, Judaism, Hinduismrow 2: Islam, Buddhism, Shinto
row 3: Sikhism, Bahai, Jainism]] Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of life and the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a supernatural agency, or human beings’ relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, spiritual, or divine. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature.

The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with faith or belief system, but religion differs from private belief in that it has a public aspect. Most religions have organized behaviors, including congregations for prayer, priestly hierarchies, holy places, and/or scriptures.

Academics studying the subject have divided religions into three broad categories: world religions, a term which refers to transcultural, international faiths, indigenous religions, which refers to smaller, culture-specific religious groups, and new religious movements, which refers to recently developed faiths.

The development of religion has taken different forms in different cultures. Some religions place greater emphasis on belief, while others emphasize practice. Some religions focus on the subjective experience of the religious individual, while others consider the activities of the community to be most important. Some religions claim to be universal, believing their laws and cosmology to be binding for everyone, while others are intended to be practiced only by one, localized group. Religion often makes use of meditation, music and art. In many places it has been associated with public institutions such as education, the family, government, and political power.

One of the more influential theories of religion today is social constructionism, which says that religion is a modern concept suggesting all spiritual practice and worship follows a model similar to Christianity; social constructionism suggests that religion, as a concept, has therefore been applied inappropriately to non-Western cultures.

Etymology

Religion (from O.Fr. religion "religious community," from L. religionem (nom. religio) "respect for what is sacred, reverence for the gods," "obligation, the bond between man and the gods") is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possibility is derivation from a reduplicated , an interpretation traced to Cicero connecting "read", i.e. re (again) + lego in the sense of "choose", "go over again" or "consider carefully". Modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell favor the derivation from "bind, connect", probably from a prefixed , i.e. re (again) + ligare or "to reconnect," which was made prominent by St. Augustine, following the interpretation of Lactantius. The medieval usage alternates with order in designaing bonded communities like those of monastic orders: "we hear of the 'religion' of the Golden Fleece, of a knight 'of the religion of Avys'".

According to the philologist Max Müller, the root of the English word "religion", the Latin religio, was originally used to mean only "reverence for God or the gods, careful pondering of divine things, piety" (which Cicero further derived to mean "diligence"). Max Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, and India, as having a similar power structure at this point in history. What is called ancient religion today, they would have only called "law".

Many languages have words that can be translated as "religion", but they may use them in a very different way, and some have no word for religion at all. For example, the Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as "religion", also means law. Throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a similar union between "imperial law" and universal or "Buddha law", but these later became independent sources of power.

There is no precise equivalent of "religion" in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities. One of its central concepts is "halakha", sometimes translated as "law"", which guides religious practice and belief and many aspects of daily life.

The use of other terms, such as obedience to God or Islam are likewise grounded in particular histories and vocabularies.

Religious belief

Religious belief usually relates to the existence, nature, and worship of a deity or deities and divine involvement in the universe and human life. Alternately, it may also relate to values and practices transmitted by a spiritual leader. In some religions, like the Abrahamic religions, it is held that most of the core beliefs have been divinely revealed.

Religious belief in Christianity

Different religions attach differing degrees of importance to belief. Christianity puts more emphasis on belief than other religions. The Church has throughout its history set out creeds that define correct belief for Christians and which identify heresy. Luke Timothy Johnson writes that "Most religions put more emphasis on orthopraxy (right practice) than on orthodoxy (right belief). Judaism and Islam have each created sophisticated systems of law to guide behaviour, but have allowed an astonishing freedom of conviction and intellectual expression. Both have been able to get along with comparatively short statements of belief. Buddhism and Hinduism concentrate on the practices of ritual and transformation rather than on uniformity of belief, and tribal religions express their view of reality through a variety of myths, not a 'rule of faith' for their members." Christianity by contrast places a peculiar emphasis on belief and has created ever more elaborate and official statements in its creeds. Some Christian denominations, especially those formed since the Reformation, do not have creeds, and some, for example the Jehovah's Witnesses, explicitly reject them.

Religious belief in Judaism

Whether Judaism entails belief or not has been a point of some controversy. Some say it is does not, some have suggested that belief is relatively unimportant for Jews. "To be a Jew," says de Lange, "means first and foremost to belong to a group, the Jewish people, and the religious beliefs are secondary." Others say that the Shema prayer, recited in the morning and evening services, expresses a Jewish creed: "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One." Maimonides's Thirteen Principles of the Faith are sometimes taken as the statement of Judaism' fundamental beliefs, especially by Orthodox Jews. They may be summarised as follows:

:* God is the Creator. :* God is a unity. :* God is incorporeal. :* God is the first and the last. :* It is right to pray to God and to no other. :* The words of the prophets are true. :* The prophecy of Moses was true. :* The Torah was given to Moses. :* The Torah will never change. :* God knows all the deeds of human beings and all their thoughts. :* God rewards those who keep His commandments and punishes those that transgress them. :* The Messiah will come. :* The dead will be resurrected.

However, these principles have been subject to dispute even within Orthodoxy.

Religious belief in Islam

Muslims declare the shahada, or testimony: "I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the slave and messenger of Allah."

Religious movements

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the academic practice of comparative religion divided religious belief into philosophically defined categories called "world religions." However, some recent scholarship has argued that not all types of religion are necessarily separated by mutually exclusive philosophies, and furthermore that the utility of ascribing a practice to a certain philosophy, or even calling a given practice religious, rather than cultural, political, or social in nature, is limited. The current state of psychological study about the nature of religiousness suggests that it is better to refer to religion as a largely invariant phenomenon that should be distinguished from cultural norms (i.e. "religions"). The list of religious movements given here is therefore an attempt to summarize the most important regional and philosophical influences on local communities, but it is by no means a complete description of every religious community, nor does it explain the most important elements of individual religiousness.

The four largest religious groups by population, estimated to account for between 5 and 6 billion people, are Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.

{| class="wikitable sortable" width="800" |+ |- bgcolor=#666688 ! width="250" | Four largest religions ! width="300" | Adherents ! width="250" | % of world population ! width="250" | Article |- ALIGN=center bgcolor= | World population | 6.8 billion | colspan="2" | Figures taken from individual articles: |- ALIGN=center bgcolor=#E0E8EE | Christianity | 1.9 billion – 2.1 billion | 29% – 32% | Christianity by country |- ALIGN=center bgcolor=#E0E8EE | Islam | 1.3 billion – 1.57 billion | 19% – 21% | Islam by country |- ALIGN=center bgcolor=#E0E8EE | Buddhism | 500 million – 1.5 billion | 7% – 21% | Buddhism by country |- ALIGN=center bgcolor=#E0E8EE | Hinduism | 950 million – 1 billion | 14% – 15% | Hinduism by country |- bgcolor= class="sortbottom" ! Total ! 4.65 billion – 6.17 billion ! 68.38% – 90.73% ! |} (by József Molnár)]]

Abrahamic religions are monotheistic religions which believe they descend from the Jewish patriarch Abraham.

:* Judaism is the oldest Abrahamic religion, originating in the people of ancient Israel and Judea. Judaism is based primarily on the Torah, a text which Jews believe was handed down to the people of Israel through the prophet Moses in 1,400 BCE. This along with the rest of the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud are the central texts of Judaism. The Jewish people were scattered after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. Judaism today is practiced by about 13 million people, with about 40 per cent living in Israel and 40 per cent in the United States. :* Christianity is based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth (1st century) as presented in the New Testament. The Christian faith is essentially faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and as Savior and Lord. Almost all Christians believe in the Trinity, which teaches the unity of Father, Son (Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. Most Christians can describe their faith with the Nicene Creed. As the religion of Byzantine Empire in the first millennium and of Western Europe during the time of colonization, Christianity has been propagated throughout the world. The main divisions of Christianity are, according to the number of adherents: :** Catholic Church, headed by the Pope in Rome, is a communion of the Western church and 22 Eastern Catholic churches. :** Protestantism, separated from the Catholic Church in the 16th-century Reformation and split in many denominations, :** Eastern Christianity which include Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and the Church of the East. s praying around Kaaba, the most sacred site in Islam]] :* Islam refers to the religion taught by the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a major political and religious figure of the 7th century CE. Islam is the dominant religion of northern Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. As with Christianity, there is no single orthodoxy in Islam but a multitude of traditions which are generally categorized as Sunni and Shia, although there are other minor groups as well. Wahhabi is the dominant Muslim schools of thought in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. There are also several Islamic republics, including Iran, which is run by a Shia Supreme Leader. :* The Bahá'í Faith was founded in the 19th century in Iran and since then has spread worldwide. It teaches unity of all religious philosophies and accepts all of the prophets of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well as additional prophets including its founder Bahá'u'lláh. :* Smaller Abrahamic groups, including Samaritanism (influences from Judaism), Jehovah's Witnesses and Latter Day Saint movement (influences from Christianity), Rastafari movement (influences from both Judaism and Christianity), and Druze (influences from Islam). statue of Rama in Kalaram Temple (India)]]

Indian religions are practiced or were founded in the Indian subcontinent. Concepts most of them share in common include dharma, karma, reincarnation, mantras, yantras, and darśana.

Hinduism is a synecdoche describing the similar philosophies of Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and related groups practiced or founded in the Indian subcontinent. Concepts most of them share in common include karma, caste, reincarnation, mantras, yantras, and darśana. Hinduism is not a monolithic religion in the Romanic sense but a religious category containing dozens of separate philosophies amalgamated as Sanātana Dharma.

* Jainism, taught primarily by Parsva (9th century BCE) and Mahavira (6th century BCE), is an ancient Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence for all forms of living beings in this world. Jains are found mostly in India.

*Buddhism was founded by Siddhattha Gotama in the 6th century BCE. Buddhists generally agree that Gotama aimed to help sentient beings end their suffering by understanding the true nature of phenomena, thereby escaping the cycle of suffering and rebirth (saṃsāra), that is, achieving Nirvana.

** Theravada Buddhism, which is practiced mainly in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia alongside folk religion, shares some characteristics of Indian religions. It is based in a large collection of texts called the Pali Canon.

** Under the heading of Mahayana (the "Great Vehicle") fall a multitude of doctrines which began their development in China and are still relevant in Vietnam, in Korea, in Japan, and to a lesser extent in Europe and the United States. Mahayana Buddhism includes such disparate teachings as Zen, Pure Land, and Soka Gakkai.

** Vajrayana Buddhism, sometimes considered a form of Mahayana, was developed in Tibet and is still most prominent there and in surrounding regions.

** Two notable new Buddhist sects are Hòa Hảo and the Dalit Buddhist movement, which were developed separately in the 20th century.

* Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded on the teachings of Guru Nanak and ten successive Sikh Gurus in 15th century Punjab. Sikhs are found mostly in India.

* There are dozens of new religious movements within Indian religions and Hindu reform movements, such as Ayyavazhi and Swaminarayan Faith.

Iranian religions are ancient religions which roots predate the Islamization of the Greater Iran. Nowadays these religions are practiced only by minorities.

* Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster in the 6th century BC. The Zoroastrians worship the Creator Ahura Mazda. In Zoroastrianism good and evil have distinct sources, with evil trying to destroy the creation of Mazda, and good trying to sustain it.

* Mandaeism is a monotheistic religion with a strongly dualistic worldview. Mandaeans are sometime labeled as the "Last Gnostics".

* Kurdish religions include the traditional beliefs of the Yazidi, Alevi, and Ahl-e Haqq. Sometimes these are labeled Yazdânism.

burner in China]]

Folk religion is a term applied loosely and vaguely to less-organized local practices. It is also called paganism, shamanism, animism, ancestor worship, matriarchal religion, or totemism, although not all of these elements are necessarily present in local belief systems. The category of "folk religion" can generally include anything that is not part of an organization. Modern neopagan movement draws on folk religion for inspiration to varying degrees.

* African traditional religion is a category including any type of religion practiced in Africa before the arrival of Islam and Christianity, such as Yoruba religion or San religion. There are many varieties of religions developed by Africans in the Americas derived from African beliefs, including Santería, Candomblé, Umbanda, Vodou, and Oyotunji.

* Folk religions of the Americas include Aztec religion, Inca religion, Maya religion, and modern Catholic beliefs such as the Virgin of Guadalupe. Native American religion is practiced across the continent of North America.

* Australian Aboriginal culture contains a mythology and sacred practices characteristic of folk religion.

