“Beliefs That Changed the World: The History and Ideas of the Great Religions” by John Bowker
This is an important book about religion from the perspective of its political history.
It is written by John Bowker, an English Anglican priest who is also a pioneering scholar on religious studies. He is a former director of studies and dean of chapel at Corpus Christi and Trinity College, Cambridge, who is credited with introducing the discipline of religious studies to University of Cambridge. He has also been a Professor of religious studies at universities of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina State. Outside academia, he is a consultant for UNESCO, a BBC broadcaster, and author and editor of more than 40 books. And his depth of expertise in religious studies is immediately apparent from the very first paragraph.
In the introduction, Bowker set the gripping tone of the book by addressing the big misunderstandings for inter-religion conflicts, using the risky examples of religious POV of Israel-Palestine problem and the rise of ISIS. The brief highlight of these cases, in an impressively non-partisan tone, illustrates “the fact that the conflict between different religions cannot possibly be understood unless one realizes that there are also profound conflicts within each religion.”
Bowker then further remarks, “It is simply not possible for diplomats and politicians (or for that matter anybody else) to unravel the complexities of the conflicts listed at the beginning of this Introduction unless they understand the ways in which those conflicts are rooted, not only in religious beliefs, but also in different interpretations and applications of those beliefs.”
And this is what the book is addressing, the big picture with its intricate details. It provides the most concise and crystal clear history of the major religions, how they came into being, why they matter to those who believe, and how they have evolved into the shape they are now today. It discusses the following religions:
- Judaism: From Ancient Judea to Qabbalah to Zionism and the State of Israel.
- Christianity: The story of Jesus Christ, Council of Nicaea, the Orthodox Church, the Western Church (and its consolidation), the Reformation, Council of Trent, the ecumenical movement, the many different breakaway Churches (especially in the New World, United States).
- Islam: The life of the Prophet Muhammad, on Hadiths, schools of interpretation (Madhab), on war, the dynasty period, the golden age of Islam that excelled science and philosophy, on Caliphate, and the many different types of interpretations: Sunni, Shia, Sufi, Ahmadiyya, Babis, and Bahais.
- India: the religions of the Hindus (Vedic development, Brahmanism, Hare Krishna, the caste system, the dynasties, the multi-deities worship), Jainism, Parsi (or Zoroastrianism), Sikhism, Buddhism (Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan (Vajrayana), the life of the Buddha, the distinctions between Buddhism and other Indian religions).
- China: Confucius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Daoism, Moism, Zou Yang (school of Yin Yang and the Five Agents), and of course Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.
- Japan: Shinto, many forms of Buddhism (from Zen to the controversial Buddhist sect Soka Gakkai), neo-Confucianism, Christianity.
Among other things, within the context of each respective religions, the book describes the establishment of a community, the customs and traditions (and the reasoning behind them), the making of the holy texts, the political events happening around them (and their adaptation afterwards), the power struggles between state and religion, the changing of powers at the top leadership, the schisms within a religion, the assimilation with local religion and customs, the many sects, the rejection, the persecution, the enforcement of a new religion, all the way to false messiahs and the many inter-religion conflicts.
Now, I’ve read more than 60 books so far about religion. But it is only after reading this one that I become fully understand about the political side of religion and its implication towards the shape of the community.
Because, as Bowker explains, “religions emerged as organized systems to code, protect and transmit information that successive generations of people have come to regard as particularly important. That information is not confined to words. Much of it is expressed non-verbally in actions, gestures, signs, symbols, music, dance, rituals and the like.” And although the words came directly from God, every single one of these other elements are changeable by humans.
Furthermore, religions are also “organized systems in which some particular beliefs and behaviours are endorsed and encouraged, while others are discouraged and forbidden. Religions are protected circles in which people are likely to hold and share beliefs and practices.” This is where the political environment of a religion come to play.
For example, not everyone will agree with the status quo of how religion being run or organized. In fact, “sometimes they disagree so profoundly that some people will form a smaller group insisting on its own interpretations and practices. They form a kind of inner circle within the larger circle of shared assumptions.” This explains the many different school of thoughts, or sects, or breakaway new religions, or reforms within the original religions over the past centuries.
It is only after we understand all the political occurrences that prompted the changes, that we get to truly understand how religion really function today. And this is why this book should be the go-to book to understand about the big picture on religion, and to some extend to understand about the world as a whole.
Bowker perfectly capture this essence when he said “[t]he philologist Max Müller famously said that those who understand one religion understand none. I would simply add that those who try to understand the world without understanding any religions understand nothing.”
THE CHAOS THEORY 