Religious syncretism: Difference between revisions

{{seefurther|Hellenistic religion}}

[[Gnosticism]] is identified as an early form of syncretism{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} that challenged the beliefs of [[early Christianity|early Christians]].{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} Gnostic [[Dualistic cosmology|dualism]] posited that only spiritual or invisible things were good, and that material or visible things were evil. Orthodox (mainstream) Christians have always insisted that matter is essentially good because they believe that [[God]] created all things, both spiritual and material,<ref>{{citation |url= https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/credo.htm |title= The Apostles Creed and The Nicene Creed }}</ref> and said that it was "very good".<ref>{{citation |url= http://biblehub.com/genesis/1-31.htm |title= Genesis1:31 }}</ref> [[Simon Magus]] has been identified as one of the early proponents of Gnosticism.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eX3oFohttG8C&q=Epiphanius+of+Salamis+simon+magus&pg=PA45|title=Simon Magus in Patristic, Medieval And Early Modern Traditions|first=Alberto|last=Ferreiro|date=5 May 2018|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-9004144958|via=Google Books}}</ref>

{{seefurther|Second Temple Judaism|Hellenistic Judaism|Christianity and Judaism}}

{{seefurther|Christian influences on the Islamic world|Din-i Ilahi|Iranian religions#Medieval period}}

The [[Druze]]s integrated elements of [[Ismaili]] [[Islam]] with [[Gnosticism]] and [[Platonism]]. The [[Druze]] faith also incorporates some elements of [[Christianity]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Syria and the New World Order| first= Neil |last= Quilliam|year= 1999| isbn= 9780863722493| page =42 |publisher=Michigan University press}}</ref> Due to the [[Christianity and Druze|Christian influnceinfluence on Druze faith]], two [[Christian saints]] become the [[Druze]]'s favorite venerated figures: [[Saint George]] and Saint [[Elijah]].<ref name="Beaurepaire">{{cite book|title=Religious Interactions in Europe and the Mediterranean World: Coexistence and Dialogue from the 12th to the 20th Centuries|first=Pierre-Yves|last=Beaurepaire|year=2017|isbn=9781351722179|pages=310–314|publisher=Taylor & Francis}}</ref> According to scholar Ray Jabre Mouawad the Druzes appreciated the two saints for their bravery: [[Saint George and the Dragon|Saint George because he confronted the dragon]] and Saint Elijah because he competed with the pagan priests of [[Baal]] and won over them.<ref name="Beaurepaire"/> In both cases the explanations provided by Christians is that Druzes were attracted to [[Military saint|warrior saints]] that resemble their own militarized society.<ref name="Beaurepaire"/>

{{seefurther|Indian religions|East Asian religions|Buddhism and Eastern religions|Hinduism in Southeast Asia}}

{{seefurther|Syncretistic controversy|Christian new religious movements}}

{{seefurther|Afro-American religion}}

[[Xueta Christianity]] is a [[syncretism|syncretic]] religion on the island of [[MajorcaMallorca]], [[Spain]], followed by the [[Xueta]] people, who are supposedly descendants of persecuted [[Jew]]s who were [[conversos|converts to Christianity]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.monografias.com/trabajos12/elcrisju/elcrisju.shtml|title=El cristianismo judío de un chueta pobre|work=Monografias.com|date=9 February 2003 |access-date=10 November 2011|language=es}}</ref> Traditionally, The church of Saint Eulalia and the church of Montesión ([[Mount Zion]]) in [[Palma de Mallorca]] have been used by the families of Jewish converts ([[Xueta]]s), and both are the centers of Xueta religious ritual life.<ref name="bbc.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-49374489|title=The New Yorker reviving Jewish life on a holiday island|date =18 August 2019|publisher=BBC}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.commentary.org/articles/robert-graves/a-dead-branch-on-the-tree-of-israel-the-xuetas-of-majorca/|title="A Dead Branch on the Tree of Israel" The Xuetas of Majorca|date =17 February 1957|publisher=Commentary}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Those of the Street - The Catholic-Jews of Mallorca: a Study in Urban Cultural Change|first=Kenneth|last=Moore|year=1976|isbn=9780674037830|page=46|publisher=Michigan University Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Appetites and Identities: An Introduction to the Social Anthropology of Western Europe|first=Sara|last=Delamont|year=2002|isbn=9781134924745|page=114|publisher=Taylor & Francis|quote=The Xueta had their own church—St Eulalia's—in their barrio, with a Xueta priest, and their own cofraternity (the Cross of Calvary) to march in the Holy Week procession.}}</ref> The Palma's Mont Zion Church was once the main [[synagogue]] of [[Palma de Mallorca]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-49374489|title='Xuetas' Return to Their Roots in MajorcaMallorca|date =9 January 2023|publisher=Tabletmag}}</ref> Is estimated that there are roughly 20,000 [[Xueta|Chuetas]] living on the island of [[MajorcaMallorca]] today, and they practiced strict [[endogamy]] by marrying only within their own group.<ref name="bbc.com"/>

