Historical Development
Every religious tradition has a history that reveals how and why it developed its distinctive features, including its system of beliefs, leadership and governance structures, social institutions, and forms of artistic expression.
Sometimes the forces that generate change arise largely from within a tradition, as in the case of conflict between opposing sects or schools of thought. At other times they operate from the outside, as with the influence exerted by Western powers on foreign colonies and spheres of influence or through the expansion of a tradition into a new cultural milieu. A religion’s history also functions to unite the individual with others in a shared memory of the past that helps to explain the present.By way of life we mean practices—the things people do in making practical application of their beliefs, such as engaging in prayer, meditation, communal worship or various other forms of ritual, or working to enhance social justice or to care for the environment. Closely related to practices are modes of experience, the ways in which a religion’s adherents actually experience the consequences of applying its teachings. These might include a sense of inner peace, a more acute sense of community with others, a greater awareness of the divine, or a state of profound enlightenment.
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- Preface