... on the nature of Religion.
And fury to the commons still to endure;
Because one City t’others Gods as vain
Deride, and his alone as Good maintain.
(Juvenal)
Traditionally religion is what binds a society together. The Latin word religo which means to bind is sometimes cited as the word which religion is derived although, alternatively, the word religio meaning reverence is probably more correct. But whatever word is taken as the root, that particular view of religion is hardly likely to stand up, however, in a modern multi-cultural society in which individual cultures are very much influenced by their own particular religions. There is some reason to suppose that in such a society a mix of religions could have a disruptive rather than binding effect.
A dictionary definition of religion is: “......Human recognition of a superhuman controlling power and especially of a personal God entitled to obedience, the effect of such recognition on conduct and mental attitude.” Professer Herbert Dingle defines religion as a common state of consciousness, often called prayer, in which one takes a particular course which one feels impelled though incompetent to do, by relying on an accession of strength beyond that normally available. Religion in this sense is related essentially to action and therefore to morality. Equally it is also clear from a historical perspective that it is an evolving characteristic of man and a prime cause of bloodshed and human suffering. These are a few definitions out of many possibilities. It is said that every wise man invents his own. But in all religions there are three things to be found: a belief in the existence of higher powers, a will to worship them and a sense of dependance upon them.
Even a cursory review of the subject will reveal not only the great variety of religions practised by different races (the Longman Guide to Living Religions identifies 544 religious groups or movements) but, in some cases, a number of remarkable similarities. For example, Christianity has a Trinity and so too does Hinduism in the form of the three major deities, Vishnu, Shiva and the goddess (Devi). Buddhism, whilst being described as an atheistic religion in some circles, is not strictly a religion by definition but rather a form of philosophy geared to the personal realisation of truth. Despite this Buddhism also has a Trinity expressed in terms of the three bodies of Buddha. Mahayana Buddhism describes “- the absolute Dharmakaya, known also as the Primordial Buddha, or Mind, or the Clear Light of the Void; the Sambhogakaya, corresponding to the Isvara or the personal God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; and finally the Nirmanakaya, the material body, in which the Logos is incarnated upon earth as a living, historical Buddha.” 1 There are other similarities too which we will come to later.
During the period in pre-history when rituals were beginning to evolve in different centres around the world effective communication between individual groups was non-existent. In these circumstances it is reasonable to assume that the first primitive religions would be based on the observation of nature and the elements relevant to a particular place. There would be a dawning realization among the contemplatives in a group that there were powers, far greater than man, which controlled natural events such as the weather, seasons and so forth and not all of which would appear to be benign. The first rituals, or religious ceremonies, are thus likely to have been devised to propitiate these powers, or spirits, for the benefit of the group as a whole. In Upper Paleolithic times elaborate rituals developed in an endeavour to ensure success in hunting and mating. Evidence for these comes from cave paintings and artefacts uncovered in various parts of the world. In some areas it is also evident that the dead were believed to become supernatural powers. Treatment of corpses ranged from binding at the time of death, to prevent the corpse escaping from the grave to torment its survivors, to funerary rituals in which the corpse was sprinkled with ochre and interred with a variety of artefacts. Major characteristics of many of the primitive religions include lack of moral training; a belief that spirits are either evil or non-moral; an awful domination of fear giving rise to the supposition that danger lurks around every corner and the only hope is to buy off the malicious spirit by worship or sacrifice; a fatalistic conviction that man is what he is and that not even a God can change him. Some primitive tribal rituals still demonstrate these characteristics to the present day.
Higher forms of religion began to take shape when the primitive, tribal stage of development, made way for a more communal, merged form of culture incorporating increasingly sophisticated social patterns. Localised spirits and barbarous rituals became less important as man developed specialised interests and skills. Gods too began to emerge and some of these from the ancient civilisations of Greece, Egypt, Babylon and India can be clearly traced to the natural spirits of the primitive societies.
