SACRED QUEST TERM PAPERSACRED QUEST TERM PAPER
BooksAs a child I remember hearing the word “god” come from the adults. Whenever they did this, they had some sort of seriousness to their faces. And so, I did what any other inquisitive child would of done I asked my mom “Mami, what is God?” She didn’t answer me in words, instead she pointed towards the wall, at a cross, and she said “He is god!” For one thing I knew there wasn’t a person on that cross, but I took her word for it.
The first time I visited St Ignatius’s church in San Francisco, I couldn’t help but to stare at the massive Greek Corinthian columns along the pews, the golden elaborate designs throughout the church, and even more the elaborate sacristy with a golden cross. At that instant I remember my love for churches had nothing to do with god or religion or faith, much less a need for praying. My love for churches lies in my profound appreciation for art. I used to go in random churches and see the relics, the paintings, the saints, the statues, the sacristy, the pews, the windows, and even the symbols.
After reading this paper I want the reader to reflect back to the time when they first asked who is god? Or what is god? What was your reaction? Was it satisfactory answer? Did you need more explanation? Those are questions I want the reader to learn after they read this paper. Secondly I want to inform the reader of symbol(s) used in various religions. I will give a brief historical overview of the religion, but the main focus is the expression of art to convey meanings in particular religions. Thirdly, I chose I don’t want the reader just to be expose to my words, the beauty of art is been able to experienced it visually, and so I added illustrations from outside sources to this paper.
Mymain method for producing this paper was research. I researched books and texts in the library. My largest difficulty was finding appropriate books. I usually found non-fiction books with no illustrations on that particular religion. How was I to know the image of a religion that I hardly knew? This is the point where I turned to the books listed in my syllabus. The Illustrated World’s Religions written and compiled by Houston Smith was my guiding source to this paper. Then I researched each religion individually in order to get a wide arrange of sources for each religion. My second dilemma was deciding the order of the religions I was going to discuss. It may sense to order them alphabetically. My ultimate goal is to illustrate the role images play in our understanding of the god in our specified religion. My ultimate story is to convinced the reader that our symbolic mind plays a major role in our faith. Today there are many classified religions and many branches or denominations within one religion. Therefore I limited this topic to four religions.
Islam is Hebrew for “submission to God”, is a major religion founded by the prophet Mohammed circa 610 AD. Mohammed is said to have received from Allah (God) the holy scriptures of Islam called the Koran. A person who practices Islam is called a Muslim and their place of worship is called a mosque. Muslims are devoted to worship of Allah through the Five Pillars, which are; acknowledging that “there is no god, but God, and Mohammed is his prophet”, praying five times a day daily facing Mecca, contributing to the community by paying the zagat, a tax imposed by Mohammed, fasting on Ramadan, the 9th month of the year, making a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia at least once in the lifetime. Muslims hold that God has four fundamental purposes, creation, sustenance, guidance, and judgment. According to the Islam doctrines each individual should cast aside their selfishness, lead a moral lifestyle, and strive for the good of all humanity.
Like Christianity, Islam is full of symbolism. One aid in prayer and meditation is the Tasbih or prayer beads:
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