{{quoteblockquote|''"In other parts of the Province, too, traces of Hindu festivals are noticeable among the Muhammadans. In the western Punjab, [[Vaisakhi|Baisakhi]], the new year's day of the Hindus, is celebrated as an agricultural festival, by all Muhammadans, by racing bullocks yoked to the well gear, with the beat of tom-toms, and large crowds gather to witness the show, The race is called Baisakhi and is a favourite pastime in the well-irrigated tracts. Then the processions of [[Ta'zieh#Ta'zīya in South Asia|Tazias]], in [[Muharram]], with the accompaniment of tom-toms, fencing parties and bands playing on flutes and other musical instruments (which is disapproved by the orthodox Muhammadans) and the establishment of [[Sebil (fountain)|Sabils]] (shelters where water and [[Sharbat (beverage)|sharbat]] are served out) are clearly influenced by similar practices at Hindu festivals, while the illuminations on occasions like the [[Mela Chiraghan|Chiraghan fair]] of [[Shalimar Gardens, Lahore|Shalamar (Lahore)]] are no doubt practices answering to the holiday-making instinct of the converted Hindus."''<ref name="punjab1911">{{cite web|url=https://www.jstor.org/site/SAOA/SouthAsiaOpenArchivesSAOA/CensusReports-1911-26575903/|title=Census of India 1911. Vol. 14, Punjab. Pt. 1, Report.|access-date=21 July 2022}}</ref>{{rp|174}}

''"The Meos (Muhammadans) of the eastern Punjab still participate in the observance of the [[Holi]] and [[Diwali]] festivals. On the latter occasion they paint the horns, hoofs, etc., of their bullocks and join in the general rejoicings"''.<ref name="punjab1911"/>{{rp|174}}

{{SeeFurther|Bonbibi|Baul}}

{{QuoteBlockquote|text=''"That both were originally of the same race seems sufficiently clear, not only from comparisons to physical characteristics, but from the similarity of their language, manners and customs. The Bengali Musalman is still in many respects a [[Hindu]]. Caste distinction, one of the main objects of which would seem to be to prescribe the limits of the jus connubii, are to a certain extent as prevalent and as fully recognised among the Mohammedans of Bengal, as among Hindus. As Buchanan pointed out sixty years ago, they not unfrequently meet at the same shrine, both invoking the same object of worship though perhaps under different names. Instead of commending a letter "In the name of God" (which is the orthodox fashion), the Bengali Musalman will superscribe the name of some Hindu deity. He speaks the same language, and uses precisely the same nomenclature and the same expressions of thought as his Hindu neighbor. Their very names are identical, the prefix of Shaikh alone distinguishing the convert to [[Islam]]."''|author=Excerpts from "The Census of [[Bengal]]", 1874 AD|source=Page 87}}

