Systems of Religious and Spiritual Belief

신앙체계

• 2.1 NATURE AS A SACRED TOTALITY
• 2.2 HEAVEN AND EARTH AS SACRED SPACES, FORCES, OR PROCESSES
  • 2.2.1 Heaven.
    • 2.2.1.1 The father of the family.
    • 2.2.1.2 The withdrawn god.
    • 2.2.1.3 The first among equals.
    • 2.2.1.4 Heaven and earth deities as partners.
    • 2.2.1.5 The god of heaven viewed dualistically.
    • 2.2.1.6 The god of heaven viewed monotheistically.
  • 2.2.2 Earth.
    • 2.2.2.1 Mountains.
    • 2.2.2.2 Earthquakes.
    • 2.2.2.3 Tides.
• 2.3 CELESTIAL PHENOMENA AS OBJECTS OF WORSHIP OR VENERATION
  • 2.3.1 The sun.
    • 2.3.1.1 The sun as the centre of a state religion.
    • 2.3.1.2 The sun as a subordinate deity.
    • 2.3.1.3 The sun and moon as a divine pair.
    • 2.3.1.4 The sun as an attribute of the highest being.
    • 2.3.1.5 The sun as a mythical being.
  • 2.3.2 The moon.
  • 2.3.3 Eclipses of the sun and moon.
  • 2.3.4 Stars and constellations.
• 2.4 ELEMENTS AND FORCES OF NATURE
  • 2.4.1 Water.
    • 2.4.1.1 Water as primal matter.
    • 2.4.1.2 Water as an instrument for purification and expiation.
    • 2.4.1.3 Water as a vivifying force.
    • 2.4.1.4 Water as fructifying.
    • 2.4.1.5 Water as a revealing or judging instrument.
  • 2.4.2 Fire.
  • 2.4.3 Weather.
• 2.5 WORSHIP OF ANIMALS
  

• 3.1 IMPORTANCE IN THE STUDY OF MAN AND RELIGION
• 3.2 THEORETICAL ISSUES
  • 3.2.1 Tylor's theory of animism.
  • 3.2.2 Counter theories.
• 3.3 ANIMISTIC PHENOMENA IN THEIR SOCIAL CONTEXTS
  • 3.3.1 Particularism.
  • 3.3.2 Ceremonialism.
• 3.4 THE ANIMISTIC WORLD VIEW
  

• 4.1 THE NATURE OF TOTEMISM
  • 4.1.1 Group totemism.
  • 4.1.2 Individual totemism.
• 4.2 SOME EXAMPLES OF TOTEMISM
  • 4.2.1 Wiradjuri.
  • 4.2.2 Nor-Papua.
  • 4.2.3 Iban.
  • 4.2.4 Birhor.
  • 4.2.5 Kpelle.
• 4.3 A SHORT HISTORY OF TOTEMISTIC THEORY
  • 4.3.1 McLennan to Thurnwald.
  • 4.3.2 Durkheim to Radcliffe-Brown.
  • 4.3.3 Lévi-Strauss.
  • 4.3.4 Present situation and emerging trends.
    

• 5.1 NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE
• 5.2 BASIC PATTERNS AND FUNCTIONS
• 5.3 ANCESTOR WORSHIP IN RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD
  • 5.3.1 In nonliterate societies.
  • 5.3.2 In Eastern societies.
  • 5.3.3 In ancient Middle Eastern and European societies.
• 5.4 THEORIES AND INTERPRETATIONS
  

• 6.1 THE NATURE OF POLYTHEISM
• 6.2 FORMS OF POLYTHEISTIC POWERS, GODS, AND DEMONS
  • 6.2.1 Natural forces and objects.
  • 6.2.2 Vegetation.
  • 6.2.3 Animal and human forms.
  • 6.2.4 Functional deities.
• 6.3 TYPES OF POLYTHEISM
  • 6.3.1 Greco-Roman religion.
  • 6.3.2 Germanic, Scandinavian, Celtic, and Slavic mythologies.
  • 6.3.3 Egypt and the Middle East.
  • 6.3.4 Early Indo-Iranian religions.
  • 6.3.5 Classical and modern Hinduism.
  • 6.3.6 Buddhism.
  • 6.3.7 Far Eastern religions.
  • 6.3.8 Religions of ancient Meso-America.
  • 6.3.9 Modern ethnic religions in Africa and elsewhere.
    

