4 major religions. Religions of the world

The concept of “world religions” means three religious movements that are professed by the peoples of various continents and countries. Currently, they include three main religions: Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. It is interesting that Hinduism, Confucianism and Judaism, although they have gained immense popularity in many countries, are not among the world's theologians. They are classified as national religions.

Consider the three world religions in more detail.

Christianity: God is the Holy Trinity

Christianity arose in the first century AD in Palestine, among the Jews, and spread throughout the then Mediterranean. Three centuries later, it became the state religion in the Roman Empire, and after another nine, all of Europe was Christianized. In our area, on the territory of what was then Russia, Christianity appeared in the 10th century. In 1054, the church split into two - Orthodoxy and Catholicism, and Protestantism stood out from the second during the Reformation. At the moment, these are the three main branches of Christianity. To date, the total number of believers is 1 billion.

The main tenets of Christianity:

• God is one, but He is the Trinity, he has three “persons”, three hypostases: the Son, the Father and the Holy Spirit. Together they make up the image of one God, who created the entire universe in seven days.
• God made the atoning sacrifice in the form of God the Son, Jesus Christ. This is a god-man, he has two natures: human and divine.
• There is divine grace - it is the power that God sends in order to free the ordinary person from sin.
• There is an afterlife, life after death. Everything you do in this life will be rewarded in the next.
• There are good and evil spirits, angels and demons.

The holy book of Christians is the Bible.

Islam: There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet

This youngest world religion arose in the seventh century AD on the Arabian Peninsula, among the Arab tribes. Islam was founded by Muhammad - this is a specific historical figure, a person who was born in 570 in Mecca. At the age of 40, he announced that God (Allah) had chosen him as his prophet, and therefore began to act as a preacher. Of course, the local authorities did not like this approach, and therefore Muhammad had to move to Yathrib (Medina), where he continued to tell people about God.

The holy book of Muslims is the Quran. It is a collection of Muhammad's sermons, created after his death. During his life, his words were perceived as the direct speech of God, and therefore were transmitted exclusively orally.

Sunnah (a collection of stories about Muhammad) and Sharia (a set of principles and rules of behavior for Muslims) also play an important role. The main rites of Islam are important:

• daily prayer five times a day (prayer);
• universal observance of strict fasting per month (ramadan);
• alms;
• Hajj (pilgrimage) to the holy land in Mecca.

Buddhism: one must strive for nirvana, and life is suffering

Buddhism is the oldest of the world's religions, originating in the sixth century BC in India. She has over 800 million followers.

It is based on the story of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, who lived in joy and ignorance until he met an old man, a man with leprosy, and then a funeral procession. So he learned everything that was previously hidden from him: old age, illness and death - in a word, everything that awaits every person. At the age of 29, he left his family, became a hermit and began to search for the meaning of life. At the age of 35, he became a Buddha - an enlightened one who created his own doctrine of life.

According to Buddhism, life is suffering, and its cause is passions and desires. To get rid of suffering, you need to renounce desires and passions and try to achieve the state of nirvana - a state of complete peace. And after death, any creature is reborn, in the form of a completely different creature. Which one depends on your behavior in this and past lives.

This is the most general information about the three world religions, as far as the format of the article allows. But in each of them you can find a lot of interesting and important things for yourself.

And here we have prepared even more interesting materials for you!

Religions are "primitive" and complex. Primitive refers primarily to the religions of people from the primitive era: totemism, magic, faith in the soul, fetishism. Most of these religions have died long ago (dead religions, archaic - in terms of the compilers of the Unified State Examination), however, some of their elements turned out to be so tenacious that they entered later, truly complex and deep religions, but as a rule, not at the level of teaching but at the level of practice. For example, elements of magic in Christianity, where some believers treat church rites as a magic wand, by the wave of which illnesses pass, and life becomes rich and prosperous. The depth and meaning of Christian teaching is ignored.