* Chinese folk religion, practiced by Chinese people around the world, is a primarily social practice including popular elements of Confucianism and Taoism, with some remnants of Mahayana Buddhism. Most Chinese do not identify as religious due to the strong Maoist influence on the country in recent history, but adherence to religious ceremonies remains common. New religious movements include Falun Gong and I-Kuan Tao.

* Traditional Korean religion is a syncretic mixture of Mahayana Buddhism and Korean shamanism. Unlike Japanese Shinto, Korean shamanism was never codified and Buddhism was never made a social necessity. In some areas these traditions remain prevalent, but Korean-influenced Christianity is also influential in society and politics in South Korea.

* Traditional Japanese religion is a mixture of Mahayana Buddhism and ancient indigenous practices which were codified as Shinto in the 19th century. Japanese people retain nominal attachment to both Buddhism and Shinto through social ceremonies, but irreligion is common.

A variety of new religious movements still practiced today have been founded in many other countries besides Japan and the United States, including:

* Shinshūkyō is a general category for a wide variety of religious movements founded in Japan since the 19th century. These movements share almost nothing in common except the place of their founding. The largest religious movements centered in Japan include Soka Gakkai, Tenrikyo, and Seicho-No-Ie among hundreds of smaller groups.

* Cao Đài is a syncretistic, monotheistic religion, established in Vietnam in 1926.

* Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning."

* Eckankar is a religion with the purpose of making God an everyday reality in one's life.

Sociological classifications of religious movements suggest that within any given religious group, a community can resemble various types of structures, including "churches", "denominations", "sects", "cults", and "institutions".

population of South Asia comprises about 2,000 castes. According to some Hindu literature, there are 330 million (including local and regional) Hindu deities.]]

Mysticism and esotericism

Mysticism focuses on methods other than logic, but (in the case of esoteric mysticism) not necessarily excluding it, for gaining enlightenment. Rather, meditative and contemplative practices such as Vipassanā and yoga, physical disciplines such as stringent fasting and whirling (in the case of the Sufi dervishes), or the use of psychoactive drugs such as LSD, lead to altered states of consciousness that logic can never hope to grasp. However, regarding the latter topic, mysticism prevalent in the 'great' religions (monotheisms, henotheisms, which are perhaps relatively recent, and which the word 'mysticism' is more recent than,) includes systems of discipline that forbid drugs that can damage the body, including the nervous system.

Mysticism (to initiate) is the pursuit of communion with, or conscious awareness of ultimate reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or Deity through direct, personal experience (intuition or insight) rather than rational thought. Mystics speak of the existence of realities behind external perception or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible through personal experience. They say that such experience is a genuine and important source of knowledge.

Esotericism is often spiritual (thus religious) but can be non-religious/-spiritual, and it uses intellectual understanding and reasoning, intuition and inspiration (higher noetic and spiritual reasoning,) but not necessarily faith (except often as a virtue,) and it is philosophical in its emphasis on techniques of psycho-spiritual transformation (esoteric cosmology). Esotericism refers to "hidden" knowledge available only to the advanced, privileged, or initiated, as opposed to exoteric knowledge, which is public. All religions are probably somewhat exoteric, but most ones of ancient civilizations such as Yoga of India, and the mystery religions of ancient Egypt, Israel (Kabbalah), and Greece are examples of ones that are also esoteric.

Types of religion

Some scholars classify religions as either universal religions that seek worldwide acceptance and actively look for new converts, or ethnic religions that are identified with a particular ethnic group and do not seek converts. Others reject the distinction, pointing out that all religious practices, whatever their philosophical origin, are ethnic because they come from a particular culture.

Modern issues in religion

Interfaith cooperation

Because religion continues to be recognized in Western thought as a universal impulse, many religious practitioners have aimed to band together in interfaith dialogue and cooperation. The first major dialogue was the Parliament of the World's Religions at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, which remains notable even today both in affirming "universal values" and recognition of the diversity of practices among different cultures. The 20th century has been especially fruitful in use of interfaith dialogue as a means of solving ethnic, political, or even religious conflict, with Christian-Jewish reconciliation representing a complete reverse in the attitudes of many Christian communities towards Jews.

Recent interfaith initiatives include "A Common Word", launched in 2007 and focused on bringing Muslim and Christian leaders together, the "C1 World Dialogue", the "Common Ground" initiative between Islam and Buddhism, and a United Nations sponsored "World Interfaith Harmony Week".

Secularism and irreligion

As religion became a more personal matter in western culture, discussions of society found a new focus on political and scientific meaning, and religious attitudes (dominantly Christian) were increasingly seen as irrelevant for the needs of the European world. On the political side, Ludwig Feuerbach recast Christian beliefs in light of humanism, paving the way for Karl Marx's famous characterization of religion as "the opium of the people". Meanwhile, in the scientific community, T.H. Huxley in 1869 coined the term "agnostic," a term—subsequently adopted by such figures as Robert Ingersoll—that, while directly conflicting with and novel to Christian tradition, is accepted and even embraced in some other religions. Later, Bertrand Russell told the world Why I Am Not a Christian, which influenced several later authors to discuss their breakaway from their own religious uprbringings from Islam to Hinduism.

The terms "atheist" (lack of belief in any gods) and "agnostic" (belief in the unknowability of the existence of gods), though specifically contrary to theistic (e.g. Christian, Jewish, and Muslim) religious teachings, do not by definition mean the opposite of "religious". There are religions (including Buddhism and Taoism), in fact, that classify some of their followers as agnostic, atheistic, or nontheistic.

The true opposite of "religious" is the word "irreligious". Irreligion describes an absence of any religion; antireligion describes an active opposition or aversion toward religions in general.

Critics of religious systems as well as of personal faith have posed a variety of arguments against religion. Some modern-day critics hold that religion lacks utility in human society; they may regard religion as irrational. Some assert that dogmatic religions are morally deficient, elevating as they do to moral status ancient, arbitrary, and ill-informed rules.

Related forms of thought

Religion and philosophy

Religion and philosophy meet in several areas — notably in the study of metaphysics and cosmology. In particular, a distinct set of religious beliefs will often entail a specific metaphysics and cosmology. That is, a religion will generally offer answers to metaphysical and cosmological questions about the nature of being, of the universe, humanity, and the divine.

Religion and superstition

Superstition has been described as "the incorrect establishment of cause and effect" or a false conception of causation. Religion is more complex and includes social institutions and morality. But religions may include superstitions or make use of magical thinking. Members of one religion often think other religions as superstition|superstitious. Some atheists, agnostics, deists, and skeptics regard religious belief as superstition. Religious practices are likely to be labeled "superstitious" when they include belief in miracles or extraordinary events, supernatural interventions, apparitions, charms, omens, incantations, an afterlife or the efficacy of prayer..

Greek and Roman pagans, who saw their relations with the gods in political and social terms, scorned the man who constantly trembled with fear at the thought of the gods (deisidaimonia), as a slave might fear a cruel and capricious master. The Romans called such fear of the gods superstitio. Early Christianity was outlawed as a superstitio Iudaica, a "Jewish superstition", by Domitian in the 80s AD. In AD 425, when Rome had become Christian, Theodosius II outlawed pagan traditions as superstitious.

The Roman Catholic Church considers superstition to be sinful in the sense that it denotes a lack of trust in the divine providence of God and, as such, is a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that superstition "in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion" (para. #2110). "Superstition," it says, "is a deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand is to fall into superstition. Cf. Matthew 23:16-22" (para. #2111)

Myth

The word myth has several meanings. #A traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon; #A person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence; or #A metaphor for the spiritual potentiality in the human being. shaman, 1988]]

Ancient polytheistic religions, such as those of Greece, Rome, and Scandinavia, are usually categorized under the heading of mythology. Religions of pre-industrial peoples, or cultures in development, are similarly called "myths" in the anthropology of religion. The term "myth" can be used pejoratively by both religious and non-religious people. By defining another person's religious stories and beliefs as mythology, one implies that they are less real or true than one's own religious stories and beliefs. Joseph Campbell remarked, "Mythology is often thought of as other people's religions, and religion can be defined as mis-interpreted mythology."

In sociology, however, the term myth has a non-pejorative meaning. There, myth is defined as a story that is important for the group whether or not it is objectively or provably true. Examples include the death and resurrection of Jesus, which, to Christians, explains the means by which they are freed from sin and is also ostensibly a historical event. But from a mythological outlook, whether or not the event actually occurred is unimportant. Instead, the symbolism of the death of an old "life" and the start of a new "life" is what is most significant. Religious believers may or may not accept such symbolic interpretations.

Religion and violence

were a series of a military campaigns fought mainly between ChristianEurope and Muslims. Shown here is a battle scene from the First Crusade. They were inspired at the jihad of the Islam civilization. ]]

Charles Selengut characterizes the phrase "religion and violence" as "jarring", asserting that "religion is thought to be opposed to violence and a force for peace and reconciliation. He acknowledges, however, that "the history and scriptures of the world's religions tell stories of violence and war as they speak of peace and love."

Hector Avalos argues that, because religions claim divine favor for themselves, over and against other groups, this sense of righteousness leads to violence because conflicting claims to superiority, based on unverifiable appeals to God, cannot be adjudicated objectively.

Some critics of religion (in general) such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins go farther and argue that religions do tremendous harm to society in three ways:

Religions sometimes use war, violence, and terrorism to promote their religious goals

Religious leaders contribute to secular wars and terrorism by endorsing or supporting the violence

Religious fervor is exploited by secular leaders to support war and terrorism

Regina Schwartz argues that all monotheistic religions are inherently violent because of an exclusivism that inevitably fosters violence against those that are considered outsiders. Lawrence Wechsler asserts that Schwartz isn't just arguing that Abrahamic religions have a violent legacy, but that the legacy is actually genocidal in nature.

Byron Bland asserts that one of the most prominent reasons for the "rise of the secular in Western thought" was the reaction against the religious violence of the 16th and 17th centuries. He asserts that "(t)he secular was a way of living with the religious differences that had produced so much horror. Under secularity, political entities have a warrant to make decisions independent from the need to enforce particular versions of religious orthodoxy. Indeed, they may run counter to certain strongly held beliefs if made in the interest of common welfare. Thus, one of the important goals of the secular is to limit violence."

Religion and the law

There are laws and statutes that make reference to religion. This has led to claims from some scholars that religious freedom is literally impossible to uphold. Also, the Western legal principle of separation of church and state tends to engender a new, more inclusive civil religion.

Religion and science

Religious knowledge, according to religious practitioners, may be gained from religious leaders, sacred texts (scriptures), and/or personal revelation. Some religions view such knowledge as unlimited in scope and suitable to answer any question; others see religious knowledge as playing a more restricted role, often as a complement to knowledge gained through physical observation. Some religious people maintain that religious knowledge obtained in this way is absolute and infallible (religious cosmology).

The scientific method gains knowledge by testing hypotheses to develop theories through elucidation of facts or evaluation by experiments and thus only answers cosmological questions about the physical universe. It develops theories of the world which best fit physically observed evidence. All scientific knowledge is subject to later refinement in the face of additional evidence. Scientific theories that have an overwhelming preponderance of favorable evidence are often treated as facts (such as the theories of gravity or evolution).

Christianity and science

such as geometry and astronomy was connected to the divine for most medieval scholars. The compass in this 13th century manuscript is a symbol of God's act of creation.]] Many scientists have held strong religious beliefs (see List of Christian thinkers in science and List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics) and have worked to harmonize science and religion. Isaac Newton, for example, believed that gravity caused the planets to revolve about the Sun, and credited God with the design. In the concluding General Scholium to the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, he wrote: "This most beautiful System of the Sun, Planets and Comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being." Nevertheless, conflict has repeatedly arisen between religious organizations and individuals who propagated scientific theories that were deemed unacceptable by the organizations. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, has in the past reserved to itself the right to decide which scientific theories were acceptable and which were unacceptable. In the 17th century, Galileo was tried and forced to recant the heliocentric theory based on the church's stance that the Greek Hellenistic system of astronomy was the correct one.

Today, religious belief among scientists is less prevalent than it is in the general public. Surveys on the subject give varying results. The Pew Research Center found in 2009 that 33% of American scientists and 83% of the general public believe in God, another 18% of scientists and 12% of the public believe more generally in a higher power, and 41% of scientists and 4% of the public believe in neither. A mailed survey to members of the National Academy of Sciences found that 7% of respondents to believed in a personal God. Elaine Howard Ecklund found that about two-thirds of scientists at elite research universities believed in God and that nearly 50 percent of them were religious.