• 7.1 NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE
  • 7.1.1 Immanence or transcendence.
  • 7.1.2 Monism, dualism, or pluralism.
  • 7.1.3 Time or eternity.
  • 7.1.4 The world as sentient or insentient.
  • 7.1.5 God as absolute or relative.
  • 7.1.6 The world as real or illusory.
  • 7.1.7 Freedom or determinism.
  • 7.1.8 Sacramentalism or secularism.
• 7.2 DIVERSE VIEWS OF THE RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD
  • 7.2.1 Hylozoistic pantheism.
  • 7.2.2 Immanentistic pantheism.
  • 7.2.3 Absolutistic monistic pantheism.
  • 7.2.4 Relativistic monistic pantheism.
  • 7.2.5 Acosmic pantheism.
  • 7.2.6 Identity of opposites pantheism.
  • 7.2.7 Classical Theism.
  • 7.2.8 Neoplatonic or emanationistic pantheism.
  • 7.2.9 Panentheism.
• 7.3 PANTHEISM AND PANENTHEISM IN NON-WESTERN CULTURES
  • 7.3.1 Hindu doctrines.
  • 7.3.2 Buddhist doctrines.
  • 7.3.3 Ancient Middle Eastern doctrines.
• 7.4 PANTHEISM AND PANENTHEISM IN ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
  • 7.4.1 Greco-Roman doctrines.
  • 7.4.2 Medieval doctrines.
• 7.5 PANTHEISM AND PANENTHEISM IN MODERN PHILOSOPHY
  • 7.5.1 Renaissance and post-Renaissance doctrines.
  • 7.5.2 Nineteenth-century doctrines.
    • 7.5.2.1 German Idealism.
    • 7.5.2.2 Monism and panpsychism.
  • 7.5.3 Twentieth-century doctrines.
• 7.6 CRITICISM AND EVALUATION OF PANTHEISM AND PANENTHEISM
  

• 8.1 NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE
  • 8.2 HISTORICAL VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS DUALISM
  • 8.2.1 Among ancient civilizations and peoples.
    • 8.2.1.1 Egypt and Mesopotamia.
    • 8.2.1.2 Greece and the Hellenistic world.
    • 8.2.1.3 Iran.
  • 8.2.2 Among religions of the East.
    • 8.2.2.1 India.
    • 8.2.2.2 China.
  • 8.2.3 Among religions of the West.
    • 8.2.3.1 Judaism.
    • 8.2.3.2 Christianity.
  • 8.2.4 Among religions of modern nonliterate peoples.
• 8.3 THEMES OF RELIGIOUS DUALISM
  • 8.3.1 The sacred and the profane.
  • 8.3.2 Good and evil.
  • 8.3.3 Creation and destruction: life and death.
  • 8.3.4 Polytheistic themes.
• 8.4 FUNCTIONS OF RELIGIOUS DUALISM
  • 8.4.1 Cosmological and cosmogonic functions.
  • 8.4.2 Anthropological functions.
  • 8.4.3 Sociological functions.
    

• 9.1 THE SPECTRUM OF VIEWS: MONOTHEISMS AND QUASI-MONOTHEISMS
  • 9.1.1 The basic monotheistic view.
  • 9.1.2 The extreme positions.
    • 9.1.2.1 Exclusive monotheism.
    • 9.1.2.2 Unlimited polytheism.
  • 9.1.3 The middle positions.
    • 9.1.3.1 Inclusive monotheism.
    • 9.1.3.2 Henotheism, or kathenotheism.
  • 9.1.4 Alternate positions.
    • 9.1.4.1 Pluriform monotheism.
    • 9.1.4.2 Religious dualism.
    • 9.1.4.3 Pantheism and panentheism.
    • 9.1.4.4 Primitive monotheism.
• 9.2 MONOTHEISM IN THE WORLD RELIGIONS
  • 9.2.1 Classical monotheism.
    • 9.2.1.1 Religion of Israel and Judaism.
    • 9.2.1.2 Christianity.
    • 9.2.1.3 Islam.
  • 9.2.2 Monotheistic elements in ancient Middle Eastern and Mediterranean religions.
    • 9.2.2.1 Egyptian religion.
    • 9.2.2.2 Babylonian religion.
    • 9.2.2.3 Greco-Roman religions.
  • 9.2.3 Monotheistic elements in Indian and Chinese religions.
    

