Theo 110: Religion, Religious Experience, and Spirituality

PRELIM
VISION-MISSION STATEMENT OF FATHER SATURNINO URIOS UNIVERSITY
Vision:
Father Saturnino Urios University, a lay empowered, Filipino, Catholic, diocesan, educational institution envisions a
community of men and women committed to pursue the work of Christ for the wholeness of society.
Mission:
As such, Father Saturnino Urios University commits itself to:
*Provide a balanced program of spiritual formation, educational development, research undertakings, and community involvement for
all;
*Form self-determined Filipinos who uphold the integrity of creation, as crusaders of truth and justice, proud of their identity and
heritage and in dialogue with different cultures;
*Empower all as catalysts for social transformation and development.
Core Values:
The Core Values of Father Saturnino Urios University spring from the cultivation of the Kingdom-gospel values of love for
others, especially the poor, the needy, and Mother Earth, Justice, Freedom, Truth, Peace, and a deep sense of sanctity/religiosity.
The Core Values are reflected in the personal and social life of the Urian. Operative in the institution as a community of
scholars, these Core Values are:
U - Unity and community life, collegiality and subsidiarity in administration and management;
R - Religiosity and a deep sense of God, celebrated in the liturgy and actions on behalf of justice and peace; and responsibility in the
readiness to respond to the Call of the Times;
I - Integrity and commitment to truth, academic freedom, research, professionalism, and industry;
A - Altruism as being for others, Love as other-orientedness, with a preferential option for the poor, the needy and care for the
Integrity of Creation;
N - Nationalism and democracy, pride in our Filipino and indigenous heritage, commitment to national independence, and
community building for social transformation and development.
Summary throughout the entire semester:
*In the prelims, we will cover the definitions and meanings of theology and religion. How religion came about – its connection to
our human experiences and human aspirations and dreams. We will also include the dimensions of religion, religious experiences and
spirituality, and the differing religious views.
*In the Midterms, we will also start to look at the ancient religions of Hinduism and Buddhism both originated in India.
*In the Semi-finals, we will cover the oriental religions of Taoism, Confucianism, and Shintoism.
*In the finals, we will study the religions that originate from the Promised Land. These religions are also called the Abrahamic
religions as they all claim to have descended from Abraham. The world calls these religions Middle Eastern religions namely;
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Ecumenism:
- the principle or aim of promoting unity among the world's Christian Churches.
#2. Theology:
• from the Greek Θεός meaning "God"
• and λόγος meaning "study of“
• is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths
Theology
1. God revealing himself to humanity (revelation)
2. Man’s response to God (faith)
3. Man’s interpersonal relationship with his fellowmen as proof of their connection with God (praxis)
Revelation:
• God's disclosure of Himself and His will to His creatures
• God is pleased to make a supernatural revelation of himself (Hebrew 1:1)
Faith:
• "to trust, to have confidence, faithfulness, to be reliable, to assure".
• The Bible (Hebrews 11) says that faith is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Interpersonal Relationship:
• Social associations, connections, or affiliations between two or more people.
• There are different levels of intimacy and sharing concerning centered around something(s) shared in common.

