Aren't All Religions "Traditional"?

When scholars of religion talk about "traditional" religions, they generally have in view religious beliefs and practices that originated with indigenous peoples in pre-literate cultures. It may eventually be the case that the "traditions" that provide the name for these types of religions are written down, yet these religions continue to emphasize the handing on of myths (stories that communicate beliefs) and rituals (that express beliefs in actions and practices of life).

The mention of "myths" requires a bit of clarification because of the particular way it is used by religion scholars. The common use of "myth" in contemporary American English is with regard to a story that is obviously untrue. In religious studies, however, myths are the most true stories because they make sense of the way life and creation are understood within a particular worldview. The stories may not be "literally" true in the sense of describing objectively verifiable and datable events (although adherents of the religion may differ even among themselves on this point), but they provide the truths about reality against which other truth claims are ultimately tested. Understood in this way, myths are hardly limited to traditional religions. Nevertheless, myths are one of the basic ways in which traditional religious beliefs are communicated.

Traditional Religions in Modern Societies

In the twenty-first century, many traditional religious beliefs and practices are making a comeback. Some of this can be attributed to people reclaiming their ethnic identity in a post-colonial world. The development of Kwanza among some African-Americans from traditional African cultural and religious values might be considered an example of this trend. But it is also true that the emergence of New Age spirituality and similar movements are leading people of many different ancestral backgrounds to return to these forms of spirituality.

Diversity of Traditional Religions

This new interest in traditional religions for reasons unassociated with ethnic heritage often has a component of environmental awareness in it because many people associate these beliefs with being more tightly connected with the Earth. Although traditional societies in fact vary widely in their environmental sensitivity of the lifestyles (and even some religious practices may exploit the environment in catastrophic ways; see Jared Diamond's discussion of the Easter Islanders in his book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed), there is some foundation for this widely held preconception.

Perhaps it can be said that most traditional religions see a strong connection or at least relationship between the physical and the spiritual, between the material world and the realm of the divine. Very often the distinctions between the material and the spiritual -- so basic to worldviews influenced by the Enlightenment in western cultures -- simply do not apply in these religions. Scholars of religion refer to this as a strong belief in divine "immanence" (God is present with creation) as opposed to "transcendence" (God is creator and stands apart, in some way, from creation). If the divine is essentially identical with creation (in the sense of "all that exists"), then the religion is defined as "pantheistic"; if all that exists is a part of the divine but does not exhaust the fullness of all the God is, then the religion is defined as "panentheistic."

Because the particularities of traditional religions are as diverse as human cultures across time and history, this website will restrict its attention to exploring a bit more differences between pantheism and panentheism. You can reach those descriptions by means of the links in the column at the left. An excellent resource for brief, easily understood introductions to many of the traditional religons of the world is The Eliade Guide to World Religions by Mircea Eliade, Ioan P. Couliano, with Hillary S. Wiesner (HarperCollins, 1991). It is based on two of the most important reference resources used by religious studies scholars, but is edited particularly with the general reader in view. It is a reliable source of information about traditional religions and larger religious movements.

Respect for Traditional Religions in Scouting

Because some of the earlier founders of the Boy Scouts of America had a particular interest in the religious beliefs of aboriginal peoples of the Americas (see the "History" page on this website, and especially Seton's short book, The Gospel of the Redman), a particular word about "reverence" with regard to traditional religions is in order. Precisely because these are living and in some ways flourishing religions they are entitled to the same "reverence" a Scout would accord any of the major religions that have spread around the world from either eastern or western cultures. Their myths and stories should be treated with the same respect one would accord to the scriptures of the Bible, the Quran or the Bhagavad-gita. Their rituals should not be transformed into games or lightly practiced as a kind of experimentation.

Copyright © 2005 Scouting and Religious Diversity
Last modified: 10/10/05