As man developed a greater rationality he realised that in a polytheistic religion he was unable, or could find it difficult, to establish a sense of trust or intimacy of worship with so many Gods to choose from. So the idea of a monarchistic religion was conceived in which one God was considered to be elevated above all the others. A few examples from many hundreds are: Zeus of the Greeks, Osiris, greatest God in the Egyptian pantheon, Marduk of the Assyrio-Babylonians and the Dagda, Eochaid Ollathain (Father of All) the Celtic Deity. In some instances, although the other Gods were recognised, only the supreme God was worshipped. This was the situation in which the old Hebrew religion found itself before the advent of the prophets. The influence of the prophets was to turn the Hebrew religion into true monotheism and it is from this heritage that Christianity and Islam developed. As the latter religions developed, breakaway sects came into being some of which remain today. We can count at least eighty Islamic sects and no less than one-hundred and fifty-six Christian sects which include the Roman Catholics and Protestants of the Anglican communion. Even in Judaism there are sixty-two known sects and in Buddhism, although not a religion by definition, there are seventy-seven.2 Every individual sect will have some variation in ideology or doctrinal difference which separates it from the mainstream and each, of course, will purport to be true. The preponderance of different sects brings to mind Father Victor White’s contention that “religion, in the sense of creeds and external cults, arises from man’s incomprehension of, and disharmony with, the creative mind behind the universe, and from his own inner conflicts and divisions.” 3
Fr. White’s view is borne out by the observation that the development and survival of a particular religion depended on its appeal to the people and thus it would become, to a greater or lesser degree, influenced by the social and political exigencies of the time. As a consequence of the wide variability in the culture of diverse communities, differences between religions were to become used as the catalyst for the advocacy of hostility between groups, or nations, when the root cause might otherwise be argued to be political or fiscal in nature. Religion was so much linked with the society however that it was often difficult to be absolutely sure of the cause of conflict, indeed, often a war started on the basis of a religious difference of opinion would go on for so long that the reason for continuing would become based on vengeance rather than on the principal cause.
Following a great religious revival in Western Europe during the 10th century there began what is perhaps the most well known of religious wars - the Crusades. Spanning almost two hundred years between 1096 and 1291 eight crusades in all were mounted, initially for the avowed purpose of freeing the Holy Land from the clutches of Islam. Latterly however the Crusades became more of a penitential pilgrimage under arms allowing the knights free rein to their bellicosity and full atonement for their sins in view of the holy nature of their cause.
During the religious revival a ‘new’ sect arrived in western France. Known as the Cathars, the followers of this religion were associated, though incorrectly in the eyes of the established Church, with a number of unacceptable practices. In fact the Cathars were good people who practiced a form of Christian Gnosticism. They were not interested in money or material things but worked the land or established small businesses in order to earn a meagre living. Within the Cathar community some became doctors to minister to the needs of the sick. The exemplary life led by the Cathars was infectious to the extent that a number of land-owners and nobles in the area were accepted into the movement. But whilst they posed no threat to the established Church or to social order they were perceived by Rome to be heretics. From 1179 onwards therefore steps were taken to persuade the Cathars to come back to the established Church and the nobles not to protect those who refused to be persuaded. Early attempts were unsuccessful and, in 1206, Dominic Guzman - later the founder of the Dominican Order - was charged with the task of converting the Cathars. By 1208 it was clear he had failed in his mission and Pope Innocent III decided to underline persuasion with force of arms. In 1209 an army of 10,000 men under the overall command of Simon de Montfort gathered in Lyon. Spiritual control of the ‘recant or die’ policy of this Albigensian Crusade was in the hands of the Papal Legate, Arnaud Amaury who, when asked how the soldiers should recognise the heretics, is alleged to have said “... kill them all, the Lord will know his own.” 4 The first town to fall was Minerve and 140 Cathars were burned at the stake on that occasion. “This was to be location of the first of the really great holocausts in which Christians incinerated Christians in the name of Christ.” 4 The Cathars themselves gave no resistance to their persecutors although several of the landowners and nobles hired mercenaries to defend their castles and other properties. All resistance to the Catholics ceased in 1244 when the beseiged town of Montségur capitulated and the castle surrendered. On that day, 16 March 1244, 225 Cathars were burned at the stake.
