mysticism (2002), Islamic Interpretations of Christianity (2000) and ‘Aziz Nasafi (1998). MAJOR WORLD RELIGIONS From their origins to the present EDITED BY LLOYD RIDGEON First published 2003 by RoutledgeCurzon 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeCurzon 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2003 Lloyd Ridgeon for selection and editorial matter; individual contributors for their chapters All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Major world religions : from their origins to the present / edited by Lloyd Ridgeon. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Religions—History. I. Ridgeon, Lloyd V. J. BL80.3 .M35 2003 200′.9–dc21 2002032642 ISBN 0-203-42313-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-42484-0 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–29768–0 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–29796–6 (pbk) I CONTENTS LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS xi INTRODUCTION: STUDYING RELIGION 1 Joseph Houston 1 HINDUISM 8 Dermot Killingley 1 What is Hinduism 8 1.1 In what sense is Hinduism a religion? 10 1.2 The term ‘Hinduism’ 10 2 Hinduism in history 14 2.1 The Harappan period 15 2.2 The Vedic period 15 2.3 The period of the north Indian empires 18 2.4 The period of regional kingdoms 21 2.5 The period of Muslim rule 25 2.6 The period of British rule 26 2.7 Independence 30 3 Karma, rebirth and cyclic time 33 3.1 Karma and rebirth 34 3.2 Theodicy 35 3.3 Karma and other determinants of destiny 37 3.4 Cyclic time 38 3.5 Karma and cosmic time in the modern world 39 4 Dharma: norms of conduct 40 4.1 The literature of dharma 41 4.2 Differentiation by gender 42 4.3 Differentiation by caste 44 4.4 Differentiation by stage of life 46 4.5 Differentiation by age of the world 47 4.6 Dharma in the modern world 47 v CONTENTS 5 The gods and God 48 5.1 Patterns of worship and its objects 49 5.2 The divine feminine 51 5.3 Local deities and pan-Hindu deities 52 5.4 Avataras and saints 53 5.5 Theology 53 5.6 Hindu worship and theology in the modern world 54 2 BUDDHISM 59 Kiyoshi Tsuchiya 1 Transcendentalism 59 1.1 Pragmatism 62 2 The Four Noble Truths 65 2.1 The sangha 69 2.2 The Abhidharma 71 3 The emergence of Mahayana Buddhism 72 3.1 The Bodhisattva 73 3.2 Emptiness (sunyata)78 3.3 The Yogacara 82 3.4 The Tathagata-garbha 87 4 From India to China 93 4.1 Translation 95 4.2 Ko-yi Buddhism 95 4.3 Sudden enlightenment 97 5 Philosophization and simplification 99 5.1 T’ien-t’ai 99 5.2 Hua-yen 101 5.3 Pure-Land Buddhism 104 5.4 Pure-Land Buddhism in Japan 106 5.5 Zen 109 6 Transcendentalism again 112 3 JUDAISM 116 Alastair Hunter 1 Untruths, half-truths and sheer nonsense: balancing the account 116 1.1 Judaism’s Credo 116 1.2 Reliable and unreliable sources of knowledge 119 1.3 ‘Judaism is not a Christian heresy’ 122 vi CONTENTS 2 The roots of Judaism 125 2.1 The historical beginnings of Rabbinic Judaism 126 2.2 The religious principles of Rabbinic Judaism 127 2.3 The Mishnah and Tosefta 132 2.4 Some parallels with Christianity 138 3 The medieval flowering of Judaism 139 3.1 The Talmuds 140 3.2 The commentaries and grammars 146 3.3 Philosophy and ethics 149 3.4 Zohar and kabbalah 152 4 Messianism 154 4.1 Sabbatai Sevi 155 4.2 Jewish Christians, Jews for Jesus and Messianic Judaism 156 5 Towards modernity: Hasidism and the Haskalah 158 5.1 The Hasidic movement 159 5.2 The Haskalah 161 5.3 Reform, Orthodox and Conservative Judaism 163 6 Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust 165 6.1 Anti-Semitism 165 6.2 The Holocaust 167 7 Zionism and the land of Israel 171 7.1 Zionism 171 7.2 Eretz Yisrael 173 4 CHRISTIANITY 178 Alison Jasper 1 Key texts 178 Introduction 178 1.1 Key texts: the formation of the biblical canon 179 1.2 Theological ‘canon’? 