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    Eleven Great Religions of the World Today: A Quick Description
    Eleven Great Religions of the World Today: A Quick Description
    Eleven Great Religions of the World Today: A Quick Description
    Ebook 97 pages 1 hour

    Eleven Great Religions of the World Today: A Quick Description

    By Hap C. S. Lyda

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    About this ebook

    This book is a brief, simplified presentation of eleven major world religions active today. It is an objective study of the history, beliefs, sacred scripture, festivals, and population. It is intended to supply knowledge without comparing the religions or attempting to convert anyone to any of them. It is a book to further knowledge for understanding living religions and their cultures.
    The contents are described according to the locations of their origins, the Middle, Far, and Near East. The book is readable for youths and adults. The book is very useful for students taking beginning courses in religion and religions. This book is quickly readable without distracting references.
    The importance of the eleven religions described in this book is noted in that they claim the membership of five of the seven billion people in our world.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherResource Publications
    Release dateNov 9, 2020
    ISBN9781725285071
    Eleven Great Religions of the World Today: A Quick Description
    Author

    Hap C. S. Lyda

    Hap C. S. Lyda has been a college professor of religion and philosophy for nearly a half-century at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, Texas. He draws on his education from Bushnell University, Texas Christian University, and Vanderbilt University. He holds three graduate degrees, the latest a PhD from Vanderbilt University. He is now retired but continues researching and writing on all of the eleven great religions treated in this book.

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      Book preview

      Eleven Great Religions of the World Today - Hap C. S. Lyda

      Introduction

      Why This Book

      This book is a brief, simplified presentation of eleven major world religions from their beginnings to the present. These eleven major religions are active in the world today. These eleven have been chosen from countless religions. The two criteria for choosing these are largest size and/or largest influence.

      In order to study these religions it is not necessary that you be a member of any one of them, or of any religion. If you happen to select membership in one of these as a result of your study that is your decision, for this book is not intended to be a missionary device to convert you. This book is intended to enrich your days on planet Earth with knowledge of the largest phenomenon in the world—religion.

      The eleven selected religions claim five billion members out of the seven billion people on Earth. Five billion is huge when compared to any one nation; for example, the United States of America has a population of less than four hundred million, which is less than ten percent of the aggregate eleven religions.

      Yesteryear these eleven major religions were located over there somewhere in some foreign country. If you are like most people, you have grown up in a family or culture wherein one of these eleven religions was dominant. If so, then ten of these religions may seem strange to you. In your lifetime the world society has gotten smaller in the way that the most remote religion may now be a factor in your community or business or travel. Yesteryear Christianity was predominant where I lived in the United States; now my next-door neighbors are Hindus, down the road live members of Judaism, not five miles away is a Buddhist temple, across town is a Sikh sanctuary, and I could go on in such manner for the rest of the eleven religions. Only a few years ago most of these religions other than one’s own were alien. Now all eleven are present nearly wherever we live.

      A surprise to some people is that other religions rather than their own are just as significant to those who hold them as is their own to themselves. All eleven of the religions described in this book give their adherents sustaining beliefs about the fundamentals: origin, meaning, and destiny of life. Jain members are quite confident their religion answers these fundamentals, as are Taoists or Buddhists or Baha’is. Members of these religions do not yearn to become members of some other religion in order to find answers to the fundamentals of life. They have their own answers.

      One of the chief characteristics of these religions is the creation of a society of persons who live in similar ways. In other words, these religions create unique cultures. Religions of the Middle East—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—create a way of living that is identifiable. So do the religions in the Far East—Taoism, Confucianism, and Shintoism—create a life mode for their constituents. In similar manner so do the religions of the Near East—Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Baha’i—create a civil manner for their adherents.

      Values of Religion

      The values of religion may be overlooked in a world of so many activities and attractions. Even members may participate in a religion minimally without realizing religion’s great values. One is community. Community offers fulfillment of what is generally viewed as an essential human need—belonging. Belonging fulfills our social need. All eleven of the great religions treated in this book furnish the value of community. Members are cordial to one another. They shake hands or hug or at least smile. Being together is as old as Adam and Eve, or Rama and Sita. Christianity began with a grouping of three thousand in community.

      A second value of religion is conduct. Closely associated with community is conduct. All of these eleven religions have codes of conduct. Codes of conduct, variously called ethics, morals, mores, or folkways, are advocated by them. Many a conversation has considered the question of where we would get our proper ways of behavior were it not for religions? The answer may be nowhere else. Ethical conduct takes community deeper; it delves into survival of the species. Some of the rules may be rather petty, such as how far one may travel on a holy day to get to a place of worship, but others have to do with survival itself, such as you shall not kill one another. All eleven of the great religions treated in this book stress the value of conduct.

      A third value of religion is care. Care is the giving of assistance when someone is in need. Religions give solace to the grieving. Religions garner food for the needy. Religions offer consolation to the imprisoned. Religions provide comfort to the destitute. Religions bestow nurture for the orphaned. The anecdote is told of an early Judaism scholar who, when asked what was basic in his religion replied that all teaching could be uttered while he stood on one foot: his answer was love. A word used by ethicists in our time for love is caring.

      A fourth all-encompassing value of religion is culture. Culture is the way we do things around here. It is the local way of life that defines us. It includes the many aspects of daily living. It fulfills our need for community. It directs human conduct. It imparts care as needed. It casts an aura of sacredness on festivals and worship. It furnishes the robe of survival with its several panels of faith, hope, and love. It addresses our insatiable curiosity about the mysteries of life and afterlife. Culture is the whole of living. I have a colleague who says that he is an agnostic Christian. He defines that as one who cannot prove the divinity of Jesus, or the resurrection from the dead, or the housing of heaven, or even the existence of a personal god; but he likes the culture Christianity creates. The great religions treated in this book create vital cultures.

      Table of Contents

      In very general terms the Middle East religions have fostered an attitude of living which could be simplified as escape from earthly life. The Far East religions have fashioned a way that could be summarized as enjoy earthly life. The Near East religions have formed a model of endure earthly life. These three modes, escape, enjoy, and endure, compose the three sections of this book.

      Each section is divided according to the religions that arose in its respective geographical area. Thus, the table of contents is:

      Section I. Middle East: Escape

      Chapter 1 Hinduism

      Chapter 2 Jainism

      Chapter 3 Buddhism

      Chapter 4 Sikhism

      Section II. Far East: Enjoy

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