RELIGION IN A

DIFFERENT
LIGHT
First things first, we should know
and understand what is
MONOTHEISTIC
RELIGIONS.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

MONOTHEISM is the belief in
only one divine being who deserves
essential recognition
(acknowledgment), reverence
(honor) and allegiance (loyalty).
RELIGION and
THE SOCIAL
SCIENCES
RELIGION as a phenomenon is a complex reality. In
respect to the many religions we have today, religious
ideas and practices were taught as doctrines (policies),
creeds (faith), and rituals (ceremonials), that a believer of
a particular faith such as Roman Catholic needs to abide
with.
In this concept , we approach religion from a social
scientific standpoint (considerations). Meaning, we are
interested in offering a comprehensive picture of different
religions as professed (acknowledged) and practiced by
followers around the world.
RELIGION is also a socially constructed institution with
particular historical contexts (situations) and trajectories (a
path) depending on the physical and social constraints
(limitations) that is faced with.
For example, the beliefs about Allah and prophet
Muhammad, we should also consider the fact that Islam has
been interpreted in different ways in different contexts.
Infact, Muslims in Indonesia and Malaysia are prescribed of
wearing the HIJAB (head covering) while in Saudi Arabia
they are expected to wear the BURQA (leaves only the eyes
uncovered).
The beliefs and practices of a religion have
consequences on its followers and the wider society
that it is part of. IGLESIA NI KRISTO, for
example, endorses specific candidates during
elections, which its followers are expected to strictly
adhere to. Having religious beliefs can also mean
that people who do not belong to one’s group are
seen as heretics (nonconformist) and enemies, this
explains religious violence in many parts of the
world today.
Methodological atheism or the suspension of
belief in the divine is a fundamental character of
any social scientific approach to the study of
religion. This statement, however, is not to deny
the existence of the divine with a particular way of
relating to the world, but an intellectual pursuit
carried out by theology, a discipline, which has a
systematic way of studying the divine.
RELIGION is a search for the order of things. Taken
critically, religion is about the ordering of events, people
and the material world into a coherent (comprehensible)
whole that sometimes takes for granted that there are
tensions or conflicts that take place within it.
RELIGION is also a search for personal meaning. We
realize that inasmuch as religion is a socially constructed
reality, it has psychological consequences on an individual.
We realize that as a worldview, religion find meaning in an
otherwise chaotic world.
DEFINING
RELIGION
There are two ways of defining religion as a social
reality. The first is SUBSTANTIVE, which is
concerned with what constitutes religion. Hence,
religion involves beliefs and practices, “which assume
the existence of supernatural beings”. The main
thinker here is the 19th century English anthropologist
Edward Burnett Taylor who argued that religion was
the attempt of primitive human beings to understand
their inexplicable (mysterious) individual
experiences.
The FUNCTIONAL definition of religion, which is more
concerned with the social consequences of religion. The
French sociologist Emile Durkheim has a famous
definition of religion as a “unified system of beliefs and
practices relative to sacred things”, that is to say, things set
apart and forbidden- beliefs and practices which unite into
one single moral community. Indeed, the communal
dimension is one that resonates with the Latin origins of
the word religion: religare (to bring together) and relegere
( to rehearse thoroughly).
So what definition of
religion must we
adopt?
From the viewpoint of the social sciences, religion is defined
as “a system of beliefs and practices by which a group of
people interprets and responds to what they feel is sacred and
usually, supernatural as well”.
With this definition, there are at least four respects of religion
as a social reality that individuals believed to be easily
recognized as to the religious concern.
First, religion is a collective phenomenon. An individual who
professes a religion is typically associated with a particular
religious organization and some individuals may also feels
some emotional identification with the religious group.
Second, religion is concerned with ordering behavior in
relation to the sacred and/or the supernatural. The sacred is
often associated with entities, events, figures, objects and
sites that are treated with reverence as opposed to those that
are taken for granted in everyday life. Most of the time, the
sacred is imbued (inculcated) with the supernatural as in the
presence of heavenly forces or divine beings that render a
particular text or place holy in the eyes of religious followers.
This is very clear in Christianity and Islam because of the
centrality of divine revelation in the foundation of these
religions.
Third, religion involves a body of beliefs and moral
prescriptions, which are to be expected in religions
mainly because they are guided by texts rendered sacred
by special events or figures. These beliefs can then
cover a wider array of ideas that order knowledge and
reality for the followers. The origins and destiny of life,
concerns about salvation, key events of sacred entities,
and moral principles constitute the body of beliefs that
define religious institutions as distinct from others.
Finally, religion expects its followers to follow a set of
practices that relate to the notion of the sacred. These
practices are typically in the form of individual and
collective rituals involving prayer, worship, purification,
baptism and sacrifice. Practices can also be in line with
moral and behavioral prescriptions. Wearing particular
outfits or avoiding the consumptions of some food,
while commonplace for some, may be deeply religious
for others depending on their convictions (belief).
