Does Religion/Spirituality Evolve?

[Makalakumu]

Does Religion/Spirituality Evolve? Does it evolve in a biological sense? Why do you think this? What does your answer mean in the larger scheme of things?

 

[Steel Tiger]

Does Religion/Spirituality Evolve? Does it evolve in a biological sense? Why do you think this? What does your answer mean in the larger scheme of things?

Religion definitely evolves. Spirituality, I don't know. Lets look at Christianity through its largest component, the Catholic Church. The first elements of Christianity developed, not surprisingly, in the Levant. Hebrew Christianity appears to have been something of a mystery cult and not at all like any form of modern Christianity. It was overwhelmed by developments in Greece, including the some of the earliest version of the Bible. Catholicism is an outgrowth of the Greek base, not the Hebrew.

Now it begins to get interesting. Being in the centre of the world, Rome, the Catholic version of Christianity grew quickly. The New Testament was reorganised to exclude many gospels, especially the Gnostic ones (they found popularity in Ethiopia, where the Arc of the Covernant is), and those clearly written by Christ's brothers.

The next big thing was the Council of Ephesus, and this was huge. It at the council that the concept of the Trinity was codified, that is the father, the son , and the holy spirit were three who were one. It was also at this council that the cult of the Virgin Mother was generated.

So within 500 years of the death of Christ the centre of the new religion had moved from Jerusalem to Rome, a holy text had been developed and modified to suit the new hierarchy, and some vastly important theological concepts had been codified. Why?

The Church was becoming powerful within the Roman sphere and it needed a way to increase its influence. Thus an omnipotent monotheistic religion with some cool and interesting mysteries - the Trinity and the Virgin Mother.

Later they would benefit greatly from the works of monks and other theologians examining their faith, in particular in the examination of sin. The Cardinal Virtues and Deadly Sins are not biblical they are decidedly European and were a very useful tool for the hierarchy to maintain their control over the population.

But the simplest things are usually the best, and the Catholic Church had a very simple way to maintain control. Write everything in Latin. Thus, because the general community could no longer read Latin, the interpretation of the Word of God could only be done by the clergy. Very handy way of telling people what you want, "God said it", and they couldn't argue because that was a sin.

I hope it is easy to see the evolution of the Catholic religion. The Church developed it theology so that it was palatable to the laity, it was even popular, but it also allowed the hierarchy to maintain, and increase, the power they had acquired during the Roman period.