SRS 2113 Study Guide - Axial Age, Yajna, Indus River

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: SRS 2113
• Professor: All

Document Summary

Symbol: a thing (idea, image, sound) that represents something else. Everything we do is mediated through symbols (language, art, ritual, objects) Ex of symbols & meaning: - food (enjoying something until learning its origin, then becoming physically ill). Religious symbols: highly emotive and experience as thing in itself . Symbols of ultimate significance : symbols that represents something of ultimate significance to adherents can be considered religious . Seen as not arbitrary (as is our common understanding of symbols). Presentative ; a direct link to what they represent. Not an arbitrary image and sound for the sacred ; it is the sacred. Hearing it, we have an encounter with the sacred. All aspects of the manifest world share common attributes. (e. g. Manifest world is a symbol of the divine, in all its dimensions. Real affinities exist between thing and sacred symbol . Lord shiva can be understood to be that ultimate source.