Ninian Smart - Seven Dimensions of Religion

The Practical and Ritual Dimension includes

• Ethics concerns what is good and bad, how one should live.

                                                                 i.      E.g., the ethic of love in Christianity; Covenantal ethic in Judaism

• Prayer:  private and solitary moments of quiet reflection on God; noisy, group singing and chanting; fully prostrate, while prayer is conducted by a priest; kneeling down, reciting memorized prayers

• Kinds of narrative

                                                                 i.      Historical narratives: Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad -- Histories of: a people; saints; prophets; nations and lands; wars ....

                                                               ii.      Creation narratives: before history, before time

  1.       How the universe began - cosmogony.

  2.       How is creation organized -- cosmology.

•   Ritual: prescribed patterned action in a religious tradition.

                                                                 i.      Sacrifice: ritual death in which a sacrificial victim is offered to god as part of a reciprocal relationship between god and human beings. 

Structures: churches, temples, synagogues are part of

• The Social and Institutional Dimension:

• The Practical and Ritual Dimension:

• The Experiential and Emotional Dimension

• The Material Dimension:

This image depicts an aspect of

• The Doctrinal and Philosophical Dimension

• The Narrative Dimension

• The Practical and Ritual Dimension

• The Experiential and Emotional Dimension

  Theology:  Systematic speculation about God and God's relationship with Human beings is part of

• The Narrative Dimension

• The Ethical and Legal Dimension

• The Doctrinal and Philosophical Dimension

• The Experiential and Emotional Dimension

Sacrifice: ritual death in which a sacrificial victim is offered to god as part of a reciprocal relationship between god and human beings would fit into

• The Practical and Ritual Dimension

• The Experiential and Emotional Dimension

• The Social and Institutional Dimension

• The Narrative Dimension

This structure would fit under which Dimension?

• The Practical and Ritual Dimension

• The Narrative Dimension

• The Material Dimension

• The Social and Institutional Dimension

The Narrative Dimension includes

• How the universe began

• The role and influence of scripture upon the spread and continuity of ideas

• Stories about the gods

• Natural Features: sacred landmarks such as mountains, rivers, trees

Ethics concerns what is good and bad, how one should (a)  

Rudolf Otto (1869-1937): distinctive human experience of the numinous (from numina: sacred forces, spirits). Mysterium tremendum et facinans: mystery that awes and fascinates would fit under which Dimension?

• The Experiential and Emotional Dimension

• The Practical and Ritual Dimension

• The Material Dimension

• The Social and Institutional Dimension

This image depicts an aspect of which Dimension?

• The Experiential and Emotional Dimension

• The Practical and Ritual Dimension

• The Narrative Dimension

•   The Material Dimension