monotheism

Entries Tagged as 'monotheism'

Myth as History — On Religious Texts

September 4th, 2010 · No Comments · History of Religions, Methodology of Religion

Among scholars and historians of religion, there has long been an unfortunate tendency to treat myth as mere text — disembodied, free-floating, timeless, and ahistorical. In such non-contexts, myth is considered to be something universal or essential, that which captures and expresses archetypes, or even worse, an archaic and tentative approach to monotheism.
In the fifth [...]

Iranian Jews, Zoroastrians & Bahai

August 28th, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age Religions, History of Religions, Recent and New Religions

Over at The Atlantic, Elizabeth Weingarten reports on Iranian Jews in America. I was surprised to learn there is still a community of Persian Jews in Iran and that so long as they are silent on the issue of Israel, they are free to do as they please. Iran truly is a fascinating country with [...]

Sumerian Spiritualism: The Earliest Organized Religion

June 27th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Archaeology and Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Ecology of Religion, Economy and Religion, History of Religions, Neolithic Religions, Pagans and Polytheism, Power and Religion

It was with great sadness that I read a recent article in the New York Times documenting the pillaging and destruction of Mesopotamian archaeological sites in Iraq. Although these Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian sites — and previous excavations — receive scant attention outside small groups of antiquities scholars, they are of critical importance to our [...]

Sunday Sundries — Contested Faiths, Syncretic Possibilities, Morality and Sick Police Behavior

May 9th, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age Religions, Classifications of Religion, Definitions of Religion, Morality and Religion

A quick roundup today because I am leaving town tomorrow and will be blogging irregularly this coming week. We will begin with an examination of a theme from my earlier post on Fractured Faiths — The Myth of Unified Religious Traditions.
In this article, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche over at HuffPo Religon discusses what it means to [...]

Religious Syncretism — Christian Yoga and Tantric Sex

May 8th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Classifications of Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, History of Religions, Pagans and Polytheism, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Ritual and Religion

Based on keyword searches leading people to this blog, it appears that many are interested in religious syncretism. With this in mind, I thought some comments would be in order. To kick things off let’s take note of two recent articles, each of which sheds some minor light on syncretism.
In the first, Lois Solomon of [...]

The Origins of Monotheism and Universal Religions

March 29th, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age Religions, Cultural Evolution of Religion

The Wall Street Journal has reviewed David Gelernter’s new book, Judaism: A Way of Being. Along the way, the reviewer claims that “Judaism itself is a wide-ranging book about the beliefs, practices and philosophy of the world’s first monotheistic religion.”
Not really. Zoroastrianism is usually recognized as the first monotheistic religion, and its roots go all [...]

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Tags:Judaism·monotheism

Monotheism and Violence

March 22nd, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age Religions

Barbara Hagerty at NPR just published an article asking: “Is the Bible More Violent Than the Quran?” I am not sure how one would assess whether the Bible is more violent than the Quran, but both books contain ample amounts of violence and encourage violence under certain circumstances.
If these books are read literally (and not [...]

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Tags:monotheism·violence

Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion