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Although the terms sacred and holy are similar in meaning, and they are sometimes used interchangeably, they carry subtle differences. [5] Holiness is generally used in relation to people and relationships, whereas sacredness is used in relation to objects, places, or happenings. [6]
Although myth and ritual are commonly united as parts of religion, the exact relationship between them has been a matter of controversy among scholars. One of the approaches to this problem is "the myth and ritual, or myth-ritualist, theory," held notably by the so-called Cambridge Ritualists , which holds that "myth does not stand by itself ...
The notion of xian ling (Chinese: 顯靈), variously translated as "divine efficacy, virtue" or the "numen", is important for the relationship between people and gods. [118] It describes the manifestation, activity, of the power of a god (Chinese: 靈氣 ling qi, "divine energy" or "effervescence"), the evidence of the holy. [119]
The meaning of spirituality has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. [1] [2] [3] [note 1] Traditionally, spirituality is referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape of man", [note 2] oriented at "the image of God" [4] [5] as exemplified by the founders and sacred texts of the religions of the world.
Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church. Holding fast to this deposit the entire holy people united with their shepherds remain always steadfast in the teaching of the Apostles, in the common life, in the breaking of the bread and in prayers (see Acts 2, 42, Greek text), so that ...
In the Orient knowledge has always been related to the sacred and to spiritual perfection. To know has meant ultimately to be transformed by the very process of knowing, as the Western tradition was also to assert over the ages before it was eclipsed by the postmedieval secularization and humanism that forced the separation of knowing from being and intelligence from the sacred.
Traditional civilizations that nurtured sacred sciences emphasized on the divine origin of the cosmos and maintained a hierarchy between the absolute and the relative, the eternal and the temporal, the necessary and the contingent. For Nasr, traditional sciences are inherently anti-reductionist since hierarchy entails a multilayered structure.
The sacred texts — and much more so the huge exegetical apparatus that had grown up around them in the older scholastic schools — were regarded as no more than signposts pointing the way to liberation. Valuable though they were as guides, they needed to be transcended in order for one to awaken to the true intent of Śākyamuni’s teachings.