0.b.clasificación de las religiones

CLASIFICACIÓN DE LAS
RELIGIONES

Classification of
religions
(宗教分类)
Axial Age
(轴向时代)

Introduction
• To trying to classify a religion is in a way to
betray its diversity, to reduce the multiplicity
of the personal religious experience and its
influence in the knitting of the sociological
web.

Introduction
• If we speak of Hinduism as only one religion,
then we betray to speak of the differences
within Hinduism of the followers of Vishnu or
Shiva or the differences between the religious
beliefs and practices of the peoples of
Northern India or those of South of India.

Introduction
• Same can be said about Catholics. We cannot
speak of one Catholic religion without taking
into account the fact that each one of the
people professing it has a different
understanding and interpretation of the same
religious phenomena.
• This diversity thwarts any intent of offering a
unique and generalized vision of the religion.

Introduction
• However, being well aware of the possibility of
reducing the richness of the religious
experience and its capability to structure
social life and relationships certain level of
classification can be made.

Introduction
• When classifying religions, what we try to
achieve first of all, is to make the religious
phenomena understandable and offer a
certain coherence which will help us grasp this
complex reality.
• I take some criteria, very personal obviously
and thus questionable, in order to shed some
light into this matter.

Introduction
• One of the criteria is to make a clear cut
separation between religions which are alive
and have followers and dead or extinct
religions.

Introduction
 Thus, the religions of the Ancient Egypt or the
Incas or Mayas, which I classify among the
Imperial religions, were characterized because
they divinized their monarchs as monarchs were
considered to be essential principles of order,
both social and cosmic, will be given less space
here than the Chinese imperial religions, such as
Confucianism, very much alive in our times and
one which has influenced the society not only of
China, but also of Korea, Japan, Vietnam and
large number of peoples in Southeast Asia.

Introduction
• Other criteria to classify religions can be
numerical and statistical, “big” and “small”
religions.
• This may sound a bit frivolous in the best of
the cases because the influence of a religion in
the society may not always be proportional to
the number of its followers.

Introduction
• Thus, it is obvious that the personal influence
of the Pope and of Dalai Lama in today’s
society differ dramatically.
• Due to the fact that religions in a globalize
world tend to work as lobbying institutions,
the numeric aspect of a religions groups
becomes important.

Introduction
 On the contrary, it may happen that the
followers of a religion, although small in
numbers, yet influence society dramatically. This
may be the case of Judaism with roughly 20
million followers, cannot be counted among the
“small” religions, due to their influence in the
world; which would be the case of the Sikhism,
with the same number of followers and is not
included among the “big” religions.
 Judaism, in spite of its proportionally small
numbers, has some characteristics which makes
it an interesting religion to study:

Introduction
– its antiquity, its character of being a national
religion, its influence in the Christian religion, its
remarkable dynamism in spite of the frequent
historical challenges from which it has always
made a come back.
• Other criteria to classify religions could be to
study them either on a chronological or
geographical manner.

Introduction
 We must be careful however in not classifying
religions neither in Eastern or Western nor in
Northern or Southern religions.
 To classify religions on such geographical
terms takes us back to the earlier Euro
centered classifications and colonial
background.
 In today’s world the East is very much present
in the West, the South in the North and vice
versa.

Introduction
• Yet other criteria to classify religions can be of
economic nature thus dividing religions in
agricultural or non-agricultural, industrial or
post-industrial religions.
• Thus, I propose the following classification of
religions: Ethnic, Imperial, National, Universal,
Modern and Future.

1. Ethnic Religions (种族宗教)
• Ethnicity is a concept that refers to the
deepest sources of identity among human
groups and in any case to those forms of
religious and social behavior prior to the
encounters with colonial powers.

• These colonial powers went in many cases as
far as to control absolutely the cultures of
these human groups and to suppress or totally
transform their social and religious network.

• I prefer using the term “ethnic” rather than
“primitive” or “natural” because these latter
terms, constructed from religio-euro centered
presuppositions, have political and economic
connotations which tended to consider the
followers of the “primitive” or “natural”
religions as backward, underdeveloped and
ignorant human groups.

• One of the most important characteristics of
ethnic religions is that religion is the binding
and identity creating element in an economic
system in which sharing of power and the
beginning and development of new ideas and
projects affect to a relatively small group of
people often connected by broad familial
relationships.

• In sharp contrast with other imperial or
national religions into which some of these
ethnic religions developed, where new
elements which provided group identity
emerged, such as the concept of sovereign,
the safeguard of imperial and national
boundaries, ethnic religions tended to remain
always as small and localized group.

• Another characteristic of the ethnic religions is
the practice of transition rituals in which
manipulation of deceased people could be
one of the most significant aspects.

 In ancient tombs we can find a large number of
items and utensils which provide us with a rich
symbolic interpretation of the intentionality of
the peoples using such objects.
 The deceased person has gone to the world of
the ancestors, thus, becoming a members of
those who are going to continue protecting the
people from evil spirits and help provide them
with the necessary food in due time.

