INTRODUCTION TO WORLD RELIGIONS AND BELIEF SYSTEMS

FIRST QUARTER: WEEK 2

LESSON 2A: Interconnectedness of Religion and Geography

Religion and Geography

The study about geography of religion may reveal some fascinating truths why a certain country is predominated
by one particular religion or why a specific region became homeland of great religions.

Religion flourishes in space and time not in a vacuum. Geography is the fertile ground for religion to flourish.
Geography is the study of earth and its people. Its features are things like continents, seas, rivers and mountains. The
relationship between religion and geography can be termed as Religious Geography by which geographical ideas are
influenced by religion such as early map-making, and biblical geography that developed in the 16th century to identify
places from the Bible. Spreading the faith has been shaped by geographical context. For example, for the Jews the land of
Canaan, is the land promised to them by their God Yahweh through Abraham. In the book of Genesis God said to
Abraham, “Go from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”
(Genesis 12:1). This passage is central to their belief. They have to defend the land at all cost because it was given to them
by Yahweh, their God.

Asia is the largest and most populous continent and the birthplace of many religions including Buddhism,
Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism. Some of
them spread in other grounds like Europe hence they were branded as Western religions like Judaism, Christianity and
Islam. Those that remained in Asia are called the –Eastern Religions which are Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism
to name a few. There is a significant disparity between Western and Eastern religions in terms of belief systems,
worldview and philosophy about life. The mindset of the West is different from the mindset of the East. It is possible that
the difference in mindset is brought by geographical influence.

Let us look at the specific characteristics between the western (occidental) and eastern (oriental) paradigm as
discussed by Christine Carmela R. Ramos in her book, “Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person.” 2016. In
gist the disparity of mindset can be summarized as follows;

Western (Occidental) Eastern (Oriental)

• Religion and Philosophy are different disciplines • Religion is philosophy and philosophy is religion
• Mindset is linear which means there is a • Mindset is circular. The end conjoins the
beginning and end. beginning in a cyclic manner
• Speculate and theorize, no application to life is • Acceptance of the validity of intuition and
necessary mysticism

Sacred Places
 Religious experiences and the belief in religious meanings transformed physical spaces into sacred places (Serapio,
2016). The Hindus consider the Ganges river as sacred, the Jews consider Mt. Sinai as holy. Temples, churches and
mosques are some of the sacred places for Buddhists, Christians and Muslims respectively. There are plenty
of geographical places that are considered holy or sacred because of religion. The interplay of geography and
religion not only highlights the role of religion in affecting landscape changes and in assigning sacred meanings to
specific places, but also acknowledges how religious ideology and practices at specific spaces are guided and transformed
by their location. The above picture is Cruz Daku, literally "giant cross", is a large cross placed on the highest peak in
Loboc. It is a pilgrimage site for devout Catholics. During the Lenten Season, locals hold a procession activity that leads
up to the 80-foot cross - where the participants pray. This is a concrete example of how religion changes the landscape of
a geographic location and context. Filipinos are very religious people and their dependence to God can be traced to the
numerous sacred images and places around the country.

LESSON 2B: Interconnectedness of Religion and Culture

What is Culture

Culture is “a whole way of life” The way we think, act or speak. It is “ordinary.” (Williams, 1958). Culture can
be also dynamic, it can be shared, learned, transmitted from one generation to another, adaptive and integrated
(Bodley,1999). UNESCO defines culture as: “The whole complex of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and
emotional features that characterize a society or social group. It includes not only the arts and letters, but also
modes of life, the fundamental rights of the human being, value systems, traditions and beliefs.”

If you consider your own culture as superior from the rest, then your belief is termed as ethnocentrism. On the
other hand, if you are open minded towards other culture without judging them and respect the diverse culture around you
then you believe in cultural relativism. In our present age of technology wherein the world is one-big community and
every human being communicate through the internet from different cultural backgrounds, we cannot help but become a
cultural relativist. We should respect the culture of others because we are all citizens of this world and we are all equal. As
a member of a society, we have no choice but to interact with our fellowmen. In so doing, we can encounter people with
different beliefs, practices or even have different philosophy in life. We are in a multi-cultural society or simply we live
amidst a multiculturalist world wherein multiculturalism should prevail. The word “multi” implies many. According to
Harrison (1994) multiculturalism is a theory about the foundations of a culture rather than a practice which subsumes
cultural ideas. In a broader sense, the term is often use to describe societies which have many distinct cultural groups,
usually as a result of immigration. (Vega, et al, 2009).

