Syncretizing Views in Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Syncretizing Views in Religion - Essay Example Thus, according to the Chinese community, syncretism is a mixture of more than one religion. There are several definitions that have been brought out in relation to syncretism to fit the Chinese religious community. According to Judith Berling, syncretism is the affirmation, borrowing and integrating the various concepts, practices, and symbols in one religion to another through reconciliation and selection. To incorporate the Chinese religion and syncretism, the natural dissonance that exist in religious ideas and gestures may disappear. In the article, syncretism is not meant to permit the monopoly of mixing of religious ideologies in a multi –religious community. Furthermore, to fully understand syncretism, one has to consider three aspects in religious interaction. These are what are not applicable. For instance, one has to understand that syncretism does not apply with ecumenicism. According to the article, ecumenicism applies in understanding the universal truth. This as pect asserts that different religious views are sustained separately by tradition in the external elements and not truth perceptions. This may include modes of discourse and other ritual practices. Therefore, there is one truth which is common in this kind of truth. Secondly, syncretism is not considered inclusivism.... Therefore, this is a perfect syncretic combination among dominant religions. Furthermore, compartmentalism is not an aspect of syncretism. This is because it recognizes that various teachings deal with varied of reality and are concerned with different truth aspects. Thus, each religious tradition functionally is specialized in one way or the other and can easily complement the other without reducing the other. Furthermore, each addresses several issues without overlapping one another. More so, each religion has a specific realm of thoughts. This concept accepts the issues in Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism as practiced in China. For one to really analyze a text as syncretic, he or she has to understand that syncretism is not related to eclectism. This is the ability of one religion to adopt the other despite the differing religious doctrines. In this article the concept of three teachings is basically a concept of syncretism. In the three teachings, there is one origin and similar teachings. As depicted in the article, Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism are not an innovation by Yuan. The Tang dynasty is the core unifier of the three concepts. Thus, the efforts to keep the three distinct and not unified were achieved as they developed organizations, ritual practices and intellectual thoughts. The three are believed to have had a common set of teachings. Despite the different philosophical teachings among the three concepts, there were efforts to merge the three into one religious doctrine. They thus devised a poem which illustrated the emperor as a syncretic. Furthermore, the development of the song in the dynasty to develop the neo-colonialism ushered a relationship in the three teachings to merge as one phase. What is believed to have