Spiritual Identity and Religious Traditions

Introduction

Theology is the study of nature of God and religious belief. But the study of religious belief is given more importance presently. Furthermore, it can be said in other words that theology focuses on religious faith, practice and experience. The traditional world religions gives birth to life’s theological questions with an supreme theology and the questions also provides practical framework for living and it is incredibly essential to follow the practicability by the participants who practice various religious traditions. Though there are large numbers of people who believe in varied religious traditions but the people do not turn up and moves away from traditional religions for which conflicts arise. The avoidance of religion is due to the numerous facts that treat women, the minorities of the community as unworthy and unimportance. However, it is also found that, people who reject traditional religion have more spiritual longings like all other human beings. This essay deals and examines beliefs about religion and discusses about the nature of people and their exclusive beliefs which enables the people to move in salvation. This essay also evaluates the ways by which varied people from varied traditions and different religions thinks about morality and faith traditions in the most effective and efficient ways.

Encounter of persons, conflicts and reconciliation

As opined by Boudry and Coyne, (2016), faith and reason are considered as the most important aspect or source of justification for transparent religious belief. Both these sources of justification purposely serve the epistemic function and these two factors are interrelated. Notable theologians have opined that faith and reason are governed by separate domains and when conflicts are dismissed on the side of faith and in that case claim is in question but the conflicts are resolved on the side of reason when there is disputed claim like empirical or logical. However, Mercadante (2014) stated that, faith and reason are considered as the important source of authority and the beliefs are dependent on these important sources. Research states that people who are bound to leave organised religions tend to adopt various religious practices and beliefs which forms a coherent whole. It is also found that people who leave religions adopts new religious framework and like this way they expand their personal theology. It is also important for the people who leave religions must follow coherent framework which mainly covers the important bases in the most effective and efficient ways.

Deceasing religion or its beliefs from human beings life will lead to decrease of positive thoughts from human beings life if there is no effective and efficient use of theological interpretation. The theological and practical questions are often formed in order to build a strong base or framework of personal theology. The theological framework is incredibly essential as it enables to search truth and meaning in a free and responsible manner. The role of various religion plays an important role in the life of human beings. The spiritualism in relates inwardly to the human beings, outwardly to others and at the same time it also states that human beings needs to be humble and grateful to all the creations of God. God has created human being and all the people are god’s creation, thus it is necessary to respect others irrespective of their cultural values, beliefs and opinion. The ethnicity, race and religion may be different, but all the people are created by God. Even if conflicts arise in the society among the individuals, it is necessary for the people to respect others and love neighbours for maintaining peace.

Furthermore, Migliore,(2014), mentioned that theology and religion is the perfect base by which wide variety of experiences are interpreted in the most effective and efficient ways and it is also identified that none of the religion are practical and liable to the original truth. Each and every human beings are surrounded by myths and as a result no one is able to decipher the ultimate truth of life. For example, most of the cathedral all over the world is painted or structured with coloured glass windows and sunlight passes through the coloured glass windows. The images formed in the floor of cathedral are different due to various colours but it comes from the same light source. This clearly identifies that human beings might believe in various religions and faith but it is impossible to prove the ultimate truth in theology and it is also analysed that human beings lives with great uncertainty. It is also analysed that whatever path human beings chooses it will be bias. The people must cooperate with others and develop strong bonding through communication and conflicts resolution. For staying happily in the society, peace needs to be maintained for which the people must be collaborative and creating good binding with neighbours.

Theology also gave birth to various questions that arise from the encounter with persons of varied religious traditions and faith. The questions are generally formed in order to organise and expand the level of understanding of the personal theology. Theology often raises questions about the fidelity of human beings by stating words and phrases like, who am I both in terms of spiritually and theologically and it also raises questions like the important nature of human beings and where the human beings fit in the vast and word which is full of miseries. Theology also raises questions like, if human beings are divided then how does it become whole, whether human beings are good or evil or both and raises questions about the worthiness and unworthiness of human beings and questions about equality and inequality of human beings. The individuals must love both friends and enemy and as per the theology, the individuals must forgive others which leads of conciliations. The questions also raise that whether human beings have the full power to control their lives or lead their life according to the free will.

Theology also raises questions about eternal and ephemeral capabilities of human beings. These questions are often raised by the people of various religions and varied faith traditions. However, the varied faith traditions often gives various answers to these questions but most of the answers are based on the spiritual nature of the self. According to Barrett and Church (2013), spiritual refers to the situation when human beings are connected to the universal, eternal and transcendent. Spiritual self is advantageous in many ways like it gives meaning to the life of human beings, emphasises on the value those are clear or transparent and the actions of human beings are linked with the values those are congruent. Furthermore, Wiebe (2019) opined that, human beings are liable to form spiritual identity when people lead their own lives as a part of religious community adopt various intricacies like symbolism in religion, spiritualism and its components in religion and engage its practices.

