What are Revealed Religions?
Distinguishing Characteristics, Beliefs and Practices
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Also commonly described as Law-giving Religions, the Revealed Religions are those which find their symbolic center in some set of revelations handed down by a god or gods. These revelations are normally contained in the religion's holy scriptures which, in turn, have been transmitted to the rest of us by specially revered prophets of the god or gods.
Scriptures, however, are not the only form of revelation which can be given to humanity by God. Another common form of revelation can include miracles which, by their very nature, communicate the will or desires of God. Because of this, it is important to understand that the line between revealed religions and nature religions is not always clear - it would not be odd for believers to consider nature itself to be a type of revelation to humanity from God.
Revealed religions are generally dependent upon the idea of an active god or gods - giving revelations to humanity involves becoming active in their lives and their destines. Such activity, once again, tends to take the form of miracles either performed directly by a god or through a god's prophet or representative.
Revealed religions typically have a hierarchical structure, both in the leadership and in the relationships among members. Because the focus is on divine revelations, some members are appointed as intermediaries between humans and the divine; these intermediaries serve either as conduits for continuing divine revelations or as authoritative interpreters of past revelations. Because of the generally structured nature of communal worship, revealed religions also typically build permanent edifices to serve as sacred spaces and focal points of religious services.
In revealed religions, the primary duty of humans tends to be devotion and obedience to God. After all, revelations from God are not made for no good reason: rather, it is done in order to communicate to humans the things they should believe, the things they should do, and God's intentions for the world. Sometimes these directives may be vague and sometimes excruciatingly specific. What they all share, however, is the requirement to be obeyed.
The issue of moral commands has long been a point of disagreement between adherents of revealed religions and those of nature religions. Throughout history, but especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, adherents of the latter have harshly criticized revealed religions for their stringent and unyielding codes of conduct which, according to them, have led to all manner of mischief and violence.
Adherents of revealed religions respond, however, by arguing that only divine revelations can provide authoritative and reliable direction for humans based upon what the god or gods want of us. Any gods worthy of the name must be capable of revelation and it would be implausible to conclude that revelation would not be desired. Therefore, it is argued, it would be wrong to dismiss revelations as being possible or likely and even more foolish to disregard the apparent revelations before us.
Major revealed religions in the world today include Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Sikhism. All of these religious traditions rely heavily upon particular collections of sacred scriptures regarded as authoritative revelations of a divine source. Hinduism has at times been described as a revealed religion because of the prominent place of the Vedas, but this seems to be an error. Hinduism has been described by adherents as being more of an "evolved religion" and justifiably point out that "Veda" simply means "knowledge discerned by Vedic seers."
Glossary: Religion & Philosophy
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