REL 1510 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Rudolf Otto, Mircea Eliade, Islamic Calendar
Document Summary
Religious life reflects an individual"s attempt to live in accordance with the precepts of a religious tradition. Christians strive to be christ-like (see jesus christ); and followers of the mystical. Dao (or tao, the chinese term for the ultimate way of the universe) practice noninterference with the natural course of things (see daoism). The idea that sacredness is an individual experience and the idea that it is influenced by environmental factors are not necessarily in conflict. Religious life is given distinctive form both by the power of a community"s social bonds and its traditional objects of veneration, and by an individual"s personal interaction with those objects. In addition, mythic language and ritual serve as a focus for religious experience. The attempt to isolate the distinctive qualities of religion can be seen in the work of a number of influential thinkers.