REVELATION & ENLIGHTENMENT

General revelation

Special revelation

The belief that God can be known by anybody who is prepared to accept the idea that through creation,

Special revelation takes place in a specific event or experience and is shown to one person or small group of people

Visions

e.g. nature, God shows his true nature

prayer & worship

dreams

silent prayer=being still in the presence of God, being totally open to what God has to offer

meditation=has a lot in common with silent prayer. Tries to empty their mind to focus on God

communal prayer=a group of believers come together to share prayer, often using set format

liturgical prayer=prayer that follows a set format, usually done in formal setting

repetition of a phrase (mantra)=very common practice. Sikhs use the Ik Onkar, Jews use the Shema, Orthodox Christians use the Jesus prayer

prayer through a physical position=many believers take a special position when they pray. This is especially true of Muslims who go through a whole series of movements during the salat

prayer=communicating with God through words of praise, thanksgiving or confession, or requests for help or guidance

worship=acts of religious praise, honour or devotion

views on prayer

advantages

disadvantages

allows you to devote time to get a closer relationship with God

statement of faith

it can be time consuming

only person who benefits from prayer is the person performing the action as it is private and can't be shared

views on worship

advantages

disadvantages

allows you to become closer to God

worship can be a very private thing even in a public place

worship is to help people accept the role of God in their lives

awareness of God cannot be shared

the relationship and experiences are unique and private meaning they can't be passed onto others

People worship to show their respect for God. Going to a temple helps communication for sacrifices. It shows time and effort put into worship. In the Guru Granth Sahib believers are encouraged to take care of a shrine in the home. For Muslims to show commitment to Allah they should go to the mosque on Friday. Jews must visit the synagogue on the Shabbat

ways to worship: going to a temple to offer a sacrifice, taking care of a shrine in the home, going to mosque on Fridays or taking part in Salat (prayer) 5 times a day, attending the synagogue on Shabbat, going to church/running a Sunday School

Enlightenment

prayer and worship

prayer is an opening up of the heart and mind to God

Sacred Texts

Bible (Christianity)

Torah (Judaism)

Qur'an (Islam)

Buddha (Buddhism)

The Holy Vedas (Hinduism)

Guru Granth Sahib (Sikhism)

direct word of Allah, revealed through the Angel Jibril to Muhammad

Muslims believe it is the direct word of God, the Qur'an has great value to Muslims

Seen as word of God

developed directly from God or by writers inspired by God

The gospels contain the action and teachings of Jesus

The Bible records the relationship between people and God

Recognised as the best-selling book of all time, there have been sales over 5 billion

includes the law that was passed down to Moses from God on Mt Sinai

The Torah consists of the first 5 books of the Tanakh (the Tanakh is the Hebrew Bible so the first 5 books are the same as those in the Bible; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy

Enlightenment is the goal of all Buddhists. It refers to the gaining of true knowledge or spiritual insight. By recognising that everything in this life is transitory (momentary or fleeting) the person sees what the truth about life really is, and as a result escapes the cycle or Rebirth and reaches nirvana. Enlightenment allows the person to see the ultimate reality that lies beyond all things

teachings were collected and formed together into the Tripitaka and the Sutras

These texts are Buddha's teachings but with no divine involvement hold less significance to Buddhists than some of the other texts mean to other religions

e.g. the enlightenment of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha)

e.g. the enlightenment of Guru Nanak

The Triptika is the earliest collection of Buddhist teachings

The Vedas are the main book of Hinduism

Sat beneath papal tree and vowed he would not get up until he had found the truth

They were written before 1200BC making them, what is likely only when they worried that the meaning was being changed as the messages were passed down to be, the oldest Religious texts

They were the result of visions by priestly seers and were written down

the teaching of the 10 Gurus commited to paper

He meditated for 49 days getting deeper into his thoughts, seeking spiritual insight

The physical book is shown the same respect as if it was itself a human Guru

eventually he achieved complete and unshaken enlightenment

after that he was known as the Buddha which means 'the one who is fully awake' or enlightened

he attained Enlightenment while staying in Suttanpur

he went for the customary dip with a friend in the river, absorbed in thoughts of God

Theists believe it also allows God to reveal himself to the person praying

lord Examples of prayer: Mary's prayer when she was to carry Jesus otherwise known as 'The Magnificat', The Lords prayer, The Jesus prayer "Lord Jesus Chrisr, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner"

He dissapeared

He reappeared 3 days later, glowing with an unusual radiance.,

When Theists praise God they are trying to express their gratitude to him for his gifts to them. They believe He is a great and holy being and they are full of awe and wonder at his goodness to them

He said that he had been ushered into Divine Presence and blessed by the almighty and told to go and preach the holy name of God

The Jesus prayer is a prayer of confession

revelation=God shows himself to believers; this is the only way anybody can really know anything about

Pharaoh's dream

God designs the purposes of nature and also shows beauty through nature

Non believers would not see God and his beauty through nature as they would think of science

God only shows himself to those who believe in him, not the non-believers. He is still loving to non-believers but he would not reveal himself to them

Interpreting sacred texts

Fundamentalist

pharaoh had a dream that he said could not be interpreted and Joseph said that God would give him the answer

Liberal

The Sacred Text is the word of God. It is without error and we should accept everything it says, and live our lives according to it

Atheist

Needs to be applied to todays context and read in its context. some of it is good but some is just myth, but it still communicates God's message

  1. pharaoh was standing on the river bank

Since there is no God, these books don't contain any kind of message from God at all but sometimes they contain good moral teachings

  1. there were seven fat and sleek cows who grazed in the reeds and seven scrawny and ugly cows
  1. the ugly cows ate the fat cows and stayed skinny and ugly after eating the fat cows
  1. seven heads of full and good grain were growing one stalk while seven thin and scorched others sprouted. The thin heads of grain ate the full heads of grain

for

We can't pick and choose the rules and morals that suit us

God wrote the sacred text and therefore there aren't any mistakes

for

God wrote it so it is just as true now as it was 1,000s of years ago

no room for grey areas, the text means what it says

magician couldn't answer

God showed him what would happen

Egypt 7 yrs famine

firmly decided by God

we should view the text in a way that is appropriate for our society

lots of modern things (e.g. genetic engineering) arnt in the bible, so we should interpret them to be applied to the modern world

If god is loving then he would want us to interpret the sacred texts in the kindest way, which means rejecting harsher teachings

Bernadette's vision

Peter's vision

  1. a young girl called Bernadette was asked by her mother to go to the icy river and collect wood, she was accompanied by two younger children
  1. when they got to the river the younger children crossed and Bernadette dawdled, taking off her stockings to cross the river
  1. Bernadette heard a sound like a rush of wind and saw a golden cloud appear near a cave with a beautiful young women in it
  1. the lady sat on a rock and smiled at Bernadette. She was wearing a white robe and a white veil. The lady walked up to Bernadette and knelt in reverence

Peter went to pray on the roof

  1. Bernadette was religious so she took her rosary from her pocket to say her prayer, as she often did when she was scared.

he was hungry and fell into a trance

  1. the lady got a rosary too and passed white beads between her fingers while they both repeated the word Gloria

He saw heaven open and a sheet with animals.

a voice told him to eat

  1. the lady and the cloud disappeared and Bernadette remained kneeling

He said no because the animals where seen as unclean

  1. the younger girls found her and thought she was praying to get out of doing chores and they scolded her.
  1. She told them excitedly what happened but told them not to tell anyone else but one girl did and soon the news was spread everywhere

the voice said "do not call anything impure that has made clean

  1. the lady in the white robe appeared another 17 times