Portal:Religion

For a topic outline on this subject, see Outline of religion

Main page

Categories, Topics & Featured content

The Religion Portal

Shortcut: P:R

Religion is the adherence to codified beliefs and rituals that generally involve a faith in a spiritual nature and a study of inherited ancestral traditions, knowledge and wisdom related to understanding human life. The term "religion" refers to both the personal practices related to faith as well as to the larger shared systems of belief.

In the larger sense, religion is a communal system for the coherence of belief—typically focused on a system of thought, unseen being, person, or object, that is considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine, or of the highest truth. Moral codes, practices, values, institutions, traditions, and rituals are often traditionally associated with the core belief, and these may have some overlap with concepts in secular philosophy. Religion can also be described as a way of life.

The development of religion has taken many forms in various cultures. "Organized religion" generally refers to an organization of people supporting the exercise of some religion with a prescribed set of beliefs, often taking the form of a legal entity (see religion-supporting organization). Other religions believe in personal revelation and responsibility. "Religion" is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system," but is more socially defined than that of personal convictions.

More about religion...

Show new selections

edit

Selected article

Buddhist art originated on the Indian subcontinent following the historical life of Gautama Buddha, 6th to 5th century BCE, and thereafter evolved by contact with other cultures as it spread throughout Asia and the world.

Early Buddhist art, followed the Indian aniconic tradition which avoids direct representation of the human figure. Around the 1st century CE an iconic period emerged lasting to this day which represents the Buddha in human form.

Buddhist art followed believers as the dharma spread, adapted, and evolved in each new host country. It developed to the north through Central Asia and into Eastern Asia to form the Northern branch of Buddhist art, and to the east as far as Southeast Asia to form the Southern branch of Buddhist art. In India, Buddhist art flourished and even influenced the development of Hindu art, until Buddhism nearly disappeared in India around the 10th century due in part to the vigorous expansion of Islam alongside Hinduism.

edit

Selected picture

Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the Roman Catholic Church.

edit

Selected religious figure or deity

Guru Nanak Dev (Punjabi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ ਦੇਵ, Gurū Nānak Dēv; (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539), was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Gurus of the Sikhs. He is revered not only by Sikhs, but also by Hindus and Muslims in the Punjab and across the Indian subcontinent. His primary message to society was recorded to be "devotion of thought and excellence of conduct as the first of duties".

Sikh tradition states that at the age of thirty, Nanak went missing and was presumed to have drowned after going for one of his morning baths to a local stream called the Kali Bein. Three days later he reappeared and would give the same answer to any question posed to him: "There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim" (in Punjabi, "nā kō hindū nā kō musalmān"). It was from this moment that Nanak would begin to spread the teachings of what was then the beginning of Sikhism.

edit

Did you know...

...that the phrase "God helps those who help themselves" is not found in the Bible? It originated from Discourses Concerning Government written by Algernon Sydney?

...that the Ganges River (Ganga in Indian languages) is personified in Hinduism as a goddess?

...that according to the Torah, Moses lived to be 120 years old?

...that on The Beatles album: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, there is an image of famed magician Aleister Crowley, and that David Bowie uses Thelemic references in some of his songs?

...that Wicca was previously an Old English word (pronounced: 'witcha'), meaning a male witch or wizard and 'wicce' was a female witch?

edit

News

Latest religion/spirituality Wikinews

edit

On this day...

May 27:

1601 - Antoine Daniel, Jesuit missionary and one of Canadian Martyrs, born. (d. 1648)
1908 - Khalifatul Masih, The birth of the Second Manifestation of God's power in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

edit

Selected quote

edit

Selected scripture

An 11th century Targum, an Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible,Tanakh

Tanakh (Hebrew: תנ״ך) (also Tanach, Hebrew pronunciation: [taˈnax] or [təˈnax], or Tenak, is an acronym that identifies the Hebrew Bible. The acronym is based on the initial Hebrew letters of each of the text's three parts:

1. Torah תורה meaning "Instruction". Also called the Chumash חומש meaning: "The five"; "The five books of Moses." Also called the "Pentateuch." The Torah is often referred to as the law of the Jewish people.
2. Nevi'im נביאים meaning "Prophets." This term is associated with anything to do with the prophets.
3. Ketuvim כתובים meaning "Writings" or "Hagiographa."

The writings are then separated into sections, for example; there are a group of history books namely, Ezra, Chronicles and Nehemiah. Others include the wisdom books these are: Job, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. Poetry books; Psalms, Lamentation and Song of Solomon. Lastly there are other books, Ruth, Esther and the book of Daniel. The Tanakh is also called מקרא, Mikra or Miqra, meaning "that which is read."

edit