Taxonomy of Faiths: A semantic journey

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Taxonomy of Faiths: A semantic journey**

by Dr. Mohamed Taher

Sample maps

      • The Practical and Ritual Dimension
      • The Experiential and Emotional Dimension
      • The Narrative or Mythic Dimension
      • The Doctrinal and Philosophical Dimension
      • The Ethical and Legal Dimension
      • The Social and Institutional Dimension
      • The Material Dimension

[source: The World's Religions: Seven Dimensions of Religions, Extract by Ninian Smart, University of California, www.uwec.edu/greider/WorldReligions/world2k.Ninian.Smart.htm]

Abraham and his Sons

Basic Beliefs of Christians and Muslims

side by side

Belief in

God

What Christians Believe

God is three gods merged into one God. This one God is called a Trinity. However, to say that God is three is a blasphemy of the highest order. All three parts of the Trinity are "coequal" "co-eternal" and "the same substance." For this reason, this doctrine is described as "a mystery."

What Muslims Believe

God is one God in the most basic, simple, and elementary meaning of the word. He has no children, no parents nor any equal. In Islam God is known by the name "Allah" and more than 99 other venerated names, such as "the Merciful," "the Gracious

http://www.islam101.com/religions/christianity/christ_islam.html

1. Instrumental ("I want..."): petitionary prayers to obtain goods and services for individual and social needs.

2. Regulatory ("Do as I tell you..."): prayers to control the activity of God, to command God to order people and things about on behalf of the one praying.(15)

3. Interactional ("me and you..."): prayer to maintain emotional ties with God; prayer of simple presence.

4. Self-focused ("Here I come. . .; here I am..."): prayers that identify the self -- individual and social -- to God; prayers of contrition and humility, as well as boasting and superiority.

5. Heuristic ("Tell me why...?"): prayer that explores the world of God and God's workings within us individually and collectively; meditative prayers, perceptions of the spirit in prayer.

6. Imaginative ("Let's pretend..."): prayer to create an environment of one's own with God; prayers in tongues and those recited in languages unknown to the pray-er.

7. Informative ("I have something to tell you"): prayers that communicate new information: prayers of acknowledgment, praise and thanksgiving.(16)

Prayer, In Other Words:: New Testament Prayers in Social-Science Perspective, Jerome H. Neyrey

University of Notre Dame,

http://web.archive.org/web/20030925015925/http://www.crossandflame.com/abraham.htm

Figure 1.

A Map of the World's Religions

1. Personal God

2. Singularist

3. Universalist

4. Personal Soul

5. Eternal Life

1. Not God

2. Pluralist

3. Particularist

4. No Soul

5. Nibbana

Occidental Religions

Kitab - The Book (OT)

Oriental Religions

Teachings of the Buddha

Judaism

Christianity

Islam

Hindu-

ism

Pure

Amalgamated

Protestant

Orothodox

Sunni

Shia

North

Tantric

Lamaism

South

Hinayana

Theravada

East

Mahayana

Chinese

Daoism

Confucian-

ism

Buddhism

Japanese

Shintoism

Confucian-

ism

Buddhism

Catholic

http://www.crosscurrents.org/galtung.htm

Bibliography:

The German Islamic scholar Anne-Marie Shimmel has discussed the dialogical power of mystical experiences. She has noticed that those who have a deep and intense commitment to their religion are often open minded about the conviction of others. Such experiences are not universally common. This open-mindedness corresponds to existential communication in Jaspers' terms. In the development of stages of faith in Fowler's taxonomy, it is the sixth -universal / mystical -way to understand religions and cultures [p.91][see the full version of this taxonomy of faith: Stages of Faith : The Psychology of Human Development, J. W. Fowler (1995)]

**A taxonomy is a controlled vocabulary of terms and or phrases. more...

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last updated 09/19/2006