The Encyclopedia of World Religions

devils and demons S 115

may be a welcome time, a time of judgment and of release, of the loss of loved ones here and the gaining of loved ones on the other side. Some times it is also presented as a great adventure, a time for growth and learning of things now hid den. Above all, religions present death as a time for meeting face to face with God or an ultimate reality, in love and fulfillment. The process of death, dying, and grieving has interested many writers and readers in the second half of the 20th century. denomination A fairly large, well-established branch of a major religious tradition, uniting many local churches under a common national organization. The individual churches in a denomination hold to roughly similar beliefs, ways of WORSHIP , and forms of local governance. Unlike the cult or sect, the denomination is seen as part of the religious mainstream. A religious pattern made up of a collection of denomina tions large and small, each more or less equal and in practice having responsibility mainly for ministry to their own members, has been called a “denominational society.” The United States of America is undoubtedly the best example, though the pattern can also be found in certain British Commonwealth countries and in some respects in Japanese B UDDHISM ; otherwise, it is really a reli gious anomaly in a world of mainly one-religion or “church and sect” countries. In the United States, the major Protes tant groups—Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran—are called denominations. The Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Eastern Orthodox traditions in America also have had to act as denominations for all intents and purposes. Denominations have distinctive histories and usually a revered founder or principal theological teacher. Their reason for founding and historical background is generally ethnic or located in a past religious conflict. Ordi narily, formal organization is along national lines except for overseas missions. Denominational loy alty can be a factor in promoting the overall health of religion in a society.

devils and demons Personalized sources of EVIL . The two words mean about the same thing, though demons may be subordinate to a princi pal devil, or to S ATAN , the chief of the forces of evil in Western religion. Most traditional religions have given a place to individual powers that work wickedness in the world, and usually are related to a principle of cosmic evil. These entities may be called demons or devils. For simple believers they may help explain many unfortunate things: sickness, madness, war, disasters. They may even have a positive role as an agent of the divine to punish the wicked. The more sophisticated may see demons as symbolic of important truths of FAITH : that evil exists despite a good G OD or uni verse, that it afflicts and can even possess humans yet also comes from outside them, and finally that evil is a force of cosmic dimensions—perhaps part of a “war in HEAVEN ” of God and his ANGELS against Satan and his demons—and so the defeat of evil requires divine action on a large scale. At the same time, the actual history and meaning of demons in various religions says much about them. Some times the gods of one era or religion are turned into the demons of another that supersedes it. In ancient H INDUISM , for example, the asuras, demonic deities, were originally good gods but became malevolent beings to the next race of gods, gods like I NDRA and V ISHNU . The asuras are in con stant conflict with those gods, but the latter always outwit them in the end. Another class of demons are the raksasas, like Ravana in the great EPIC , the Ramayana ( see R AMA , R AMAYANA ); they delight in causing misery to human beings. Many of these Hindu entities were borrowed by B UDDHISM . The realm of the asuras is one of the six places of rebirth, for those overly dominated by anger, violence, and stupidity; those condemned to the worst of those six places, the HELLS , are tor mented by raksasas-like demons. But the most important Buddhist demon is M ARA , who tempted the B UDDHA on the night of his enlightenment. Sig nificantly, Mara is not so much consumed by evil will as blinded by ignorance, unable to see that the Buddha’s enlightenment could be of benefit to him too, though the Buddha is “teacher of gods