PART 2: UNIVERSAL FORMSOF RELIGIOUS EXPRESSIONThings almost every religion has or does

Symbols, Myth,

Doctrine

The Sacred, the Holy

Rituals

Scripture

2 reactions to Sacred Power Fear & awe (avoidance/prohibition) Attraction (ecstasy & mysticism)

The Sacred, the Holy

“mysterium tremendum & fascinans”

What Rudolf Otto calls in The Idea of the Holy

incomprehensible, awe , fear fascinating (adoring, joy producing praise devotion love

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Sacred Power Death & Killing Birth Healing Planting Sex Natural disasters

Actions with

Sacred Power Amulets Fetishes Totems Icons

Objects with

Sacred Power The very old wise

man/woman Prophet The saint /guru/bohdisaatva The healer kings Shaman Priest

People with

Sacred Power The seasons: a repetition of

creation New Year Solstices Harvest Repentance – atonement

Time withp. 49

Sacred Power Rivers: Ganges, Nile, Jordan

PLACES of

Sacred Power Rivers: Ganges, Nile, Jordan Mountains: Mt Fuji, Mt Zion,

PLACES of

Sacred Power Rivers: Ganges, Nile, Jordan Mountains: Mt Fuji, Mt Zion Ocean Sky

PLACES of

Large vast spaces give a sense that we are surrounded by something greater than us from which we come (creaturehood)

Sacred PowerPLACES of

Natural wonders Battlefield Site of tragedy

Sacred PowerPLACES of

Birthplace Place of first

encounter

When an object takes on new, sacred meaning, its called a hierophany*

Greek: hieros = “sacred” phanein = “to appear”

*term coined by Mircea Eliade

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(1907 – 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day. His theory that hierophanies form the basis of religion, splitting the human experience of reality into sacred and profane space and time, has proved influential. One of his most influential contributions to religious studies was his theory of Eternal Return, which holds that myths and rituals do not simply commemorate hierophanies, but, at least to the minds of the religious, actually participate in them.

Axis Mundi

World axis, an opening to a sacred space, navel of the world, where heaven & earth meet

the Ka’ba (Mecca)

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Mt. Kailash (Tibet)Sacred

toHindus, Buddhists and Jains

Sacred Spaces Stupa (Buddhist)

Borobudor in Java

Cambodia, Royal Palace grounds

Sacred Spaces Pagoda Nepal, China, Japan, Korea,

Vietnam (Taoist , Buddhist)

Wooden five-story pagoda of

Horyu-ji in Japan, built in the 7th century, one of the oldest wooden buildings in the world

Sacred Spaces Mosque

Sultan Ahmad Mosque (Haggia Sophia)

Mezquita, Cordoba, Spain

Sacred Spaces Tabernacle

Model of the tabernacle in Timna Park, Israel

: Hebrew: mishkanA portable dwelling place for the holy . (tent)