A person who rejects any religion for himself is called an atheist. The main question of an atheist is "why do we need religion?"

Functions of Religion

Almost every religion exists not only in the form of a worldview, but also in the form of an organization (church) that conducts religious activities. The Church is an organization that broadcasts religious values ​​and unites believers. The concept of the church is inseparable from the concept of church sacraments, rituals and rules. They can exist as a direct prescription of the text of the dogma (the sacrament of the Eucharist (communion) in Christianity is described in the New Testament), or they can be a product of church practice. For example, nowhere in the Bible do we find a command to confess. The New Testament contains the idea of ​​repentance, and the idea of ​​confession (as one of the forms of repentance) was already born within the Christian church.

In religion, in the church, people find ideas and meanings that are important for themselves. Sometimes faith and the church become a way of life for a person (monks, clergymen, etc.)

In other words, the church satisfies a number of people's needs, which allows us to talk about functions of religion:

1. comforting
2. Communicative
3. Solving existential issues (each person at some point in his life thinks about death, loneliness, the meaning of life, and these are the questions that are at the core of religions)
4. Regulatory
5. worldview

Types of religions

According to the main classification of religions, there are:

• world religions
• national
• archaic

According to another popular classification, religions are divided into polytheistic (polytheism = paganism) and monotheistic (belief in one God, the creator of all things).

There are only three world religions:

• Buddhism (the oldest of the world's religions)
• Christianity
• Islam (latest)

Buddhism appeared in the 6th century. BC e. in India. Its founder is the son of the Indian raja (king) Sidharth Gautam. It was predicted to the Raja that his son would become either a great king or a great saint. In order to fulfill the first possibility, Sithartha was specially brought up in such conditions, which, as it seemed, excluded the possibility of awakening deep thoughts in the boy: Sidhartha was surrounded by luxury and only young and happy faces. But one day the servants did not notice, and Sidhartha was outside his rich possessions. There, at large, he met an old man, a leper, and a funeral procession. So, at the age of 30, Sidhartha first became aware of the existence of suffering in the world. The news shocked him to such an extent that he left his relatives and went on a journey in search of the truth. He indulged in penance, meditated, meditated, and finally reached the state of nirvana and became the first enlightened (Buddha). He had followers, a new religion began to spread around the world.

The essence of Buddhist beliefs in a very simplified form is as follows: human life is full of suffering, the cause of suffering is the person himself, his desires, his passions. suffering can be overcome through getting rid of desires and achieving a state of complete peace (nirvana). Buddhists believe in rebirth (samsara - an endless chain of rebirths) and in karma (retribution). Nirvana breaks the chain of rebirths, which means the chain of endless suffering. There is no concept of God in Buddhism. If a person becomes a Buddhist, he will try all his life to change his inner world in order to get rid of passions and desires. Here a number of practices come to his aid: yoga, meditation, retreats, going to a monastery, and so on.

Christianity originated with the birth of Jesus Christ. From this date mankind is now reckoning. Jesus Christ is as real a person as Sidhartha Gautama. But Christians believe that he was a god-man. That he lived, preached to the twelve disciples (apostles), worked miracles, and then was betrayed by Judas, crucified, and on the third day he was resurrected and later ascended to heaven. It is faith in the above (death, and then the resurrection of Christ) that turns a person into a Christian (in addition to baptism).

Christianity assumes faith in one God, as well as in the Holy Trinity: the unity of the three hypostases of God - God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Christians do not believe that the world is continuous suffering, on the contrary, Christians talk about the joy of life and the world, which are available to a person if he has seen God and rebuilt his mind and soul accordingly. He turned from, for example, an embittered, judging and envious person to a kind, open person, able to forgive and ask for forgiveness from others.

