Americas, and eastward to Asia, because Islam was blocking the old trade routes through the Middle East. This is why southern Africa, the Americas, Australasia and the Pacific islands are now largely Christian. Russia, similarly avoiding Islamic countries, expanded across Siberia and arrived north of China in the late 17th century.
Arrivals
The rise of the missionary religions and seaborne trade has greatly influenced the religious map of the world.
The different traditions within one religion owe their creation to many different factors. In the process of expanding beyond its original heartland, a religion can take on the beliefs of another culture – as happened when Buddhism moved from India through China to Japan. Political divisions may exacerbate theological differences and help to create alternative traditions – as occurred when the demise of the Roman Empire split the Christian Church in two: the Eastern Orthodox Church, based in Constantinople, and the Western Catholic Church, based in Rome. Divisions often arise when a religious structure claims to be authoritative – as happened when the Protestants broke from the domination of Rome. Faiths with a more fluid organizational structure, such as Hinduism, tend
have fewer splits because there is no single defining authority to be challenged. Chinese religion is a vast catchbag of traditions, schools, temples and ways of life with no overarching authority, leaving almost every temple to develop its own distinctive traditions. Religious traditions may be created to support a national identity within a universal tradition. Such is the case with Anglicanism within Christianity. However, Anglicanism then created a universal tradition through the British Empire, and this is now splitting into new traditions as cultural factors, particularly in African traditions, challenge the earlier Anglo-American traditions.
Roots and Branches
Yesterday’s revolution can be today’s orthodoxy. Some new movements have grown to become the most popular religion in a state.
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Part Two
BELIEFS
The vast majority of people follow one or other of the major world religions. While there is a small, but growing number of non-believers, the number of atheists has shrunk recently due to the fall of communism. Adherence to one religion is not the only way that people express religious commitment. China, for example, has a complex mixture of religious traditions, ranging from Shamanism, through Daoism to Buddhism and Christianity. In practice, most Chinese make use of different aspects of each tradition for different needs. For example, they might use Shamanism or Daoism for exorcisms, Daoism for charms and magic, Buddhism for death ceremonies, and Christianity for success in business deals. Combining these into a workable mix is not considered a problem by most Chinese, whereas the Western and Islamic world view asks for adherence to just one tradition. For many who have grown up within a specific religion, the pluralism of today offers additional elements of spirituality and religious practice that people are beginning to use increasingly, while still remaining within the fold of one particular tradition. Many devout Catholics, for example, will practise yoga, while devout Buddhists will also offer prayers to the Virgin Mary in times of special need. This wider framework of religious reference is also underpinning the growth in new religious movements and the surprising growth of indigenous traditions, such as Native American and traditional African religions, which have spread to many other parts of the world. In looking at the figures for religious belief, it is useful to remember that outward adherence often covers a vast array of different beliefs, rooted in one tradition, but increasingly fed by many sources of inspiration.
A Hindu sadhu, Varanasi, India. The marks on his forehead denote that he is a Saiva, a follower of the god Shiva
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A third of all people belong to one of six major Christian traditions. Within these traditions there is wide variation, creating a vast array of interpretation and practice. There are over 33,800 Christian denominations in 238 countries, comprising 3.4 million worship centres, churches or congregations. Christianity is growing across the world, especially in South Korea, Russia and Sub-Saharan Africa. While the percentage of the populations of India and China that are Christian is small, there are sizeable Christian groups in these countries, some of whom may be hidden. One of the emerging trends in Christianity has been the growth of independent movements. There has always been an historical tradition of church members leaving a parent body because of differences regarding authority, structure or lifestyle, and forming their own Christian groups. In time, many of these have become mainstream denominations, as has happened with Lutheranism or Methodism. Today’s ‘Independents’ follow that tradition in their search for a church lifestyle and authority appropriate to their beliefs, and often to their cultural and ethnic identity. Some denominations on the fringe of organized, mainstream Christianity are termed ‘marginal Christians’.
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Christianity
Christianity is the world’s largest religion, with more than 2.1 billion adherents worldwide, and more than 33,000 denominations.
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The two main traditions within Islam are Sunni and Shi’a. After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, leadership of the Muslim community passed to a succession of caliphs (‘deputies’). In the mid-7th century under the caliphate of Ali, the Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law, some came to believe that leadership of the Muslim community should be hereditary; these became known as the Shi’a (partisans of Ali). The majority held that the caliphs should be democratically chosen, according to the Sunna, the sayings and customs of the Prophet Muhammad. These are known as Sunni. They number more than 1.1 billion, and are in the majority in most Islamic countries. The Shi’a number 192 million and are in the majority in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Azerbaijan and Yemen. Within Sunni and Shi’a there are various schools of law and traditions. The Sunni schools of law are widespread, such as the Maliki school that is dominant throughout most of Muslim Africa. In Shi’a Islam there are more localized traditions, such as the Alawite and Druze in Syria and Lebanon. The Ibadiyyah tradition originated in the decades immediately after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, before the split between Sunni and Shi’a. Small numbers of Ibadites, who are predominantly Bedouin Arabs, are found in the deserts of Arabia, Iraq and North Africa.
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Islam
There are 1.34 billion Muslims worldwide, 20% of the world’s population. Islam is the state religion of 25 countries.
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Hinduism is intricately woven into the land and culture of India, and Hindus refer to their religion as sanatana dharma, the eternal truth or ancient religion. Although 95 percent of the world’s Hindus still