Religious fanaticism directed against Judaism, Islam and the Protestants was a feature of Spanish rule during the sixteenth century, a period during which the full force of the Inquisition was felt in Spain and its territories. Philip II of Spain was a self appointed champion of the Catholic faith dedicated to the extermination of the Protestants. On the abdication of his father, the emperor Charles V, Philip inherited not only Spain but the American Colonies, the two Sicilies, and the Netherlands. For ten years the Netherlands suffered under Philip’s intolerant rule until a group of some five hundred of the nobles protested against his policies. Philip’s response was to send the notorious Duke of Alva as governor and so began six years of persecution. The history of this period has been brilliantly researched and documented by John Lothrop Motley, a nineteenth century American diplomat and historian, in his three volume work The Rise of the Dutch Republic. The savagery began within months of Alva's arrival says Motley "…the scaffolds, the gallows, the funeral pyres, which had been sufficient in ordinary times, furnished now an inadequate machinery for the incessant executions. Columns and stakes in every street, the door posts of private houses, the fences in the fields, were laden with human carcasses, strangled, burned, beheaded. The orchards in the country bore on many a tree the hideous fruit of human bodies." The fear and sheer terror that gripped the citizens of the Netherlands was further exacerbated when, in 1568, the Holy Office "Condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to death as heretics without regard to age, sex or condition." The extent of this demand was too much even for Alva but the terror did not end on his recall to Spain since his soldiers, now virtually leaderless, remained in the Netherlands and continued to commit every kind of atrocity. The Northern provinces elected William the Silent, Prince of Orange, as their leader and declared independence from Spain, abjuring their sovereignty, in 1581 and declaring the seven northern provinces as an independent state. In retaliation Philip promised nobility and great riches to anyone able to assassinate William and the great patriot was eventually shot at Delft in 1584. His sons, Maurice of Nassau and Frederick Henry, took up the fight and were aided by Elizabeth 1st who sent troops to their assistance. Philip was so enraged by this action that, in 1588, he equipped and despatched the Armada to conquer England, an adventure that was to fail ignominiously. It was not until 1685, however, that Spain finally acknowledged the right to Dutch self-government.
A second great series of uprisings in Europe took place between 1562 and 1648 and have been labelled by historians as the Wars of Religion. Strictly speaking the Wars of Religion ended in 1609 but the time scale is extended for the purpose of this argument to 1648 to include the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) because the chronology is about right and because the reason for the latter conflict was undoubtedly religious in origin. The Wars of Religion were characterised by the bitterness with which they were fought. They began with the massacre of 60 Huguenots at Vassy and went on to include no less than eight civil wars in France, further massacres, the revolt of the Netherlands and a number of lesser rebellions. The Thirty Years War took place exclusively in Germany and although Spain, France and England intervened politically from a distance, Denmark intervened directly in Germany itself by the raising of an army of sixty-thousand men, ultimately defeated in 1629. Sweden too despatched a highly trained army to Germany where their tactical use of firearms led to a series of brilliant victories over Emperor Ferdinand’s forces. The death of the Swedish King Gustavus in 1632, at the moment of victory at Lutzen, changed the whole character of the war that then became a series of individual encounters between generals seeking power and territories for themselves. The Wars of Religion finally drew to a close with the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.
Other religious wars continue to the present day. The rebellion in Iran where the followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah was a Jihad, or holy war, carried out in the name of Islam. The continuing acrimony between Israel and her Arab neighbours, mercifully now greatly reduced, though fuelled by political differences began principally because of conflicting religious beliefs and claims to dominion over the Holy Land. Intolerance between Muslim and Hindu religions was a major factor in the partition of India in the years immediately following the second world war. Intolerance sparked the pogroms against the Jews in Nazi Germany and the lesser known Stalinist anti-semitic pogroms in Russia were for the same reason. “You don’t have to be Jewish to be oppressed by the enormity of the German slaughter of European Jewry, but if you have lost your four grandparents and most of your uncles, aunts and cousins in the Holocaust, then you will be a touch more sensitive to the normative Judaic, Christian and Muslim teachings that God is both all-powerful and benign. That gives one a God who tolerated the Holocaust, and such a God is simply intolerable, since he must be either crazy or irresponsible if his benign omnipotence was compatible with the death camps. A cosmos this obscene, a nature that contains schizophrenia, is acceptable to the monotheistic orthodox as part of the “mystery of faith.” 5 Intolerance between orthodox Serb and Muslim Albanians in Kosovo has erupted into Serbian brutality against the Albanians as they seek to ethnically cleanse what they claim to be wholly Serbian territory. The barbarous nature of the Serbian offensive has led NATO to exercise its strength by endeavoring to bomb the Serbians into capitulation. At the time of writing it is not possible to predict the eventual outcome. Similarly the sectarian differences in Northern Ireland have been the basis for many years of atrocities and terrorist activity.