The main book of Christianity is the Bible. It consists of two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the Holy Scripture for another religion - Judaism, the religion of the Jewish people (Judaism is one of the national religions). For Christians, the New Testament is of the utmost importance. It is he who contains the teachings of Jesus Christ and the main ideas of Christianity:

• Human freedom (a person must make all life decisions himself, no one has the right to impose his will on another, even if it is for good),
• Immortality of the soul (Christians believe that after the death of people, the Great Judgment awaits, after which the world will be reborn and life will continue, but only for those who deserve paradise).
• Love for your neighbor (love the other as yourself)

The story of Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh about how he came to faith

“Until the age of fifteen, I didn’t know anything about God: I heard this word, I knew that they were talking about it, that there are believers, but He didn’t play any role in my life and simply didn’t exist for me. These were the early years of emigration, twenties, life was not easy, and sometimes very scary and difficult. And at some point there was a period of happiness, a period when it was not scary. This was the moment when for the first time (I was 15 years old) my grandmother, mother and I were under one roof, in one apartment, instead of wandering around and not having your own shelter. And the first impression was bliss: this is a miracle, happiness ... And after a while, fear seized me: happiness turned out to be aimless. While life was difficult, every moment I had to fight with something or for something, every moment there was an immediate goal, but here, it turns out, there is no goal, emptiness. find no meaning in life, I will commit suicide.It was quite clear. I didn’t look for anything special this year, because I didn’t know where to look, or how, but something happened to me. I was present before the post at the conversation of Father Sergius Bulgakov. He was a wonderful person, a pastor, a theologian, but he did not know how to talk to children. I was persuaded by my leader to go to this conversation, and when I told him that I neither believe in God nor in a priest, he told me: “But I don’t ask you to listen, just sit down.” And I sat down with the intention not to listen, but Father Sergius spoke too loudly and prevented me from thinking; and I happened to hear this picture of Christ and the Christian, which he gave: sweet, humble, and so on. - that is, everything that is not characteristic of a boy at the age of 14-15. I was so furious that after the conversation I went home and asked my mother if she had the Gospel, deciding to check whether it was true or not. And I decided that if I discover that the Christ that Father Sergius described is the Christ of the Gospel, then I'm done with it. I was a practical boy, and when I discovered that there were four Gospels, I decided that one must be shorter, and so I chose to read the Gospel of Mark. And then something happened to me that takes away from me any right to boast of anything. While I was reading the Gospel, between the first and third chapters, it suddenly became absolutely, absolutely clear to me that on the other side of the table in front of which I am sitting, stands the living Christ. I stopped, looked, saw nothing, heard nothing, smelled nothing - there was no hallucination, it was just an internal perfect, clear certainty. I remember that I then leaned back in my chair and thought: If Christ, alive, is in front of me, then everything that is said about His crucifixion and resurrection is true, and therefore everything else is true ... And this was a turn in my life from godlessness to the faith that I have. That's the only thing I can say: my path was neither intellectual nor noble, but simply for some reason God saved my life."

Since ancient times, people have believed in supernatural forces and beings that control the phenomena and processes occurring in nature. One form or another of religious belief has survived to the present day in almost every corner of the globe. At present, there are more than five thousand different forms and types of religions in the world. So far, no one has been able to classify and generalize them, since all religions can be divided according to ethnic characteristics, and according to the time of their occurrence, and according to the level of organization, and according to state status.

• Types of religions by time of development
• Major Religions of the World
• Types of religions of Eastern civilization
• Types of early religions
  • Magic
  • Fetishism
  • totemism
  • Animism
• Types of pagan religions

Types of religions by time of development

So, if we divide them according to the level of development, then we can identify the following types of typology of religion:

• Early religions - beliefs that originated in the primitive era (magic, animism, totemism, fetishism).
• Polytheistic - these include all types of national religious beliefs (except Sikhism and Judaism).
• Monotheistic - Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism.
• Syncretic - beliefs that arose as a result of mixing several types of religions.
• New religious beliefs - religions that are distinguished by their non-traditional forms. These include the churches of the Antichrist, Satan, Krishna, Muna, as well as yogism, Shinto with the cults of karate and judo. This also includes the White Brotherhood, and various esoteric associations.

