The Encyclopedia of World Religions

church and state S 91

In perhaps the most famous portion of the book, Chuang-tzu dreams that he is a butterfly. Then he wakes up and wonders whether he is actually a man who is dreaming he was a but terfly, or a butterfly that is dreaming it is Chuang tzu. church and state The relationship of religion and government in predominantly Christian areas. Throughout most of history and in all parts of the globe, governments have been interested in reli gion. Indeed, for many peoples government was actually supposed to perform statewide religious observances. Where distinct religious and political institutions existed, questions generally concerned their relative power. Medieval Europe provides a good example. The church and the political rul ers argued vehemently over who had the right to appoint priests. During the R EFORMATION and its aftermath, Protestants such as the Anabaptists ( see M ENNO NITES and A MISH ), Baptists ( see B APTIST CHURCHES ), and QUAKERS insisted that religion should be a purely private matter. Philosophers influenced by the intellectual movement known as the Enlight enment tended to agree. For a variety of reasons, their ideas first took institutional form in North America. Most British colonies in North America origi nally had official or “established” religions. But by the time of the Revolutionary War, a movement to “disestablish” religion was in progress. Massachu setts was the last state to disestablish religion. It did so in 1833. In the early 1800s the state of Mas sachusetts still tried and convicted some of its citi zens for religious crimes such as HERESY . In 1789 the United States adopted its present Constitution. It was a strikingly secular document. The Constitution did not invoke G OD ’s name. It prohibited using religion to determine whether someone could hold office in the federal govern ment (Article 6, Section 3). But that was all it said about religion. It is likely that the framers of the Constitution simply decided to ignore religious questions and leave them up to the states.

F RANCISCANS ) began the tradition of building creches to celebrate Christmas in the late Middle Ages. Christmas carols began in the late Middle Ages, too. At that time it became customary on Christmas to replace the kinds of hymns used for ordinary festivals with songs of a more popular nature. The Christmas tree originated in Germany, although precisely when is unknown. In the 19th century, Queen Victoria’s husband, who was German, brought the custom to English-speak ing countries. Americans invented the legends of Santa Claus from a variety of sources, while the custom of sending greeting cards began in Eng land in the 19th century. The oldest of the ele ments is the one from which Christmas takes its name: the celebration of an early morning mass, eventually at midnight. Despite the popularity of the festival, not all Christians observe Christmas. When the festi val was first introduced, the church in J ERUSALEM refused to recognize it for 200 years. The A RME NIAN C HURCH still insists on celebrating the birth of Jesus on January 6. Some Protestants have also rejected Christmas. To them, it is a human invention that has no basis in the B IBLE . One such group was the Puritans ( see P URITANISM ). Because of Puritan influence, Christmas was not widely observed in the United States until the mid-1800s. The “plain people,” such as the A MISH , still refuse to observe it. Chuang-tzu ( Zhuangzi) ( c. 369– c. 286 B . C . E .) a Chinese thinker important in the development of philosophical T AOISM Chuang-tzu is known for a collection of essays that goes by the same name, Chuang-tzu. Only selected essays in the collection actually seem to come from Chuang-tzu. Chuang-tzu’s language is highly imagistic. As a result, it is often difficult to determine the pre cise meaning of the texts. The essays pose puzzles designed to teach that truth, goodness, happiness, and everything in life is relative—everything, that is, except the Tao or way of nature. The Tao cannot be encapsulated in language. Rather, it can only be grasped intuitively.