The philosophical theory of pragmatism (first propounded by William James) has been used to reconcile scientific with religious knowledge. Pragmatism holds that the truth of a set of beliefs is indicated by its usefulness in helping people cope with a particular of life. Thus, the fact that scientific beliefs are useful in predicting observations in the physical world can indicate a certain truth for scientific theories and the fact that religious beliefs can be useful in helping people cope with difficult emotions or moral decisions can indicate a certain truth for those beliefs. (For a similar postmodern view, see grand narrative.)

The Catholic Church has always concurred with Augustine of Hippo who explicitly opposed a literal interpretation of the Bible whenever the Bible conflicted with science. The literal way to read the sacred texts became especially prevalent after the rise of the Protestant reformation, with its emphasis on the Bible as the only authoritative source concerning the ultimate reality. This view is often shunned by both religious leaders (who regard literally believing it as petty and look for greater meaning instead) and scientists who regard it as an impossibility.

Some Christians have disagreed with the validity of Keplerian astronomy, the theory of evolution, the scientific account of the creation of the universe and the origins of life. However, Stanley Jaki has suggested that the Christian worldview was a crucial in the emergence of modern science. Historians are moving away from the view that Christianity was always in conflict with science—the so-called conflict thesis. Gary Ferngren in his historical volume about science and religion states: "While some historians had always regarded the conflict thesis as oversimplifying and distorting a complex relationship, in the late 20th century it underwent a more systematic reevaluation. The result is the growing recognition among historians of science that the relationship of religion and science has been much more positive than is sometimes thought. Although popular images of controversy continue to exemplify the supposed hostility of Christianity to new scientific theories, studies have shown that Christianity has often nurtured and encouraged scientific endeavour, while at other times the two have co-existed without either tension or attempts at harmonization. If Galileo and the Scopes trial come to mind as examples of conflict, they were the exceptions rather than the rule."

Other religions and science

In the Bahá'í Faith, the harmony of science and religion is a central tenet. The principle states that that truth is one, and therefore true science and true religion must be in harmony, thus rejecting the view that science and religion are in conflict. Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, described science and religion as "the two most potent forces in human life."

Proponents of Hinduism claim that it is not afraid of scientific explorations, nor of the technological progress of mankind. According to them, there is a comprehensive scope and opportunity for Hinduism to mold itself according to the demands and aspirations of the modern world; it has the ability to align itself with both science and spiritualism. This religion uses some modern examples to explain its ancient theories and reinforce its own beliefs. For example, some Hindu thinkers have used the terminology of quantum physics to explain some basic concepts of Hinduism such as Maya or the illusory and impermanent nature of our existence. monk in Arashiyama, Kyoto]]

Evolutionary theory and religion

At one time, evolutionists explained religion as something that conferred a biological advantages to its adherents. More recently, Richard Dawkins has explained it in terms of the evolution of self-replicating ideas, or memes as he calls them, distinct from any resulting biological advantages they might bestow. Susan Blackmore regards religions as particularly tenacious memes. Chris Hedges regards meme theory as a misleading imposition of genetics onto psychology. Analyzed as an aspect of culture arising from the nature of man and subject to the processes of evolution and natural selection religion has both adaptive and maladaptive characteristics.

Religion as a Christian concept

The social constructionists

In recent years, some academic writers have described religion according to the theory of social constructionism, which considers how ideas and social phenomena develop in a social context. Among the main proponents of this theory of religion are Timothy Fitzgerald, Daniel Dubuisson and Talad Assad. The social constructionists argue that religion is a modern concept that developed from Christianity and was then applied inappropriately to non-Western cultures.

Dubuisson, a French anthropologist, says that the idea of religion has changed a lot over time and that one cannot fully understand its development by relying on etymology, which "tends to minimize or cancel out the role of history". Dubuisson prefers the term "cosmographic formation" to religion. Dubuisson says that, with the emergence of religion as a category separate from culture and society, there arose religious studies. The initial purpose of religious studies was to demonstrate the superiority of the "living" or "universal" European world view to the "dead" or "ethnic" religions scattered throughout the rest of the world, expanding the teleological project of Schleiermacher and Tiele to a worldwide ideal religiousness. Due to shifting theological currents, this was eventually supplanted by a liberal-ecumenical interest in searching for Western-style universal truths in every cultural tradition. Clifford Geertz's definition of religion as a "cultural system" was dominant for most of the 20th century and continues to be widely accepted today.

According to Fitzgerald, the history of other cultures' interaction with the religious category is not about a universal constant, but rather concerns a particular idea that first developed in Europe under the influence of Christianity. Fitzgerald argues that from about the 4th century CE Western Europe and the rest of the world diverged. As Christianity became commonplace, the charismatic authority identified by Augustine, a quality we might today call "religiousness", exerted a commanding influence at the local level. This system persisted in the eastern Byzantine Empire following the East-West Schism, but Western Europe regulated unpredictable expressions of charisma through the Roman Catholic Church. As the Church lost its dominance during the Protestant Reformation and Christianity became closely tied to political structures, religion was recast as the basis of national sovereignty, and religious identity gradually became a less universal sense of spirituality and more divisive, locally defined, and tied to nationality. It was at this point that "religion" was dissociated with universal beliefs and moved closer to dogma in both meaning and practice. However there was not yet the idea of dogma as personal choice, only of established churches. With the Enlightenment religion lost its attachment to nationality, says Fitzgerald, but rather than becoming a universal social attitude, it now became a personal feeling or emotion. Friedrich Schleiermacher in the late 18th century defined religion as das schlechthinnige Abhängigkeitsgefühl, commonly translated as "a feeling of absolute dependence". His contemporary Hegel disagreed thoroughly, defining religion as "the Divine Spirit becoming conscious of Himself through the finite spirit." William James is an especially notable 19th century subscriber to the theory of religion as feeling.

Asad argues that before the word "religion" came into common usage, Christianity was a disciplina, a "rule" just like that of the Roman Empire. This idea can be found in the writings of St. Augustine (354–430). Christianity was then a power structure opposing and superseding human institutions, a literal Kingdom of Heaven. It was the discipline taught by one's family, school, church, and city authorities, rather than something calling one to self-discipline through symbols.

These ideas are developed by N. Balagangadhara. In the Age of Enlightenment, Balagangadhara says that the idea of Christianity as the purest expression of spirituality was supplanted by the concept of "religion" as a worldwide practice. This caused such ideas as religious freedom, a reexamination of classical philosophy as an alternative to Christian thought, and more radically Deism among intellectuals such as Voltaire. Much like Christianity, the idea of "religious freedom" was exported around the world as a civilizing technique, even to regions such as India that had never treated spirituality as a matter of political identity. the concept of "religion" and "religious freedom" as separate from other power structures was unnecessary until Christian missionaries demanded free access to conversion, and when Japanese Christians refused to engage in patriotic events.

, Taoism, and Buddhism are one, a painting in the litang style portraying three men laughing by a river stream, 12th century, Song Dynasty]]

Other writers

Similar views have been put forward by writers who are not social constructionists. George Lindbeck, a Lutheran and a postliberal theologian, says that religion does not refer to belief in "God" or a transcendent Absolute, but rather to "a kind of cultural and/or linguistic framework or medium that shapes the entirety of life and thought ... it is similar to an idiom that makes possible the description of realities, the formulation of beliefs, and the experiencing of inner attitudes, feelings, and sentiments.” Nicholas de Lange, Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Cambridge University, says that "The comparative study of religions is an academic discipline which has been developed within Christian theology faculties, and it has a tendency to force widely differing phenomena into a kind of strait-jacket cut to a Christian pattern. The problem is not only that other 'religions' may have little or nothing to say about questions which are of burning importance for Christianity, but that they may not even see themselves as religions in precisely the same way in which Christianity sees itself as a religion."

See also

Belief

Economics of religion

Faith

Life stance

List of religious populations

List of religious texts

Nontheistic religions

Philosophy of religion

Prayer

Priest

Religions by country

Religion and happiness

Religious conversion

Sociology of religion

Temple

Theocracy

Wealth and religion

Worldview

References

Notes

Bibliography

Studies of religion in particular geographical areas:

A. Khanbaghi. The Fire, the Star and the Cross: Minority Religions in Medieval and Early Modern Iran (IB Tauris; 2006) 268 pages. Social, political and cultural history of religious minorities in Iran, c. 226-1722 AD.

External links

Religion Statistics from UCB Libraries GovPubs

Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents by Adherents.com August 2005

IACSR - International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion

Studying Religion - Introduction to the methods and scholars of the academic study of religion

A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right - Marx's original reference to religion as the opium of the people.

The Complexity of Religion and the Definition of “Religion” in International Law Harvard Human Rights Journal article from the President and Fellows of Harvard College(2003)

Childhood

Thierry Mugler was born in Strasbourg the 21 December 1945, France, just a few steps from the city's famous Strasbourg Cathedral. He was a rebellious and dreamy child, quite happy to be alone. His passion led him to focus more on drawing than on school and at the age of 9, he began to study classical dance. By 14, he joined the ballet corps for the Rhin Opera (Opéra national du Rhin,) known for its severity and discipline. From Mugler's experience as a classical dancer, he has retained not only a cultivated talent for physical expression but also a sense of discipline for both the mind and body. Of course he dreamt of becoming a star dancer in the Paris Opera ballet. Dance opened the doors to theatre for Mugler where he discovered lighting effects, as well as both costume design and stage direction.

At the same time, Mugler began taking classes in interior design at the Strasbourg School of Decorative Art which certainly fostered his passion for designs which make use of remarkable and uncommon perspectives.

Multi-dimensional artist’s journey

1969 At the age of 24, he decided to travel the world and left Strasbourg to go live in Paris. His magnetism and unique style created waves, but were much admired by his friends and associates. This unique and shocking style was all hand-made and so he quickly and logically began designing clothes for a small, trendy Parisian boutique (the name of the boutique is "Gudule" and is known for being the Paris boutique where many designers get their start). At 26, Mugler, who was working as a freelance designer, began to work for a variety of large ready-to-wear fashion houses in Paris, Milan, London and Barcelona.

1973 Thierry Mugler created his first personal collection called “Café de Paris”. The style of the collection was both sophisticated and urban, and went against the trends of the time. It embodied a return to the image of a sexy, Parisian woman, stylish, enticing and confident, who channeled much of the sober, timeless elegance of a Hitchcock actress. This first collection foretold of Mugler’s obsession with hyper-femininity. It affirmed his particular style, made of a timeless equilibrium between classicism and modernity. Melka Tréanton, one of the most powerful fashion editor of the time, began supporting him in her editorials, which helped launched his career. In 1976, Melka Treanton chose him to show his collection in Tokyo, for an event organized by Shiseido.

In opposition to the folkloric, flowing style of the times, he quickly created a company under his name, his own brand, which championed feminine elegance.

The Thierry Mugler Fashion style

With a revolutionary cut, he initiated a new, highly-stylized silhouette. The form was anatomical and graphic, highlighting the femininity of the body. His clothes are easily identifiable by their style and their structure. Suits, dresses, jackets…pieces which emphasize a woman’s elegance while harmonizing and resculpting their bodies. He reinvented the notion of seduction and was subsequently labeled a “provocative designer” by the media. For him, fashion is daily stage appearance where the essence of a woman is revealed. Thierry Mugler innovates with shapes as much as with materials, playing with leather, metal, vinyl…

1978 He opened his first Paris boutique at the place des Victoires (in the 1st arrondissement). At the same time, Thierry Mugler launched a collection for men. For this collection, he reworked classical masculinity giving it a definitively modern style. A clean, precise, structured cut which outlined a highly-recognizable silhouette: prominent shoulders, both “anatomical and classic”, for a dynamic and slender charm.

1980s – 1990s: By this time, Thierry Mugler had become an internationally recognized designer and his collections garnered much commercial success. At the request of the Chambre Syndical de La Haute Couture, he completed his first haute couture collection in 1992. Each design was created as a singular work of art.

Thierry Mugler fashion shows

Each show is designed as a spectacle in and of itself. Mugler is both creative artist and show director. At Mugler shows, models and artists mingle with celebrities and unexpected famous guests in a variety of extraordinary settings.

Some of his more memorable shows: Le Zénith (large exhibit hall) – Paris (1984): open to the public, 6000 visitors attend to celebrate the brand’s 10th anniversary. An on-site fashion show with a liturgical, divine and mystical aesthetic yet infused with humor… “My size is the outsized," claims the creator. Ritz Hotel – Paris (1992): Thierry Mugler presents his first haute couture collection (Autumn-Winter 92-93). The success of the show is a testament to the designer’s talent and the know-how of his studios. Winter Circus (exhibit room) – Paris (1995): The fashion house’s 20th anniversary. An exceptional show involving celebrated models, from both the past and present, film and music stars and other celebrities…a surrealist event which lasted an hour and a half. He is one of the Designers of the 1990s who brings fashion into the realm of visual art.