Major Religions of the World

The most common are:

• Christianity.
• Buddhism.
• Islam.
• Hinduism.

Christianity is the largest religion in the world. Currently, every country in the world has at least one Christian community, and the total number of adherents of this faith is 2.3 billion people. Christianity first appeared in the 1st century in Palestine and existed as a single form of religious belief until the Christian church split into the Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic churches in 1054. Later, in the 17th century, another trend of the Catholic Church appeared - Protestantism.

In addition to the main religions, there are various types of tribal religions - various forms of worship of certain deities inherent in a particular ethnic group, tribe or people.

Video about the main religions of the world:

Types of religions of Eastern civilization

What types of religions are inherent in Eastern civilization? The religions of the East are:

• Hinduism (Nepal, India).
• Buddhism (Sri Lanka, Laos).
• Islam (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, etc.).
• Lamaism (Mongolia).
• Confucianism (Malaysia, Brunei).
• Shinto (Japan).
• Sunnism (Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan).

Types of early religions

On the basis of the early forms of religions, the beliefs that exist at the present time were developed. Primitive human society in the course of its development gradually formed various types of worship of natural phenomena: wind, thunder, rain. Due to the lack of knowledge about the processes that take place in the world around us, people believed that all phenomena are controlled by supernatural forces, each of which controls the weather, crops, etc. Early religions were not characterized by the allocation of any one deity - people believed in symbols, invisible spirits, fetishes and various powers.

The formation of the first religious beliefs depended on the structure of society, a certain established hierarchy of groups - a tribe, a state, a city, a village, or an individual family.

Early religious forms are characterized by the fact that they always distinguished the main gods and the deities who obeyed them. People endowed the main gods with certain personal qualities, likened them to the fathers of families, leaders or kings. The main god almost always had his own life story: birth, marriage, birth of heirs, who, as a rule, subsequently served as their assistants. In addition, the deities could be at enmity with each other, or, on the contrary, be friends, help people in agriculture, art, love, and, accordingly, a certain god was responsible for every phenomenon, be it war or love.

There are the following types of early religions:

• Magic.
• Fetishism.
• Totemism.
• Animism.

Magic

Magical beliefs are manifested in the belief in supernatural forces, in the fact that a person is able to influence any natural phenomenon by performing certain symbolic actions - conspiracies, spells, etc.

This type of religion arose in ancient times and continues to exist to this day. The initial ideas about magic were rather abstract, but over time this direction of religion differentiated and today there are a huge number of its types and directions. So, depending on the methods of influence or social orientation, there are the following types of magic:

• Magic is harmful (corruption).
• Therapeutic.
• Military (to attract good luck in military affairs).
• Love (lapels, love spells).
• Meteorological (for weather changes).
• Contact (magic effect by contact with the object).
• Imitative (impact on the simulated likeness of the subject).
• Partial (magical rites with the help of cut hair, nails or food debris).

Fetishism

In ancient times, people revered various objects that they believed brought good luck and protected from danger. This form of religious belief is called fetishism. Almost all types of primitive religion, including fetishism, exist in the modern life of many peoples. Today, people who use all kinds of talismans and amulets to attract various benefits - material or spiritual, are usually called fetishists.

Any thing or object that has fallen into the field of view of a person can become a fetish: it can be stones of an unusual shape, and animal skulls, and wooden, metal or clay products. These items are chosen by trial and error. For example, when a person noticed that an object brings him good luck, this object became his fetish, otherwise the fetishes were thrown away, destroyed and replaced by others, more successful.

totemism

Primitive people believed that between certain groups of people (tribe, family) and any species of animals or plants there is a kindred relationship. So, a tribe that considered itself related to some animal, rendered it a special cult and worshiped this animal. Wind, rain, sun, iron, water, etc. were often used as totems. Such beliefs were most common in Africa, North America, and Australia. Totemism has been preserved to this day in some tribes of these countries.

