divine revelation and teachings

divine revelation and teachings

Every religion has a founder. This is the person who claims to have a divine revelation and teachings that he or she teaches to his followers.

In most cases, these founders are very charismatic people who are the unifying factor to their followers. Due to their charisma, they are much respected and honoured by their followers. After their death, the immediate disciples or followers are left with the task of spreading the gospel of their master.

As a result, this second generation of people in that religion is also highly respected maybe because they heard the gospel from the horse’s mouth and thus can account to the life of their master. However, as the ages go, the third generation and the fourth henceforth are not taken with a lot of respect. For instance, in Christianity, much respect is in Jesus and his immediate disciples (Livingstone, 130). No wonder they have written the bible but also prohibit it from being edited, corrected or improved. The generation that followed the disciples hitherto is not much adored, yet they were as crucial as the disciples and Jesus in Christianity. It is in this line that this essay is written. This essay aims at showing how early Catholicism and Bhagavad Gita are essential and explaining how it is the second or third generation of leaders who preserve the religion.

For the voluntary religions to survive after the death of the founder, the remaining followers have a lot of work to do. They have to maintain the spirit and the teachings of the founder lest the religion dies. Jesus Christ, for instance, was the founder of Christianity (Livingstone, 130). He is the one who introduced the many rules and the beliefs that are followed by his followers-Christians. After his death, the disciples had to organize themselves to make sure that the gospel of their master goes on.

To do this, the Roman Catholic Church was at the forefront. As the followers of Christ, they had to make sure that the gospel goes ahead even after the death of the apostles. One way to ensure that the gospel goes on was to form a structure of management. They set up a robust structure with the pope as the senior-most people. This structure is meant to maintain the charisma and authority of Jesus Christ. That is why the pope is more respected than any other person in the Catholic Church. He is also the global head of the Catholic Church just as Jesus is the king of all those who believes in him. This papacy helped to eliminate a chance that would be interpreted that the presence of Jesus was away from the people. The management structure goes ahead to the lowest level. This unified management is used to make sure that the church is in order.

The other way in which early Catholicism impacted on Christianity was though missionaries’ trips. The gospel of Jesus would have remained in one place and then die if it was not preached by other people who lived after the death of Jesus. Early Catholicism, therefore, started going on missionary trips to spread the gospel. They moved to all corners of the world, preaching the gospel. As a result, they gained more converts, and the gospel was able to spread. They also built churches where believers will be going to pray. Bhagavad was also used to spearhead Hinduism. It promoted literature and philosophy that shaped Hinduism.

Just like the founder and the first generation of religion are essential, the second and the third generation of the religions are essential. Founder and the first generation can spearhead a religion, but the survival of that religion is based on the efforts that are put by the second and the third generations. It is these generations that put the initiative to structure and organize how that religion will go ahead. Therefore, without them, the religion will end with the first members. For instance, if Catholics did not set a good structure of management and evangelism, Christianity would not be there. Hence, it is clear to say that the life of any religion after the death of the founder and the first generation is in the hands of the second and the third generation. As such, they should be respected and adored.

Question Two

Religion has come a long way. People have held it tight to explain the mysteries of the world. However, this usage has been catapulted by the lack of enough understanding of why the world is the way it is. For instance, when people could not understand where rains come from, they used religion to claim that there is a god of rain. Science has now come with a lot of natural truths. These truths are contradicting with the religion in almost all aspects. As a result, there has been much analysis of religions that have been done by many people.

People are seeking to know how religions started, their progress and possible future. At the same time, religions analysis has helped to show how religions affect the lives of people who practice them. Among the many people who did religions, analysis is Ernst Troeltsch. In his analysis, he looks into church, sect and cult and gives them meaning. He also discusses how church, sect and cult can be used to explain social aspects of religious phenomena. This part of the essay, therefore, discusses the meaning of church, sect and cult and how they can be used to explain the social aspect of religious phenomena.