2002 : Conquering new horizons Thierry Mugler takes some distance from the world of fashion to explore new areas: photography, costume design, direction…His studio continued designing accessories and ready-to-wear collections. Other designers began to work for the brand. But Mugler remained involved in creating fragrances, designing fragrance bottles and visual ads as well as directing shows.

Thierry Mugler the photographer All this time, Mugler remained a passionate enthusiast of photography. A major discovery came to him in 1978 during a session with photographer Helmut Newton. Following a disagreement, the photographer handed Mugler his camera and told him to do the work himself. His field of expression: staging his characters in outsized universes. His perspective of life and space is both poetic and graphic. He published his first book in 1988, “Thierry Mugler, Photographe”: filled with the evidence of Mugler’s taste for travel and adventure. The book makes it clear he prefers summits, roofs, and space…to run-of-the-mill countryside. This first book was followed by a monograph in 1999 entitled, “Fashion Fetish Fantasy” which assembles photos of his most extraordinary creations: all the designs are worn by Thierry Mugler’s model and celebrity friends. A meeting of the pure, the perfect and the ideal. Thierry Mugler is very often the creator of any publicity visuals for his designs and his fragrances.

Thierry Mugler the director, artistic advisor “A director of the extraordinary,” he also directs short films, advertising films and video clips. He regularly designs costumes for musical comedies, concerts, operas and the theatre (including Macbeth for the Comédie Française). He has worked with such artists as Robert Altman and George Michael (he directed the video for Michael's “Too Funky” in 1992). He also directed the first advertising film for one of his fragrances: Alien.

A polyvalent artist, he collaborated with the Cirque du Soleil in 2002, a group which performs all over the world. He offered up his phantasmagorical imagination in “Zumanity”, an “Adults-only” production which ran for several years at the New York Hotel in Las Vegas. He directed "Extravaganza”, one of the scenes of Zumanity, but also created all the costumes and the identity of the characters in the show. With this “erotic cabaret”, Thierry Mugler brought the circus into a new era.

In 2009, Thierry Mugler worked as artistic advisor to the American star Beyoncé. He created the costumes for her “I Am…” world tour and gave his artistic vision to the staging, lighting, the decorations and the choreography.

Thierry Mugler the fragrance designer In 1992, Thierry Mugler found himself a new field of expression with the launch of Angel, the very first Thierry Mugler fragrance. How did it all begin? In 1990, Thierry Mugler began working with Clarins, a cosmetics company founded in 1954 and a leader of high-end European care products. The company wished to continue diversification by launching a new fragrance. The Thierry Mugler brand appeared to be the obvious choice for the company to enrich itself through a creative and rich universe as well as focusing on luxury products. Between the artist and Clarins was one woman: Véra Strubi, who had already worked for some of the biggest names in the fragrance world. In 1990, Thierry Mugler Perfumes was created and Véra Strubi named CEO of the new brand.

The Thierry Mugler brand today

In 2007, Joel Palix became President of the Thierry Mugler brand as well as the Clarins Fragrance Group, including the following fragrance brands: Thierry Mugler, Azzaro, Porsche Design, David Yurman and Svarowski.

Brand philosophy and values Just like his signature perfumes Angel, Alien and A*Men, Thierry Mugler fragrances are often designed without thought to current trends and around imaginary and dreamlike stories. The brand looks to create fragrances which express both the extravagance and emotion of Thierry Mugler’s style, which aspire to surprise but are at the same time careful to maintain a privileged relationship with Mugler fans.

Fragrance spring Created soon after the launch of Angel, the “Source” of Angel perfume and now Alien, available wherever Thierry Mugler products are sold, is a way of returning to the secular tradition of perfume fountains. This also enables consumers to keep the same bottle. “Refilling” adds an environmentally-conscious and economical dimension to the brand.

Thierry Mugler fragrance workshops In 2005, Thierry Mugler launched the “Thierry Mugler Perfume Workshops” which are open to the general public and lead by specialists of the perfumery and oenology world. The goal of these workshops is to convey the art and know-how of the industry along with the craftsmanship of making perfume.

The major Thierry Mugler fragrances

1992: Angel

Thierry Mugler’s first perfume appeared in 1992, inspired by his childhood memories. Angel opened a new olfactory trend with its combination of praline and chocolate-derived sweetness mixed with a strong accent of patchouli. Angel was the first oriental gourmand perfume and comes in an unprecedented color for a women’s fragrance: blue.

The Angel bottle, a complicated design in the shape of a faceted star, was created by the Brosse Master Glassmakers. Today, more than thirteen engraved and numbered Limited Edition stars have been successively created for several holiday seasons.

Other perfumes have been developed to enrich the brand’s fragrance universe, including three major fragrances: A*Men, Mugler Cologne and Alien.

1996 : A*Men, for men

With A*Men, man becomes a hero. Like diving into man’s most intimate thoughts, the A*Men fragrance stylishly tells the story of a man who recognizes, deep inside himself, the victorious hero he always imagined himself to be.

A*Men is a spicy, oriental woody perfume, both intense and full of charisma. It is experienced in two contrasting dimensions. The first dimension, offered by a woody oriental note, suggests strength and virility. This is mingled with patchouli and vanilla. The other “spicy” dimension blends coffee with an accent of rich tar. This aspect of the fragrance is what gives it its originality and character.

The A*Men bottle was inspired by the anatomical fuselage of a masculine accessory: a curved and graded flask to match a virile grip, a fusion of technology and classicism. Two materials share in the composition of the flask: silver metal (zamak alloy) and black rubber, from which emerges the brand’s symbol of the asymmetrical blue star.

2001: Mugler Cologne

Mugler Cologne embodies a mysterious sensual freshness. For all those who reject even the idea of a perfume, Thierry Mugler designed a kind of universal and sensual freshness, a promise of energy and vitality. Mugler Cologne is a unisex fragrance, meant for both men and women.

This citrus-y and sensual fragrance is based on a strong dose of white musk, heightened with the scent of natural citrus and a mysterious "S" (for "secret") note, the olfactory backbone of the fragrance.

The Mugler Cologne bottle is an energetic green: its lines transfigure light into a beam of phosphorescent green.

2005: Alien

The 21st century brought Alien, the second major Thierry Mugler fragrance, inspired by a solar world, filled with hope, serenity and light.

An amber-woody-floral creation, in three revelations. The first comes with a light-filled “sunflower” note, infused with sambac jasmine. This is the fragrance’s nod to ultra-femininity. Second revelation: the appearance of a bewitching woody note which provokes a certain mystery, cashmeran wood. The third revelation is brought about by white amber which reveals the fragrance’s comforting effect, a feeling of well-being. This unique fusion creates a radiant, vibrant and mysterious fragrance.

The Alien bottle is inspired by a sacred stone, charged with intense energy and cut like an amethyst and gold jewel.

Other Thierry Mugler creations

In 2006, Thierry Mugler completed an unprecedented project for the launch of Tom Tykwer's film "Perfume": the design of an olfactory interpretation of Patrick Süskind's literary masterpiece. In collaboration with the IFF company, Thierry Mugler created a box set of fifteen compositions granting access to the olfactory emotions contained in this extraordinary story. The project was an emotional labor, situated between fantasy and reality and which gave homage to Süskind’s piece of literature. 300 box sets, available only by subscription, were purchased by perfume aficionados.

In 2007, “La Part des Anges" was born of the meeting of two luxury universes: Haute Parfumerie and luxury Spirits. In collaboration with the Cognac Rémy Martin house, Mugler revisited a traditional know-how and experimented with the extract of his Angel fragrance. A never-before-performed experiment was conducted leaving Angel extract to macerate in wild cherry casks in order to obtain an even subtler fragrance. 4700 examples were offered for sale.

In 2008, the brand launched Thierry Mugler Beauty, a high-end line of cosmetics. The line was designed around the concept of metamorphosis, and seeks to marry both “mastery” and “pleasure” to enable every woman to create her own expertly-achieved makeup while enjoying the process and highlighting her advantages. “Luxury is the privilege of those who know how to put their life on stage.” “It’s the freedom to be different, the pleasure of making oneself known without taking off a mask.” Thierry Mugler

That same year, still following the metamorphosis theme, Mugler launched Mirror, Mirror, a collection of five unusual fragrances, created as “perfume-trickery” to “enhance one’s presence”. Giving free rein to his or her imagination, each Perfumer interpreted the idea of metamorphosis in each creation by integrating unprecedented ingredients, new materials and daring unexpected olfactory pairings. Like imaginary mirrors, the idea was that these fragrances would elicit singular emotions. This “niche line” is available in a highly selective manner in only 200 sales points across the world.

In 2009, Thierry Mugler repeated the mysterious alchemy experiment between spirits and perfume by aging all three of his creations, Angel, Alien and A*Men in wooden casks. Three limited editions combining the know-how of Master Agers and Perfumers to create “Perfume Liqueurs”, achieved through a patented production method. Just like prestigious vintages, these perfumes are conserved in exceptional, limited edition bottles.

Finally, on March 8, 2010, Thierry Mugler launched the site womanity.com, a virtual space for expression and exchange on feminine identity and which elicits visitors to share their vision on what it means to be a woman today. Web users can give their perspective, share their experiences, express their creativity…and above all have fun, thanks to inspiring, meaningful, humorous and even provocative content.

Thierry Mugler fashion and heritage

In 2008, Rosemary Rodriguez, who collaborated closely with Mr. Mugler between 1994 and 1999, started fashion work again for the Thierry Mugler Fashion House. She created the “Thierry Mugler Edition” luxury women’s collection, the ready-to-wear men’s collection as well as accessory collections for both men and women.

With the “Thierry Mugler Edition”, the Thierry Mugler brand presented a women’s collection centered on the designer’s original key creations. Thierry Mugler’s timeless style thus returned to center-stage, reinterpreted in a contemporary manner by Rosemary Rodriguez. The Thierry Mugler Edition line is exclusively distributed by an international network of multi-brand stores and luxury department stores.

For men, Rosemary Rodriguez focused on the different facets contained in masculine elegance and worked mainly on evening wear or sportswear. The collection mirrors how modern life advocates quotidian stylishness, both in professional settings and moments of leisure, while managing to preserve one’s personality. What is Thierry Mugler’s vision of the brand? To be attractive in one’s way of being as much as in one’s appearance.

Thierry Mugler’s accessory line is a contemporary reinterpretation of the brand’s style: the handbags, jewelry, watches and sunglasses are elegant and simple, glamorous without overkill.

In a more extreme version, Thierry Mugler offers spectacular accessories with the Thierry Mugler Edition collections.

References

http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/fashion/289751/thierry-mugler-to-design-beyonce-tour.html

External links

Official site

Thierry Mugler - Biography

Biography at Infomat

Angel on Basenotes">Reviews of Angel on Basenotes

Biography on Designer History site

Thierry Mugler's online store (in French)

Category:French fashion designers Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:Perfume houses Category:People from Strasbourg

Jonathan H. Kim has produced five of the top 50 highest grossing Korean films of all time including Silmido (film), the first Korean film to surpass 10 million domestic ticket sales. He has received the Daejong Award for Best Picture and Best Executive Producer (the Korean Oscar equivalent).

His 16 produced films include the critically acclaimed LIES (56th Venice Film Festival), Ditto, Sisily 2km (the most profitable Korean film of 2004, also called To Catch A Virgin Ghost, a film that will be screened during the KOFFLA), and the recent release, Virgin Snow, a Korean-Japanese co-production between CJ Entertainment and Kadokawa Herald Pictures.

He recently completed his term as the chairman of the Korean Film Producers Association. He also served as a mentor for the first two years of the Korean Film Council Filmmaker Development Lab.