Religion and Culture

The evolution of culture is simultaneous with the evolution of man. As man progresses from homo habilis to
homo sapiens, from Old Stone Age to New Stone Age then to Iron Age, Industrial Age and Technological age, significant
changes in the way human acts, lives, or use tools have been observed. This is true in all dimensions of human life
including religion. It was believed that man’s consciousness of the divine can be traced back to the time of the
Neanderthals. Lawrence McKinney observed that, “the discovery of bear skulls with unusual markings indicates the basis
of a primitive religion while others, noting the existence of flower petals and pollen in ancient burial sites, have speculated
on the possibility of Neanderthal funeral rites (McKinney,1994). The reality of death developed into a cultural funeral rite
as a way of respecting the dead. This reality is taken seriously by religion and sought divine aide to solve the riddle of life.

Our experience of the Covid-19 pandemic can attest to this. The sight of people dying left and right in hospitals,
coffins paraded in the streets and millions of people all over the world struggling to survive from this malady triggered
humans to depend on some divine power to intercede. The pandemic as of June, 2020, hit a record high of almost ten (10)
million people affected all over the world and hundreds of thousands of deaths. Since no vaccine is in sight, posts in
Facebook, messenger, Instagram, Twitter and even mainstream media are all dominated by God-related shares in a form
of prayers and pleas for divine intervention. The “new normal culture” is our way of coping our vulnerability. The new
normal culture changes the landscape of our daily lives including religious practices. In the church for example, one
important law is, thou shalt keep Holy the Lord’s day. If one violates this commandment a believer commits a grievous
sin. Under the new normal culture this is not relevant anymore. The church now can accommodate only a few. We can
now attend masses or services at home. The church has to adjust to the new culture. This is how culture influences
religion and vice versa. There are certain periods in history that the intermarriage between culture and religion, the latter
dominates in shaping the way of life of the people. Let us take for example the functions of religion laid down by
Calderon. He assumed that religion also influence not just the religious life but also social, economic and even political
way of life of people.

Religion penetrates the whole dimension of one’s life and society even to non-believers. When the Spaniards
brought Christianity in the Philippines, it changes the social, economic and political life of the people. The Noli Me
Tangere and El Filibusterismo, the two famous novels of our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal reflect how religion dictates the
way of life of the people. How religion became an instrument of power to control the Indios or the Filipinos. Christianity
was used as a sword or weapon to make the natives obey from the whims and caprices of the Spaniards. As history goes
by, the perspective of religion changes. Religion today is used as a weapon not of oppression but of compassion and
solidarity with the poor. From the perspective of Christianity, this is the original intention of the founder, Jesus Christ.

The development of religion is influenced by the cultural milieu where

it belongs. When Christianity was embraced by the Greeks and Romans, it
became a religion of the mind. It became and academic subject devoid of
compassion and mercy. Compassion and mercy are the original values of
Jesus Christ. Thanks to Vatican II which happened in the 1960’s the church
realized that there was a need to retrieve the real spirit of the Bible. The
Vatican Council II of the Catholic Church discussed about the urgency of the
spiritual renewal of the church. It became the marching order from the top
echelon of the Catholic Church from the Pope to the Cardinals, bishops and priests all over the world. This movement
caught fire and duplicated by other Christian denominations and sects. Hence we have now the term, ecumenical
movement or ecumenism. Ecumenism is a movement or tendency toward worldwide Christian unity or cooperation. The
ecumenical movement seeks to recover the apostolic sense of the early church for unity in diversity, and it confronts the
frustrations, difficulties, and ironies of the modern pluralistic world. It is a lively reassessment of the historical sources
and destiny of what followers perceive to be the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church of Jesus Christ. If you look at
the picture of Ghandi, he has a perfect reminder for everyone. He said, “Nobody in this world possesses absolute truth.
This is God’s attribute alone. Relative truth is all we know.” Today, ecumenism is not only exclusive among Christian
churches but it extends towards other religions through the principles of “unity in diversity” and “many paths yet only one
destiny.” Ecumenism simply means that no religion possesses the whole truth as Gandhi reiterates.

ACTIVITY:

Directions: Complete the graphic organizer by writing some culture/s of the region in connection with the
religion that developed there.