RELIGION

THE
GREAT RELIGIONS OF
THE WORLD
1. THE GREAT RELIGIONS
- Hinduism and Buddhism
- Islam and Judaism
- The Christianity
2. COMMON ELEMENTS
- A Higher Being
- A sacred realm and a postmortal life
- A social dimension and creation of culture
• REDEMPTION : action carried out by the passion, death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ to save humanity from the effects of sin.

• RELIGION : set of beliefs about God, sacred rites and moral

standards for the conduct of men.

• REVELATION : manifestation of God through signs and words of

some truths that man cannot know or that he knows with difficulty.
 1. THE GREAT RELIGIONS

Most widespread religion in India

HINDUISM

It brings together a set of beliefs

that have been added over the
centuries and are collected in the
Vedas .

Sacred books that express the

Hindu spirituality that Fills
everything: personal and social
life, customs and the relationship
with nature.
 HINDUISM It evolved towards the belief
in one God, the Brahman or
Absolute , hence the name
Brahmanism .

All souls will end up uniting with

Brahman, after going through successive
reincarnations that will purify them.

He has a tendency to combine religions and is inclined to

accept them, taking them as valid. This makes it difficult to
make a clear account of their beliefs, and sometimes blurs
their real belief in a single Absolute Being.
 Religion derived from
Hinduism whose founder was
Buddha

Buddha teaches that nothing can be

said about God, so he recommends
Budd silence.
ha
It teaches to practice resignation in
God is the Absolute the face of evil and indifference to
with which souls the world, to avoid suffering and
merge after death. attachment to the worldly.

It is a morality that teaches a type

To achieve this fusion, of behavior in order to have a happy life.
souls must be purified of The religious book is the Vinaya .
their sins through
successive reincarnations.
 Arabic word that
means “submission to
God.” Founded by
Muhammad in the first
half of the 7th century.
The belief he professes is absolute
monotheism : there is only one The soul is immortal and will be
God, Allah , and Muhammad is judged by God with reward or
his only prophet. punishment.
Paradise is a kind of garden and
The holy book is: the Koran the righteous will end up there.
The unbelievers will go to hell.
It includes the doctrine of the archangel Gabriel communicated in
dreams to Muhammad. According to Islam there are two Qurans: one
resides in heaven; the other is the one that the archangel Gabriel, sent
from heaven, read to Muhammad. In the year 651, Taid, his secretary,
wrote down the prophet's teachings, which were corrected by three
specialists and thus became the official version of the Quran.
❖ CONFESSION OF FAITH : “I confess that there is no God but
Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.

❖ RITUAL PRAYER : Five moments dedicated to prayer during the

day and night.

❖ LEGAL ALMS : To serve the

❖ FASTING : In the month of Ramadan.

❖ PILGRIMAGE : To Mecca.
 THE HOLY WAR (JIHAD) AS A SIXTH
PILLAR.

The Muslim religion as a whole promotes peace. However, some

radical factions appeal to holy war to justify terrorist actions.
 Professed by some fourteen million
people, distributed between the State
of Israel and a large number of
nations.

Fundamental: Jesus Christ and his Mother, the

Virgin Mary, were Hebrews. Israel is the people
chosen by God into which Christianity took root
and was grafted.

The truths that Judaism professes are also the

heritage of Christianity, since Judaism and Christianity have the Old
Testament in common.
❖ TOTAL AND ABSOLUTE MONOTHEISM : God “is who he is”
(in Hebrew Yahweh). Jews and Christians believe in Him.
❖ GOD IS THE CREATOR of all things.
❖ At the origins of humanity, man sinned, thus breaking the alliance
with God.
❖ God made an alliance with Noah.
❖ The history of salvation begins with Abraham, whom Jews and
Christians have as their “father in faith.”
 3. CHRISTIANITY. ITS ORIGINALITY
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES:

Christianity is a revealed religion:

God revealed himself to men, without being sought by them. In other religions there
is a search for God on the part of man.
Buddha seeks answers, does penance, withdraws from the world and, finally, finds God;
Muhammad also goes in search of God. In both cases they are illuminations , but not a
revelation .

Christianity has its origin in the initiative of

Divine. God chose Abraham, Moses and the Prophets
None of them sought God, They always put
difficulties in following and fulfilling mandates
which Yahweh manifested to them directly.

The incarnation of the Word is a pure initiative of God, Jesus

Christ begins to call his disciples. And he communicates to
them the divine plan for the salvation of men
 The Christian religion is The knowledge of God with the Holy Trinity
the revelation of the was hidden from the faith of the people of
being of God, who is Israel before the incarnation of the Son of God
One and Triune in and the sending of the Holy Spirit (CIC, no.
persons 237)

ARNATION OF THE SON OF GOD

Christianity is distinguished The immediate object of Christian faith

by a truth unknown to other is to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is
religions: the fact that the God, to the point that Jesus will say: “I
Second Person of the and the Father are one” (Jn 10:30).
Trinity has become man.
 What is typical of Christianity is
The incarnation of
that man has to apply the merits of
the Son of God has
salvation achieved definitively and
one purpose: the
forever by the redeeming death of
redemption of men, Jesus Christ.
through Jesus Christ.

This is carried out in the Church in turn through the

sacraments that communicate the grace of Christ to us.
The history of religion shows the origin and development of the various
religions that have existed throughout the history of humanity. The
Phenomenology of religion studies the elements common to all of them.
The most significant elements are:

- THE BELIEF IN A HIGHER BEING . Religion begins with the belief

in a supreme being, man feels driven to respond to a call from God. This
lies the difference between polytheistic religions and religious
monotheism.

- THE EXISTENCE OF A CULT AND RITES . The proximity of the

divine leads man to communicate with that Supreme Being through acts
of worship, adoration, petition, thanksgiving, sacrifices, etc.,
 OF A MORAL PROGRAM . The
Belief in a Supreme Being awakens in man the need to be right with
God.

- THE BELIEF IN A LIFE AFTER DEATH . The existence of God

reveals to man that his personal life is transcendent and that it must
endure beyond death.

- THE SOCIAL INFLUENCE . The various religions affect not only the
individual, but also the coexistence between men. Moral duties arise in
society, the calendar is drawn up that indicates sacred days, etc.,

- THE CREATION OF CULTURE . Over time, religions have created

cultural expressions in all the plastic arts. It is necessary to add the
human and ethical values that make up the cultures of the people.
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH REJECTS NOTHING OF WHAT IS
TRUE AND HOLY IN THESE RELIGIONS. CONSIDER WITH
SINCERE RESPECT THE MODES OF
WORKING AND LIVING, THE PRECEPTS AND DOCTRINES,
WHICH DISCREE ON MANY POINTS FROM WHAT SHE
PROFESSES AND TEACHES, NOT INfrequently REFLECT A
FLASH OF THAT TRUTH THAT ENLIGHTENS ALL MEN.
(Declaration Nostra aetate, no. 2)