External links

Category:Korean film producers Category:Living people

Name	Jesus of Nazareth
Alt	Half-length portrait of younger man with shoulder-length hair and beard, with right hand raised over what appears to be a red flame. The upper background is gold. Around his head is a golden halo containing an equal-armed cross with three arms visible; the arms are decorated with ovals and squares.
Caption	20th-century stained glass work of Jesus at St. John the Baptist's Church in Ashfield, Australia.
Language	Aramaic (perhaps some Hebrew, Koine Greek)
Birth date	c. 5 BC/BCE
Birth place	Bethlehem, Judea, Roman Empire (traditional); Nazareth, Galilee (modern critical scholarship)
Death place	Calvary, Judea, Roman Empire (according to the New Testament, he rose on the third day after his death.)
Death date	c. 30 AD/CE (aged 33-35)
Death cause	Crucifixion
Resting place	Traditionally and temporarily, a garden tomb in Jerusalem
Ethnicity	Jewish
Nationality	Israelite
Home town	Nazareth, Galilee, Roman Empire
Parents	Father: (Christian view) God through virginal conception;(Islamic view) virginal conception;

Jesus of Nazareth (c. 5 BC/BCE – c. 30 AD/CE), also referred to as Jesus Christ or simply Jesus, is the central figure of Christianity. Most Christian denominations venerate him as God the Son incarnated and believe that he rose from the dead after being crucified.

The principal sources of information regarding Jesus' life and teachings are the four canonical gospels. Most critical scholars believe that other parts of the New Testament are also useful for reconstructing Jesus' life; some scholars believe apocryphal texts such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel according to the Hebrews are also relevant.

Most critical historians agree that Jesus was a Jew who was regarded as a teacher and healer, that he was baptized by John the Baptist, and was crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of the Roman Prefect of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, on the charge of sedition against the Roman Empire. Critical Biblical scholars and historians have offered competing descriptions of Jesus as a self-described Messiah, as the leader of an apocalyptic movement, as an itinerant sage, as a charismatic healer, and as the founder of an independent religious movement. Most contemporary scholars of the Historical Jesus consider him to have been an independent, charismatic founder of a Jewish restoration movement, anticipating an imminent apocalypse.

Christians traditionally believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, arguing that he fulfilled many Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, one of three divine persons of a Trinity. A few Christian groups, however, reject Trinitarianism, wholly or partly, believing it to be non-scriptural.

Judaism rejects assertions that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill the Messianic prophecies in the Tanakh. In Islam, Jesus (, commonly transliterated as ) is considered one of God's important prophets, a bringer of scripture, and the product of a virgin birth; but did not experience a crucifixion. Islam and the Baha'i Faith use the title "Messiah" for Jesus, but do not teach that he was God incarnate.

Etymology

"Jesus" () is a transliteration, occurring in a number of languages and based on the Latin Iesus, of the Greek (), itself a Hellenisation of the Hebrew (Yĕhōšuă‘, Joshua) or Hebrew-Aramaic (Yēšûă‘), meaning "Yahweh delivers (or rescues)". "Christ" () is a title derived from the Greek (), meaning the "Anointed One", a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Messiah).

A "Messiah," in this context, is a king anointed at God's direction or with God's approval, and Christians identify Jesus as the one foretold by Hebrew prophets.

Chronology

, 1640]]

Possible year of birth

There is no contemporary historical evidence demonstrating the date of Jesus' birth. The common Gregorian calendar method for numbering years, in which the current year is , is based on an early medieval attempt to count the years from a point of reference — namely, Jesus' birth — which Dionysius Exiguus placed, either mistakenly or intentionally, sometime between 2 BC/BCE and 1 AD/CE. The Gospel of Matthew states Jesus' birth occurred during the reign of Herod the Great, who died in 4 BC/BCE, but also with the intimation that Jesus may have been as much as two years old when Herod ordered the Massacre of the Innocents, and therefore that he may have been even older at the time of Herod's death. The Gospel of Luke similarly points to Jesus' birth as having occurred during the reign of Herod the Great (i.e., sometime between 37 and 4 BC/BCE), but the author of Luke also describes the birth as taking place during the first census of the Roman provinces of Syria and Iudaea, which is generally believed to have occurred in 6 AD/CE. Most scholars generally assume a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC/BCE. Other scholars assume that Jesus was born sometime between 7—2 BC/BCE and died sometime between 26—36 AD/CE. Additional evidence uncovered in 1923 by archeologists digging in the ruins of a Roman Temple near Ankara, Turkey points to 8 BC based on descriptions of three empire-wide censuses, one of which occurred in 8 BC.

Christmas or Christmas Day is a holiday observed mostly on December 25 to commemorate the birth of Jesus. The earliest evidence of celebration of Jesus' birth comes from Clement of Alexandria, who describes Egyptian Christians as celebrating it on May 20, although other early sources have Christians celebrating the event in March, April, or January. According to Epiphaneus, Christians in the East had largely settled on January 6 by the 4th century. The wide-spread affiliation of Christmas with the Roman festival of Sol Invictus is disputable: there is no evidence that the feast of Sol Invictus was affixed by Aurelian to December 25. The celebration of Sol Invictus feast on December 25 is not mentioned until the calendar of 354 and, subsequently, in 362 by Julian the Apostate in his Oration to King Helios. However, there is no month of the year to which respectable authorities have not assigned Jesus' birth.

Ministry

Jesus' ministry, which according to the Gospel of Luke began when Jesus was "about 30 years of age", followed that of John the Baptist, whose ministry is said to have begun "in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar", which would be about 28 or 29 AD/CE. According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus' ministry lasted approximately one year, whereas the Gospel of John implies that his ministry may have lasted approximately three years. Thus, the earliest generally accepted date for the crucifixion is 29 AD/CE (i.e., the 15th year of Tiberius' reign plus one year for Jesus' ministry), and the latest is 36 AD/CE (i.e., the final year of Pontius Pilate's prefecture).

Possible year of death

All four canonical Gospels report that Jesus was crucified during the prefecture of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect who governed Judaea from 26 to 36 AD/CE. The late 1st century Jewish historian Josephus, writing in The Antiquities of the Jews (c. 93 AD/CE), and the early 2nd century Roman historian Tacitus, writing in The Annals (c. 116 AD/CE), also state that Pilate ordered the execution of Jesus, though each writer incorrectly gives him the title of "procurator" instead of prefect.

Most Christians commemorate the crucifixion on Good Friday and celebrate the resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Life and teachings as told in the Gospels

The four canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are the main sources for the biography of Jesus' life; nevertheless, these Gospels were written with the intention of glorifying Jesus and are not strictly biographical in nature. For example, the Gospels primarily characterize Jesus as the Messiah: he performs miracles and is often described as having a very close relationship to the Jewish God — the phrase "Son of God" is attributed to Jesus at least once in each Gospel. The Gospels (especially Matthew) present Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection as fulfillment of prophecies found in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., the virgin birth, the flight into Egypt, Immanuel from , and the suffering servant). However, critical scholars find historical information about Jesus' life and ministry in the synoptic gospels, while interpreting the miraculous and theological content in light of what is known of Jewish beliefs at the time.

Similarities and differences among the Gospels

Three of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are known as the synoptic Gospels because they display a high degree of similarity in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence and paragraph structures. These Gospels are also considered to share the same point of view. The fourth canonical Gospel, John, differs greatly from these three, as do the Apocryphal gospels.

According to the two-source hypothesis, Mark was a source for Matthew and Luke, both of whom also independently used a now lost sayings source called the Q Gospel. Mark defined the sequence of events from Jesus' baptism to the empty tomb and included parables of the Kingdom of God.

Character of Jesus

Each gospel portrays Jesus' life and its meaning with different emphasis. The gospel of John is not a biography of Jesus but a theological presentation of him as the divine Logos. One modern scholar writes that to combine these four stories into one story is tantamount to creating a fifth story, one different from each original. The author describes the Logos in relation to God and the created order, declares that he "became flesh", and identifies him as Jesus Christ. According to the Fourth Gospel, Jesus Christ is God active in creation, in revelation (Light), and in redemption (Life). Jesus' earthly life was the Logos incarnate. The accounts in the two gospels are substantially different. Several explanations have been suggested (see Genealogy of Jesus). The earliest recorded explanation is in the 3rd century by Africanus, who argued that the discrepancy arose from a levirate marriage in Jesus' ancentry. Such a marriage could have resulted in one ancestor having two "fathers", one legal and the other physical, and so making two branches in the genealogy. However, it has been traditional to assume that Luke's genealogy traces through Mary and Matthew's through Joseph since at least 1490.

Some contemporary scholars generally view the genealogies as theological constructs. More specifically, some have suggested that the author of Matthew wants to underscore the birth of a Messianic child of royal lineage. (Solomon is included in the list); whereas, in this interpretation, Luke's genealogy is priestly (e.g., it mentions Levi). Mary is mentioned in passing in the genealogy given by Matthew, but not in Luke's, while Matthew gives Jacob as Joseph's father and Luke says Joseph was the son of Heli. Both accounts, when read at face value, trace Jesus' line though his human father Joseph back to King David and from there to Abraham. These lists are identical between Abraham and David (except for one), but they differ almost completely between David and Joseph (having only Zerubbabel and Shealtiel in common).

Joseph, husband of Mary, appears in descriptions of Jesus' childhood. No mention, however, is made of Joseph during the ministry of Jesus. The New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, and Galatians tell of Jesus' relatives, including words sometimes translated as "brothers" and "sisters". Luke also mentions that Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, was a "cousin" or "relative" of Mary, which would make John a distant cousin of Jesus.

Nativity and early life

, 17th century]] While there are documents outside of the New Testament which are more or less contemporary with the Historical Jesus, many shed no light on the more biographical aspects of his life. The main sources of Jesus himself that are available to modern scholars are the gospels.

Of the four Gospels, the Nativity (birth) is mentioned only in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. According to these accounts, Jesus was born to Joseph and Mary, his betrothed, in Bethlehem. Both support the doctrine of the Virgin Birth in which Jesus was miraculously conceived in his mother's womb by the Holy Spirit, when his mother was still a virgin.

In Luke, the angel Gabriel visits Mary to tell her that she was chosen to bear the Son of God. An order of Caesar Augustus had forced Mary and Joseph to leave their homes in Nazareth and travel to Bethlehem, the home of Joseph's ancestors, the house of David, for the Census of Quirinius. After Jesus' birth, the couple was forced to use a manger in place of a crib because of a shortage of accommodation. An angel announced Jesus' birth to shepherds who left their flocks to see the newborn child and who subsequently publicized what they had witnessed throughout the area (see The First Noël).

In Matthew, the "Wise Men" or "Magi" bring gifts to the young Jesus after following a star which they believe was a sign that the King of the Jews had been born. King Herod hears of Jesus' birth from the Wise Men and tries to kill him by massacring all the male children in Bethlehem under the age of two (the "massacre of the innocents"). The family flees to Egypt and remains there until Herod's death, whereupon they settle in Nazareth to avoid living under the authority of Herod's son and successor Archelaus.

Jesus' childhood home is identified as the town of Nazareth in Galilee. Except for Matthew's "flight into Egypt", and a short trip to Tyre and Sidon (in what is now Lebanon), the Gospels place all other events in Jesus' life in ancient Israel. However, infancy gospels began to appear around the beginning of the 2nd century.

In Mark, Jesus is called a tekton, usually understood to mean carpenter. Matthew says he was the son of a tekton.

Baptism and temptation

by Francesco Trevisani]] , 1854]] All the gospels report that he had become known as a religious teacher by the time he had reached his 30's. Luke says Jesus was "about thirty years of age" when he was baptized. All three synoptic Gospels describe the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, an event which Biblical scholars describe as the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. According to these accounts, Jesus came to the Jordan River where John the Baptist had been preaching and baptizing people in the crowd. After Jesus was baptized and rose from the water, Mark states Jesus "saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.'"

Mark starts his narration with Jesus' baptism, specifying that it is a token of repentance and for forgiveness of sins. Matthew describes John as initially hesitant to comply with Jesus' request for John to baptize him, stating that it was Jesus who should baptize him. Jesus persisted, "It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness". In Matthew, God's public dedication informs the reader that Jesus has become God's anointed ("Christ").

The Gospel of John does not describe Jesus' baptism, or the subsequent Temptation, but it does attest that Jesus is the very one about whom John the Baptist had been preaching—the Son of God. The Baptist twice declares Jesus to be the "Lamb of God", a term found nowhere else in the Gospels. John also emphasizes Jesus' superiority over John the Baptist. In the synoptics, Jesus speaks in parables and aphorisms, exorcises demons, champions the poor and oppressed, and teaches mainly about the Kingdom of God. In John, Jesus speaks in long discourses, with himself as the theme of his teaching. The Synoptic Gospels suggest a span of only one year. In the synoptics, Jesus' ministry takes place mainly in Galilee, until he travels to Jerusalem, where he cleanses the Temple and is executed. In John, his ministry in and around Jerusalem is more prominently described, cleansing the temple at his ministry's beginning.

