Study of Religion

Studying Religion

There are eight essentials of tradition to be called a religion including practices and beliefs, commonalities of the western religions including Muslim, Christian, and Judaism on how each field of study approach religion and some critical issues of the academic study of worship. Studying Religion

Essentials in Religion

Religion may have a different definition based on human belief and worship. Religion can be defined as "a system of belief that involves worship of a God or gods, prayer, ritual, and a moral code" (Molloy, 2010,). The external coming into courts of religious belief, such as structures, arts, ceremonial occasion, and languages, demonstrate that each religious belief has its features and characteristics that differentiate it from others. The tradition in a religion incorporate a belief system wherein the group practice and share the conviction framework in the community including expression of their spiritual beliefs in central myths. Ritual, Ethics, characteristic emotional experiences, material expression, and sacredness are also some elements of religion that further improve one's religious convictions.

Western Religions

Praying is one of the most familiar rituals of some religion. However, they may be different based on their traditions and how they reaffirm with their god. Some of the Western religions that share this ritual are the Judaism, Christian, and Islam. The three western religion reunite on a weekly basis to worship in their sacred community to pray and study their so called scriptures, bible or Quran. The common core of these three religions is the monotheism, as they only have faith and belief in one God as the creator of the world. Religious beliefs varied in their teaching that sometimes cause a conflict with those of others.

As Christian, I do regularly pray and attend the church every Sunday. It is common Christian practice includes wherein we sing, read and study the scripture and participate in the rites. I also believe in being baptized and taking the holy communion is essential to salvation, which is considered sacraments instituted by Christ. Christian throughout the history believes that only baptized person can take the communion to participate in the Eucharist.

It is common in some religion express truth symbolically. A symbol is something relatively concrete, ordinary, and universal joint that can represent human being experience something of greater complexity wherein water symbolize purity. In the Western religion rituals, water cleanses and washes away our sins. Holy water and been utilized as a part of a broad range of religious ceremonies. The Hindus bathe in the Ganges River; Christians use water for submersions; Jews use water for custom sanitization; and Muslims and devotees of Shinto wash before supplication.