Term
|
Definition
| The awakened on” or enlightened one. Historically Gautama Buddha, 5th century B.C.E., northern India—but many others have also been Buddhas. Since Buddhas can determine their incarnate form, even representations of Buddha convey spiritual power (the figure of Buddha is a “refuge”). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| One of the three “refuges.” The teaching of the Buddha, which emphasizes reaching enlightenment by practicing the middle way (avoiding extremes) and seeking universal compassion. Particular emphasis is placed on realizing the origins of suffering and transcending suffering. This aim is achieved through understanding the ideas of contingent arising/ no-self/ non-duality: Since all is in flux, no clear dividing line separates any two people or objects, there is no individual, permanent self. Hence, no other person exists to be angry at, and no self exists to preserve. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Mental discipline/mental exercise that trains the mind to recognize the transitory and illusory character of all desire and all sense of an independent self. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The Buddhist community, an alternative social structure focused around achieving enlightenment. With the Buddha and the dharma, one of the “three refuges” of Buddhism. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| : The state of the cessation of the accumulated causes of future suffering and rebirth, escape from the wheel of samsara and the karmic cycle. The peace and liberation of non-being, transcendence. The ultimate goal of the Buddhist spiritual life. Buddhism acknowledges neither an ultimate heave, nor a transcendent creator-God (the world is the product of our karma). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Buddhist school dominant in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. It remains focused on individual liberation into Nirvana, and considers Mahayana Buddhism a corruption. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| “The Great Vehicle.” Buddhist school dominant in China and prominent in Japan. It extends the Buddhist ideas of compassion and non-duality out to the point of asserting that 1) the promises and truths of the Buddha can be moderated so as to be understood/desirable to the listener 2) all beings possess a latent Buddha nature and will one day achieve Buddhahood. Individual entrance into Nirvana is no longer the religion’s sole focus. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| One who has vowed to achieve Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings—even if this involves delaying Nirvana. A belief of the Mahayana tradition, for which the key bodhisattvas function like intercessory saints or deities. Key bodhisattvas include: Amitabha, the Buddha who presides over the Pure Land, to which he vowed to lead all beings who call upon him; Guanyin, the female bodhisattva who is the embodiment of compassion and is called upon in difficulties, esp. with bearing children. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A kind of Mahayana Buddhist heaven: a state of pure meaning and peace, corresponding to the values of Buddhism (light, trees, mind over matter, sound of dharma); all who reach it are guaranteed eventual Nirvana. A compassionate gift to help/console those not yet ready to aspire to Nirvana directly. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| : Buddhist school popular in Japan/the West, which emphasizes the individual breaking free (via spiritual discipline and practice) from conventional values and ways of thinking in order to attain an enlightenment that (like both the material and spiritual worlds) transcends speech. Uses koans: verbal puzzles that serve to break conventional linear, logical, dualist thinking. They serve to help the Zen practitioner on the path to transcend the limits of language. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| : Rituals and practices for the attainment of supernatural powers, including Buddhahood. The mandala, a ritual drawing of a Buddha’s palace, in which rites are performed, plays a key role in Tibetan tantra. In some schools, acts of transgression are mixed with spiritual practice in order to perform the idea of non-duality in a supernaturally efficacious manner. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Leader of Tibetan Buddhism. He is held to be a perpetually reincarnated bodhisattva who preserves his existence in samsara in order to guide the people. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Can take many forms, but typically in the West emphasizes individual liberation and enlightenment, freely combining Tibetan versions of Mahayana (emphasizing on nature and compassion) with Japanese Zen (emphasizing breaking free of conventional thought). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Exemplified in the Sermon on the Mount: Jesus’ discourse in Matthew in which he is cast as a New Moses. He lays out a radical new law (turn the other cheek when assaulted, love your enemies, give to all who ask you, etc.) and founds a new world order (“the Kingdom,” in which the meek inherit the earth, the rich and powerful are simply imprisoned in illusion, self-giving is liberation). