From Revelations to Theology.

Religions have developed along with the societies in which they thrive, becoming more complex along the way but often with many common elements

Religions frequently claim to have begun with revelations that bring the holy into human life. These revelations may take the form of visions, inner voices, or events.

Moses, for example, was a leader of the ancient Hebrews who brought them out of Egypt in the so-called Exodus (c.1250 BC) after heating God's instructions to do so. Later, he led them to the sacred mountain where God appeared to them in a frightening display of thunder and lightning. Moses went up into the mountain and returned with God's instructions which included the Ten Commandments.

In the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible), the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob received the revelation of the one, true God. This god promised special protection to the Israelite tribes (there were 12 tribes descended from the 12 sons of Jacob, who was also called Israel).

In the New Testament, which comprises early Christian writings proclaiming Jesus as lord and saviour, Gabriel announces the births of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.

Islam developed after the Prophet Muhammad (around 610), had a vision in a cave outside Mecca. In his vision he was called on to preach God's message. The messages from this encounter with the Archangel Gabriel, and subsequent revelations, form the Koran (Islam's holy book) which Muslims believe to be the words of God.

As messengers of God, these prophets revealed a divine plan. They preached repentance and redemption. They stressed belief in one god and talked of the Messiah - someone sent by God to save His people. In the Old Testament of the Bible the prophets shaped Israelite history. Passing on divine truths was only part of their job. They also took on issues of justice and morality, and their writings became sacred literature.

While Judaism is the Western world's oldest living religion, Christianity (and Islam) evolved from it, and came to dominate it.

The main difference between early Christians and Jews was the Christian belief that Jesus was the Messiah.

After Jesus was crucified, his followers formed the first Christian community in Jerusalem. By the middle of the 1st century, missionaries were spreading the new religion among the peoples of Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, Greece, and Italy. Under the leadership of Saint Paul, the foundations of Christian theology were laid and Christianity expanded from a Jewish sect to a world religion.

As a result of Saint Paul's efforts the Christian church had reached most of the great Mediterranean cities by the end of the 1st century. By the beginning of the 4th century, Christianity had become a major force in Greek culture and in 313 it became an official religion of the Roman Empire. By the end of the 4th century, it extended as far as India in the east and Ireland in the west. Over the centuries it continued to expand into northern Europe, and became the main civilizing influence in Europe during the Middle Ages.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the expansion of European trade and colonization, and missionary activity soared. Among the religious orders, the Franciscans, the Dominicans, the Carmelites, and the Jesuits all set up, missions - some to combat heresy, others to establish Christianity in new lands. Jesuit missionaries sent to India and the Far East included Saint Francis Xavier, Matteo Ricci, and Roberto de Nobili. The Recollects (French Franciscans) were the first missionaries to Canada; they were followed by the Jesuits, who explored Canada and the Upper Mississippi. The Franciscans and Jesuits, both joined the Spanish conquerors in Central and South America, and became the most important orders in Mexico and in the Spanish territories that later became part of the United States - Florida, California, and the Southwest. There were so many missionaries that the Roman Catholics set up the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (known as the Propaganda) in 1622 to settle disputes between rival missionary orders.

Although Protestant missionaries such as John Eliot and Roger Williams ministered to Indians in New England in the 17th century, and Protestant missions began in India in 1706, the Protestant churches didn't have the zeal of the Roman Catholic missionaries.

Still, the 19th century is seen as the great era of expansion for Christianity. That was when missionary societies were established in both Europe and the United States and European colonialism was at its peak. Both Protestants and Roman Catholics sent missionaries to almost every country on Earth, and medical missionaries began to provide medical and educational assistance as well as spiritual help.

The result of these efforts is a worldwide Christian church with about 1.9 billion followers.

Islam is the world's second largest religion, after Christianity. Its approximately one billion adherents, called Muslims, comprise about one-sixth of the Earth's population. The Muslim world extends from the Philippines in the east to Morocco in the west, and from Central Asia in the north to sub-Saharan Africa in the south. Significant Muslim minorities also exist in China, Russia, South Africa, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. Islam was first proclaimed by the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the 7th century. Islam also is a monotheistic religion (belief in one god); as with Judaism and Christianity, it traces its origins to the biblical patriarch Abraham.

But Islam is more than a religion: it is a way of life. The prophet Muhammad's rule in the Arabian city of Medina produced the earliest Islamic institutions, including those of religious-political authority, law, and economic organization. It was then that Islam also spread throughout Arabia and was established as a society. Muhammad died in 632, but in the next 30 years his successors continued a remarkable expansion of his teachings.

The most important Islamic cultural zones are the Arab, Persian (Iranian), Turkic, South Asian, Malay, and African. Other smaller or more recent culture areas such as the African American and Chinese are also significant.