Animism

Animism is also a type of early religious form. This religion is characterized by belief in spirits and souls. Ancient people believed that nature and the objects around them possess supernatural powers and have a soul. Spirits were divided into evil and good. In order to appease any spirit, sacrifices were often practiced.

Animism is currently present in many modern religions. Today, spirits and evil spirits are modifications of the animistic ideas of primitive people. Although modern society considers them to be everyday superstitions and prejudices, almost all religious beliefs are associated with their existence.

Types of pagan religions

The term "paganism" comes from the word "language", which in Church Slavonic means "people". In the era of the Old Testament, the Jews called all non-Jewish Gentiles. This word contained a negative assessment both in relation to the peoples themselves, and to their customs, religious beliefs, moral and cultural values. In Christian vocabulary, the term "paganism" appeared thanks to the Jews, but Christians do not mean by this word any connection with a race or nation. There are the following types of pagan religions:

• Shamanism.
• Magic.
• Satanism.
• Materialism.
• All kinds of polytheistic religions.

The characteristic features that unite most of the listed religions are idolatry, magicism, naturalism and mysticism.

What religion do you profess, and what religion would you like to know more about? Tell us in the comments about your attitude towards other religions.

Knowledge of the religious affiliation of the population helps to better understand the features of the economic and social geography of different countries of the world. The role of religion in society today continues to be very significant.

It is customary to single out tribal, local (national) and world religions.

Even in primitive society, the simplest forms of religious beliefs arose - totemism, magic, fetishism, animism and the cult of ancestors. (Some elementary religions have survived to our time. So, totemism was widespread among the Melanesians, American Indians).

Later, complex forms of religions appeared. They arose most often among any one people, or among a group of peoples united in a state (this is how local religions arose - Judaism, Hinduism, Shintoism, Confucianism, Taoism, etc.).

Some of the religions have spread among the peoples of different countries and continents. These are world religions - Islam and Christianity.

Buddhism - the oldest world religion exists mainly in its two main varieties - Hinayana and Mahayana, Lamaism should also be added to them.

Buddhism originated in India in the 6th-5th centuries. BC. The founder of the doctrine is Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni, known to the world under the name of Buddha (i.e. "awakened, enlightened").

There are many Buddhist centers, temples and monasteries in India, but still in India itself Buddhism did not become widespread and turned into a world religion outside of it - in China, Korea, and in a number of other countries. He did not fit into the social structure and culture of society, as he rejected caste, the authority of the Brahmins, religious ritualism (Hinduism was most widespread in India).

In the II century. Buddhism penetrated China and became widespread, having existed there for about two thousand years, having a great influence on Chinese culture. But it did not become the dominant religion here, which was Confucianism in China.

Buddhism as a world religion reached its most complete form in Tibet in Lamaism (during the late Middle Ages - in the 7th-15th centuries). In Russia, Lamaism is practiced by the inhabitants of Buryatia, Tuva, and Kalmykia.

Currently, there are about 300 million adherents of this religious teaching.

Christianity is considered to be one of the world religions, meaning both its influence on the course of world history and the extent of its spread. The number of adherents of Christianity is approaching 2 billion people.

Christianity arose in the 1st century. n. e. in the east of the Roman Empire (on the territory of the modern state of Israel), which absorbed the entire empire at that time, when civilization based on slavery was already declining. By the 60s. 1st century n. e. there were already several Christian communities in addition to the very first, Jerusalem, which consisted of disciples gathered around Jesus.

Christianity today - a collective term that includes three main areas: Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism, within which there are many different faiths and religious associations that arose at different times throughout the two thousand-year history of Christianity (Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox Church, etc.).