The first term to discuss is the church. The word church comes from the Greek word called ekklesia. This term, ekklesia, means the people of God (Livingston, pg132). A church, therefore, means the people of God. it has the origin from the Christianity setting though its meaning can be interpreted in broader terms. For instance, the term can be used to refer to any group of people claiming to be followers of God. in this case, almost every religious gathering can refer to itself as a church. However, as the origin dictates, the term is only used in Christianity. To bring about more specificity, the bible has compared the church with the bride and Jesus as the groom. This means that for a religious group to be called a church, it must submit to the teachings of Jesus Christ. This explanation has, thus, put aside other religious gatherings which are not members of the Christian faith. The church is run by a hierarchy of leadership where all leaders are a manifestation of Jesus Christ’s charisma.

The sect is the next term that is discussed here. This term has gone through a series of understandings. These understandings have resulted in different meanings that have emerged with time. For instance, the first meaning of the term sect was strange. Early Christians referred to some religious groups as sects to mean that they were strange and operating out of order (Livingston, pg136).  This was so because these groups could not follow the set rules and regulations that were set by the mainstream churches. As a result, they were dismissed as sects by the main churches. Little did they know that the term will grow in meaning later? Today, the term is used to distinguish different religious groups with different sociological order from the others. For instance, in Christianity, there is Anglican Church sect and Jehovah’s Witness sect. Although they claim to have, a common master-Jesus Christ-they has different faiths, values and structure of leadership.

The third term to discuss is cult. A cult is religious movements that have newly emerged (Livingston, pg139). They follow certain teaching that they follow strictly. As such, they are very radical and aggressive to their teachings and way of life. Most of these groups emerge from mainstream religious groups. For instance, in Christianity, there has emerged a lot of groups that are called cults. They begin with a strong leader who can convince his followers about specific teaching to follow. As such, they ignore other contemporary teachings and focus on a single one or on the group that has been selected. The unification church, for instance, teaches that the true parents of the messianic age are their leader Sun Myung Moon and his wife.

The church, sect and cult are used to explain the social aspect of religious phenomena. The social aspect of religious phenomena explains how people interact and associate with each other. Religious shapes how people live with each other. In this case, religion can be used to enhance the good or poor relationship among the members of a society (Pals, pg 150-154). This is achieved through the teachings of the said religions. The church, for instance, enhances the good relationship between people. This is because all the members of the church claim to be the children of God and is, therefore, a family with God as the father. Church members also preach in crusades and other gatherings and plead with people to get saved to become the children of God. They also extend charity to the poor and the orphans to demonstrate the love of Christ. These, among other deeds, fosters on the good coexistence between people.

A sect, on the other hand, does the same as the church, but it’s a bit different in terms of the scope. Some sects, for instance, only accept members from the same sect as true brothers and sisters but ignore others. This is based on their differences in management structures and beliefs (Pals, pg 150-154). As a result, the scope of uniting people is limited though they relate well with each other, and there are no physical tensions with each other from different sects. Cults, on the other hand, promote good coexistence among themselves. They are strongly bound together by their radical beliefs. But, their relationship with other people is wanting.

Question On Globalization

Religion has been in existence for a long time. Human beings have used it to understand the phenomenon that is beyond their logical reasoning. However, science has brought some contradiction in religion by its explanation of mysteries that were originally explained in religious terms. As a result, there has been a struggle between religion and science. But, even with people’s tendency to stick to religion, science has become more and more dominant as a source of explanation of things. This has contributed to a lot of uninheritable changes in religion. Also, globalization has impacted, depending on one’s understanding, negatively or positively to the religion.

In that light, as mentioned above, this essay seeks to respond to the following questions raised after reading Kwame Anthony’s essay titled “The Case Of Contamination”. Such concerns include Roles of religion in Appiah’s analysis, whether contamination is good or bad for religion and whether religion should remain changeless or should accept changes. The questions mentioned above are responded to as follows in this essay.

