The Encyclopedia of World Religions

434 S sweat lodge

tradition, the period in which scholars needed to think independently ended in the 14th century. During the 20th century, the Islamic commu nity faced new situations and challenges. Some Muslims who had received a secular education rejected traditional Islamic learning. But many legal scholars took active roles in independence movements. In most places, their advice is still valued. Further reading: Donna Lee Bowen and Evelyn A. Early, ed., Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002); Huseyn Hilmi Isik, The Sunni Path (Saddle Brook, N.J.: Hizmet Books, 1993); Garbi Schmidt, Islam in Urban America: Sunni Muslims in Chicago (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004). sweat lodge An important RITUAL structure for most of the native peoples of North America. A sweat lodge is more or less a religious sauna. It is an enclosed structure in which water is poured on hot rocks to make steam. Those inside the struc ture sweat from the heat. They also pray and sing. Participants find the experience purifying, healing, and refreshing. A sweat lodge is often a dome-like frame cov ered with canvas, bark, or skins. The entrance is low to the ground. Participants enter on their hands and knees. Some sweats are for men only. Many sweats allow women, provided they are not menstruating. In mixed sweats participants wear light clothing. In traditional ones they sweat naked. Rocks are heated in a fire outside the lodge. They are brought in at regular intervals and piled up in a pit in the center. The symbolism of the lodge alludes to the four directions, the Earth, and the sky. Indeed, some see the sweat lodge as a min iature universe. The “floor” is the Earth’s surface; the dome is the sky. Others interpret the lodge in sexual terms. The lodge itself is the womb of the world. It is impregnated by the heat of the sun, symbolized by the heated rocks. See also N ATIVE A MERICAN RELIGIONS .

The Star of David, or Magen David (Hebrew for “shield of David”), is a conventional symbol of Judaism and the Jewish people, consisting of two overlapping triangles that form a six-pointed star. (Getty Images)

symbolism in religion The use of concrete objects to point to religious meaning. Few things are more important to religion than symbols. This is because religion always points toward that which is invisible, even beyond human understanding, and which can be indicated only by something less than the ultimate. This is the role of symbols, to stand in for the ultimate. To understand symbols, we need to distinguish them from signs. A sign just indicates something is there, like a roadsign telling how many miles it is to the next town. But a symbol in some way is part of that which it symbolizes, and calls up the feeling associated with it. Thus the cross on a Christian church, the Star of D AVID on a SYNAGOGUE , or the star and crescent on a MOSQUE , for believers in the religion is not just a sign indicating what kind of building this is. The symbol also suggests the whole range of associations that go with the FAITH it symbolizes: the sacrificial death of C HRIST , the sufferings and hopes of Jews, the romance of M UHAMMAD ’s journey from M ECCA to Medina when he was guided only by the light of the crescent moon and a star. Symbols are ways of entry into the culture of a religion: the other churches, syna gogues, and mosques in which one has worshipped, friends and relatives of the faith—the chain of