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Praxis:
• is the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, practiced, embodied, or realized
• "Taste and see that God is good," Psalm 34:8 says
#3. Religion:
What is Religion?
- is a unified system of beliefs and practices concerned with sacred things.
- is a social institution involving beliefs and practices based upon a conception of the sacred.
- Religions involve ritual, formal ceremonial behavior.
- Religion involves faith, belief anchored in conviction rather than scientific evidence.
- Religion is inherent to human experience.
- Religion facilitates the human to have a loving encounter with the holy, whether this sacred reality be understood as power, as
force, as God, as Divine or ultimate reality.
- Such experience is deemed as a religious experience which eventually becomes an inspiration of our spirituality. Spirituality is a
way of life. It manifests that God is present in our world and is active in our lives. It is a pathway to deeper prayers, good decisions
guided by keen discernment, and an active life of service to others (Thomas Green, SJ). Religion is a communal and individual
relationship realized in a community with its tradition and historicity (through doctrine, ethos, and generally ritual as well) with
something that transcends or encompasses the human person and his/her world: with something always to be understood as the utterly
final, true reality (the absolute, God, nirvana).
Sacred vs. Profane
Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist: Every society has things that are sacred and things that are profane.
Sacred:
• The sacred is that which is defined as extraordinary, inspiring a sense of awe, reverence, and even fear.
• Example: Buddha statues, bibles, crosses, star of David, etc.
Profane:
• Profane means the non-sacred aspects of life.
• The commonplace in our society doesn't involve the supernatural.
• The ordinary elements of everyday life.
• The secular.
Religion is a way of Life
• May govern a person’s way of life
• Affect decisions and lifestyle
Legitimation: Central Function of Religion
• Sociologists: One function of religion is that it gives formal approval to existing social arrangements.
• It justifies our society's norms and customs.
• For example, why some people are poor and some people are rich, why we have certain laws, etc.
Three major social functions of religion: (Durkheim)
- Social cohesion - willingness to cooperate
- Social control - regulation
- Providing meaning and purpose.
Types of Religious Organization:
- A CHURCH is a type of religious organization well integrated into the larger society. There are two types of churches.
A. An ECCLESIA is a church that is formally allied with the state.
B. A DENOMINATION is a church, independent of the state, in societies that accept religious pluralism
- A SECT is a type of religious organization that stands apart from the larger society. They display the following characteristics:
a) They are less formal, more emotional, and less intellectualize.
b) Their leaders display charisma.
c) They rely on active proselytization, recruiting many members through a process of conversion.
- CULT is a religious organization that is substantially outside the cultural traditions of a society.
Some Important Terms:
• Monotheism: the existence of only one God.
- Islam, Christianity, Judaism
• Polytheism: the existence of many gods.
- Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Taoism
• Proselytize: trying to convert people to one’s belief or opinion. (proselytization)

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Goal:
- Religion can be described in many ways and from many views
- We need to remember that not everyone has the same beliefs
- Teaching tolerance and understanding will help build a united future.
#4. Religion: Etymological Meaning
* From the Latin word “religãre”: re (again) + ligare (bind or connect).
- Religion therefore challenges us to bind life together, everything is connected
- Religion brings to the reality that we need to be Holy at all times in all places. All for God and for love
* Religion is also known as “legere” in the Latin word, which means “to read”.
- Read the world correctly
- We have to see not just the negativities in life but also the goodness around us
- View everything as a potential for seeing both sides of life which is a gift from God and to strive to see the potentialities of
goodness in everything which in return may point to us God the creator.
- Religion therefore is simply a way of looking at life.
- It calls us to look at life and everything in the eyes of God.
- Everything is beautiful and Holy if we only look at it in the right way.
- It is our way of responding to Love shown in varied shapes and varieties
* Religion is also known as “eligare” in the Latin word, which, means to choose.
- Choose God and God’s way in everything that we do
- The religious person always chooses the good, better, and holier
- Religion asks us to choose the greater path of Love whether the choices may be difficult, the circumstances deceptive and it is not
the thing that we do not want to do.
A religious person therefore is …
1. The one who can find God in all things
2. The one who can find God in all the tangled situations in our world
3. The one who can center his/her life on God
4. The one who can choose clearly what God wants him/her to do
#5 Religiosity:
- Religiosity is the type of religious attitudes and behaviors people display in their everyday lives. (Charles Glock and Rodney Stark)
They are both American sociologists.
10 Elements (dimensions) of Religions
1. Belief Systems
- Belief refers to what a person considers true. Ex. for Catholics, THEOTOKOS
*A grouping of beliefs that explain the universe and humanity; often called a worldview
*Many beliefs fit together in a system to make sense of the universe and our place in it.
2. Consequence
- Consequences are the decisions and commitments people make as a result of religious beliefs, rituals, etc. For example, not
eating meat during Lent, practicing sexual abstinence before marriage, Ramadan fasting
3. Sacredness
- Defining what is ordinary and that which is set apart
- Religions see some things as sacred and some as not sacred (or profane).
- Some objects, actions, people, and places may share in the sacredness or express it.
4. Community
- The practicing of the belief system and valuing the same ideals as a group creates a community
- The belief system is shared, and its ideals are practiced by a group
5. Central Myths
- Stories that are told and enacted to convey the beliefs
- Stories that help explain the beliefs of a group; these are told over and over again and sometimes performed by members of the
group. They may or may not be factual.
6. Ritual
- Ceremonies are used to enact and reinforce beliefs
- Beliefs are explained, taught, and made real through ceremonies
7. Characteristic Emotional Experiences
- Emotions that are often associated with religions
- Most religions share emotions such as awe, mystery, guilt, joy, devotion, conversion, inner peace, etc.