Catholicism(Catholicism) - the most significant branch of Christianity. It exists as a strictly centralized church headed by the Pope (who is also the head of state).

Protestantism- arose in the era of the Reformation (XVI century) as an anti-Catholic movement. The largest areas of Protestantism are Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism, Methodism, and Baptism.

In 395, the Roman Empire split into western and eastern parts. This contributed to the isolation of the Western Church, headed by the Bishop of Rome (Pope) and a number of Eastern churches, headed by patriarchs - Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria. Between the western and eastern branches of Christianity (Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches) a struggle for influence unfolded, which ended in their formal break in 1054.

By that time, Christianity had already turned from a persecuted faith into a state religion. This happened under the emperor Constantine (in the 4th century). Orthodoxy of Byzantine origin established itself in the east and southeast of Europe. Kievan Rus adopted Christianity in 988 under Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich. This step had important consequences for the history of Russia.

Islam- the second world religion after Christianity in terms of the number of followers (1.1 billion people). It was founded by the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. on Arab tribal religions (in Arabia, in Hijaz).

Islam served as a powerful impetus for the development in a short historical period of such a phenomenon, which is denoted by the concept of the "Muslim world". In those countries where Islam is widespread, it plays an important role as a religious doctrine, a form of social organization, and a cultural tradition.

Of the many religious systems in the modern world, Islam remains one of the most significant forces.

Confucianism emerged in Ser. 1st millennium BC in China as a socio-ethical doctrine expounded by the philosopher Confucius. For many centuries it was a kind of state ideology. The second local (national) religion - Taoism - is based on a combination of elements of Buddhism and Confucianism. To date, it has survived only in certain areas.

Hinduism means more than just the name of a religion. In India, where it has become widespread, it is a whole set of religious forms, from the simplest ritual, polytheistic to philosophical-mystical, monotheistic. Moreover, it is a designation of the Indian way of life with a caste division, including the sum of life principles, norms of behavior, social and ethical values, beliefs, cults, rituals.

The foundations of Hinduism are laid in the Vedic religion, which was brought by the Aryan tribes who invaded the Ser. II millennium BC. e. The second period in the history of Indian religion is the Brahmin period (I millennium BC). Gradually, the ancient religion of sacrifice and knowledge turned into Hinduism. Its development was influenced by those that arose in the VI-V centuries BC. e. Buddhism and Jainism (teachings that denied the caste system).

Shintoism- the local religion of Japan (along with Buddhism). It is a combination of elements of Confucianism (observance of the cult of ancestors, patriarchal foundations of the family, respect for elders, etc.) and Taoism.

Judaism was formed in the 1st millennium BC. among the people of Palestine. (In the 13th century BC, when the Israelite tribes came to Palestine, their religion consisted of many primitive cults common to nomads. Only gradually did the religion of Judaism, in the form in which it is presented in the Old Testament, arise). It is distributed exclusively among Jews living in different countries of the world (the largest groups are in and). The total number of Jews in the world is about 14 million people.

At present, most of the people living in different countries and different social conditions consider themselves believers - Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. - or do not belong to any of the existing churches, but simply recognize the existence of some higher power - the world mind.

At the same time, it is a fact that today a significant part of people are not religious, that is, they are people who do not profess any of the existing religions, consider themselves atheists or agnostics, secular humanists or freethinkers.

The spread of world religions in the 90s. 20th century

Christianity spread among the peoples of Europe and in other parts of the world, settled by immigrants from this part of the world.

Catholicism is the dominant religion in Latin America and the Philippines; There are significant groups of Catholics in the USA and Canada (French Canadians), as well as in some African countries (former colonies).

In many countries of the African continent, as a rule, both Christianity (Catholicism and Protestantism, since in the recent past these states were colonies) and traditional local beliefs are represented.

There is also Christianity of the Monophysite persuasion in and partly in Egypt.

