Animal Sacrifice Animal sacrificeis the ritual killing and offering of an animal usually as part of a religious ritual or to appease or maintain favour with a deity. Animal sacrifices were common throughout Europe and the Ancient Near East until the spread of Christianity in Late Antiquity, and continue in some cultures or religions today. Human sacrifice, where it existed, was always much more...
Emptiness Emptiness as a human condition is a sense of generalized boredom, social alienation and apathy. Feelings of emptiness often accompany dysthymia, depression, loneliness, anhedonia, despair, or other mental/emotional disorders, including schizoid personality disorder, post trauma, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizotypal personality disorder and borderline personality disorder. A sense of emptiness is also part of a natural process of...
Religion in Africa Religion in Africa is multifaceted and has been a major influence on art, culture and philosophy. Today, the continent’s various populations and individuals are mostly adherents of Christianity, Islam, and to a lesser extent several traditional African religions. In Christian or Islamic communities, religious beliefs are also sometimes characterized with syncretism with the...
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Mesopotamian Mythology Mesopotamian mythology refers to the myths, religious texts, and other literature that comes from the region of ancient Mesopotamia in modern-day West Asia. In particular the societies of Sumer, Akkad, and Assyria, all of which existed shortly after 3000 BCE and were mostly gone by 400 CE. These works...
Historical Religions Historical religions of the ancient world shared many of the same patterns with each other even though the cultures may never have had any contact with each other. Such as Prehistoric religion, Ancient Egyptian Religion, Ancient Mesopotamian Religion, Brahmanism, Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia, Inca mythology, ancient Greece and Rome, and their Hellenistic descendants. Religious history begins...
Redemption In Theology Redemption in theology is an essential concept in many religions, including Judaism and Christianity. The English word “redemption” means ‘repurchase’ or ‘buy back. See Theology Christianity Main articles: Atonement in Christianity and Salvation in Christianity See also: Redeemer (Christianity) In Christian theology, redemption (Greek: apolutrosis) refers to the deliverance of Christians from sin. It assumes...
Nature Religion A nature religion is a religious movement that believes nature and the natural world is an embodiment of divinity, sacredness or spiritual power. Nature religions include indigenous religions practiced in various parts of the world by cultures who consider the environment to be imbued with spirits and other sacred entities. It also includes contemporary Pagan faiths which are...
Secular Theology Secular theology rejects the substance dualism of modern religion, the belief in two forms of reality required by the belief in heaven, hell, and the afterlife. Secular theology can accommodate a belief in God–as many nature religions do–but as residing in this world and not separately from it....
Middle Eastern Religions Middle Eastern religions originated in the Middle East; namely Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and Iranic religions. Smaller minority religions, such as the Bahá’í Faith, Druze, Nusairism, Manichaeism, Sabianism, Bábism, Yazidism, Mandaeism, Gnosticism, Yarsanism, Samaritanism, Shabakism, Ishikism, Ali-Illahism, Alevism, Yazdânism and Zoroastrianism are also present in the Middle East....
Suicide Attack A suicide attack is an attack on a military or civilian target, in which an attacker intends to kill others, and knows that he or she will most likely die in the process. The means of such attacks have included vehicles filled with explosives, military planes intentionally crashed into ships,...
Born Again Born again, or to experience the new birth, is a phrase, particularly in evangelicalism, that refers to “spiritual rebirth“, or a regeneration of the human spirit from the Holy Spirit, contrasted with physical birth. In contemporary Christian usage, the term is distinct from sometimes similar terms used in mainstream Christianity to refer to...
Native American Church The Native American Church (NAC), also known as Peyotism and Peyote Religion, is a Native American religion that teaches a combination of traditional Native American beliefs and Christianity, with sacramental use of the entheogen peyote. The religion originated in the Oklahoma Territory (1890-1907) in the late nineteenth century, after peyote was...
Religious Syncretism Religious syncretism exhibits blending of two or more religious belief systems into a new system, or the incorporation into a religious tradition of beliefs from unrelated traditions. It is contrasted by the idea of multiple religious belonging and polytheism, respectively. This can occur for many reasons, and the latter scenario...
Syncretism Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, while blending practices of various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus asserting an underlying unity and allowing for an inclusive approach to other faiths. Syncretism also occurs commonly in expressions of...
Rite A rite is an established, ceremonial, usually religious, act. Rites in this sense fall into three major categories: rites of passage, generally changing an individual’s social status, such as marriage, adoption, baptism, coming of age, graduation, or inauguration; communal rites, whether of worship, where a community comes together to worship, such as Jewish synagogue or Mass, or of another character,...
Great Disappointment The Great Disappointment in the Millerite movement was the reaction that followed Baptist preacher William Miller‘s proclamations that Jesus Christ would return to the Earth by 1844, what he called the Advent. His study of the Daniel 8 prophecy during the Second Great Awakening led him to the conclusion that Daniel’s “cleansing of the sanctuary”...
Forced Conversion Forced conversion is adoption of a different religion or irreligion under duress. Someone who has been forced to convert may continue, covertly, with the beliefs and practices originally held, while outwardly behaving as a convert. Crypto-Jews, crypto-Christians, crypto-Muslims and crypto-Pagans are historical examples of the latter. Religion and power In general, anthropologists have shown that...
Taboo A taboo is a prohibition on human activity declared as sacred and forbidden or dangerous or unclean either physically or spiritually. Breaking a taboo may serious consequences, ranging from imprisonment to social ostracism. The idea of a universal taboo is questionable, but some taboos, such as cannibalism, incest, and genocide, occur in the majority of societies. Taboos...
Proselytism Proselytism is the act or fact of religious conversion, and it also includes actions which invite it. The word proselytize is derived from the Greek language prefix (pros-, “toward”) and the verb (érchomai, “I come”) in the form of (prosélytos, “newcomer”). Historically in the Koine Greek Septuagint and New Testament, the word proselyte...
Eastern Religions The Eastern religions are the religions that originated in East, South and Southeast Asia and thus have dissimilarities with Western religions. This includes the East Asian religions (Shintoism, Sindoism, Taoism and Confucianism), Indian religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism) as well as animistic indigenous religions. This East-West religious distinction, just as with the East-West...