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- Experience deals with feelings attached to religious expression.
8. Ethics
- Established set of rules for the community, often with divine origin
- Rules about how to behave; these rules are often thought to have come from a deity or supernatural place
9. Intellectual dimension
- Intellectual dimension is the knowledge one has of scriptures, etc.
10. Material Expression
- The use of physical elements
- Religions use things to perform rituals or to express or represent beliefs
- Example: statues, paintings, music, flowers, incense, clothes, architecture, and specific sacred locations.
#6 Religious Experience:
- What do you think are these people doing?
*Religion is inherent to human experience.
- Religion facilitates humans to have a loving encounter with the holy, whether this sacred reality be understood as power, as forces,
as God, as Divine, or ultimate reality.
* What is a religious experience?
• Not customary or usual
• Not usually describable
• Not universal to human beings
• Different interpretations in different cultures
• Subjective experience
• Cannot be verified
• Gives insight into the unseen
• “You cannot experience God unless he allows you to”
Types of Religious Experience:
* There are 5 Categories of Religious Experience.
PUBLIC EXPERIENCES:
1) Ordinary, interpreted experience – e.g. night sky
2) Extraordinary experience – Jesus walking on water
PRIVATE EXPERIENCE
3) Describable in normal language (Jacob’s ladder)
4) Not describable in normal language (mystical)
5) No specific experience
- This experience is identified as the ‘numinous’ by Rudolf Otto in his book “The idea of the holy”.
* Rudolph Otto (German, 1896-1937)
Religious experience is the Holy or numinous experience
The numinous can be understood to be the experience of a mysterious terror and awe (Mysterium tremendum et fascinans) and
majesty (Majestas) in the presence of that which is “entirely other” (das ganz Andere) and thus incapable of being expressed directly
through human language and other media.
Two Kinds of Religious Experience:
• Numinous
Externally oriented; of the “awesome and fearful Other”; dualistic
• Mystical
Internally oriented; of the ultimate oneness and unity of all
* Shared Characteristics:
1. Smallness of self
2. Limits of the Ordinary.
- If we put them in the context of the Filipino, what do you think would be the right vernacular word that would describe them?
Explain
*Religious experience is a product of faith.
- A believer is educated or trained to see the world in terms of the religious form of life he or she occupies and, in the categories,
endorsed by this form of life.
* God is experienced as speaking, comforting, forgiving, and also as good, powerful, loving, compassionate, etc… (Alston,
1992)
- Alston’s claim is that when we see a more ordinary object like a person, we proceed by making comparisons.
* Similarly, in the case of experiences of God we make comparisons of how things seem to us.
* Believers make use of their prior frameworks with normal experience.

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- God is experienced as believers expect God to be experienced - there is no difference between ordinary experiences and religious
ones.
*Such experience is deemed as a religious experience which eventually becomes an inspiration for our spirituality.
#7 Spirituality: Religious Experience is an Inspiration of Spirituality.
* Spirituality
- is a way of life.
- It acknowledges that God is present in our world and active in our lives.
- It is a pathway to deeper prayer, good decisions guided by keen discernment, and an active life of service to others (Thomas Green,
SJ).
- Spirituality is intrinsic to human beings
- We use it to seek meaning and purpose
- We use it to transcend and experience deeper relationships with self, family, and others (nature)
- Spirituality is expressed through beliefs, values, traditions, and practices.
* What Is Spirituality?
Spirituality Integrates Three Faces.
• Healthy relationships, and treating ourselves and others with respect, honesty, integrity, and love, are a sign of spiritual
well-being.
• Values are our principles—not only the things we say we care about but also the things that cause us to behave the way we
do.
• People who are spiritually healthy are able to articulate their purpose in life and make choices that manifest that purpose.
- Meaning in life, beyond material values
- The personal quest for understanding,
- Answers to ultimate questions about life
- Relationship
* Characteristics of Distinguishing Spirituality and Religion