Orthodoxy spread in the east and southeast of Europe among the Greeks, and the southern Slavs (,). He is professed by Russians, Belarusians,

World religions - a system of beliefs and practices that defines the relationship between the divine realm, and a particular society, group or individual. It manifests itself in the doctrinal form (doctrine, faith), in religious activities (worship, ritual), in the social and organizational sphere (religious community, church) and in the sphere of individual spirituality.

Also, religion is any cultural system of certain behaviors, worldviews, sacred places that connect humanity with the supernatural or transcendental. But there is no scientific consensus on what exactly constitutes a religion.

According to Cicero, this name comes from the Latin word relegere or religere.

Different kinds of religions may or may not contain different elements of divine, sacred things. Religious practices include rituals, sermons, worship (of deities, idols), sacrifices, festivals, holidays, trances, initiations, funeral services, meditations, prayers, music, art, dance, community services, or other aspects of human culture. Almost every religion has sacred stories and narratives preserved in scriptures, as well as symbols and holy places to give meaning to life. Religions contain symbolic stories to explain the origin of life, the universe, and so on. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, is considered the source of religious beliefs.

History of religion

No one can answer how many religions there are in the world, but there are about 10,000 different currents known today, although about 84% of the world's population is associated with one of the five largest: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or forms of "national religion" .

There are a number of theories regarding the origins of religious practices. According to authoritative anthropologists, many of the world's religions began as activating, inciting movements, as the vision of the origin of the world, people (etc.) by a charismatic prophet gave rise to the imagination of a large number of people looking for a more complete answer to their questions and problems . A world religion is not characterized by a particular environment or ethnicity and can be widespread. There are different types of world religions, and each of them carries prejudices. The essence of this may be, among other things, that believers tend to consider their own, and sometimes do not recognize other religions or the same, as important.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the humanistic denomination divided religious faith into certain philosophical categories - "world religions".

The five largest religious groups in the world include 5.8 billion people - 84% of the population - these are Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and traditional folk beliefs.

Christianity

Christianity is based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who is considered the founder of this movement (1st century AD), his life is set out in the Bible (Old and New Testaments). Christian faith is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Savior and Lord. Almost all Christians believe in the Trinity, which teaches the unity of the Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit as three in one Deity. Christians may describe their faith as the Nicene Creed. As a religious doctrine, Christianity originated from the Byzantine civilization in the first millennium and spread throughout Western Europe during colonization and further throughout the world. The main branches of Christianity are (according to the number of adherents):

• – The Catholic Church, headed by a bishop;
• – Eastern Christianity, including Eastern Orthodoxy and the Eastern Church;
• – Protestantism, split off from the Catholic Church in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century and divided into thousands of denominations.

The main branches of Protestantism include: Anglicanism, Baptism, Calvinism, Lutheranism and Methodism, each of which contains many different denominations or groups.

Islam

Based on the Koran - the holy book about the prophet Muhammad, called the main political and religious figure, who lived in the seventh century AD. Islam is based on the fundamental unity of religious philosophies and accepts all the prophets of Judaism, Christianity and other Abrahamic beliefs. It is the most widely practiced religion in Southeast Asia, North Africa, West Asia, and Central Asia, and has a Muslim majority in parts of South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Europe. There are several Islamic republics - Iran, Pakistan, Mauritania and Afghanistan.

Islam is divided into the following interpretations:

1. – Sunni Islam is the largest denomination in Islam;
2. - Shiite Islam - the second largest;
3. - Ahmadiyya.

There are Muslim revivalist movements such as Muwakhidism and Salafism.

Other denominations of Islam include: the Nation of Islam, Sufism, Qur'anism, non-denominational Muslims, and Wahhabism, which is the dominant Muslim school in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Buddhism

Covers a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices, most based on the teachings of the Buddha. Buddhism originated in ancient India between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. e., from where it began to spread across Asia. Scholars identify two key surviving branches of Buddhism: Theravada ("School of Elders") and Mahayana ("Great Ship"). Buddhism is the fourth religion in the world with over 520 million adherents - more than 7% of the world's population.