In Mark, the disciples are strangely obtuse, failing to understand Jesus' deeds and parables. In Matthew, Jesus directs the apostles' mission only to those of the house of Israel, Luke places a special emphasis on the women who followed Jesus, such as Mary Magdalene.

Teachings and preachings

,illustration by Carl Heinrich Bloch, 19th c.]] In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus speaks primarily about the Kingdom of God.

Some of Jesus' most famous teachings come from the Sermon on the Mount, which contains the Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer. It is one of five collections of teachings in Matthew. During his sermons, he preached about service and humility, the forgiveness of sin, faith, turning the other cheek, love for one's enemies as well as friends, and the need to follow the spirit of the law in addition to the letter.

In the Synoptics, Jesus relays an apocalyptic vision of the end of days. He preaches that the end of the current world will come unexpectedly, and that he will return to judge the world, especially according to how they treated the vulnerable. He calls on his followers to be ever alert and faithful. In Mark, the Kingdom of God is a divine government that will appear by force within the lifetimes of his followers. The Transfiguration is a turning point in Jesus ministry.

In Mark, Jesus' identity as the Messiah is obscured (see Messianic secret). Mark states that "this generation" will be given no sign, while Matthew and Luke say they will be given no sign but the sign of Jonah. In John, and not in the synoptics, Jesus is outspoken about his divine identity and mission. Here Jesus uses the phrase "I am" in talking of himself in ways that designate God in the Hebrew Bible, a statement taken by some writers as claiming identity with God.

Arrest, trial, and death

, 1626.]]

In Jerusalem

According to the Synoptics, Jesus came with his followers to Jerusalem during the Passover festival where a large crowd came to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!" Following his triumphal entry, Jesus created a disturbance at Herod's Temple by overturning the tables of the moneychangers who set up shop there, and claiming that they had made the Temple a "den of robbers". Later that week, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples — an event subsequently known as the Last Supper — in which he prophesied that he would be betrayed by one of his disciples, and would then be executed. In this ritual he took bread and wine in hand, saying: "this is my body which is given for you" and "this cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood", and instructed them to "do this in remembrance of me." Following the supper, Jesus and his disciples went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane.

In Mark and Matthew, Jesus is anguished in the face of his fate. He prays and accepts God's will, but his chosen disciples repeatedly fall asleep on the watch.

In John, Jesus has already cleansed the temple a few years before and has been preaching in Jerusalem. He raises Lazarus on the Sabbath, the act that finally gets Jewish leaders to plan his death.

(Behold the Man!) Pontius Pilate presents a scourged Jesus of Nazareth to onlookers. Illustration by Antonio Ciseri, 19th c.]]

Betrayal and arrest

While in the Garden, Jesus is arrested by temple guards on the orders of the Sanhedrin and the high priest, Caiaphas. The arrest takes place clandestinely at night to avoid a riot, as Jesus is popular with the people at large. Judas Iscariot, one of his apostles, betrays Jesus by identifying him to the guards with a kiss. Simon Peter, another one of Jesus' apostles, uses a sword to attack one of Jesus' captors, cutting off his ear, which, according to Luke, Jesus immediately heals miraculously. Jesus rebukes the apostle, stating "all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword". After his arrest, Jesus' apostles go into hiding; Judas, distraught by his betrayal of Jesus, commits suicide shortly after.

Trials before the Sanhedrin and Pilate

, painting by D. Velázquez, 17th c.]] Jesus affirms that he is the Messiah before the Sanhedrin,. The Jewish leaders turn him over to Pilate for execution, but Pilate is reluctant to execute Jesus. He asks God to forgive those who are crucifying him, possibly the Romans and possibly the Jews.

Resurrection and ascension

, illustration by Matthias Grünewald, 16th c.]] The Gospels state that Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday. All the Gospels portray Jesus' empty tomb. In Matthew, an angel appears near the tomb of Jesus and announces his resurrection to Mary Magdalene and "another Mary" who had arrived to anoint the body. Jewish elders bribe the soldiers who had guarded the tomb to spread the rumor that Jesus' disciples took his body. In Luke, there are two angels and in Mark the angel appears as a youth dressed in white. The "longer ending" to Mark, which is known as the Markan Appendix and which did not form part of the original manuscripts, states that on the morning of his resurrection, Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene. John states that when Mary looked into the tomb, two angels asked her why she was crying; and as she turned round she initially failed to recognize Jesus until he spoke her name.

The Gospels all record appearances by Jesus, including an appearance to the eleven apostles. In Mark, Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, to two disciples in the country, and to the eleven, at which point Jesus commissions them to announce the gospel, baptize, and work miracles.

In Mark and Luke, Jesus ascends to the heavens; after these appearances. In Luke, Jesus ascends on Easter Sunday evening when he is with his disciples. The name "Jesus" comes from an alternate spelling of the Latin (Iēsus) which in turn comes from the Greek name Iesous (). In the Septuagint, is used as the Greek version of the Hebrew name Yehoshua (, "God delivers" from Yeho — Yahweh [is] shua` — deliverance/rescue) in the Biblical book of the same name, usually Romanized as Joshua. Some scholars believe that one of these was likely the name that Jesus was known by during his lifetime by his peers. Thus, the name has been translated into English as "Joshua".

Christ (which started as a title, and has often been used as a name for Jesus) is an Anglicization of the Greek term χριστός, christos. In the Septuagint, this term is used as the translation of the , "Anointed One" in reference to priests, and kings and King Cyrus. In Isaiah and Jeremiah the word began to be applied to a future ideal king. The New Testament has some 500 uses of the word χριστός applied to Jesus, used either generically or in an absolute sense, namely as the Anointed One (the Messiah, the Christ). The Gospel of Mark has as its central point of its narrative Peter's confession of Jesus as the Messiah.

indicates that the strong belief that Jesus was the Messiah predates the letters of Paul the Apostle. These letters also show that the Messiah title was already beginning to be used as a name.

Some have suggested that other titles applied to Jesus in the New Testament had meanings in the 1st century quite different from those meanings ascribed today. Géza Vermes has argued that "Son of man" was not a title but rather the polite way in which people referred to themselves, i.e. a pronominal phrase. However, a number of New Testament scholars argue that Jesus himself made no claims to being God. Most Christians identified Jesus as divine from a very early period, although holding a variety of views as to what exactly this implied.

Other names and titles

"Son of David" is found elsewhere in Jewish tradition to refer to the heir to the throne. Over the past two hundred years, these scholars have constructed a Jesus different in ways from the image found in the gospels. Scholars of the "historical Jesus" distinguish their concept from the "Jesus Christ" of Christianity. Other scholars, however, hold that the figure presented in the gospels is the real Jesus and that his life and influence only make sense if the gospel stories are accurate.

The principal sources of information regarding Jesus' life and teachings are the four gospels. Scholars conclude the authors of the gospels wrote a few decades after Jesus' crucifixion (between 60-100AD), in some cases using sources (the author of Luke-Acts references this explicitly). A great majority of biblical scholars accept the historical existence of Jesus.

The English title of Albert Schweitzer's 1906 book, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, is a label for the post-Enlightenment effort to describe Jesus using critical historical methods. Since the end of the 18th century, scholars have examined the gospels and tried to formulate historical biographies of Jesus. The historical outlook on Jesus relies on critical analysis of the Bible, especially the gospels. Many Biblical scholars have sought to reconstruct Jesus' life in terms of the political, cultural, and religious crises and movements in late 2nd Temple Judaism and in Roman-occupied Palestine, including differences between Galilee and Judea, and between different sects such as the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots, and in terms of conflicts among Jews in the context of Roman occupation.

Descriptions

Historians of Christianity generally describe Jesus as a healer who preached the restoration of God's kingdom and agree he was baptized by John the Baptist and crucified by the Romans.

Baptism by John the Baptist

John the Baptist led a large apocalyptic movement. He demanded repentance and baptism. Jesus was baptized and later began his ministry. After John was executed, some of his followers apparently took Jesus as their new leader. Historians are nearly unanimous in accepting Jesus' baptism as a historical event.

Arrival of the Kingdom – Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God. He said that the age of the Kingdom had in some sense arrived, starting with the activity of John the Baptist. Scholars commonly surmise that Jesus' eschatology was apocalyptic, like John's.

Parables – Jesus taught in pithy parables and with striking images. His teaching was marked by hyperbole and unusual twists of phrase. that have great effects. Significantly, he never described the Kingdom in military terms. Associated with this main theme, Jesus taught that one should rely on prayer and expect prayer to be effective.

The Gospels report that Jesus foretold his own Passion, but the actions of the disciples suggest that it came as a surprise to them.

Jewish religious movements in Jesus' day

Scholars refer to the religious background of the early 1st century to better reconstruct Jesus' life. Some scholars identify him with one or another group.

Pharisees were a powerful force in 1st-century Judea. Early Christians shared several beliefs of the Pharisees, such as resurrection, retribution in the next world, angels, human freedom, and Divine Providence. After the fall of the Temple, the Pharisee outlook was established in Rabbinic Judaism. Some scholars speculate that Jesus was himself a Pharisee. In Jesus' day, the two main schools of thought among the Pharisees were the House of Hillel, which had been founded by the eminent Tanna, Hillel the Elder, and the House of Shammai. Jesus' assertion of hypocrisy may have been directed against the stricter members of the House of Shammai, although he also agreed with their teachings on divorce. Jesus also commented on the House of Hillel's teachings (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a) concerning the greatest commandment and the Golden Rule. Historians do not know whether there were Pharisees in Galilee during Jesus' life, or what they would have been like.

Essenes were apocalyptic ascetics, one of the three (or four) major Jewish schools of the time, though they were not mentioned in the New Testament. Some scholars theorize that Jesus was an Essene, or close to them. Among these scholars is Pope Benedict XVI, who supposes in his book on Jesus that "it appears that not only John the Baptist, but possibly Jesus and his family as well, were close to the Qumran community."

Zealots were a revolutionary party opposed to Roman rule, one of those parties that, according to Josephus inspired the fanatical stand in Jerusalem that led to its destruction in the year 70 AD/CE. Luke identifies Simon, a disciple, as a "zealot", which might mean a member of the Zealot party (which would therefore have been already in existence in the lifetime of Jesus) or a zealous person.

Higher criticism and Christian scripture

Contemporary historians of Christianity use the historical-critical method (or higher criticism) to examine scripture for clues about the historical Jesus. They sort out sayings and events that are more likely to be genuine and use those to construct their portraits of Jesus. They use standard historical methods to discern who wrote each book, where and when they were written, what sources the authors used, what the authors' agendas were.

Biblical scholars hold that the works describing Jesus were initially communicated by oral tradition, and were not committed to writing until several decades after Jesus' crucifixion. After the original oral stories were written down in Greek, they were transcribed, and later translated into other languages. The books of the New Testament had mostly been written by 100 AD/CE, making them, at least the synoptic gospels, historically relevant. The Gospel tradition certainly preserves several fragments of Jesus' teaching. The Gospel of Mark is believed to have been written c. 70 AD/CE. Matthew is placed at being sometime after this date and Luke is thought to have been written between 70 and 100 AD/CE. According to the majority viewpoint, the gospels were written not by the evangelists identified by tradition but by non-eyewitnesses who worked with second-hand sources and who modified their accounts to suit their religious agendas. Sayings attributed to Jesus are deemed more likely to reflect his character when they are distinctive, vivid, paradoxical, surprising, and contrary to social and religious expectations, such as "Blessed are the poor". Short, memorable parables and aphorisms capable of being transmitted orally are also thought more likely to be authentic.

A minority of prominent scholars, such as J. A. T. Robinson, have maintained that the writers of the gospels of Matthew, Mark and John were either apostles and eyewitness to Jesus' ministry and death, or were close to those who had been. a few scholars have questioned the existence of Jesus as an actual historical figure. Among the proponents of non-historicity was Bruno Bauer in the 19th century. Non-historicity was somewhat influential in biblical studies during the early 20th century. The views of scholars who entirely rejected Jesus' historicity then were based on a suggested lack of eyewitnesses, a lack of direct archaeological evidence, the failure of certain ancient works to mention Jesus, and similarities early Christianity shared with then-contemporary religion and mythology.

More recently, arguments for non-historicity have been discussed by authors such as George Albert Wells and Robert M. Price, Earl Doherty, Timothy Freke, and Peter Gandy.

