World Religions Defined with Helpful Charts: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity & Extra
It doesn’t take an knowledgeable within the area to know that, world wide, there may be a lot disagreement on the subject of religion. However as defined within the UsefulCharts video above by Matt Baker, whose PhD in Religious Studies makes him an knowledgeable within the area, each supply does agree on the truth that the 4 largest religions on the earth are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. “These are the undisputed ‘massive 4,’ ” Baker says, and so they’ve thus been the subjects of the various movies and charts he’s made clarifying their histories and characteristics. However in his space of expertise, he provides, “it’s usually stated that there are 5 main world religions.”
The fifth main religion, as you’ll have already guessed, is Judaism, although its sixteen million adherents don’t enter the identical numerical league because the world’s 1.9 billion Muslims or 2.4 billion Christians. The Jewish religion punches effectively above its weight in respects like its age, and its being “the parent religion to each Christianity and Islam.” Coming in at 400 million believers is a religion, or category of religions, that to many learners could seem a lot much less familiar than Judaism: Chinese folks religion, or as Baker calls it, “Chinese Syncretism,” referring to its combineture of different concepts and traditions.
You may rise up to hurry on Chinese Syncretism, in addition to Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, within the two-hour video on the prime of the put up, which compiles Baker’s UsefulCharts explanations of these religions’ evolutions and all of the intellectual, doctrinal, and cultural departmentes which have grown within the course of. To Christianity, the most important of the massive 4, Baker has devoted a complete collection, predespatcheded in its completety in the three-hour video simply above. You might be able to describe the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism, however what concerning the differences between, say, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Evangelical Free Church of America, and the Mekane Yesus Church of Ethiopia?
Baker can and does describe these differences, utilizing his personal family tree-style charts as a visual help. Just one viewing is probably not sufficient to realize a transparent underneathstanding of what sepacharges every Christian denomination from each other. However it would certainly be sufficient to instill an underneathstanding that, in an important sense, there may be such factor as Christianity, singular; guesster, perhaps, to talk of the numerous and varied Christianities than have been practiced over the millennia. The identical goes, in different methods, for the other main world religions, and should you zoom in far sufficient, even the minor ones develop into wealthy with their very own complexities. However then, as Baker certainly would agree, there are not any minor religions — a minimum of should you’re curious sufficient about them.
Related content:
180,000 Years of Religion Charted on a “Histomap” in 1943
A Visual Map of the World’s Main Religions (and Non-Religions)
Animated Map Reveals How the 5 Main Religions Unfold Throughout the World (3000 BC — 2000 AD)
Philosophy of Religion: A Free On-line Course
Primarily based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His initiatives embody the Substack newsletter Books on Cities and the guide The Statemuch less Metropolis: a Stroll by means of Twenty first-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Faceguide.
