World religions. How many religions are there in the world? Characteristics of religion briefly

In the article we will examine the question of what religion is, define this concept, learn its history, and also briefly describe the known religions of the world.

Religion is a type of human consciousness that believes that the world is ruled by some kind of supernatural force. And this power is sacred, it is worshiped.

The main thing in any religion is belief in God. Since ancient times, people have been in great need of faith, salvation and consolation. And they put forward a hypothesis that there is some inexplicable force that helps, guides, does something contrary to the laws of the Earth. And this power is God. This is the high beginning of the world, the laws of morality.

Forms, characteristics, structure and types of religions

There are a lot of religions in the world, more than a hundred. Their origins began several thousand years ago.

It all started with simple types and forms of beliefs. Archaeological excavations confirm that ancient tribes worshiped someone, they had rituals and sacraments. They had gods.

Main forms of religions:

1. Recognition of totems - sacred objects, animals, plants.
2. Magic - a person with supernatural abilities could somehow influence people's events.
3. Choosing a talisman that could bring good luck and protect from accidents.
4. Belief in shamans, people who are endowed with sacred power.
5. A form of religion in which all objects and plants have a soul, they are alive.

To understand religions, it is necessary to identify its structure. This includes religious consciousness, activities, and organizations.

Organizations are a system that unites all people belonging to a particular religion. An example of religious activity is wearing crosses, lighting candles, and bowing.

Each religion has its own characteristics that distinguish it from others. Without these signs, it would have been destroyed, transforming into the occult and shamanism.

First of all, this is the primary source of the ideal to which we must strive – this is God. Apart from this, people believe in various spirits. They can be both good and evil, they help, you can communicate with them.

Another sign is that man is a higher, spiritual being. He must take care of his inner soul first of all. All religions believe that the soul lives forever and can exist even after death. Through faith you can be spiritually isolated with God.

Religion is first and foremost a moral character. There are rules for how a person should behave, what values ​​he should pursue in life, and how to take care of his soul. The material world is insignificant, but the spiritual world is the most important.

Another main feature is that it is a cult with its own rules and regulations. These are certain actions that are performed to express the worship of a particular religion.

List and brief history of the world's major religions

There are three famous world religions. These are Christianity, Islam and Buddhism.

Christianity first appeared in the Roman Empire in the first century. From there came all the writings about the life of Jesus, who at a young age was crucified on the cross so that all the sins of people would be forgiven.

After this, he was resurrected and incarnated as the son of God, a supernatural force.

The Holy Scripture, which preserves the teachings of Christianity, is called the Bible. Consists of two collections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. People who believe in Christianity go to church, pray, fast, celebrate holidays, and perform various sacraments.

Types of Christianity: Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism.

Orthodoxy strictly follows the faith and recognizes all 7 sacraments: baptism, communion, confirmation, priesthood, repentance, wedding and unction. Catholicism is somewhat similar.

Protestantism does not recognize the Pope as its head, considers faith to be independent, and is against church policy.

Islam is the religion of Muslims. It appeared among Arab tribes at the beginning of the 7th century. It was founded by the prophet Muhammad. He was a hermit, a loner, and often thought and philosophized about morality and piety.

According to legend, on his fortieth birthday, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to him and left an inscription on his heart. God in Islam is called Allah. The religion is very different from Christianity.

Buddhism originated in the 6th century BC. This is the most ancient religion. The origins come from India, then it began to spread to China and the Far East.

The main founder is Buddha Gautama. At first he was an ordinary person. His parents once had a dream that their child would be a great man, a mentor. He was always very lonely, prone to thoughts, only religion and philosophy were important to him.

In Buddhism there is no specific God that everyone worships. Buddha is just an ideal of what one should become. Bright, pure, kind, highly moral. The goal of religion is to achieve a blissful state, achieve insight, free yourself from shackles, find yourself, find peace and tranquility.

In addition to the main three religions, there are others. This is very ancient Judaism.

It is based on the Ten Commandments that God prophesied to Moses.

This is also Taoism, which has teachings that all things appear from nowhere and go to nowhere, the main thing is harmony with nature.

It was founded by a philosopher who lived in the 4th century.

Other known religions are Confucianism, Jainism, and Sikhism.

Conclusion

Everyone chooses for themselves which religion they will worship. Different religions have one goal: increasing the spiritual morality of people.

Religion is a certain worldview that seeks to understand the higher mind, which is the root cause of everything that exists. Any belief reveals to a person the meaning of life, his purpose in the world, which helps him find a goal, and not an impersonal animal existence. There have always been and will be many different worldviews. Thanks to the eternal human search for the root cause, the religions of the world were formed, the list of which is classified according to two main criteria:

How many religions are there in the world?