Classicist Michael Grant stated that standard historical criteria prevent one from rejecting the existence of a historical Jesus. Professor of Divinity James Dunn describes the mythical Jesus theory as a 'thoroughly dead thesis'.

Religious perspectives

By and large, the Jews of Jesus' day rejected his claim to be the Messiah, as do Jews today. For their part, Christian Church Fathers, Ecumenical Councils, Reformers, and others have written extensively about Jesus over the centuries. Christian sects and schisms have often been defined or characterized by competing descriptions of Jesus. Meanwhile, Gnostics, Mandaeans, Manichaeans, Muslims, Baha'is, and others have found prominent places for Jesus in their own religious accounts.

Christian views

Though Christian views of Jesus vary, it is possible to describe a general majority Christian view by examining the similarities between specific Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and many Protestant doctrines found in their catechetical or confessional texts. Almost all Christian groups regard Jesus as the "Savior and Redeemer", as the Messiah (Greek: Christos; English: Christ) prophesied in the Old Testament, who, through his life, death, and resurrection, restored humanity's communion with God in the blood of the New Covenant. His death on a cross is understood as the redemptive sacrifice: the source of humanity's salvation and the atonement for sin, which had entered human history through the sin of Adam. Christians profess that Jesus suffered death by crucifixion, and rose bodily from the dead in the definitive miracle that foreshadows the resurrection of humanity at the end of time, when Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead, resulting in either entrance into heaven or damnation.

Christians profess Jesus to be the only Son of God, the Lord, and the eternal Word (which is a translation of the Greek Logos), who became man in the incarnation, so that those who believe in him might have eternal life. They further hold that he was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit in an event described as the miraculous virgin birth or incarnation.

A nearly universal belief within Christianity is that the Godhead is triune ("Trinity"). As the ancient Athanasian Creed is worded, the Trinity is "one God" and "three persons... and yet they are not three Gods, but one God." The doctrine of the Trinity has been rejected by many non-Christians throughout its history. They teach that Jesus is a separate and distinct being from God the Father and the Holy Spirit, and that Biblical references to the Father and the Son being one do not indicate a unity of being. While most of these groups refer to themselves as Christian, they are not generally accepted by Mainline Protestants and more conservative denominations because of the extra-biblical and unorthodox teachings of these groups. Some religious groups that do not accept the doctrine of the Trinity include The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Unitarianism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Oneness Pentecostals, Sabbatarian Churches of God and the Christadelphians. (See also Nontrinitarianism)

Benedict XVI, in his book, Jesus of Nazareth, readily and gratefully acknowledges that, thanks to historical-critical scholarship, we know much more, today, about the different literary genres of the Bible; about the ways in which a Gospel writer's intent affected his portrait of Jesus; about the theological struggles within early Christianity that shaped a particular Christian community's memory of its Lord. The difficulty, according to Benedict XVI, is that, "amidst all the knowledge gained in the biblical dissecting room, the Jesus of the Gospels has tended to disappear, to be replaced by a given scholar's reconstruction from the bits and pieces left on the dissecting room floor." And that makes what Benedict calls "intimate friendship with Jesus" much more difficult, not just for scholars, but for everyone.

Jewish views

Judaism, including Orthodox Judaism, Hareidi Judaism, Reform Judaism, and Conservative Judaism, holds the view Jesus is not the Messiah, arguing that he had not fulfilled the Messianic prophecies in the Tanakh nor embodied the personal qualifications of the Messiah. According to Jewish tradition, there were no more prophets after Malachi, who lived centuries before Jesus and delivered his prophesies about 420 BC/BCE. Judaism states that Jesus did not fulfill the requirements set by the Torah to prove that he was a prophet. Even if Jesus had produced such a sign that Judaism recognized, Judaism states that no prophet or dreamer can contradict the laws already stated in the Torah, which Jesus did.

The Babylonian Talmud and Toledot Yeshu include stories of Yeshu . This name is etymologically unconnected to the Hebrew or Aramaic words for Joshua, and many religious Jews read it as the acronym for Yimakh sh'mo u'shem zikhro (meaning "be his name and memory erased"), an expression used to describe deceased enemies. Historians agree that these narratives do not refer to a historical Jesus. Historians disagree as to whether these stories represent a Jewish comment on and reaction against the Christian Jesus, or refer to someone unconnected to Jesus.

The Mishneh Torah (an authoritative work of Jewish law) states in Hilkhot Melakhim 11:10–12 that Jesus is a "stumbling block" who makes "the majority of the world err to serve a divinity besides God". Because, is there a greater stumbling-block than this one? So that all of the prophets spoke that the Messiah redeems Israel, and saves them, and gathers their banished ones, and strengthens their commandments. And this one caused (nations) to destroy Israel by sword, and to scatter their remnant, and to humiliate them, and to exchange the Torah, and to make the majority of the world err to serve a divinity besides God. However, the thoughts of the Creator of the world — there is no force in a human to attain them because our ways are not God's ways, and our thoughts not God's thoughts. And all these things of Jesus the Nazarene, and of (Muhammad) the Ishmaelite who stood after him — there is no (purpose) but to straighten out the way for the King Messiah, and to restore all the world to serve God together. So that it is said, "Because then I will turn toward the nations (giving them) a clear lip, to call all of them in the name of God and to serve God (shoulder to shoulder as) one shoulder." Look how all the world already becomes full of the things of the Messiah, and the things of the Torah, and the things of the commandments! And these things spread among the far islands and among the many nations uncircumcised of heart.}}

According to Conservative Judaism, Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah have "crossed the line out of the Jewish community". Reform Judaism, the modern progressive movement, states "For us in the Jewish community anyone who claims that Jesus is their savior is no longer a Jew and is an apostate".

According to Geza Vermes, the historical Jesus was a Jew in good standing. Modern Jews, he says, would find the historical Jesus an appealing figure, one quite different from the Christ of the Gospels.

Islamic views

Mainstream Islam considers Jesus an ordinary man who, like other prophets, had been divinely chosen to spread God's message. Jesus is seen in Islam as a precursor to Muhammad, and is believed by Muslims to have foretold the latter's coming. According to the Qur'an, believed by Muslims to be God's final revelation, Jesus was born to Mary (Arabic: Maryam) as the result of virginal conception, and was given the ability to perform miracles. However, Islam rejects historians assertions that Jesus was crucified by the Romans, instead claiming that he had been raised alive up to heaven. Islamic traditions narrate that he will return to earth near the day of judgement to restore justice and defeat al-Masīḥ ad-Dajjāl (lit. "the false Messiah", also known as the Antichrist) and the enemies of Islam. As a just ruler, Jesus will then die.

Ahmadiyya views

The Ahmadiyya Movement considers Jesus a mortal man who died a natural death. According to the early 20th century writings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement) , Jesus survived his ordeal on the cross, and after his apparent death and resurrection, he fled Palestine and migrated eastwards to further teach the gospels. Jesus eventually died a natural death of old age in India – Kashmir - and is believed to be buried at Roza Bal.

Although the view of Jesus having migrated to India has also been researched in the publications of independent historians with no affiliation to the movement, the Ahmadiyya Movement are the only religious organization to adopt these views as a characteristic of their faith. The general notion of Jesus in India is older than the foundation of the movement, and is discussed at length by Grönbold and Klatt.

The movement also interprets the second coming of Christ prophesied in various religious texts would be that of a person "similar to Jesus" (mathīl-i ʿIsā). Thus, Ahmadi's consider that the founder of the movement and his prophetical character and teachings were representative of Jesus and subsequently a fulfillment of this prophecy.

Bahá'í views

The Bahá'í Faith, founded in 19th-century Persia, considers Jesus, along with Muhammad, the Buddha, Krishna, and Zoroaster, and other messengers of the great religions of the world to be Manifestations of God (or prophets), with both human and divine stations.

God is one and has manifested himself to humanity through several historic Messengers. Bahá'ís refer to this concept as Progressive Revelation, which means that God's will is revealed to mankind progressively as mankind matures and is better able to comprehend the purpose of God in creating humanity. In this view, God's word is revealed through a series of messengers: Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Bahá'u'lláh (the founder of the Bahá'í Faith) among them. In the Book of Certitude, Bahá'u'lláh claims that these messengers have a two natures: divine and human. Examining their divine nature, they are more or less the same being. However, when examining their human nature, they are individual, with distinct personality. For example, when Jesus says "I and my Father are one", Bahá'ís take this quite literally, but specifically with respect to his nature as a Manifestation. When Jesus conversely stated "...And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me", Bahá'ís see this as a simple reference to the individuality of Jesus. This divine nature, according to Bahá'u'lláh, means that any Manifestation of God can be said to be the return of a previous Manifestation, though Bahá'ís also believe that some Manifestations with specific missions return with a "new name". and a different, or expanded purpose. Bahá'ís believe that Bahá'u'lláh is, in both respects, the return of Jesus.

Buddhist views

Buddhists' views of Jesus differ. Some Buddhists, including Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama regard Jesus as a bodhisattva who dedicated his life to the welfare of human beings. The 14th century Zen master Gasan Jōseki indicated that the sayings of Jesus in the Gospels were written by an enlightened man.

Other views

Mandaeanism, a very small Mideastern, Gnostic sect that reveres John the Baptist as God's greatest prophet, regards Jesus as a false prophet of the false Jewish god of the Old Testament, Adonai, and likewise rejects Abraham, Moses, and Muhammad.

Manichaeism accepted Jesus as a prophet, along with Gautama Buddha and Zoroaster.

The New Age movement entertains a wide variety of views on Jesus. The creators of A Course In Miracles claim to trance-channel his spirit. However, the New Age movement generally teaches that Christhood is something that all may attain. Theosophists, from whom many New Age teachings originated (a Theosophist named Alice A. Bailey invented the term New Age), refer to Jesus of Nazareth as the Master Jesus and believe he had previous incarnations.

Many writers emphasize Jesus' moral teachings. Garry Wills argues that Jesus' ethics are distinct from those usually taught by Christianity. The Jesus Seminar portrays Jesus as an itinerant preacher who taught peace and love, rights for women and respect for children, and who spoke out against the hypocrisy of religious leaders and the rich. Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a deist, created the Jefferson Bible entitled "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" that included only Jesus' ethical teachings because he did not believe in Jesus' divinity or any of the other supernatural aspects of the Bible.

See also

New Testament Jesus

* Biblical Jesus

* Christian views about women

* Christian views of Jesus

* Crucifixion of Jesus and Resurrection of Jesus

* Miracles of Jesus

* Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament

* King of kings

* Race of Jesus

* Sermon on the Mount

Jesus and history

* Apostolic Succession of Jesus

* Christian apologetics

* Genealogy of Jesus

* Gospel Harmony

* Historicity of Jesus

* Historicity of the Gospels

* Jesus and comparative mythology

* New Testament view on Jesus' life

General topics

* Christian mythology

* INRI (stands for "Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews")

* Nazarene

Views on Jesus

* Apocrypha

* Christology

* Pauline Christianity

* Religious perspectives on Jesus

* Sexuality of Jesus

Related lists

* List of books about Jesus

* List of founders of major religions

* List of Messiah claimants

* List of people who have been considered deities

* List of people who have claimed to be Jesus

Notes

References

The Bible

Allison, Dale. Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1999. ISBN 0-8006-3144-7

Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament. New York: Doubleday, 1997. ISBN 0-385-24767-2

Cohen, Shaye J.D.. From the Maccabees to the Mishnah. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0-664-21911-6

Cohen, Shaye J.D. The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. ISBN 0-520-22693-3

Crossan, John Dominic.

* The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993. ISBN 0-06-061629-6

* Who Killed Jesus?: exposing the roots of anti-semitism in the Gospel story of the death of Jesus. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995. ISBN 978-0-06-061671-7

Davenport, Guy; and Urrutia, Benjamin (trans.) The Logia of Yeshua: The sayings of Jesus. Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 1996. ISBN 978-1-887178-70-9

De La Potterie, Ignace. The hour of Jesus: The passion and the resurrection of Jesus according to John. New York: Alba House, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8189-0575-9

Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944. ISBN 0-671-11500-6

Ehrman, Bart. The Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-514183-0

Ehrman, Bart. The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-515462-2

Fredriksen, Paula. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity. New York: Vintage, 2000. ISBN 0-679-76746-0

Fredriksen, Paula. From Jesus to Christ: The origins of the New Testament images of Christ. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-300-08457-3

Finegan, Jack. Handbook of Biblical Chronology, revised ed. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1998. ISBN 1-56563-143-9

Fuller, Reginald H., The Foundations of New Testament Christology. New York: Scribners, 1965. ISBN 0-227-17075-X

Meier, John P., , New York: Anchor Doubleday,

: V. 1, The Roots of the Problem and the Person, 1991. ISBN 0-385-26425-9 : V. 2, Mentor, Message, and Miracles, 1994. ISBN 0-385-46992-6 : V. 3, Companions and Competitors, 2001. ISBN 0-385-46993-4

O'Collins, Gerald. Interpreting Jesus. "Introducing Catholic theology". London: G. Chapman; Ramsey, NJ: Paulist Press, 1983. ISBN 978-0-8091-2572-2

Pelikan, Jaroslav. Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-300-07987-7

Robinson, John A. T. Redating the New Testament. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2001 (original 1977). ISBN 1-57910-527-0.

