Introducing World Religions: A Christian Engagement

Top Highlights

“The most important influences of the Aryans on local Indian life around 1500 BCE were the introduction of the Aryan religious language (Sanskrit), social structure, and religion (e.g., mythology). Sanskrit was used by Aryans for sacred oral and literary purposes. Like Greek, Latin, and English, Sanskrit is an Indo-European language.” (Page 67)

“The Vedas (Sanskrit, ‘sacred knowledge’) are the oldest sacred scriptures of Hinduism, and they introduce some of the most important notions of Hinduism, especially the liturgies, mantras, praises, and chants used by priests in religious rituals.” (Page 66)

“All oppositions can be mapped using yin and yang. From their interaction and fluctuation, the universe and all forms emerge. Yang represents the force of light, brightness, heat, maleness, strength, above, heaven, sunny, day, south. Yang is the masculine, hard, active, red, the sun, and odd numbers. Yin represents the balancing force of opposites, such as darkness, coldness, femaleness, heaviness, weakness, below, earth, shady, night, north. Yin is the feminine, yielding, receptive, moon, water, clouds, and even numbers.” (Page 267)

“Hinduism, then, is a broad term that describes the indigenous religions of India, without a particular founder, without a single unified history, and without a prescribed, unified practice of worship. Some argue that all Hindus share the belief in the same sacred texts, but that notion is difficult to sustain because textual learning is not necessary for faithful Hindu living.” (Page 63)