• By naming the new members of the social group
with the name of ancestors, the community tries
to bring the spirit of the ancestors to the here
and now of the history of the people.
• In these religions, rituals are aimed at
maintaining the constant interaction between the
deceased and the living people now.
• Another characteristic is the ritualization of the
relationship of people with food and the way
food comes.

 Thus, game, fishing, and the killing of animals
is ritualized so as to avoid any adverse
influence between the killed animal’s spirit
and the people who eat them.
 Also important in this type of religion is the
ritualization of the ways of procreation, in
which not only the initiation rituals are very
well controlled and organized, but also the
number of new births the groups will be able
to maintain.

 Another important characteristic is that ethnic
religions carry in their theology the concept of
living spirits that animate the so many cosmic
events of which people did not have a rational
explanation.
 Thus, cadavers possessed an invisible life,
heaven and earth carried also their own spirits,
the thunder, the ocean and the rivers, certain
type of trees and animals were believed to hold
spirits.
 These spirits needed to be placed under control.

• Thus we can see the arrival of shamans and
magicians, with power to perform certain
rituals in order to appease the negative and at
times violent works of the spirits.
• These ethnic religions are considered to be
pre-axial religions, due mainly to their
closeness to the nature and the rituals that
are performed following the natural events of
the alternation of seasons.

2. Imperial Religions (帝国宗教)
• The main characteristic of the imperial religions
reside on the centrality of the symbolic role
which is attributed to the sovereign on whom the
identity of the whole group of the followers of
these religions seem to rest.
• The geographic and cultural boundaries of the
imperial religions, compared with those of the
ethnic religions, are broader and cross
boundaries, and tend to place the symbolic figure
of the ruler—which can acquire different levels of
supernatural status—above ritual and theological
structures.

• We can find this type of imperial religions
already present at the end of the third
millennium before our common era, along the
Nile River in Egypt or between the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia.
• Same characteristics may be found in the pre-
Columbus America with the Maya, Aztec and
Incan nations.

• China may be considered as an example
where the imperial religion has survived the
longest period in the history of religions.
• The emperor was de mediator between
heaven and earth, but he was never divinized.
• The model of a monarch-sage who would hold
to the highest moral standards in his life-style
was the most remarkable aspect of this
religion.

 Only a monarch-sage abiding to the highest
moral and ethical standards would be capable of
bringing peace and prosperity to all his subjects
and also urging them to abide by the same
principles.
 When the people would move away from these
moral principles and chaos took hold of the
people, the cause of disorder was always found
in the monarch who ceased to be moral and
ethical.

 Confucianism is then an imperial religion
whose aim was to establish a structure in
which the monarch returned to his position of
being the model ruler, mediator between
heaven and earth, and on the people to live
according to the norms of nature, expounded
in the concept of filial piety (孝 Xiao).
 Other examples of the imperial religions can
be found among the Greeks in the 4th century
BC.

• With the conquests of Alexander de Great, the
whole Egyptian religious system was brought
to Greece, and slowly adapted into the
political live of Greece first and Roman world
later, where the emperors were granted divine
origin, a title that was used to justify
dominion, power and wars to acquire more
territory and extend their rule.

3. National Religions (国家宗教)
• The concept “national” we use here goes
beyond the concept “nation-state” generated
by modernity.
• An important characteristic of national
religions is that the group’s sociological
cohesion is of paramount importance.

• These religions tend to have an exclusive or
little inclusive character.
• Rituals, the narrations of the myths of origin,
even their theology underline the importance
of the social identity as group or nation in
which the internal conflicts are minimized to
the extreme by creating internal bonds of
strong solidarity.

 Judaism can be considered an example of this
type of national religion, also Mazdeism in Iran
and Shinto’s in Japan.
 But we can include in this group also the
Catholics of Poland or Ireland, and the Anglicans
in England, in which the group’s religion has
been used also to express a tremendous sense of
identity and internal solidarity in their
relationships with other social and religious
groups around them.

• The need of this strong identity as group has
transformed some of these groups also into
the model of nation-state.

4. Universal Religions ( 普世宗教)
• Universal religions are characterized because
they consider the whole of the human family
as possible candidates to join in their religious
ranks.
• The message these religions offers transcends
also ethnic or national boundaries.

• Among the followers of these universal
religions we can find a great diversity of
peoples and ways of thinking united around
the same doctrine based also on some sort of
universal behavioral principles which
transcend cultures, ethnic groups and social
divides.

• These religions carry in their internal structure
a great capacity to adapt to different political
powers and thus showing their ability to
survive all sorts of crises.
• These religions can be considered the longest
living religions.
• In these religions we can include Hinduism,
Taoism, Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam,
and Sikhism.

5. Modern Religions (现代宗教)
• With the concept “modern” religions it is
intended to highlight the impact of modernity
in the new type of relationship which has
taken place between individuals, society, and
the religious element.