Spiritual Health Contributes to Physical Health

 Can improve immune function
 live many years longer, on average,
 exhibits greater self-control.
 more disciplined
Spiritual Health Contributes to Physical Health
 Can improve immune function
 live many years longer, on average,
 exhibits greater self-control.
 more disciplined
Religious Well-Being Improves Quality of Life
 It decreases anxiety, depression, anger, discomfort, and feelings of isolation
 It decreases blood pressure and the risk of heart disease
 It increases coping ability
 It increases hope, optimism, satisfaction with life, and inner peace
URIAN SPIRITUALITY
- The Urian Spirituality is inspired by the Life of Saint Joseph, our Patron saint, and the spirituality of St. Ignatius as exemplified by
Father Urios. Thus, we make claims of the elements found both in the Spirit of St. Joseph and The Ignatian Spirituality.
Josefino Spirituality
 willingness
 Immediacy (action agad)

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 obedience
 Humility
 Attitude of service.
 ordinary way on a daily basis

Ignatian spirituality
 Rooted in prayer
 Discernment – for decisions
 active in the process of the journey towards God
 Openness to God in all things and that all things in God
 For him man’s Goal is to seek, serve, obey, and glorify God
 Magis
 God can be found in moments of consolation and desolation
CONSOLATION
* Synonyms:
- Relief support
- comfort compassion
- Encouragement solace
- Succour sympathy
- Alleviation cheer
- Ease help
DESOLATION
* Synonyms:
- Devastation isolation
- Loneliness solitude
- Bareness desert
- Dissolution forlornness
- Ruin solitariness
- Waste wreck
URIAN Spirituality
- Is the reflection of the spirituality of both St. Joseph and St. Ignatius
- This empowers us to be catalysts for social transformation and development
#8 Beliefs – Religious Views
Animism
- Latin “Anima” – breath, spirit, life
- Objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence
- Everything is animate and alive
- Animism’s central belief that spirit exists in the natural world
1. Founder - There is no one person who is considered the founder of Animism
2. Geographic Origin - Developed worldwide in different parts of the world. (Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Australia)
3. Currently Practiced - Worldwide, but most common in traditional societies of Africa, the Americas and Australia
4. Significant Writings – None, but have an oral tradition of story-telling (oral history)
5. Significant Religious People –
a. Shaman - A person who communicates with the spiritual world and conducts rituals
b. Medicine Man/Woman - A healer or a person who can treat illnesses
c. Griot - A professional storyteller in a traditional African Animist society.
Animism: Beliefs
a. Religion that believes that each object has its own spirit and that ancestors watch over the living.
b. Polytheistic - Spirits are found in natural objects (living and nonliving objects)
c. There is belief in a Supreme Being and in lesser gods.
d. Obey the gods and follow tradition and you will be rewarded with good harvests and many healthy children.
e. Failure to follow traditions would anger the Gods and result in hardships, crop failure, illness, and death.
Animism: Practices
a. Prayers and ceremonies keep spirits on your side
b. Use of ceremonial masks as a way to receive what the people want or need.

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Pantheism
- Pantheism is the belief that the universe and all things within nature are God. Pantheists do not celebrate a distinct personal or
anthropometric god but accept all gods into worship because they view God as everything and everyone, and everyone and everything
as God.
- God is everything and everything is part of God, the reality is spiritual in nature, and the everyday world is an illusion (Hinduism,
Taoism, & Buddhism).

Monotheism
- a belief in one God
- The foundation of the Judeo-Christian-Muslim line of religions
- Began with a man named Abraham in about 2000 BC
Polytheism
- a belief in multiple gods
- Originated with Hinduism in about 2500 BC.
- Polytheism was also the religion of many ancient cultures (Egypt, Greece and Rome).
Polytheism: Belief System
- Gods in control of all-natural events such as rainfall, harvests, and fertility.
- In general, polytheistic cultures believed in sacrifices to appease their gods.
- The Greeks and Romans developed polytheism into a highly structured pantheon of gods and goddesses.
* Two main categories of religion: