worldview
religions are judged and deemed worthy of inclusion among other world
religions. Unfortunately, there are some religions, such as Shinto that is
indigenous to Japan, that are mistakenly included among the world reli-
gions. The concept of world religions’ evolution and broad acceptance in the
West becomes institutionalized on college campus and departments of reli-
gious studies with offerings of such broad survey courses to large numbers
of undergraduates. Often, these courses include religions that are not truly
speaking “world religions.” There are some scholars who think, given the
historical origins and cultural context of such a concept and its development
into college courses, that the concept and its embodiment within college
courses have outlive their usefulness and pedagogical value.
Further reading: McCutcheon (1997); Masuzawa (2005); Smith (1998)
WORLDVIEW
Virtually, all religions have some conception of the world, which provides
a religious culture with its basic orientation and defined location within
an all-encompassing view of the world and itself. The worldview of a
culture is often associated with a culture’s creation myth. The classical
Christian worldview includes heaven above, earth in the middle, and hell
below the earth. This is distinctly different from the contemporary world-
view of astronomical science. A worldview is something lived in and acted
out by embodied beings. A worldview is not something static but rather
something open that advances in concert with its environment and trans-
forms itself according to changing circumstances, a feature that suggests
a continual interplay between the world and human experience. A world-
view functions as the fundamental conceptual framework for a religion for
integrating diverse elements within it and any new additions.
In classical China, the cosmos is spontaneously self-generating, imper-
sonal, and naturalistic, which means that it is characterized by regularity
and lacks a creator deity, ultimate cause, or will external to itself. The
world is composed of a vertical axis connecting a zenith and nadir and
framed by the four quarters. Heaven is described as round and encloses
the earth, which is square. Each of the four quarters and center are asso-
ciated with a color, taste, sound, and symbol. China is located at the
center of the world with its capital at the center of the middle kingdom.
Likewise, the royal palace is at the center of the capital and represents the
center of the world. This is the precise location for communication
between heaven and earth. In turn, the capital possesses a ritual palace