This synopsis of religious conflict in history and its continuing existence in modern times clearly endorses the view that unrestrained religious fundamentalism is evil in whatever guise it is presented. Pascal said that “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
Cyril Garbett says “...it is often held that there is no absolute difference between religions, that all are relatively both false and true, for they are conditioned by the climate, the geographical features and the different civilisations in which they have had their origin; it is thus a matter of no importance as to which religion a man holds: one religion is as good as another, provided that he lives up to its teachings.... The Christian can appreciate the truth which is found in most religions, for he believes it comes from the One Spirit Who teaches truth to all men, but he claims that the Christian religion is superior....” 6
It is to be expected that a senior bishop for the Anglican church, despite his speculation to the contrary, might seek to endorse the view that his religion is superior to others. But one wonders by what right he does so given that religion is an evolving characteristic of man. One wonders too how any generation can be sure that doctrinal changes in their chosen religion are based purely on greater insight into their faith and not on matters of political or social expediency.
It has been said that religious differences over the centuries have probably been responsible for more bloodshed and human anguish than any other single cause. This leads one to seriously question the validity of a corporate religious belief that allows acts of barbarism in the furtherance of its aims or in the defence of its doctrine. It seems that religion, per se, besieged by the advances in science and deserted by a largely indifferent population, has lost its way. This is particularly the case as the twentieth century draws to its close, but despite the gloomy picture there is a positive side. Religion per se has proved to be a great cohesive force and has been one of the principal acculturation devices within different societies around the world. Steven Pinker points out that “What we call religion on the modern West is an alternative culture of laws and customs that survived alongside those of the nation-state because of accidents of European history. Religions, like other cultures, have produced great art, philosophy and law, but their customs, like those of other cultures, often serve the interests of the people who promulgate them. Ancestor worship must be an appealing idea to those who are about to become ancestors.” 7 Perhaps the start of the third millenium could become a watershed for faith if only religious leaders would concentrate on the humanitarian aspects of their particular belief rather than matters of dogma or doctrine.
Darryl Reanney sums up the problem very well. “I believe that what is missing in our lives is a sense of the sacred. By this I do not mean a return to religion in a formal sense. Religions like Christianity and Islam are, in my view, profaners of the sacred, denying in practice the very truths they profess in principle... ...Organised religion, with its bureaucratic insistence on the ‘right way’ and ‘eternal truths’ denies change. Its very exclusiveness shows how tightly its dogmas are identified with its own sense of collective ego. The eagerness it displays to win converts, to bring their otherness into its own self-image, betrays its deep rooted insecurity - that insecurity which is the inevitable companion of ego. Christianity and Islam have been the chief examples of this unstable super ego and the consequences of their insistence that their way is the only way are only too evident, even today, on the streets of Belfast and Beirut”. 8
Charles Kingsley brings it down to a more personal level when, in the Waterbabies, he describes two washerwomen, Mrs Do-As-You-Would-Be-Done-By and Mrs Be-Done-By-As-You-Did who, between them, lay the foundations of a crude retributory morality. In the absence of adherence to any particular religion or system of belief individuals could do a great deal worse than act out the doctrine of Do-As-You-Would-Be-Done-By in their path through life. At the very least such people could not be accused of claiming that their God was better than any other.
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Bibliography ... on the nature of Religion:
1 The Perennial Philosophy: Aldous Huxley, Chatto & Windus 1946
2 Longman Guide to Living Religions: eds. Harris, Mews, Morris and Sheppard,Longman Group
3 The Human Situation: Aldous Huxley (Lectures 1959)
4 The Gnostics: Tobias Churton, Weidenfeld & Nicholson 1987
5 Omens of the Millenium: Professor Harold Bloom, Fourth Estate 1996
6 In an Age of Revolution: Cyril Garbett (Archbishop of York), Hodder & Stoughton 1952
7 How the Mind Works: Steven Pinker, Allen Lane The Penguin Press 1998
8 The Death of Forever: Dr Darryl Reanney, Souvenir Press Ltd. 1995
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