The first concern is the question on the roles of the religion to the analysis of Kwame. As it is evident in Kwame’s essay, religion has several roles to play in Kwame’s analysis. These roles of religion are more inclined to globalization. Globalization, on the other hand, is seen as to have some influence in religion but the main focus of this essay is on the roles of religion. To understand these roles, one must be open to the idea that the interpretation of these roles depends on one’s perspective. In that, they can either be negative or positive. For instance, if religion is about culture protection, then it can be termed as good, whereas if it impacts on changing the culture, it will be prone to be termed as negative.

The first role of religion, as discussed in Kwame’s essay, is the global equalization of people. Appia points out that religion equalizes people universally based on the common faith that they practice (APPIAH). For instance, when people gather in the same location to pray, the social status of these people is not put into consideration. All of them pray together and obey the rules of the congregation regardless of their social status. Another example is the harmony in responding to the requests or commands made by the spiritual leader. For instance, in a church setting, the pastor may ask people to stand up or kneel for prayers, and all of them will do that without hesitation. This, among other instances, proves that religion equalizes people globally.

The other role of religion, as noted by Appia, is the diversification of cultural values (APPIAH).  Religion contributes to the diversification and enrichment of cultural values. Surprisingly, this effect is not only on the local cultures but also in foreign cultures (APPIAH). Cultural changes occur during interactions of people from different cultures. For instance, Christians are known to meet for crusades and seminars. In these gatherings, people from different tribes and races meet. As a result, they can inherit the cultures of different people and incorporate them in theirs. This results in the diversification of cultural values and practices. It is worth noting that cultural change can be positive or negative depending on how it impacts on the lives of people.

Also, religion can be seen as having a negative role in globalization if it changes the religious values and traditions of people (APPIAH). The spread of a more dominant religion has negative effects on the less dominant ones. This is because a more dominant religion overpowers the less dominant religion and to some extent, makes the lesser one extinct. This happens through evangelism and apostatize. For instance, the spread of Christianity in Africa affected the indigenous religions of the people. Many people converted to Christianity and abandoned their religious practices and values. To the preservationists, this is wrong since they hold too much to their religion. It is worth noting that indigenous religions shaped the way of life of the people and to some extent, brought harmony within the society. With that said, the preservationists will, to some extent, correct by rejecting a new religion. The tendency to believe that the original thing is good acts as the driving force for the preservationists. After all, they understand their religion well and therefore, do not have to start learning a new one.

The next concern is whether contamination of the religion is good or bad. To respond to this question, it is important to know that this question depends on one’s perspective. It is, therefore, an abstract question without a definite answer.  This essay will look at two or more case scenarios of the effect of religion on people and then take one side.

First, religion can bring about equalization of people globally. This means that people who subscribe to a certain religion are equal to some extent. The bible, for instance, claims that we are all equal in the eyes of God. This equality is positive since it helps people to deal with each other fairly. Another impact of religion is cultural diversification. During interactions, people copy cultures from others and incorporate in theirs (APPIAH). This can be negative or positive regarding the interpretation. However, on the broader side, this is positive since it also contributes to tolerance among people. The negative impact of religion in globalization is the killing of indigenous religions and values. Preservationists are not happy when other religions outshine their religious values. As thus, they claim that religion on globalization is negative. As weighed in the above effects of religion on people, it is clear to note that contamination of religion is good.

In conclusion, it is good to affirm that religion should accept to be changed. This is because; humans should accept new knowledge that comes up with time. For instance, science has come up with many inventions that are beneficial to humans, and such inventions should not be crucified at the expense of the religion. For instance, although the bible, for instance, advocates for miraculous healing, science has proved that it can heal diseases or rather facilitate in the healing of many diseases that affect people. As such, it would be wrong to concentrate on miraculous healing and neglect scientifically proven ways of healing sicknesses. Therefore, it is right to affirm that religion should accept changes. After all, a good culture grows as people develop.