The spiritual identity of varied religious belief can be identified from examples like Christian relate to cross and communion, the Jews are focussed on Shabbat, their holy days and prayer shawls. The culture of faith tradition states about various aspects of human beings like it depicts human beings unique life experiences, reflects about the moments of transcendence and finally leads to spiritual identity. Furthermore, in case of Christian theology, the definition of ‘self’ states that Christians are saved by Jesus as they are born of original sin. The self in Christianityalso develops towards salvation by Laws of Moses and the laws is also against salvation by defying the Laws of Moses. In Christian and Jewish tradition, soul is most respected aspect and important aspect of self and this is tolerated forever. For example in case of Buddhism religion, self is considered as illusion by the preachers of the religion and the Buddhists those who believe in ‘no self’ is the final destination by which one strives. Hence, the individual must respect every soul and create good bonding with others in the society in order to maintain peace.

The next theological and practical question that arises is, ‘how do I know what I know?What is the best way to determine the religious or spiritual truth for self?’ Furthermore, varied religions also arises multiple questions relating to personal theology, spiritual knowledge from the sacred texts or spiritual experiences or scientific knowledge and reason. The accumulation of these multiple questions also raises questions about personal beliefs on theology. As opined by McKaughan (2013), these questions are raised on the basis of epistemology which implies scientific study of knowledge. As the human beings are living in the world of fake and alternative news the study of epistemology has gained immense prominence. Several people follow several religions and they base their knowledge on several holy books like Old or New Testament, the Koran, the Book of Mormon etc. and the fundamentalists believes that each and every saying of the sacred books are holy and consists of absolute truth.

O'Leary,(2016), opined that the Christians relied on the priests for absolute guidance before the reformation in order to analyse the religious truth. However, after the reformation period the Protestants were determined that they were eligible for reading, analysis and interpretation of the Bible to know the actual of universal truth. According to Pelikan,(2018), the Unitarian Universalists states that they believe in direct and personal experience of the supreme, believes in science and use of reason. The Unitarian Universalists also relies on various sacred writings from varied traditions. The other feature of the Unitarian Universalists is that they do not rely on single text instead they focus and believe on debate and analysis and values discussion more and learn from it. Forgiveness leads to conciliation which is necessary for the human being to under each other’s perspectives and respect others for better group development. The human beings are willing to stay in a group and for this it is important to encounter the person with different faith values and beliefs.

Theology also raises questions like ‘Who or what is in charge?’ and this raises the question of cosmology and cosmology in Greek means order, ruler ship or world. Cosmology refers to the study of the ultimate real thing of the universe. Theology also gives rise to other questions like the most universal value, whether there is a dynamic force, essence or power at the centre of creation and gives birth to questions like the essential factors that binds the universe together. Notable theologian named Paul Tillich enquired about the real source for ultimate concern. It is the firm notion of Christianity religion and the Jews that God is the supreme almighty and he looks after the well-being of the people or human beings and he also responsible for directing human activity. The Christians also believe that God punishes and rewards human beings and they believe that it is done on the basis of behaviour of the human beings and accordingly God acts. Christians also believe that God is answerable to those who keep God in their prayers regularly. Hence, forgiving others and respecting the people irrespective of their cultural diversity, differences in values, beliefs and language would be fruitful for the people to stay with harmony and create peace in the society.

The Buddhists believes in the tradition of Hindu forefathers and depicts universe as infinite in time and space. The Buddhist also believes that the universe is also filled with immeasurablenumber of worlds just like human beings creates their own comfort space (Warner, Kılınç, Hale, Cohen, et al., 2015). The present day scientific thinking also align with the concept of innumerable world of human beings. Furthermore, renowned theologian Rev. Nancy Bowen also stated that unity is the main characteristic which binds human beings together in the most effective and efficient ways. However, the religious naturalists states that natural laws control the universe and human beings efficiently. The religious naturalists supports the fact that natural forces which is related with physics, chemistry, biology and geology as opposed to the godly supernatural ones are in control of the universe and the world. The Unitarian Universalists follows strict principle and the principle states that universe is the interconnected web of existence of human beings and in this interconnected web human beings are a part of the web for fruitful survival and eternal unity of everything.

