The Encyclopedia of World Religions

448 S theosophy

sophical Society in New York in 1875 by a Russian woman, Helena P. Blavatsky, and an American, Henry Steel Olcott. This movement has spread throughout the world, and has been particularly instrumental in introducing Eastern religious and spiritual ideas to the West. Its basic premise is that there is an “ancient wisdom” underlying all exist ing religions as well as much of science and phi losophy, and its object is to recover and study that wisdom. The ancient wisdom teaches the oneness of all things, the PILGRIMAGE of the soul through many lives and worlds, and the coming and going of lives and universes according to great cycles. The headquarters of the largest theosophical soci ety is in Adyar, India. It has had an influence on modern art and the New Age movement. Theravada Buddhism The “Way of the Elders,” the form of B UDDHISM predominant in Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Theravada is understood by its adherents to be a conservative, traditional style of the reli gion. It follows as its scriptures the Tripitaka, the oldest Buddhist texts. These books give what are undoubtedly the earliest extant versions of the B UDDHA ’s words and teachings. Theravada thus emphasizes such foundational precepts of Bud dhism as the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS , the Eightfold Path, and the FOUR UNLIMITED VIRTUES . Theravadins stress the difference between the SANGHA (the monastic order) and laypeople, and Theravada MONKS AND NUNS are expected to follow strictly the ancient Buddhist monastic rule. A monk can hope, after many lifetimes per haps, to become an arhat, that is, a liberated being, by meditation, especially vipassana meditation, the meditation of analysis. Vipassana helps the medi tator realize that life as ordinarily lived is full of suffering, always changing, and without a separate individual self at its center. Beyond that level of experience lies NIRVANA the opposite of everything changing, suffering, and individual. Nonetheless, having been the religion of the five countries above for many centuries, Theravada Buddhism has popular and folk religion aspects as

After World War II some American schools, colleges, and universities began to teach religion in a different way. This approach has come to be called “religious studies.” Theology recognizes special, religious sources of knowledge (revelation, tradition); religious studies does not. Theology also attempts to state religious truth for members of a religious community; religious studies attempts to state truths about religion that do not require membership in a specific religious community. At the end of the 20th century, there was no agreement on whether theology should have a place in religious studies. In addition, some con servative religious people felt that religious studies did in fact state religious truth for a specific “reli gious” community. It stated truths for a secular community that rejected religion. SIGNIFICANCE Past theologians—A UGUSTINE OF H IPPO , Thomas A QUINAS , Martin L UTHER , and John C ALVIN —have produced masterpieces of European thought and literature. Even theologians who are not so famous make an important contribution to their religions. They state those religions in ways that thinking people find both religiously and intellec tually compelling. Further reading: Helen K. Bond, Seth D. Kunin, and Francesca Aran Murphy, eds., Religious Studies and Theology: An Introduction (New York: New York University Press, 2003); Gary B. Ferngren, ed., Science and Religion: A Histori cal Introduction (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002); Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Chris tian Theology, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: W. B. Eerdmans, 2004). theosophy A modern spiritual movement. The word, meaning divine wisdom, refers generally to schools of religious thought that emphasize mysti cal knowledge of the inner workings of the divine. More specifically, however, it is the name of a modern spiritual movement founded as the Theo