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An affirmative approach to differences between Christian groups that seeks to see God as at work in each group and to find paths to unity and reconciliation. Esp. influential in the last hundred years, and sometimes extends even to productive inter-religious dialogue. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The Muslim scripture. Held to be the direct speech of God, revealed by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad; as divine truth, its contents are held in traditional Islam to preexist the world itself. Mostly prophetic oracles, ethical prescriptions and laws; few narratives (mostly revisionary retellings of Noah, Abraham, Joseph, and Jesus). Its teachings particularly emphasize the Otherness of God (who is one, and could never be incarnate), and social justice (attacks on usury or lending with interest, exploitations of the poor, failure to care for orphans) and are held to fit/guide a basically good humanity. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| confession of faith (shahada), ritual prayer (salat, five times a day facing Mecca), almsgiving (zakat, 2.5% tax for the poor), fasting (sawm, dawn to dusk during Ramadan), and pilgrimage (hajj, a trip, once in a life if possible, to Muhammad’s home, Mecca). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Traditions that convey the deeds and utterances of the prophet Muhammad, who is held to be “the perfect man” or “the living Qur’an.” Especially in Islamic law, they are used to contextualize and interpret the dictates of the Qur’an. Muhammad is a successful businessman who becomes a prophet in middle age and who, after a period of difficulty (in which his wife Kadijah helps him maintain his faith), becomes a spiritual leader and temporal ruler. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The Muslim community, which is to be an alternate social order, modeling justice and holiness and providing an example to the rest of the world. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| “Striving in the way of God.” The “greater jihad”: the individual’s internal struggle to conform one’s own will to the divine wall. The “lesser jihad”: the external struggle to bring about God’s will in the world (can at times take financial, political, or even military forms). Traditional Islamic law holds that military jihad can be declared only by the proper authority (such as the ruler of a state), must be for a just cause, and must be pursued by just means. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The majority of the world’s Muslims. They hold that political rule of the Islamic community is not tied to religious rule. They hold that only the Qur’an, Hadith, and Islamic law constitute binding sources of religious knowledge, and emphasize communal consent in religion. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The second-largest branch of Islam. They hold that leadership in the Islamic community should be held by a direct descendent of Muhammad (the imam). These descendants possess infallibility and their teachings show how to interpret the Qur’an. Most believe that no current, legitimate imam exists, though a minority do; many expect the office to be restored (the Mahdi). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Islamic law; the guidance of human conduct, including law, beliefs and morals, held to be revealed by God in the Qur’an and the Hadith. The application of this law to particular cases and cultural situations (Islamic jurisprudence) is known as fiqh; a particular case ruling is a fatwa. In addition to the sources above, scholars of Islamic law use legal precedent, communal consensus, and analogical, probabilistic reasoning (ijtihad) to reach their judgements. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Islamic mysticism. It emphasizes the possibility of the soul’s mystical union with or knowledge of God, which like drunkenness must be experienced to be understood. God as encounter with love. The soul is held to ascend to God with the help of a spiritual guide, and through identifiable stages and practices (such as asceticism and extra prayers; dreams and visions). Relatively egalitarian. Women can be Sufi saints and sources of divine knowledge. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| have postulated that since only the Qur’an is the binding word of God, the legal tradition can be radically rewritten or disregarded, and the individual is free to apply the Qur’an and its principles to a contemporary context as he or she sees fit. The response to Western ascendency is to accept modernity and create a modernist Islam (cf. Fatima Mernissi and Islamic feminism). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| seeks to answer modernity by creating an ideal social order free from Western influence, based on a literalistic reading of the Qur’an and a strict adherence to early tradition (cf. Ruhollah Khomeini). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| seeks to apply the Islamic legal tradition to the situation of modernity in a nuanced way, sometimes affirming Western values (interpreting freedom of religion as individual freedom to seek God) and sometimes critiquing them (seeing global capitalism as a threat to justice, and usury as sin) (cf. Tariq Ramadan, Malcolm X). