The Encyclopedia of World Religions

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Press, 1983); Barbara C. Sproul, Primal Myths: Creation Myths around the World (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991); Barbara Tedlock, Time and the Highland Maya (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992); Keith Ward, Religion and Creation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). creeds Brief, official statements of faith; from credo, Latin for “I believe.” Some religions insist that their followers act in certain ways; others insist that their followers subscribe to certain beliefs. In the latter case, it is useful to have official state ments of the required beliefs. Creeds developed in C HRISTIANITY as brief statements of FAITH , generally used in WORSHIP services. The earliest and perhaps most widely used creed is the so-called Apostles’ Creed. Its precise origin is unknown, although it seems related to professions of faith made by the earliest Chris tians at baptism. The Nicene Creed is a statement adopted by the Council of Nicaea (325 C . E .) and then modified by the Council of Constantinople (381 C . E .). Its major concern is to insist that the divinity of J ESUS C HRIST is the same as that of G OD the Father. The Athanasian Creed, which tradition ascribes to Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria in the fourth century, further clarifies the nature and rela tionship of the three persons of the TRINITY : Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. cross A Roman instrument of torture that became one of the main symbols of C HRISTIANITY . Pre-Christian religions used the form of the cross— two lines that intersect—in many ways. Two exam ples are the ankh, an ancient Egyptian symbol of life, and the swastika, a symbol of well-being in ancient India. But the cross takes on special mean ing in Christianity because it was the instrument on and by which J ESUS died. For its first 300 years, Christianity was illegal, and Christians were reluctant to use the cross as a symbol. But in 313 Emperor Constantine won an important battle after seeing a cross in the sky

used more than one cycle to keep track of time. For example, the Maya calendar used two cycles, one 260 days long (20 “months” of 13 days each), the other 365 days long (18 “months” of 20 days each). Every 18,980 days or 52 years, the first day of the 260-day cycle coincided with the first day of the 365-day cycle. When that happened, the Maya thought that a new world had begun. Fifty-two years is a relatively short world cycle. The Maya knew another world cycle, too, one that they calculated using a calendar known as the Long Count. This cycle began in the year 3114 B . C . E . It will end on December 23, 2012. Some Bud dhists thought of a world cycle that was roughly the same length, 5000 years. After that many years, they suggested, the Buddha’s teachings will disap pear, and another Buddha will arrive. Hinduism has some of the longest world cycles. The basic unit is the yuga or age. There are four yugas: the Satya (or Krita ) yuga (1,728,000 years), the Dvapara yuga (1,296,000 years), the Treta yuga (864,000 years), and the Kali yuga (432,000 years, not to be confused with the goddess K ALI .) We are now about 5,000 years into the Kali yuga. But for Hindu ideas of world cycles, that is only the beginning. According to one version, the four yugas make up an age of M ANU . Fourteen ages of Manu make up a unit known as a kalpa, which is a day in the life of the god B RAHMA . When the day is over, the universe goes out of existence for the same amount of time (that is, 60,480,000 years). Then it returns for the next day in Brahma’s life. This happens for a full life of 100 Brahma-years. At that point one needs to talk about another, even larger cycle. Existence and its meaning are one of the most important issues with which religions deal. The length of the Hindu cycles (deliberately) boggles the mind. Nevertheless, many scholars believe that by talking about creation and world cycles religions make the world meaningful and intelligible. Further reading: Mircea Eliade, Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return (New York: Garland, 1985); Charles H. Long, Alpha: The Myths of Creation (Chico, Calif.: Scholars