JUDAISM
 Personal Names from the Hebrew Bible and their
original meanings
Aaron = exalted one Abel = breath Abigail = father is rejoicing
Abraham = father of many Adam = humankind Amos = carried by God
Benjamin = favorite son Daniel = God is my judge David = beloved
Deborah = bee Eve = life Isaac = laughter
Jacob = seizing by the heel Jared = descent Joel = Lord is God
Jonathan = the Lord has given Joshua = Lord’s help Malachi = my messenger
Michael = who is like God? Miriam = rebellion Naomi = my delight
Nathan = gift Noah = rest Oprah = back of the neck
Reuben = behold a son Samuel = name of God Sarah = princess
Judaism is one of the world’s oldest religions, originating
around 3,500 years ago. The two biggest monotheistic
religions, Christianity and Islam, affirm the Torah of Judaism
as God’s revelation and therefore a good news for everybody.
“Hebrews” refer to those who accepted Yahweh as their God.
“Israelites” refer to the descendants of the Hebrews, which
originated from Abraham. His grandson, Jacob, had 12 sons,
and their descendants became known as the 12 tribes of Israel.
Later, Israel was established as a nation-state and Israelites or
Israeli Jews could also refer to citizens of the land.
“Jew” comes from Yehudah or Judah, the Southern Kingdom of
Israel. Now, it is used to refer to someone who practices Judaism
and takes part in Jewish culture.
A list of well-known Jews of our time includes Henry Alfred
Kissinger, Albert Einstein, Jonas Salk, and Hyman Rickover.
Jews believe that being Jewish defines an important and critical
part of their being. Many believe that Judaism tells them the
meaning of life and how to live it. Jews can be atheist
(nonbeliever), orthodox (conventional), or in between.
Conservative Judaism defines the Jew as being born of a Jewish
mother, while Reform Judaism traces it to either a Jewish father
or mother.
If we ask what many Jews could identify with, they point to
the Five Books of Moses (the Torah). The Torah comes “in the
beginning” and explains “where it all began.” This is
important because it forms the critical component of the holy
writings of Judaism. In order to understand Judaic beliefs and
practices, it is important to begin with the story of the Jewish
people to see how their religion is inseparable from their
history. Much of Jewish history is recorded in the Hebrew
Bible (which is the Old Testament for Christians), but we need
to emphasize that these texts were written by the Jews
themselves in the Promised Land.
The Hebrew Bible, also called the Tanakh, is a collection of 24
books, divided into 3 parts: the Torah (“teaching” or “law”), the
Nevi’im (prophets), and the Ketuvim (“writings”). The Torah
contains the early history of Judaism, as well as the law and
teaching “handed down” to Moses by Yahweh or God himself.
Genesis (means origin), for example, is the first book of Torah
and of Hebrew Bible – which tells us the mythic origin of the
entire world. The book begins with the creation story, next it tell
us the story of “The Fall of Man” and the Great Flood where God
only saved Noah and his family as well as two of each living
animal.
The second book, Exodus, begins with the Egyptians being threatened
by the growing population of the Hebrews in their land. They began
treating themselves as slaves, and the Pharaoh also decreed that
Jewish boys must be killed at birth. The baby Moses survived because
her mother left him in a basket along the Nile River. He was found by
Pharaoh’s daughter, and there in Egypt he was called by God through
the burning bush. God introduced Himself to Moses as YHWH (I am
who am), which is often translated as Yahweh or as Jehovah. God
commanded Moses to liberate the Hebrews from the Egyptians and
send them in the land He promised to Abraham – Canaan, the
promised land flowing with milk and honey.
Because of the Pharaoh’s refusal to send the Israelites free,
despite Moses’ bidding, God sent ten plagues to the
Egyptians, but He spared the Jews since they offered the
blood of a sacrificial lamb in their doors. This signifies one
of the greatest feasts of the Jews – the Passover, which
they celebrate annually. The Passover is a week-long
festival of the Jews, whose highlight is a memorial meal,
where they eat symbolic foods, such as unleavened bread,
lamb, and a salad of nuts and fruits.
After the Pharaoh granted leave for the Israelites, Moses led them
to a 40-year journey through the desert to Canaan. The specific
laws about the Passover and rituals were given throughout the last
three books of Torah (Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). But
the most important passing of the law happened in Mt. Sinai,
where Moses met God at the top of the mountain and God gave
him two tablets containing the Ten Commandments, the rules for
Jewish life. There, God made a covenant with His people, He will
care for them, but the Jews must obey the laws that He gave. This
shows why the Jews are diligent in observing their traditional
laws, even until today.