The theologians also believe in soteriology and it raises questions about the purpose of life, the importance of human existence, the happiness, well beings and fulfilment of lives, questions about salvation and redemption and enquires about the wholeness of human beings. Furthermore, Clobert and Saroglou (2015) opined that, soteriology’s Greek meaning is deliverance or reintegration. Human beings who follow variousreligion like Muslims, Jews and Christian’s states that they are thankful to God as is for him they are able to lead a happy life full of peace and happiness. Managing peace in the society through living others including friends and enemy are necessary for the people so that the individual can forgive other and maintain harmony in the society. Different religions have different views and each religion teaches its followers the ways and the method to attain salvation as human beings believe that salvation is the purpose of living. It is mandatory to resolve the conflicts among different religion and improve harmony in living in the society with cooperation and respecting others. It is also important to respect other’s religion and values so that every individual can feel valued in the society and they become interested to communication and develop string binding with others. Furthermore, Jackson and Everington (2017) opined that, salvation comes as the blessing and reward from God that comes afterlife those who have fulfilled the requirements in the most effective and efficient ways. In case of Buddhism, the religion does not use the term salvation but they are focussed on different aspects like ‘samsara’ which denotes overcome of the suffering, by avoiding ‘attachment’ and ‘aversion’ and thereby attaining ‘equanimity’. Furthermore, ‘equanimity’ as opined by Buddhist philosophy that it can be attained by practices of meditation and following the eight fold path.

The views of Existentialists and Unitarian Universalists are almost same where both states that they both stand by love as love bind human beings in all forms and gives happiness and peace. Both the social groups also preach and promote about compassion, justice, peace and democracy and both the groups care for the earth too. Irrespective of the culture, beliefs and values, the people love others and maintain peace through communication and cooperation, so that even though conflicts arise, they can sort it out properly through developing understanding and compromise. Karen Armstrong states that major religion are found between the ages of 800 to 200 BCE which is also known as the ‘Axial Age’. This age generally portrays about the purpose of existence with the help of reciprocity, compassion, love and altruism. Furthermore, in line with the opinion of Haluza‐DeLay,(2014), states about the Golden rule of this age which mentions about the suffering of all human beings and this rule also states that emotional life is the best orientation of human existence. This theory in turn raises several questions like the purpose of living healthy life, how man is formed as whole and also interrogates whether this world is the best place to live or human beings prefer to curtail this life and consider afterlife as the best place to live forever. Maintaining groups in living with harmony and freedom, the people must love neighbours and create strong bonding so that mutual understanding can be built sand the people can live with freedom and as a family.

Theologians like St. Thomas Aquinas also raise the questions related to eschatology which means last or the farthest (Cranney, 2013). Theologians like Aquinas often raises questions like, ‘what does my death mean? Or what happens to human beings at the time of death? Or what is the state of human beings beyond death or is there any kind of soul that lives in the body beyond death or is there any connection between heaven and hell or do people get reincarnated or when human beings die at that time is there any impact or connect with life on earth’. These are some of the questions that arise from various religious traditions. When these questions are raised by Abrahamic religious traditions they believe that it is part and parcel of their life and they have to prepare for the next life with ease and transparency. The Abrahamic traditions also believe that the present life is temporary but life after death is most eternal aspect of human beings(Jost, Hawkins, Nosek, Hennes, et al., 2014). Matthews, Edmonds, Wildman and Nunn,(2013),opined that Buddhist philosophy is totally different from these thoughts and compares the life of individual human beings to that of an ocean wave. Just like the ocean wave fall and rise, the life of human beings is compared to that of ocean which at times rise and fall miserably.

The Buddhist philosophy believe that the rise and fall of the wave represents human beings existence and mentions that waves are the part of the ocean and it is compared with vastness. Human beings also thinks that light from the stars represents their favourite loved ones who are looking and caring from distant places about the well-being of their loved ones. Human beings also continue the legacy of their loved ones who came before and passed away early. However, the great psychoanalyst Carl Jung stated the idea that each and every person have specific legacy of mankind’s early history and it is also called ‘collective unconscious.’ Cornille, (2013), opined that human beings die as individuals but they also live on others though there is constant evolution of mankind through millions of years. Furthermore, as opined by Vermeer,(2014), human beings are grateful to God for continued existence in life with immense comfort and gratitude and the human beings pass the continued existence to the future generations and human beings also believe that death represents the end of opportunity.

