The Seven Dimensional Model of Religion

The Seven dimensional Model of devotionThis essay examines news seven dimensional good example of faith against six main world religions.I shall then examine how early(a) belief systems fit into the same model. I shall consider other models concisely attempting an analysis of whether bracings model is successful.When I mention religion I stiff the Christian religion and not precisely the Christian religion to a greater extentover the Protestant religion and not only the Protestant religion, but the church of England.(Henry Fielding TomJ iodins)The first consideration when attempting the definition of religion is that a successive forward definition such as Fielding attempts in his unsullied work excludes the world view of religion. He speaks of Christianity excluding some traditions we will examine. from each one religious tradition within itself embodies numerous belief systems. Many philosophers and theologians would verify that religion is not definable.Smart recogn ises that religion is partly a be of convention as to what is counted under the head of religion and what is not.(Ninian Smart ThePhenomenon of godliness p10)In setting out his model Smart attempts to find one that is inclusivistic of global religion whilst confining the definition to that which can be classify as of religion.The seven dimensions ar I in a flashExperiential Doctrinal Mythical religious riteistic institutional and Ethic I nowpropose to examine these key areas explaining presently what Smart meant by them attempting to apply it to the six world traditions.ExperientialSmart explains the experiential dimension as the emotions witnessed by the founder of the tradition and its followers. Rudolf Otto describes it as the numinous experience, that is, the feeling one experiences when the senses of man are aroused as a result of paranormal or special places.Examples of this are Moses and the destroy Bush Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita.The second aspect of the experiential is that of mysticism. This is an inner seek of that which is unknowable. Examples of this would be the whirling dhervishes and the Hasidic tradition within Judaism.DoctrinalSmart explains this as the formulation of a system to encapsulate the tradition. For instance, Smart gives doubting Thomas philosophical explanation of debut an authoritative feel compared with the stage of creation in Genesis. There is besides the doctrine of theTrinity going some agency to explain Jesus as God within Christianity. Within Buddhism, the Buddha explained himself the racetrack to salvation whereas other traditions have left that to the succeeding institution to develop. fabSmart explains this as sacred history or sacred story rather than the term we are familiar with today. The great religions have stories to key of their founders such as the Enlightenment of the Buddha or the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus. There are also stories to explain difficult concepts for example evil. Many f aiths strengthen these stories by writing them down as in the Torah or the Quran.Oral traditions also arise such as the Catholic tradition of relying on various saints for help.RitualSmart explained this as a method by which religion expresses itself. earthly concern uses rituals worldwide as a form of communication, for example, the handshake. There is a back together of people who recognise these rituals. Examples of these will be the ancient Judaic tradition of ritual sacrifice in the Temple Baptism withinChristianity.EthicalReligions commonly follow a code ofethics they expect their followers to adopt. This concerns not only the individuals behaviour but also that of the society. Examples of this are the ten commandments the 613 commandments of Jewish practice of law Vatican Edicts on birth control.InstitutionalSmart describes this as the tangible optical embodiment of religion that can be seen on two levels by means of and through groups of people as in the Church, or t he Sangha. The second level is through the buildings such as the mosque, the mandir, the cathedral. Also within this category can be places of religious significance such as Benares, the River Ganges and Jerusalem.Visual/ estheticalThese aspects of religion can be translated into works of art architecture music. This support ritual or understanding sacred story for example hymns, prayer beads beads.In Smarts book Religious Experience and Mankind he argues that this model works as closely as possible to discovering the nature of religion. He struggles however in that other world philosophies such as humanitarianism and Communism closely follow the model.For the purpose of brevity, I shalloutline the model against fabianism to illustrate the comparisons.In the ritual dimension, communismhad set in place ceremonies performed in praise of the philosophy for examplethere were annual celebrations of the revolution. In the experiential dimensionKarl Marx was held as the seer and found er of wisdom. His revelation of anew system created the wow factor. In the unreal dimension oraltraditions were developed of the revolution. Das Kapital became the sacredtext. In the doctrinal dimension, edicts were passed down explaining howpeople were now meant to work and live.In the ethical dimension moralbehaviour and the laws of society were adjusted to pay credible the communisttradition. For instance, it was haveable to murder if the criminal was apolitical agitator and the authorities executed. In the institutional dimensionthe communist party became the church and the mission was communism. In thematerial dimension places such as Lenins tomb became a shrine, a central pointof worship. Yet, communism could never be considered a religion but more anideology. Yet it fits within the model quite confortably.The social dimension isquestionable. It also relates to politics and racism as an identity, a label,a badge of allegiance of a group. This is how Richard Gombrich terms modernworld religion. For him, the key to defining religion is what you do, notwhat you think.Hans Kung demonstrates thatreligion can be categorize in terms of family. Indian religions tend to followa mystical route with a mystical leader Chinese religion with a wise perspicacious andNear Eastern religion with a wise figure.It is not possible to adjust a narrowdefinition on the religion but I can accept that they belong together infacilitating humankind with its humanity.BibliographyFielding Henry Tom Jones Oxford human race Classics Oxford 1998Gombrich Richard TherevadaBuddhism A Social History from Ancient Benaresto Modern Colombo RoutledgeLondon 1988Kung Hans trace the WaySpiritual Dimensions of the World Religions Continuum 2002Otto Rudolf Mysticism(East) RA Kessinger Publishing 2003Open University A5 Religion Block4 units 14-15 pp 36-38Smart Ninian The Phenomenon ofReligion London and Oxford 1978 p10Smart Ninian ReligiousExperience and Mankind Collins New York 1971