Sanders, E.P. The Historical Figure of Jesus. London: Allen Lane Penguin Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-7139-9059-1

Sanders, E.P. Jesus and Judaism. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1987. ISBN 0-8006-2061-5

Vermes, Géza. Jesus in his Jewish Context. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2003. ISBN 0-8006-3623-6

Vermes, Géza. Jesus the Jew: A Historian's Reading of the Gospels. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1981. ISBN 0-8006-1443-7

Vermes, Géza. The Religion of Jesus the Jew. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1993. ISBN 0-8006-2797-0

Wilson, A.N. Jesus. London: Pimlico, 2003. ISBN 0-7126-0697-1

Wright, N.T. Jesus and the Victory of God. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1997. ISBN 0-8006-2682-6

Wright, N.T. The Resurrection of the Son of God: Christian Origins and the Question of God. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2003. ISBN 0-8006-2679-6

External links

Complete Sayings of Jesus Christ In Parallel Latin & English

"Jesus Christ." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 12 Nov. 2009

From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians — Frontline documentary about Jesus' life and the early Church.

The Jewish Roman World of Jesus

Category:0s BC births Category:1st-century deaths Category:1st-century executions Category:Apocalypticists Category:Carpenters Category:Christian mythology Category:Christian religious leaders Category:Creator gods Category:Deified people Category:Founders of religions Category:God in Christianity Category:Islamic mythology Category:Jewish Messiah claimants Category:Life-death-rebirth gods Category:Messianism Category:New Testament people Category:People executed by crucifixion Category:People executed by the Roman Empire Category:People from Bethlehem Category:People from Nazareth Category:Prophets in Christianity Category:Prophets of Islam Category:Rabbis of the Land of Israel Category:Roman era Jews Category:Savior gods Category:Self-declared messiahs

Name	Ahmed Deedat
Birth name	Ahmed Hussein Deedat
Birth date	July 01, 1918
Birth place	Surat, Gujarat, India
Death date	August 08, 2005
Death place	Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Ethnicity	Indian
Occupation	Missionary, orator, public speaker, furniture salesman
Years active	1942–1996
Religion	Sunni Islam
Awards	King Faisal International Prize (1986)
Website	ahmed-deedat.net
Influenced	Dr. Zakir Naik

Ahmed Hussein Deedat (July 1, 1918 – August 8, 2005) (Urdu: احمد حسين ديدات) was a Muslim apologist, writer and public speaker of Indian South African descent. He was best known for his numerous inter-religious public debates with evangelical Christians, as well as pioneering video lectures, most of which centered around Islam, Christianity and the Bible. He also established the IPCI, an international Islamic missionary organization, and wrote several booklets on Islam and Christianity which were widely distributed by the organization. He was awarded the prestigious King Faisal Award in 1986 for his 50 years of missionary work. One focus of his work was providing Muslims with theological tools for defending themselves against active Proselytizing by Christian missionaries. He used English to get his message across to Muslims and the non-Muslims in the western world.

Biography

Early Years 1918–1942

Ahmed Deedat was born in the town of Tadkeshwar, Surat District, Gujarat, India in 1918. His father had emigrated to South Africa shortly after the birth of Ahmed Deedat. At the age of 9, Deedat left India to join his father in what is now known as Kwazulu-Natal. His mother died only a few months after his departure. Arriving in South Africa, Deedat applied himself with diligence to his studies, overcoming the language barrier and excelling in school, even getting promoted until he completed standard 6. However, due to financial circumstances, he had to quit school and start working by the time he was the age of 16.

In 1936, while working as a furniture salesman, he came across a group of missionaries at a Christian seminary on the Natal South Coast. The missionaries in their efforts to convert people of Muslim faith, would often accuse the Islamic Prophet Muhammad of having "used the sword" to bring people to Islam. Such accusations seemed to offend Deedat and were to form a major influence on Deedat's subsequent interest in comparative religion.

Deedat took a more active interest in religious debate after he came across a book entitled "Izhar ul-Huqq" (Truth Revealed), written by Rahmatullah Kairanawi, found while he was rummaging for reading material in his employer's basement. This book chronicled the efforts of Christian missionaries in India from a century earlier. The book had a profound effect on Deedat and led to the purchase of his first Bible and holding of debates and discussions with trainee missionaries, whose questions he had previously been unable to answer. Over time, Deedat's popularity as a public speaker grew in Durban, to the point that he was invited to speak in other cities in South Africa. A decade later he was filling City halls with audiences numbering in the thousands in cities such as Johannesburg and Cape Town.

A major vehicle of Deedat's early missionary activity was the 'Guided Tours' of the Jumma Mosque in Durban. The vast ornamental Jumma Mosque was a landmark site in the tourist friendly city of Durban. A sophisticated program of luncheons, speeches and free hand-outs was created to give an increasingly large number of international tourists often their first look at Islam. Deedat himself featured as one of the guides, hosting tourists and giving succinct introductions to the Islamic Religion and the relationship between Islam and Christianity.

IPCI and as-Salaam 1956–1986

By 1956, missionary work in the form of frequent public speaking engagements and the popular guided tours of the Jumma Masjid had begun to pay dividends. Enquiries about Islam from the general public in South Africa had started to pour in at an increasing rate. Soon it became apparent that working from the mosque office was not going to be sufficient to handle the demand for literature and to facilitate an increasing number of people showing more than simply tourist level interest in Islam.

Among Deedat's close friends were Goolam Hoosein Vanker and Taahir Rasool, whom many refer to as 'the unsung heroes of Deedat's career'. In 1957, Deedat, together with Vanker and Rasool, founded the Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI) with the aim to print a variety of books on Islam and offer classes to new Muslims converts.

Deedat was a Sunni Bohra and a devote Ahle Sunnah (Sufi Hanafi) scholar who openly supported Milad-un-Nabi. He had a special friendship with Shaikh Mir Asedullah Quadri and Dr.Tahir-ul-Qadri. He also praised Maulana Abdul Aleem Siddiqi who was a student of Allama Hazrat Ahmad Raza Khan.

In 1958, Deedat established an Islamic seminary called As-Salaam Educational Institute on a donated piece of land located in Braemar in the south of Natal province.

With these newly founded missionary organizations as his backbone, Deedat engaged into a broader range of activities over the next three decades. He conducted classes on Biblical Theology and conducted numerous lectures. Da`wah (inviting people towards Islam) became the dominant factor of his life, with audiences at his lectures often reaching in excess of forty thousand. He also wrote a large number of booklets, distributing millions of copies of these and other free literature across the world.

International Fame 1985–1995

By the early 1980s, Ahmed Deedat's work was beginning to be known outside his native South Africa. In 1985, for instance, he twice rented the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London to debate Christian contemporaries in front of a packed audience. His international profile was significantly boosted, when in 1986 he was awarded the King Faisal Award for his services to Islam in the field of Dawah (Islamic missionary activity). The award squarely brought Deedat into the international limelight and the attention of the Muslim communities worldwide. As a result, at the ripe old age of 66, Deedat began a new phase in his lifetime mission of empowering Muslims to preach to Christians, a ten-year long period of international speaking tours around the world. He travelled far and wide to Muslim communities from Australia at one end to North America at the other end. Some of his known tours include:

Saudi Arabia and Egypt (on several occasions)

United Kingdom (on several occasions between 1985 and 1988, including Switzerland in 1987)

Pakistan, where Deedat met Zia al-Haq,

UAE and Maldives Islands (Nov–Dec 1987), where Deedat was honored by President Gayhoom. He was flown to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, where he was reported to be fully alert and hence taught to communicate through a series of eye-movements via a chart whereby he would form words by acknowledging individual alphabets read out to him; this way he would form complete sentences. Hawa Deedat died on Monday August 28, 2006 at the age of 85, just one year after her husband at Deedat’s home.

Debates

Deedat's first well-known debate occurred in August 1981 when he debated well-known Christian apologist Josh McDowell in Durban, South Africa. Many of his debates were later broadcast online on Youtube, among other sites.

Debates with Anis Shorrosh

Deedat's memorable tussles with Palestinian-American missionary Dr. Anis Shorrosh first came to public attention when Shorrosh appeared among the audience during the Q&A; sessions on two separate occasions during Deedat's summer 1985 tour of the UK (where he debated Dr. Floyd E. Clark in what is now considered another one of his early international works). Deedat then traveled to Denmark where he debated Pastor Eric Bock in Copenhagen in a debate entitled Is Jesus God?

His Writings and Speeches

Deedat published and mass produced over one dozen palm-sized booklets focusing on the following major themes. Most of Deedat's numerous lectures, as well as most of his debates in fact, focus on and around these same themes. Often the same theme has several video lectures to its credit, having been delivered at different times and different places.

Is the Bible God's Word?

What The Bible Says About Muhammad

Crucifixion or Cruci-Fiction?

* several smaller spin-off titles on specific aspects of Crucifixion

Muhammad: The Natural Successor to Christ

Christ in Islam

Muhammad The Greatest

Al-Qur'an the Miracle of Miracles

Capitalizing on his popularity in the Middle East following his receipt of the King Faisal Award, Deedat secured a grant to print a collated volume of four of his popular booklets. 10,000 copies of this book titled The Choice: Islam and Christianity were initially printed on April 1993 in a very high quality HB 'silk paper' edition with a striking burgundy cover with gold embossed title. This book was very popular in the 1990s, often available for free at missionary outlets across North America. Subsequently, several printing houses offered to print more and within two years, by June 1995, another 250,000 copies had been printed in several print runs across the Middle East.

Later, a second volume in plain PB entitled The Choice: Volume Two featuring six more of Deedat's booklets collated together was also published. Deedat also widely promoted a South African printing of The Holy Qur'an translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali with commentary and detailed index. This was widely made available at subsidized costs to the general public and is often mentioned in Deedat's speeches.

Deedat also produced a booklet entitled "Al-Qur'an: the Ultimate Miracle" featuring the theory of 'the Number 19' that was popularized by Arizona-based Egyptian computer analyst Dr. Rashad Khalifa. However, this booklet was later withdrawn from circulation after Dr. Khalifa publicly disclosed some controversial beliefs including his rejection of the entire Hadith literature of Islam.

Criticism

Deedat's debates and writings have been labelled a form of apologetics:

Deedat's multitude of anti-Christian, anti-Jewish and anti-Hindu videotapes have told us all that there is to be told about the other, and we are comfortable with that. There are times, of course, when questions surface about the importance of correct dogma, about the importance of labels to a God whom we believe sees beyond labels and looks at the hearts of people. Instead of pursuing these questions, we hasten back and seek refuge in "the known." We order another of those Deedat tapes. In France, his books have been forbidden for sale and distribution since 1994, alleging it to be violently anti-western, antisemitic and inciting to racial hate.

Following his 1981 debate with Deedat, Josh McDowell released a book which included criticism of a number of Deedat's arguments, from a Christian perspective. Deedat responded to part of McDowell's book in chapters 17 and 19 of "Crucifixion or Cruci-fiction".

In his last tour to Australia, the publicity resulting from the presence of Deedat caused Franca Arena, member of the Legislative Council of the government of New South Wales to comment in her speech concerning racism:

External sources

A List of Deedat's online books

Islamic Propagation Center International

High quality video collection of Sheikh Ahmed Deedat's debates and lectures in Windows Media-format

Full set of Ahmad Deedat DVDs

Video collection of Sheikh Ahmed Deedat's debates and lectures in RealMedia-format

See also

Dawah

Islamic view of Jesus' death

Swoon hypothesis

Yusuf Estes

Zakir Naik

Correct Islamic Faith International Association

References

Category:Muslim scholars Category:Indian Muslims Category:South African Muslims Category:South African people of Indian descent Category:1918 births Category:2005 deaths Category:Muslim apologists