181 2 The Church and the world: a variety of approaches 191 Introduction 191 2.1 The early Christian Church 192 2.2 The Church and the world: from Constantine onwards 192 2.3 Constantine: first Christian emperor 193 2.4 East and West: the first Christian centuries 195 2.5 The Christian Church in the Western world: the Protestant Reformation 199 2.6 The Christian Church: communities of resistance and renewal 203 vii CONTENTS 3 Western Christianity and the challenges of the modern world 205 Introduction 205 3.1 From Aristotle to the Big Bang! 205 3.2 The challenge of Enlightenment philosophy 208 3.3 Challenges of secularism, pluralism and postmodernism 211 3.4 The challenge of evil: the Holocaust 214 3.5 The challenge of feminism 216 4 The Church beyond Europe 218 Introduction 218 4.1 India: the Church of St Thomas 219 4.2 Africa: the Ethiopian Church 221 4.3 The epic tale of Christian missionaries 222 4.4 The Church in North America 225 5 ISLAM 230 Lloyd Ridgeon Introduction 230 1 The testament of faith (shahada) 232 1.1 ‘There is no god but God . .’ 232 1.2 ‘. and Muhammad is his messenger.’ 235 2 Prayer (salat) 238 2.1 Sufism 241 3 Fasting (sawm) 247 3.1 The Qur’an 248 3.2 The Qur’an as a text 250 3.3 Limits of interpretation 254 4 The alms tax (zakat) 257 4.1 Islamic law 259 5 Pilgrimage (hajj ) 264 5.1 The hajj rites 265 5.2 Pluralism 268 6 Jihad: Islam and the state 271 6.1 Islam and the state: Muhammad’s example 271 6.2 The Islamic state after Muhammad: the Sunni tradition 273 6.3 The Islamic state after Muhammad: the Shiite tradition 275 6.4 Modern Islam 278 viii CONTENTS 6 FROM MODERNISM TO POSTMODERNISM 289 David Jasper 1 The origins of modernism 289 1.1 God and the Enlightenment 289 1.2 Kant and Romanticism 291 1.3 Modernity and the twentieth century 293 2 Modern prophets and the death of God 295 2.1 Karl Marx 295 2.2 Friedrich Nietzsche 297 2.3 Sigmund Freud 300 3 Towards postmodernism: the linguistic turn 302 3.1 Ferdinand de Saussure 302 3.2 Martin Heidegger: ‘Letter on humanism’ 304 3.3 Jacques Derrida: ‘The end of the book and the beginning of writing’ 306 4 Postmodern theologies 310 4.1 Jean-François Lyotard: ‘The postmodern condition’ 310 4.2 Michel Foucault and the question of power 311 4.3 The emergence of the French feminists 313 4.4 Rabbinic interpretation and modern literary theory 314 4.5 The apocalypse of Thomas J. J. Altizer 317 5 Postmodern a/theologies: the future of theological thinking 319 7 RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM AND POLITICS 324 Jeff Haynes 1 What is religious fundamentalism? 325 1.1 Islamic fundamentalism 329 1.2 Christian fundamentalism 330 1.3 Jewish fundamentalism 330 1.4 Hindu fundamentalism 331 1.5 Buddhist fundamentalism 331 2 Religion and politics: what is the connection? 331 3 Secularization and religious fundamentalists’ political involvement 334 4 Postmodernism and religious fundamentalism 338 5 Religious fundamentalism and ethnicity 339 ix CONTENTS 6 Fundamentalisms: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism 343 6.1 Christian fundamentalism and politics in Africa 343 6.2 Islamic fundamentalism 350 6.3 Jewish fundamentalism 353 6.4 Hindu fundamentalism 358 6.5 Buddhist ‘fundamentalism’ in Thailand 365 6.6 Overall conclusion 370 SUBJECT INDEX 376 INDEX OF PERSONS AND DEITIES 382 x I LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Jeff Haynes is Professor of Politics in the Department of Politics and Modern History at London Guildhall University, where he teaches a variety of courses concerned with politics in ‘Third World’, international and religious contexts.