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An event that transcends the order of nature. In Christianity and other faiths, it is also a “sign”—not just a strange happening, but one with a discernible symbolic meaning. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A favorite literary form of Jesus. Stories that refer to the events of common life in order to point at a deeper meaning, but one which is not simply allegorical and which is sometimes illusive. The audience is challenged as to whether they can, or are willing to, understand it. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The Messiah, in Jewish thought, is sent by God to restore the nation. Since Jesus in the Gospels is redefining what both restoration and the nation mean, he refuses (esp. in Mark) to say publicly whether he is the Messiah or not, neither affirming nor denying the claim. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Traditional Christianity holds that Jesus is fully God and fully human. In spirit he pre-exists the world and is the wisdom through which it was created (cf. John 1), but through his birth via Mary he becomes fully embodied and fully undergoes the human experience. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Self-emptying. The ideal, taught by Paul, that Jesus’ impoverished earthly life is a sign of his infinite compassion, emptying himself of all markers of godhood to serve creation. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The followers of Jesus, who are held to embody his Way and his Kingdom (“the Body of Christ,” the beginning of the New Creation). In Acts, the early Church transcends the divided languages of the world, practices a universal charity, and gives voice to the disenfranchised. The early church embraced martyrdom as following the example of Jesus. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Christian ritual recreating Jesus’ last meal with his disciples (a meal tied to Passover). In early Christianity (and later Catholicism/Orthodoxy/Lutheranism), participating in this meal renders Jesus spiritually present; to remember properly is to transcend time. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Flourishes in the middle ages. Figures like Francis of Assisi ecstatically sense God’s reflection in nature (“Brother Sun,” etc.); figures like Catherine of Siena sense the possibility of an ecstatic, almost marital union with Jesus; figures like Julian of Norwich reimagine Jesus as feminine (“our mother”) and envision a wholly restored creation. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Possesses apostolic succession (bishops who trace their line of ordination back to the apostles) and is led by the Pope (the Bishop of Rome, seen as Peter’s successor). Holds to a developmental view of tradition: early Christian traditions are to be preserved and applied to the present time with the assistance of reason and attention to cultural variance (cf. Aquinas). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Holds that the Bible alone and individual Faith alone are reliable means of knowing God. Sees itself as the restoration of the early church; stresses decentralization as reflecting the practice of the early church and freeing the individual (cf. Luther). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Possesses apostolic succession and contains the majority of important early bishoprics. Holds to a mystical view of tradition: tradition is to be preserved intact, as it contains truths that transcend reason and that would otherwise be corrupted. Worship is to be, like icons, a picture that reflects and participates in the mysteries of heaven. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Responds to modernity by embracing it. The key values of Christianity are now individual free thought and action, the refusal to be limited by tradition, custom, or group values (the stories Jesus/Luther are reread to this end) (cf. von Harnack, Schleiermacher). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Rather than emphasizing doctrine, suggests that action, esp. on behalf of the poor and oppressed, is at the heart of Christianity, and is the best way of answering critics of the faith. Draws from the example of Jesus and the early Church. (cf. Day, King). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A form of Christianity that emphasizes an individual experience, usually emotive, of contact with God as the essence of true faith (think of Wesley’s “heart strangely warmed). This approach often yields egalitarian social results (think of Lee’s preaching). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Movement begun in Latin America by Gustavo Gutierrez, which says that to speak meaningfully in a world of global capitalism, Christianity must emphasize the economic, political, and spiritual liberation—and leadership—of the poor and exploited. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A decentralized movement stressing a personal mystical experience with God marked by speaking in tongues, miracles, and/or prophecy. It has been esp. influential in Africa, Asia, and South America—even on Catholicism (Charismatic Renewal). |
|
|