• New playing rules, new references on which
to build personal and social identities, and
new Cosmo visions seem to be the identifying
characteristics of the peoples of today’s
societies.
• The individual is the center as we try to look
for new identities: we speak about rights,
freedom, duties.

• Social identity is based on the concept of
nation, and today more and more we are
moving toward a global identity with global
institutions.
• Science seems to be able to give an
explanation of almost all human questions,
and thus, religions are asked to set aside or
just to disappear.

• With the consumer’s society, religion is
allowed to remain, but just as one more
product among many susceptible to be chosen
when people so wish.
• The reality is that the dream of modernism
which believed that the exponential growth of
goods and machines would result in
prosperity and happiness for all has terribly
failed to become a reality.

• In fact, we are faced now with more
inequalities and social unbalances.
• The post-industrial era seems to be good news
only for small minorities of privileged people.

• On top of this we need to mention the
environmental mess and the impossibility of
maintaining a sustainable growth.
• A modern person, who has such a faith in
machines, has not been prepared to accept
the failure of the medical advances in fighting
disease and preventing death.

• One of these modern religions can be
considered the effort developed by August
Comte (1789-1857) which he called “religion
of humanity” based not in principles of
revelation, or holy scriptures, but on rational
and logic grounds capable of solving human
conflicts and susceptible of mediating
between conflicting social forces.

 One other modern religion is the Baha’i Faith,
a religion founded by Baha’u’llah in 19th
century Persia.
 Baha’is number around 6 million in more than
200 countries around the world.
 According to Baha’i teachings, religious
history is seen as an evolving educational
process for mankind, through God's
messengers, which are termed
Manifestations of God.

 Baha’u’llah is seen as the most recent,
pivotal, but not final of these individuals.
 He claimed to be the expected redeemer and
teacher prophesied in Judaism, Christianity,
Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other
religions, and that his mission was to
establish a firm basis for unity throughout the
world, and inaugurate an age of peace and
justice, which Baha’is expect will inevitably
arise.

• Yet another type of modern religion is the
“New Age” religion.
• Unlike most formal religions, it has no holy
text, central organization, membership, formal
clergy, geographic centre, dogma, creed, etc.

• They often use mutually exclusive definitions
for some of their terms.
• The New Age is in fact a free-flowing spiritual
movement; a network of believers and
practitioners who share somewhat similar
beliefs and practices.

• Their book publishers take the place of a
central organization;
– seminars, conventions, books and informal groups
replace of sermons and religious services.

• Quoting John Nesbit:
"In turbulent times, in times of great change, people head
for the two extremes: fundamentalism and personal,
spiritual experience...With no membership lists or even
a coherent philosophy or dogma, it is difficult to define
or measure the unorganized New Age movement. But
in every major U.S. and European city, thousands who
seek insight and personal growth cluster around a
metaphysical bookstore, a spiritual teacher, or an
education centre."

• Finally we consider the religion of Scientology
which is the study and handling of the spirit in
relationship to itself, others and all of life.
• The Scientology religion comprises a body of
knowledge extending from certain
fundamental truths.

• Prime among these:
– Man is an immortal, spiritual being.
– His experience extends well beyond a single lifetime.
– His capabilities are unlimited, even if not presently
realized — and those capabilities can be realized.
– He is able to not only solve his own problems,
accomplish his goals and gain lasting happiness, but
also achieve new, higher states of awareness and
ability.

• In Scientology no one is asked to accept anything
as belief or on faith. That which is true for you is
what you have observed to be true.
• An individual discovers for himself that
Scientology works by personally applying its
principles and observing or experiencing results.
• Through Scientology, people all over the world
are achieving the long-sought goal of true
spiritual release and freedom.

6. Religions of the Future
(将来的宗教)
 The role of religions in a globalize world, far from
disappearing, seems to increase its influence at
all levels of human existence.
 We observe that in countries where an ideology,
which may played a decisive role and in fact
functioned as religion in conscience building of
the masses of people, after its collapsed, has
created a vacuum which is being occupied by
traditional religions.
 This is the case of Russia, Cuba, and China.

(将来的宗教)
• We may offer 4 models of the structure of the
religions of the future.
1.The first could be called the theocratic or
hierarchical model, which proposes to establish a
global political system upon a certain religion.
– A good number of fundamentalist followers of
religions support this religious model.
2.The second model could be one that proposes a
national official religion.
– This model presupposes the virtual identity of nation
and religion.

(将来的宗教)
3. Third model could be called a laic model of
religion, which was born out of the French
Revolution with a clear separation of the
religious phenomena from its social
implications.
– Thus, religion was reduced to the sphere of the
private, while the social element was elevated to
the sphere of the politics.

(将来的宗教)
4. The final model could be called multi-
religious model.
– No preference is shown on any given religion, all
are equal, and the state sees to it that the
religious values which each religion brings to play
for the wellbeing of the society are given equal
place in the religious praxis.

0.b.clasificación de las religiones

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