Buddhist schools differ on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, especially their practices. The practical methods of Buddhism include "going away" to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, comprehending the scriptures, following ethical and virtuous precepts, renouncing attachment, practicing meditation, cultivating wisdom, grace and compassion, practicing Mahayana - bodhichitta and practicing Vajrayana - the stages of generation and stage completion.

In Theravada, the ultimate goal is to end the kleshas and achieve the exalted state of nirvana through the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path (Middle Path). Theravada is widespread in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

Mahayana, which includes the Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon and Tantai (Tendai) traditions, is found in East Asia. Instead of reaching Nirvana, the Mahayana seeks the Buddha through the path of the bodhisattva, a state in which a person remains in the cycle of rebirth, a feature of this is helping other people achieve awakening.

The Vajrayana, the body of teachings attributed to the Indian siddhas, can be seen as a third branch or simply part of the Mahayana. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings, is practiced in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, Mongolia, and Kalmykia.

Judaism

- the oldest in age, the Abrahamic denomination, which originated in ancient Israel. The Torah becomes the foundational scripture and part of the larger text known as the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible. It is complemented by traditions written down in later texts such as the Midrash and the Talmud. Judaism includes a vast body of scriptures, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. There are many movements within this religion, most of which originate from rabbinic Judaism, which proclaims that God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of inscriptions on stones, and oral form - the Torah. Historically, this claim has been disputed by various scientific groups. The largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism (Haredi), conservative and reformist.

shamanism

It is a practice that includes actions that achieve a change of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with the spirit world.

A shaman is one who has access to the world of good and evil spirits. The shaman enters a trance state during the ritual and practice of divination and healing. The word "shaman" probably comes from the Evenki language of North Asia. This term became widely known after Russian troops conquered the shamanic khanate of Kazan in 1552.

The term "shamanism" was first used by Western anthropologists for the ancient religion of the Turks and Mongols, as well as the neighboring Tungus and Samoyed peoples. Observing and comparing more religious traditions around the world, some Western anthropologists have come to use the term in a broad sense to describe unrelated magical-religious practices found in ethnic religions in other parts of Asia, Africa, Australia, and even completely unrelated parts of North and South America, since they believed that these practices were similar to each other.

Shamanism includes the assumption that shamans become intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spiritual. Where this phenomenon is widespread, people believe that shamans cure diseases and heal the soul, that shamans can visit other worlds (dimensions). The shaman acts, first of all, which influences the human world. Restoring balance leads to the elimination of the disease.

National religions

Indigenous or national teachings belong to a broad category of traditional religions that can be characterized by shamanism, animism, and ancestor worship, where traditional means, whether indigenous or foundational, are passed down from generation to generation. These are religions that are closely associated with a particular group of people, one ethnicity or tribe, they often do not have formal creeds or scriptures. Some religions are syncretic, bringing together different religious beliefs and practices.

New religious currents

A new religious movement - a young religion or alternative spirituality, is a religious group, has a modern origin and occupies a peripheral place in the dominant religious culture of society. May be new in origin or part of a larger religion, but distinct from pre-existing denominations. It has been estimated by scholars that this new movement has hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide, with the majority of its members living in Asia and Africa.

New religions often face hostile reception from traditional religious organizations and various secular institutions. Currently, there are several scientific organizations and peer-reviewed journals dedicated to this issue. Researchers attribute the rise of new religious movements in modern times to responses to contemporary processes of secularization, globalization, fragmentation, reflexivity, and individualization.

There are no single agreed criteria for defining a "new religious movement". However, the term suggests that the group is of recent origin. One view is that "new" may mean that the teaching is more recent in origin than most known ones.

Thus, in this article, we have reviewed the world's religions from the "oldest" to the "youngest", from the most significant to the least known.

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