The Encyclopedia of World Religions

78 S cats and religion

church’s decoration as well as the “arms’ that sur round the plaza in front of it were meant to draw people back into the Catholic Church after the Protestant R EFORMATION . Many people consider Gothic cathedrals to be the most sublime cathedrals of all. The Gothic style began in the area around Paris, France, in the mid-1100s. Gothic cathedrals are long, nar row, and tall. On the inside tall columns support the roof. On the outside a kind of support called a flying buttress supports the roof and the walls. Gothic cathedrals generally have arches that come to a point at their doorways, windows, and interior roofs. Earlier cathedrals had arches that were round. Gothic cathedrals also have large windows filled with stained glass. The cathedral at Chartres, France, is especially renowned for its stained glass. Two extremely large church buildings in North America reflect the attitude that Gothic is the supreme form of the cathedral. One is St. John the Divine in New York City; the other is the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. cats and religion The symbolism and role of the cat in religion. The cat, an animal at once mysterious, independent, and familiar, has long been felt to have special spiritual power. In ancient Egypt, the GODDESS of pleasure, Bast, was symbolized by a cat, and her temple was full of sacred cats, which were mummified after death ( see E GYPTIAN RELIGION ). On the other hand, in medieval Europe, cats, especially black ones, were sometimes thought to be demonic, envoys or even personifications of the devil and famil iars of witches, and sacrificed to ward off ill-for tune. The H ALLOWEEN black cat is a carryover from those unhappy days for cats. In I SLAM , the prophet M UHAMMAD is said to have been especially fond of cats and so they are well regarded. In Japan it has been considered bad luck to kill a cat. For many people in the modern world, a pet dog or cat remains their closest contact with the wonder and mystery of the animal world. See also ANIMALS AND RELIGION .

celibacy The state of remaining unmarried and abstaining from sex for religious reasons. In some religions living in a state of celibacy is considered the way of perfection and the state appropriate to its leaders or its most dedicated practitioners. Examples of religious celibates are priests and MONKS AND NUNS of R OMAN C ATHOLICISM ; bishops, monks, and nuns in E ASTERN O RTHODOX C HRISTI ANITY ; Buddhist monks and nuns; Taoist monks; and Hindu sadhus or “holy men.” Other religions, such as C ONFUCIANISM , J UDAISM , I SLAM , and P ROT ESTANTISM in C HRISTIANITY have (with a few excep tions) taught marriage as a virtual obligation, or at least a state that in no way diminishes religious virtue and should be open to all regardless of reli gious role. At the same time, what might be called “spon taneous” celibacy has occurred even in those faiths, in the case of persons so immersed in a reli gious life that marriage was quietly dismissed as a personal option. Examples have been (according to some scholars) Jews of the ancient Essene or Qumran communities, certain Muslim Sufi mystics ( see S UFISM ), and Protestants such as the Shakers or John Chapman (“Johnny Appleseed”), or many dedicated female Protestant missionaries and dea conesses. Sometimes deeply religious persons of homosexual tendency have found celibacy the best way of life for them. Sometimes celibacy is entered as a temporary state, as in the case of young men in some Theravada Buddhist countries, who become monks for a year or so before marrying and estab lishing themselves in the world. Sometimes celi bacy is a kind of SACRIFICE or offering to G OD . Advocates of the value of celibacy say that it allows one to channel sexual energy into spiritual advancement, that it frees one to practice spiritual ity and serve others selflessly without having to allow for family obligations, and that it is a way of attaining egolessness because it is a form of self-denial that can also support holy poverty and obedience. It sets an example of a way of life that is above the passions and obligations of the world and ordinary human nature. The celibate ideally can live as a completely free person, free from self and from entanglements, completely offered to