The main world religions are Islam and Buddhism, each of which is divided into numerous large and small branches and sects. It is difficult to say how many religions, beliefs and convictions there are in the world, due to the regular creation of new groups, but according to some information, there are thousands of religious movements at the present stage.

World religions are called so because they have gone far beyond the borders of the nation, country, and have spread to a huge number of nationalities. Those who are not worldly confess within a smaller number of people. The monotheistic view is based on the belief in one God, while the pagan view assumes the existence of several deities.

The world's largest religion, which arose 2,000 years ago in Palestine. It has about 2.3 billion believers. In the 11th century there was a division into Catholicism and Orthodoxy, and in the 16th century Protestantism also separated from Catholicism. These are three large branches, there are more than a thousand other small ones.

The basic essence of Christianity and its distinctive features from other religions are as follows:

Orthodox Christianity has adhered to a tradition of faith since apostolic times. Its foundations were formulated by the Ecumenical Councils and dogmatically enshrined in the Creed. The teaching is based on Holy Scripture (mainly the New Testament) and Holy Tradition. Divine services are performed in four circles, depending on the main holiday - Easter:

• Daily.
• Sedmichny.
• Mobile annual.
• Fixed annual.

In Orthodoxy there are seven main Sacraments:

• Baptism.
• Confirmation.
• Eucharist (Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ).
• Confession.
• Unction.
• Wedding.
• Priesthood.

In the Orthodox understanding, God is one in three persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Ruler of the world is interpreted not as an angry avenger for the misdeeds of people, but as a Loving Heavenly Father, caring for his creation and bestowing the grace of the Holy Spirit in the Sacraments.

Man is recognized as the image and likeness of God, with free will, but fallen into the abyss of sin. The Lord helps those who want to restore their former holiness and get rid of passions on this path.

Catholic teaching is a major movement in Christianity, widespread mainly in Europe, Latin America and the USA. This doctrine has much in common with Orthodoxy in its understanding of God and the relationship between the Lord and man, but there are fundamental and important differences:

• the infallibility of the head of the church, the Pope;
• The Holy Tradition is formed from 21 Ecumenical Councils (the first 7 are recognized in Orthodoxy);
• the distinction between the clergy and the laity: people in the rank are endowed with Divine Grace, they are assigned the role of shepherds, and the laity - the herd;
• the doctrine of indulgences as a treasury of good deeds performed by Christ and the Saints, and the Pope, as the vicar of the Savior on earth, distributes forgiveness of sins to whomever wants and who needs it;
• adding your understanding to the dogma of the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son;
• introducing dogmas about the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary and Her bodily ascension;
• the doctrine of purgatory as the average state of the human soul, cleansed of sins as a result of difficult trials.

There are also differences in the understanding and performance of some Sacraments:

It arose as a result of the Reformation in Germany and spread throughout Western Europe as a protest and desire to transform the Christian Church, getting rid of medieval ideas.

Protestants agree with Christian ideas about God as the Creator of the world, about human sinfulness, about the eternity of the soul and salvation. They share the understanding of hell and heaven, while rejecting Catholic purgatory.

Distinctive features of Protestantism from Catholicism and Orthodoxy:

• minimizing church sacraments - until Baptism and Communion;
• there is no division between clergy and laity, every well-prepared person in matters of Holy Scripture can be a priest for himself and for others;
• the service is held in the native language and is based on joint prayer, reading psalms, and sermons;
• there is no veneration of saints, icons, relics;
• monasticism and the hierarchical structure of the church are not recognized;
• salvation is understood only by faith, and good works will not help to justify oneself before God;
• recognition of the exclusive authority of the Bible, and each believer interprets the words of Scripture at his own discretion, the criterion being the point of view of the founder of the church organization.

The main directions of Protestantism: Quakers, Methodists, Mennonites, Baptists, Adventists, Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons.

The world's youngest monotheistic religion. The number of believers is about 1.5 billion people. The founder is the prophet Muhammad. Holy book - Koran. For Muslims, the main thing is to live according to the prescribed rules:

• pray five times a day;
• observe the fast of Ramadan;
• give alms 2.5% per year of income;
• make a pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj).

Some researchers add a sixth duty of Muslims - jihad, which manifests itself in the struggle for faith, zeal, and diligence. There are five types of jihad:

• internal self-improvement on the path to God;
• armed struggle against non-believers;
• struggle with your passions;
• separation of good and evil;
• taking action against criminals.

Currently, extremist groups use jihad of the sword as an ideology to justify their murderous activities.

A world pagan religion that denies the existence of the Divine. Founded in India by Prince Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha). Briefly summarized by the teaching of the Four Noble Truths:

1. All human life is suffering.
2. Desire is the cause of suffering.
3. To overcome suffering, you need to get rid of desire with the help of a specific state - nirvana.
4. To free yourself from desire, you need to follow eight basic rules.

