Elements of Religious Traditions

Elements of Religious Traditions

Tahitia G. Brown

REL/133

December 2, 2011

Bud Hollowell

Elements of Religious Traditions

Religious traditions are vaster than the various religions in the world. There are more than 4200 religions, although an exact number would never accurately reflect the true amount. Religion is defined a: “the service and worship of God or the supernatural; commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance; a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices,” ("Religion," 2011). This paper will list the three components of religious traditions and their relationship to the “sacred”. Further listing what such traditions say, do and also how they organize with respect to leadership, relationship amongst parishioners, etc. In addition the paper identifies key critical issues in the study of religion.

According to Molloy and Hilgers (2010), there are three basic components of religious traditions in their formation and position of the “sacred,” which are sacramental, prophetic, and mystical. Sacramental refers to the execution of customs and rites consistently and accurately as the means to deliverance. Prophetic is the concept which specifies that a connection with the “sacred” is made certain through conviction and faithfulness to principled rules. The third component, mystical; searches for unification with the reality of something greater than ones’ self.

Several significant concerns arise when studying what a religious tradition says. Initially one must differentiate an oral tradition from a written tradition. Numerous well-established, world religions developed a standard of sacred texts, as well as an oral tradition. One example of such is in Judaism, traditions of the Oral Torah and the written Torah exist. The written Torah has become the Tanakh or also known as the Hebrew Bible. The Oral Torah was written down to establish commentaries in the Talmud. Although...