50 Religion Ideas You Really Need to Know
Peter Stanford
Language: English
Pages: 162
ISBN: B018EXNUTW
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Despite frequent prognostications regarding the 'death of God' and the triumph of secular materialism, religion remains a central component in the lives of most people around the world. There are currently thought to be 2 billion Christians, 1.2 billion Muslims, 800 million Hindus, along with some 700 million followers of other religions.
Religion: 50 Ideas You Really Need to Know offers a clear path through the conceptual and denominational thickets of global religion. Award-winning religious affairs correspondent Peter Stanford begins with an examination of sacred texts, the divine principle and good and evil, before moving on to a discussion of the different traditions within Christianity, Islam, Judaism and the myriad customs of the East.
50 ideas you really need to know religion Peter Stanford New York • London © 2010 by Peter Stanford All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of the same without the
believe that St. Luke, one of the four gospel writers, was the first to paint Jesus’s mother. Though icons largely fell out of use in Western Christianity after the split with the East, some religious artists such as Duccio in the Italian Renaissance and El Greco in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain did produce them, albeit with Western ideas diluting the strict Orthodox rules. the condensed idea Christian history isn’t only about Rome timeline 381 Council of Constantinople sets up
simply had to follow the Qur’an and the Hadith. He was executed in 1966 on Nasser’s orders. Khomeini had turned to history to characterize his struggle with the Shah, likening it to the battle between Yazid and Husain at Karbala in 680 and claiming that the Shah was every bit as much an impostor as a Muslim as Yazid had been. Islam could not be updated to suit economic or political circumstances, he stressed. However, he then struggled with modern militant Islam’s first attempt to create a
Paryushana, the birth of Mahavira; this is the culmination of eight days of fasting, repentance and rituals. Since they do not have gods, and reject the notion of Mahavira being their founder, it may be asked why Jains worship at all. It is partly because of the influence of the wider Hindu culture in which they operate—though Jain rituals tend to be more restrained and austere. What the Jains do worship is the ideal of perfection achieved by Mahavira, Parshva and all other tirthankaras (none of
second pillar is social and political institutions. Confucius was no revolutionary, but he did want the existing system to work better for the benefit of all. He preferred the idea of a single emperor ruling China rather than a series of smaller states forever at war. That emperor should, he suggested, display outstanding qualities of honesty and truthfulness. It was these attributes that would command the respect of his subjects. If the emperor failed to show them, he did not deserve to rule.