According to the teachings of the Buddha, acquiring a calm state and intuition and clearing the mind will help:

• a correct understanding of the world as a lot of suffering and sorrow;
• acquiring a firm intention to curtail your wishes and aspirations;
• control of speech, which should be friendly;
• performing virtuous actions;
• trying not to harm living beings;
• expulsion of evil thoughts and a positive attitude;
• the realization that human flesh is evil;
• perseverance and patience in achieving the goal.

The main branches of Buddhism are Hinayana and Mahayana. Along with it, there are other religions in India, widespread to varying degrees: Hinduism, Vedism, Brahmanism, Jainism, Shaivism.

What is the oldest religion in the world?

The ancient world was characterized by polytheism (polytheism). For example, Sumerian, ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman religions, Druidism, Asatru, Zoroastrianism.

One of the ancient monotheistic beliefs is Judaism - the national religion of the Jews, based on the 10 commandments given to Moses. The main book is the Old Testament.

Judaism has several branches:

• Litvaks;
• Hasidism;
• Zionism;
• orthodox modernism.

There are also different types of Judaism: Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Humanistic and Renovationist.

Today it is difficult to give a definite answer to the question “What is the oldest religion in the world?”, since archaeologists regularly find new data to confirm the emergence of different worldviews. We can say that beliefs in the supernatural have been inherent in humanity at all times.

The huge diversity of worldviews and philosophical beliefs since the emergence of mankind does not make it possible to list all the religions of the world, the list of which is regularly updated with both new movements and branches from already existing world and other beliefs.

Found a great article on Wikipedia. It collects quantitative data on religious affiliation. Atheists and agnostics are also taken into account (in some tables they are combined as non-believers). There are 18 groups and three sources in total.

The largest (by number of followers) religion in the world is Christianity; Throughout the 20th century, the share of Christians in the total population of the Earth practically did not change, remaining equal to 33-34%. The second world religion is Islam (23% of the world's population). The number of non-believers and atheists is highly controversial and is estimated by various studies at 11-16% of the planet's population. A significant proportion of the world's population are Hindus (14-15%), Buddhists (7%) and supporters of traditional beliefs.

The category of non-religious people includes very different groups of beliefs. A number of studies distinguish two groups in this category - actually non-religious people and atheists. Atheists include people who are convinced of the absence of any deity, as well as skeptics, supporters of irreligion and militant atheists. Non-religious people include agnostics, supporters of freethinking, people who are not interested in religion or have no religious preferences.

Over half of all non-religious people in the world live in one country - China (413 million agnostics and 98 million atheists). A significant number of non-religious people are concentrated in other Asian countries (100 million agnostics and 19 million atheists). That. Asia is home to 80% of all agnostics and 85% of all convinced atheists on Earth. There are significant numbers of non-believers and atheists in Europe (98 million and 18 million) and North America (41 million and 2 million). Non-religious people make up a significant proportion of the population of Oceania, where 3.8 million agnostics and 365 thousand atheists live. There are 15 million agnostics and 2.5 million convinced atheists in Latin America. The number of non-religious people in Africa is relatively small (5.5 million non-believers and 0.5 million atheists).

Followers of religions in 2010:

Distribution of religions by number of countries:

Population dynamics in the 20th century:

Share of Christians in different countries of the world:

Share of Muslims in different countries of the world:

Proportion of Hindus in different countries of the world:

Share of Buddhists in different countries of the world.

As well as their classifications. In religious studies, it is common to distinguish the following types: tribal, national and world religions.

Buddhism

- the most ancient world religion. It originated in the 6th century. BC e. in India, and is currently widespread in the countries of South, Southeast, Central Asia and the Far East and has about 800 million followers. Tradition connects the emergence of Buddhism with the name of Prince Siddhartha Gautama. The father hid the bad things from Gautama, he lived in luxury, married his beloved girl, who bore him a son. The impetus for the spiritual upheaval for the prince, as legend says, was four meetings. First he saw a decrepit old man, then one suffering from leprosy and a funeral procession. So Gautama learned that old age, illness and death are the lot of all people. Then he saw a peaceful beggar wanderer who needed nothing from life. All this shocked the prince and made him think about the fate of people. He secretly left the palace and family, at the age of 29 he became a hermit and tried to find. As a result of deep reflection, at the age of 35 he became Buddha - enlightened, awakened. For 45 years, Buddha preached his teaching, which can be briefly summarized in the following basic ideas.

Life is suffering, the cause of which is the desires and passions of people. To get rid of suffering, you need to renounce earthly passions and desires. This can be achieved by following the path of salvation indicated by the Buddha.

After death, any living creature, including humans, is reborn again, but already in the form of a new living being, whose life is determined not only by its own behavior, but also by the behavior of its “predecessors”.

