In major cities and small towns of Canada, the presence of a wide variety of peoples, religions, and cultures presents opportunities and challenges. One advantage of the diversity of religions is the chance to learn about their beliefs and practices. Toward this purpose, we need to listen and learn respectfully, lest we inadvertently bear false witness against our neighbours by distorting who they are. For this article, I asked three colleagues to put in their own words answers to these questions: “Who or what is God or the divine in your religion? In what ways is divine presence in daily life understood in your religion?”
Judaism‘s foundational story tells of the covenant between Yahweh, recognized as the only God, and the descendents of Abraham in land of ancient Israel, beginning around 1200 B.C.E. After the Roman Empire destroyed the temple by in 70 C.E., Jews have lived in diaspora communities, practicing their faith in synagogues, family rituals and the study of Torah under learned rabbis. Today, some 15 million Jews live primarily in North America, Europe and modern Israel.
Rabbi Dr. Robert Daum is Director of the Iona Pacific Inter-Religious Centre at Vancouver School of Theology. He is Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature and Jewish Thought and coordinates the Centre’s programs in social action, research, and contemplative practice. He writes:
While belief in God is shared by many Jews, precisely what this belief entails is radically divergent. Some members of Jewish communities adhere to a range of theistic approaches while others are not at all theistic. This diversity and inconsistency can be traced both to the enormous variety of cultures in which Jews have lived and also to a divergent heritage of biblical images, prayers, philosophical treatises, mystical texts, legal discussions and so on. There exist vast differences between notions of God as transcendent and immanent, compassionate and commanding, healing and protecting, source of life and true judge, feminine presence and sovereign of the universe.
Nevertheless, there is probably no more widely shared notion among Jews who do believe in God than a sense that God is one. On a daily basis many Jews invoke God’s presence, affirm God’s justice, and praise God’s goodness. These are elements in a spiritual practice inextricably bound up with concrete acts: breathing, washing one’s hands, taking in nourishment, visiting the mourner, honouring the elder, teaching the young, healing the unwell, welcoming the stranger, redeeming the captive, feeding the hungry, advocating for justice, redeeming the Land, and sustaining the eco-system.
Buddhism traces its founding 2500 years ago in the enlightenment and subsequent teachings of an Indian ascetic, Siddhartha Gotama, who became the Buddha (“enlightened one”). Emphasizing monastic and popular religious practices as well as philosophical and political teachings, Buddhism has been a varied and lively movement that spread throughout Asia in the centuries after its founding. Today it numbers some 375 million adherents in Asia and the West.
Kakushi Kate McCandless has been practicing Zen Buddhism in the Japanese Soto tradition since 1983. She and her husband received priest ordination in 2003 and they are resident priests of Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver. In response to my questions, Kate wrote:
It is a common assumption in the West that Buddhism is atheistic. I prefer the word non-theistic to describe Zen Buddhism, which does not have a supreme being as an object of worship, but rather emphasizes direct experience of the boundless and interconnected nature of Being. The historical Buddha was very pragmatic, concerned with teaching how to alleviate human suffering rather than metaphysics.
However, Buddhism is culturally and doctrinally extremely diverse. Some sects revere a buddha of the cosmic principle, while others worship a salvational figure. Buddhism has also absorbed pre-Buddhist deities from Asian traditions. While a more intellectual understanding views these not as deities but as archetypal energies within us, in popular or folk traditions they are beloved, feared, and worshipped. Western Buddhists vary in the degree they adopt the cultural and religious elements of Buddhist traditions.
For me, experience of the divine or ultimate reality in daily life is best described in poetry. The Japanese haiku is the quintessential form that expresses the union of subject and object, human and universe, in one crystal-clear moment. In the words of Zen Master Hakuin, “This very land is the pure lotus land, this very body the Buddha.
Islam originated in the life of the Prophet Muhammad in the early 7th century C.E. in the Arabian Peninsula. The Muslim community, centered in and living out the Prophet’s teachings in the Quran, spread in a wide variety of forms and practices, from learned legal scholarship to mysticism, throughout the Middle East and Asia and now represents about 1.2 billion followers. The faith emphasizes practices like confession, prayer, fasting, alms and pilgrimage.
Itrath Syed is a Muslim PhD student at the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University and an instructor in the women’s studies department at Langara College. Last summer, she taught “Contemporary Debates in Muslim Women’s Feminisms” at VST. She responded:
The core belief of Islam is “There is no God, but God. And Muhammad is the messenger of God”. This belief is non-negotiable and is what makes Islam a decidedly monotheistic faith. The Arabic word for God is Allah, which is simply the Arabic word for the Divine. The belief in the Oneness of God also means a belief in the Oneness of creation. Every single thing in the universe has been created by the One God.
Muslims believe that Allah has chosen to reveal the Divine nature to us through many signs that the Quran points us towards. Within the Quran are also the 99 Beautiful Names of Allah. These names, or attributes, help us to learn what we ultimately can never fully know.
Allah tells us in the Quran that he is closer to us than our “jugular vein” and that we should take Allah as our “protecting friend” and that Allah alone “is sufficient for us”. Within the Islamic tradition, the believer and the Creator must have a direct and unmediated relationship. There is no human that can constitute or sever the connection between the human heart and the Merciful, one of the 99 names of Allah.
Other world religions express similarly diverse and lively ideas about the divine, all of which are a part of the richness of the human tapestry of faith.
Study Questions:
- The respondents for this article were asked two “theme” questions, “Who or what is God or the divine in your religion? In what ways is divine presence in daily life understood in your religion?” What would your answers be to these questions? Who is God for you? How do your experience God in daily life? If possible compare your answers to those of several others in your study group or church.
- Compare your answers to how the respondents answered theme question about who is God. What differences do you notice about how you express your ideas about God and how the religions reviewed here express their ideas about God or the divine?
- The respondents also mentioned ways in which the divine is experienced in daily life. What similarities and differences do you notice between your answer to this question and the answers of the respondents?
- All of the world religions that were introduced in this article show a wide range of beliefs, practices, theology and ways of life among the followers of that religion. Think about the diversity of Christianity, how many different practices, denominations, ways of expressing belief there are. Is the diversity within each religion a positive or a negative quality in your view?
- In the article, the various faiths report a wide range of activities through which their followers experience the divine and live out their faith. Try to list as many of these as possible for each religion in the article. How do the activities and practices of Christianity compare to these practices?