• 10.1 THEISM IN WESTERN THOUGHT
  • 10.1.1 God encountered as person.
  • 10.1.2 The existence of God.
    • 10.1.2.1 The influence of Plato and Aristotle.
    • 10.1.2.2 The causal argument.
    • 10.1.2.3 The ontological argument.
    • 10.1.2.4 The reference to value and design.
  • 10.1.3 The problem of particular knowledge of God.
    • 10.1.3.1 Theism and natural theology.
    • 10.1.3.2 Theism and religious experience.
    • 10.1.3.3 Theism and religious language.
  • 10.1.4 The nature of God in modern thought.
    • 10.1.4.1 Theism and incarnation.
    • 10.1.4.2 Humanism and transcendence.
    • 10.1.4.3 The idea of a finite God.
  • 10.1.5 Theism in Islam.
• 10.2 THEISM IN EASTERN THOUGHT
  • 10.2.1 Hindu theism.
  • 10.2.2 Buddhism and theism.
  • 10.2.3 Theism in other religions.
    

• 11.1 NATURE AND SCOPE
• 11.2 THE HISTORICAL DEISTS
• 11.2.1 The English Deists.
• 11.2.2 Deists in other countries.
  

• 12.1 NATURE AND KINDS OF AGNOSTICISM
  • 12.1.1 Huxley's nonreligious agnosticism.
  • 12.1.2 Religious agnosticism.
• 12.2 HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF MODERN AGNOSTICISM
  • 12.2.1 Antecedents of secular agnosticism.
  • 12.2.2 Antecedents of religious agnosticism.
• 12.3 INCOMPATIBILITY WITH FIDEISM
• 12.4 REJECTIONS OF THE AGNOSTIC PRINCIPLE
  

• 13.1 ATHEISM AS REJECTION OF RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
• 13.2 ATHEISM AND THEISM
• 13.3 ATHEISM AND METAPHYSICAL BELIEFS
• 13.4 ATHEISM AND INTUITIVE KNOWLEDGE
• 13.5 COMPREHENSIVE DEFINITION OF ATHEISM
  

• 14.1 Nature worship:
• 14.2 Animism:
• 14.3 Totemism:
• 14.4 Ancestor worship:
• 14.5 Polytheism:
• 14.6 Pantheism and panentheism:
• 14.7 Religious dualism:
• 14.8 Monotheism:
• 14.9 Theism:
• 14.10 Deism:
• 14.11 Agnosticism:
• 14.12 Atheism:

1 Introduction

Man, it has been said, is incurably religious. This is an epigrammatic and somewhat facetious statement of the most impressive feature of religions--their wide distribution. All through human history and all through present-day societies, there appears some systematic relation to what is regarded as sacred. To cover all these phenomena, however, the definition of religion must be so comprehensive as to become ambiguous, if not meaningless. Each successive broadening of the geographic horizon, moreover, has necessitated a redefinition of religion to include unfamiliar phenomena and to exclude features that had been part of the older definition because of a generalization based on too few forms. (see also  religious belief)

This article examines the structural categories into which religious and spiritual belief systems, and various repudiations of such systems, are conventionally grouped for comparison and contrast. The more particularized elements of belief within such systems and of practice or worship are treated cross-culturally in the Macropædia articles DOCTRINES AND DOGMAS, RELIGIOUS ; and RITES AND CEREMONIES, SACRED , respectively. The particular religions themselves are discussed in the Macropædia in either of two ways: articles on the non-surviving religions of ancient peoples are grouped under the regional headings MIDDLE EASTERN RELIGIONS, ANCIENT ; and EUROPEAN RELIGIONS, ANCIENT ; and individual articles on the particular extant religions are to be found under their respective names (e.g., CHRISTIANITY ; ISLAM, MUHAMMAD AND THE RELIGION OF ; ZOROASTRIANISM AND PARIISM ). The history and methods of the study of religions are discussed in the Macropædia article RELIGIONS, THE STUDY AND CLASSIFICATION OF .