We must strive for nirvana, i.e. dispassion and peace, which are achieved by renouncing earthly attachments.

Unlike Christianity and Islam Buddhism lacks the idea of ​​God as the creator of the world and its ruler. The essence of the teachings of Buddhism comes down to a call for every person to take the path of seeking inner freedom, complete liberation from all the shackles that life brings.

Christianity

Originated in the 1st century. n. e. in the eastern part of the Roman Empire - Palestine - as addressed to all the humiliated, thirsting for justice. It is based on the idea of ​​messianism - hope in the Divine deliverer of the world from everything bad that exists on Earth. Jesus Christ suffered for the sins of people, whose name in Greek means “Messiah”, “Savior”. With this name, Jesus is associated with the Old Testament legends about the coming to the land of Israel of a prophet, a messiah, who would free the people from suffering and establish a righteous life - the kingdom of God. Christians believe that God's coming to Earth will be accompanied by the Last Judgment, when He will judge the living and the dead and send them to heaven or hell.

Basic Christian ideas:

• The belief that God is one, but He is a Trinity, i.e. God has three “persons”: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which form one God who created the Universe.
• Faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity, God the Son is Jesus Christ. He has two natures at the same time: Divine and human.
• Belief in Divine grace is a mysterious power sent by God to free a person from sin.
• Belief in posthumous reward and afterlife.
• Belief in the existence of good spirits - angels and evil spirits - demons, along with their ruler Satan.

The holy book of Christians is Bible, which means “book” in Greek. The Bible consists of two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the oldest part of the Bible. The New Testament (actually Christian works) includes: the four gospels (Luke, Mark, John and Matthew); the acts of the holy apostles; Epistles and Revelation of John the Theologian.

In the 4th century. n. e. Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. Christianity is not united. It split into three currents. In 1054, Christianity split into the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. In the 16th century The Reformation, an anti-Catholic movement, began in Europe. The result was Protestantism.

And they admit seven Christian sacraments: baptism, confirmation, repentance, communion, marriage, priesthood and consecration of oil. The source of doctrine is the Bible. The differences are mainly as follows. In Orthodoxy there is no single head, there is no idea of ​​purgatory as a place of temporary placement of the souls of the dead, the priesthood does not take a vow of celibacy, as in Catholicism. The head of the Catholic Church is the Pope, elected for life; the center of the Roman Catholic Church is the Vatican - a state that occupies several blocks in Rome.

It has three main currents: Anglicanism, Calvinism And Lutheranism. Protestants consider the condition for the salvation of a Christian not the formal observance of rituals, but his sincere personal faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Their teaching proclaims the principle of universal priesthood, which means that every layman can preach. Almost all Protestant denominations have reduced the number of sacraments to a minimum.

Islam

Originated in the 7th century. n. e. among the Arab tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. This is the youngest of the world. There are followers of Islam more than 1 billion people.

The founder of Islam is a historical figure. He was born in 570 in Mecca, which for that time was a fairly large city at the intersection of trade routes. In Mecca there was a shrine revered by the majority of pagan Arabs - the Kaaba. Muhammad's mother died when he was six years old, and his father died before his son was born. Muhammad was brought up in his grandfather's family, a noble but impoverished family. At the age of 25, he became the manager of the household of the wealthy widow Khadija and soon married her. At the age of 40, Muhammad acted as a religious preacher. He declared that God (Allah) had chosen him as his prophet. The ruling elite of Mecca did not like the sermon, and by 622 Muhammad had to move to the city of Yathrib, later renamed Medina. The year 622 is considered the beginning of the Muslim calendar according to the lunar calendar, and Mecca is the center of the Muslim religion.

The Muslim Holy Book is a processed record of Muhammad's sermons. During Muhammad's lifetime, his statements were perceived as direct speech from Allah and were transmitted orally. Several decades after the death of Muhammad, they were written down and would compile the Koran.

Plays an important role in the religion of Muslims Sunnah - a collection of edifying stories about the life of Muhammad and Sharia - a set of principles and rules of conduct obligatory for Muslims. The most serious ipexa.Mii among Muslims are usury, drunkenness, gambling and adultery.

The place of worship of Muslims is called a mosque. Islam prohibits the depiction of humans and living animals; hollow mosques are decorated only with ornaments. In Islam there is no clear division between clergy and laity. Any Muslim who knows the Koran, Muslim laws and rules of worship can become a mullah (priest).

Great importance is attached to ritual in Islam. You may not know the intricacies of faith, but you should strictly perform the main rituals, the so-called five pillars of Islam:

• pronouncing the formula of confession of faith: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet”;
• performing daily five times prayer (namaz);
• fasting during the month of Ramadan;
• giving alms to the poor;
• making a pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj).