Religious traditions include laws, beliefs, doctrines and regulations that are found within a specific religion. They are a collection of belief systems and cultural systems which establish symbols that show and establish a relationship between humans and their spirituality. Religious traditions are handed down from generations to generations with significant events being viewed as part of historical time focusing mainly on conduct and behavior. These traditions are either true or false depending on their alignment to scriptures. If they are in accordance to the scriptures then they are true but those which are contrary to the revealed and written word in scriptures is false. The everyday lives of people comprise of religious traditions and rituals (PreserveArticles.com, 2012). The paper will give an explanation on how religious traditions describe and encourage the following relationships; with the divine, sacred time, sacred space or natural world and with each other.it will also look at critical issues when studying religion
Relationship with the divine
Religious traditions that have divinity and are usually defined in different ways depending on the different beliefs and faiths. However, they all have the same concern when it comes to the deepest reality level and for most religions what is core or origin is usually mysterious and sacred. Relationship with divine involves the understanding of divine like what or who is sacred. Monotheism refers to one God relates to various religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Polytheism on the other hand refers to many gods relating to religions for instance Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions that existed during ancient civilization. Pantheism is a derivative of polytheism and it refers to all of nature, in simple terms God is everything and everything is God (PreserveArticles.com, 2012).
The main concept being existence or being is how these religions perceive their gods. Most polytheism beliefs are that the origin of their gods is actually beings such as people, statues, calves and physical things. Monotheism on the other hand holds the belief that God is a spirit which cannot be seen but is...
They also have the belief that this spirit is able to hear, see and watch what each and every believer is doing. The key to any religion is the establishment of relationship and establishing personal time which is for sharing with the divine. There are several methods which different religious traditions have for accomplishing this and include prayers, meditation, reading the Bible, Quran or even simply spending time with nature. Prayers are common among Christians and are perceived as a way of communicating with God on a day-to-day basis.
Relationship with sacred time
In order to find out how religious traditions influence sacred time, one must have the definition of sacred time. Sacred time refers to how religion is observed. This is time that is specifically affiliated with a reverence for heaven and earth, it is honored and usually held with a very great esteem. Some religions indulge in feasting or fasting which includes special worship services as well as regular worship times. For instance Christians usually worship on Sundays whereby the minister preaches to them how they should carry their lives according to what is required by the Bible. Jews on the other hand worship on Sabbath day which is also known as the seventh day. This falls either on Friday or Saturday evenings (Davies-Stofka, 2008).
Relationship with sacred space or the natural world
Sacred space refers to where religious ceremonies take place. For instance this can be a church for Christians, mosque for Muslims, temple for Jews and so on. Religious traditions describe the sacred places as places that are holy. This means that when people get to these places they should humble themselves and go there with utmost humility. Religious traditions expect that people visiting the sacred places should be dressed in an appropriate manner that is decently (Tangient LLC, 2013).
The natural world includes everything that exists naturally. These are animals, trees and the environment at large. Religious traditions describe the natural world as something that exists for the benefits of humans. They therefore encourage people to take care of the…