Conclusion

In order to conclude the above mentioned discussion, it portrays about the practical and theological questions, which arise from the people of each tradition. Human beings also need to clarify their beliefs in order to put them in proper form. Spiritual cohesiveness and clarity is raised from proper analysing of the theological questions in the most effective and efficient ways. Each and every religion and its traditions believes that god is the supreme almighty and every people wants to know about the life after death. The Christians are grateful to God, as they are able to lead a happy life while the Buddhist philosophy states that ‘no self’ is the final destination by which one strives. Furthermore, the Abrahamic traditions are believes that life after death is much happier and peaceful than life before death. Forgiving others and love neighbours are effective for the human being to love with others happily and create good bonding in the society. In this regard, cooperation with the neighbours as well as enhancing communication to resolve any existing conflicts and misunderstanding would be beneficial for the people to love with peace. While encountering with varied traditions it can be analysed that each of the traditions have questions related to death and life after death, the happiness and well-being in the entire life. With each passing days these questions will give birth to new answer according to the varied traditions and religious beliefs which will enable mankind to reshape and lead their life perfectly. Theology emphasises about thinking the above mentioned questions and these questions are more useful than trying to answer with certainly. The famous theologian named Rev. Forrest Church the main goal of theology is to help mankind to lead a better life with joy and contentment by seeking blessings from God.

As per the above analysis, theology is also focussed to transform the character of mankind and inspire human beings to lead more ethical lives so that life after death is more peaceful and satisfying than life before death. Furthermore, theology improves the overall wellbeing of mankind and directs mankind to keep the world better and peaceful. However, it is not the human beliefs that matters the most but the thing that matters is the belief practice and how mankind is incorporating the beliefs into their lives for better contentment. In order to maintain harmony to live with others in the society, the individual must love others including friends and enemy and respect others so that proper relationship and bonding can be created. The individuals are willing to stay in groups and for creating groups, it is mandatory to value others irrespective of the cultural diversity, forgiving other and reconciliations are also fruitful for the society to maintain pace and resolve conflicts so that it would be possible for the human being to stay happy and live with others with harmony and freedom.

References

Barrett, J.L. and Church, I.M., (2013). Should CSR give atheists epistemic assurance? On beer-goggles, BFFs, and skepticism regarding religious beliefs. The Monist, 96(3), pp.311-324.

Boudry, M. and Coyne, J., (2016). Disbelief in belief: On the cognitive status of supernatural beliefs. Philosophical Psychology, 29(4), pp.601-615.

Clobert, M. and Saroglou, V., (2015). Religion, paranormal beliefs, and distrust in science: Comparing East versus West. Archive for the Psychology of Religion, 37(2), pp.185-199.

Cornille, C. ed., (2013). The Wiley-Blackwell companion to inter-religious dialogue (Vol. 120). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Cranney, S., (2013). Do people who believe in God report more meaning in their lives? The existential effects of belief. Journal for the scientific study of religion, 52(3), pp.638-646.

Haluza‐DeLay, R., (2014). Religion and climate change: varieties in viewpoints and practices. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 5(2), pp.261-279.

Jackson, R. and Everington, J., (2017). Teaching inclusive religious education impartially: An English perspective. British Journal of Religious Education, 39(1), pp.7-24.

Jost, J.T., Hawkins, C.B., Nosek, B.A., Hennes, E.P., Stern, C., Gosling, S.D. and Graham, J., (2014). Belief in a just God (and a just society): A system justification perspective on religious ideology. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 34(1), p.56.

Matthews, L.J., Edmonds, J., Wildman, W.J. and Nunn, C.L., (2013). Cultural inheritance or cultural diffusion of religious violence? A quantitative case study of the Radical Reformation. Religion, Brain &Behavior, 3(1), pp.3-15.

McKaughan, D.J., (2013). Authentic faith and acknowledged risk: dissolving the problem of faith and reason. Religious Studies, 49(1), pp.101-124.

Mercadante, L.A., (2014). Belief without borders: Inside the minds of the spiritual but not religious. Oxford University Press.

Migliore, D.L., (2014). Faith seeking understanding: An introduction to Christian theology. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

O'Leary, J.S., (2016). Questioning Back: The Overcoming of Metaphysics in Christian Tradition. Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Pelikan, J., (2018). The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Volume 5: Christian Doctrine and Modern Culture (since 1700) (Vol. 5). University of Chicago Press.

Vermeer, P., (2014). Religion and family life: an overview of current research and suggestions for future research. Religions, 5(2), pp.402-421.

Warner, C.M., Kılınç, R., Hale, C.W., Cohen, A.B. and Johnson, K.A., (2015). Religion and public goods provision: Experimental and interview evidence from Catholicism and Islam in Europe. Comparative Politics, 47(2), pp.189-209.

Wiebe, D., (2019). The Role of Belief in the Study of Religion: A Response to Wilfred Cantwell Smith. In The Science of Religion: A Defence (pp. 115-129). Brill.