The Arabs are associated with the rise of Islam, Arabic is Islam's sacred language, and the Arab countries of the Middle East have had a strong influence on the development of Islamic civilization. But most Muslims are not Arabs. The country with the largest Muslim population today is Indonesia, and the most populous Islamic area is South Asia, comprising India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Long before any of this happened in the Western world, East Indians had created Hinduism, one of the great religions of the world. It is India's major religion with nearly 85% of the people classified as Hindu. Hinduism has developed over about 4,000 years. It doesn't have a single founder or creed, but consists of a wide variety of beliefs and practices. Neither does it have much in the way of organization and there is no hierarchy. Unlike most Western religions, Hinduism involves respect for an ideal way of life, known as dharma, rather than adherence to a specific doctrine.

Everything is sacred to a Hindu, so almost anything may be considered worthy of devotion.

The period from roughly 500 BC to 1000 AD is sometimes described as that of classical Hinduism. This was when the major literature was composed, the great philosophical systems developed, and the basic two Hindu sects - Vaishnava and Shaiva - organized. After 1000, it swept through the entire country along with social reform.

Other religious movements grew from Hinduism, notably Buddhism, which was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. He lived in northern India from about 560 BC to about 480 BC.

The time of the Buddha was also one of social and religious change, marked by the further advance of Aryan (Indo-European) civilization into the Ganges Plain. This saw the development of trade and cities, the breakdown of old tribal structures, and the rise of a whole spectrum of new religious movements that reflected the times. Of the new sects, Buddhism was the most successful and ultimately spread throughout India and most of Asia.

It eventually split apart in India - partly by re-absorption into the Hindu tradition, partly by persecution by the Muslim invaders - by the 13th century.

But, before its demise in India, Buddhism had already spread throughout Asia. India's Emperor Asoka had a lot to do with this expansion in the 3rd century BC. He converted to Buddhism, actively supported the religion and sought to spread the dharma (the ideal way of life). He is said to have sent his son, Mahinda, to Sri Lanka (Ceylon) as a missionary. Buddhism quickly took root and prospered there. Asoka is also thought to have sent missionaries along the established trade routes west and north to Central Asia, preaching the dharma as they went. By the early centuries AD, Buddhism, along with the spread of Indian culture, had established itself in large areas of Southeast Asia, as far as Indonesia.

At the same time - by the 1st century AD - Central Asian Buddhist monks were moving into China. Buddhists initially became very influential at the Chinese court, and soon their views influenced the philosophical and literary circles of the gentry. But the Indian Buddhists also adapted to Chinese worldviews, particularly stressing the importance the Chinese place on the family.

Buddhism in China also saw the rise of new sects, many of which were later moved to Japan.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. Saint Boniface, the apostle of Germany, Saint Patrick, Ireland's apostle, and Saint Augustine of Canterbury were notable Christian missionaries. Research their lives to find out how they influenced the spread of Christianity.

2. In his book, "The Gifts of the Jews," Thomas Cahill describes the Israelites as the first people to value rest and leisure, the importance of education and the idea of individual and collective freedom. He tracks the growing spiritual evolution of a people, explaining how monotheism (belief in one god) led to individuality and eventually all the ideas that modern society cherishes: mercy, freedom, progress, hope, and justice. Discuss Mr. Cahill's ideas.

Websites

Buddhism in Canada - http:// www.interlog.com/~klima/b/ canada.html

The Canadian Society of Muslims - http://muslim-canada.org/

Judaism Links - http:/ /www.shamash.org/trb/judaism.html

Hinduism - http:// www.hindunet.org/

FACT FILE

Aristotle attacked myths as fanciful stories that had nothing to do with truth about human life and the world.

In the 20th century, many Christians joined in the ecumenical movement to work for church unity, which resulted in the formation of the World Council of Churches.

RELATED ARTICLE: BELIEFS

As religious traditions develop, they lead to systems of belief that include practices and a specific doctrine. In early or primitive traditions, this usually came in the form of myth or in ritual. Some of the most important themes in myths involve creation and origins, the birth of gods and divine beings, death and the afterlife, and the renewal and rebirth of the world. When traditions develop an extensive literate class, theology often replaces myth, refining and elaborating belief. As the belief system expands, there's more to study and more to disagree about, so religions within themselves often develop various levels of beliefs.

RELATED ARTICLE: WHEN IN ROME 

When the Roman Empire became officially Christian in the 4th century AD, the Jews (particularly in the Eastern Empire) were subject to many discriminatory laws. They were no longer allowed to seek or even accept converts. In the Western Empire, some Christians met with grim times as well under the Romans, because they refused to recognize the divinity of the Roman emperor. As a result, they were subjected to a number of savage persecutions by the Roman authorities. But, many Christians welcomed death as a martyr as an opportunity to share in the sufferings of Jesus, and Christianity continued to grow despite all attempts to suppress it.

RELATED ARTICLE: THE ONE AND ONLY

Many 19th-century scholars said that monotheism - belief in one god - gradually emerged out of polytheism - belief in more than one god. They said the evolution was complete only with the great prophets in the 8th century BC and later. Today, many are convinced that monotheism was already a reality in the days of Moses (13th century BC) and that later prophets further developed only the ethical and spiritual implications of the belief.