means differs from country to country and even from religion to religion. In Islam, the notion that religion is separate from daily life is unthinkable: it is a way of life rather than a faith. Similarly, Hindus see what they believe as being how they live. There is no sense of one set of beliefs for everyday life and another for religious life. In fact, Hinduism as a term of reference to a ‘religion’ is an external creation: the name was introduced by the Persians to describe all beliefs in India – across the River Indus. Judaism is also particular, since it is both a way of life and an ethnic identity – though not always linked to religious belief or practice. For many people, religious identity goes hand in hand with ethnic, social and cultural identity. Thus, questions about how much a religion is practised are not appropriate to Indonesia, for example, nor to large swathes of Africa,
South America or even China. For many people, religion is not a choice. They are born into a given set of values and beliefs. Unless some major trauma shakes them or they move right away from their own culture, the religion of their birth remains lifelong. This pattern can be disturbed. Certain religions and new religious movements are committed to conversion, and the arrival of missionaries can change religious allegiance. In areas where religions are expanding quickly – notably in Eastern Europe and Africa – religious commitment often carries with it powerful social, political and ethnic identity.
Popular Religions
Allegiance to a single religion is professed by at least two-thirds of the population in more than 80% of the world’s states.
In the 3rd century BCE, the Emperor Ashoka, whose empire covered most of present-day India and Pakistan, sent out missionaries to spread the Buddhist teachings from Sri Lanka to Egypt. Prior to this, religions appear to have been ethnically or culturally based, with no principle of seeking to convert others to a different way of life. The rise of the missionary ushered in a new world of international religions. By the 1st century BCE, Judaism had become a missionary religion, and from it sprang the two most successful missionary religions in history: Christianity in the 1st century CE and Islam in the 7th century. The European trading nations brought about the next major change. From 1450 onwards, Portugal, Spain, England and the Netherlands followed new sea routes both westwards, to
Americas, and eastward to Asia, because Islam was blocking the old trade routes through the Middle East. This is why southern Africa, the Americas, Australasia and the Pacific islands are now largely Christian. Russia, similarly avoiding Islamic countries, expanded across Siberia and arrived north of China in the late 17th century.
Arrivals
The rise of the missionary religions and seaborne trade has greatly influenced the religious map of the world.
The different traditions within one religion owe their creation to many different factors. In the process of expanding beyond its original heartland, a religion can take on the beliefs of another culture – as happened when Buddhism moved from India through China to Japan. Political divisions may exacerbate theological differences and help to create alternative traditions – as occurred when the demise of the Roman Empire split the Christian Church in two: the Eastern Orthodox Church, based in Constantinople, and the Western Catholic Church, based in Rome. Divisions often arise when a religious structure claims to be authoritative – as happened when the Protestants broke from the domination of Rome. Faiths with a more fluid organizational structure, such as Hinduism, tend
have fewer splits because there is no single defining authority to be challenged. Chinese religion is a vast catchbag of traditions, schools, temples and ways of life with no overarching authority, leaving almost every temple to develop its own distinctive traditions. Religious traditions may be created to support a national identity within a universal tradition. Such is the case with Anglicanism within Christianity. However, Anglicanism then created a universal tradition through the British Empire, and this is now splitting into new traditions as cultural factors, particularly in African traditions, challenge the earlier Anglo-American traditions.
Roots and Branches
Yesterday’s revolution can be today’s orthodoxy. Some new movements have grown to become the most popular religion in a state.
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Part Two
BELIEFS
The vast majority of people follow one or other of the major world religions. While there is a small, but growing number of non-believers, the number of atheists has shrunk recently due to the fall of communism. Adherence to one religion is not the only way that people express religious commitment. China, for example, has a complex mixture of religious traditions, ranging from Shamanism, through Daoism to Buddhism and Christianity. In practice, most Chinese make use of different aspects of each tradition for different needs. For example, they might use Shamanism or Daoism for exorcisms, Daoism for charms and magic, Buddhism for death ceremonies, and Christianity for success in business deals. Combining these into a workable mix is not considered a problem by most Chinese, whereas the Western and Islamic world view asks for adherence to just one tradition. For many who have grown up within a specific religion, the pluralism of today offers additional elements of spirituality and religious practice that people are beginning to use increasingly, while still remaining within the fold of one particular tradition. Many devout Catholics, for example, will practise yoga, while devout Buddhists will also offer prayers to the Virgin Mary in times of special need. This wider framework of religious reference is also underpinning the growth in new religious movements and the surprising growth of indigenous traditions, such as Native American and traditional African religions, which have spread to many other parts of the world. In looking at the figures for religious belief, it is useful to remember that outward adherence often covers a vast array of different beliefs, rooted in one tradition, but increasingly fed by many sources of inspiration.
A Hindu sadhu, Varanasi, India. The marks on his forehead denote that he is a Saiva, a follower of the god Shiva
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A third of all people belong to one of six major Christian traditions. Within these traditions there is wide variation, creating a vast array of interpretation and practice. There are over 33,800 Christian denominations in 238 countries, comprising 3.4 million worship centres, churches or congregations. Christianity is growing across the world, especially in South Korea, Russia and Sub-Saharan Africa. While the percentage of the populations of India and China that are Christian is small, there are sizeable Christian groups in these countries, some of whom may be hidden. One of the emerging trends in Christianity has been the growth of independent movements. There has always been an historical tradition of church members leaving a parent body because of differences regarding authority, structure or lifestyle, and forming their own Christian groups. In time, many of these have become mainstream denominations, as has happened with Lutheranism or Methodism. Today’s ‘Independents’ follow that tradition in their search for a church lifestyle and authority appropriate to their beliefs, and often to their cultural and ethnic identity. Some denominations on the fringe of organized, mainstream Christianity are termed ‘marginal Christians’.
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Christianity
Christianity is the world’s largest religion, with more than 2.1 billion adherents worldwide, and more than 33,000 denominations.
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