{{blockquote|{{smaller|''"Proverbially elastic though the term is, [[Hinduism]] is stretched almost to breaking point in [[Baluchistan Agency|Baluchistan]]. It is not merely that the Hinduism of the domiciled Hindu families widely different from the Hinduism they see practised among the alien immigrants; there is precious little in their religion that would pass for Hinduism in more enlightened parts of India. It almost looks as if the singular freedom from persecution which the old Hindu families have always enjoyed at the hands of their Musalman over-lords had given Islam greater scope to impart its subtle influence to their inward beliefs and outward practices. Knowing no sacred books but the [[Sikh scriptures]], and with [[Hindu priest|priests]] ([[Brahmin|Brahmans]] though they may be) as ignorant of the [[Shastra|Shastras]]s as themselves, these benighted Hindus have allowed nearly all their [[List of Hindu festivals|rites and ceremonies]] to become coloured with an Islamic tinge. They reverently resort to [[Mosque|Muhammadan shrines]]; they invoke Muhammadan saints; in times of trouble they are glad of the help of charm mongering [[Mullah|mullahsmullah]]s. It is not uncommon to find them observing [[Fasting in Islam|Muhammadan fasts]], or participating in the [[Muharram]] and other [[Islamic holidays|Muhammadan festivals]]."'' <ref name="baluchistan1911"/>{{rp|57–58}}<br>''"The Hindus of [[Kalat, Pakistan|Kalat town]] — undoubtedly among the oldest in the community — claim to be offshoots of the mysterious Sewa dynasty that ruled in Kalat centuries before the [[Brahui people|Brahui]] Confederacy took shape. But though the [[Bhatia caste|Bhatia]] of [[Las Bela (princely state)|Las Bela]] punctiliously refer their advent to the year 708 A.D., and [[Lehri tribe|the Hindus of Lahri]] tell in all good faith of their journeyings from Aleppo with Chakar the Rind, the early history of these old Hindu families is hopelessly befogged. Everything, however, seems to point to the western [[Punjab|Panjab]] and [[Sindh|Sind]] as the countries from which most of them came, though isolated families in [[Nushki District|Nushki]] may have immigrated by way of [[Afghanistan]], and a few others may have wandered in from the far corners of [[India]]. Originally they may have been as diverse as the villages from which they came and the dates of their coming. Today the old Hindu families form a more or less homogeneous community. In particular customs no doubt they vary considerably; but common environment has set its common mark on them all. And it is in the effect of an alien environment on Hindus and [[Hindu caste]] that the main interest in these old trading families of Baluchistan is centred."'' <ref name="baluchistan1911"/>{{rp|175}}<br>''"Except in [[Quetta]], where the Hindu community has become so overgrown that conditions are abnormal, neither caste nor sub-caste enters into their composition: there is nothing incongruous or unusual in a [[Panchayati raj|Panchayat]] subscribing impartially to a [[Sikhism|Sikh]] [[Dharamshala (type of building)|Dharamsala]] and to the worship of a [[Devi]] or of Darya Pir; or in a Panchayat (like that of [[Chohar Kot|Chuharkot]] in [[Barkhan]]) which is composed almost wholly of [[Arora|Aroras]]s having a [[Brahmin|Brahman]] as its president. In other words, a Panchayat is a Panchayat not of caste-members but of the whole body of Hindus in a village community. It is indeed almost always sheer waste of time to question a member of one of these old Hindu families regarding his caste. Brahman he knows and Musalman he knows; and it is enough for him that he is neither the one nor the other, but a Hindu pure and simple. Most of the families are undoubtedly Arora; some few are very possibly [[Khatri]]; the [[Bhatia caste|Bhatia]] of [[Las Bela (princely state)|Las Bela]] are probably [[Rajput]]. But these are distinctions too nice for a local Hindu; it is more than possible that he may never have heard the terms before. Nevertheless, though his mind may be a blank as to the name of his caste, he can sometimes give the name of his sub-caste—possibly a hoary name like [[Ahuja]], possibly a newly coined name like Ramzai or Panjazai, modelled on the name of a tribal section. But it is merely a matter of names after all. The Ramzai and the Panjazai and the Ahuja may have each some cherished peculiarities of their own. But such peculiarities strike no discord between them. The old Hindu families are a brotherhood of equals; among themselves they know no distinctions valid enough to influence the intercourse of everyday life."'' <ref name="baluchistan1911">{{cite web|url=https://www.jstor.org/site/SAOA/SouthAsiaOpenArchivesSAOA/CensusReports-1911-26575903/|title=CENSUS OF INDIA, 1911 VOLUME IV BALUCHISTAN |access-date=21 January 2024}}</ref>{{rp|176}}}}

{{blockquote|{{smaller|''"The names returned as those of [[Hindu sects]] are very numerous amounting in all to 359 different entries. Many of those are [[Caste system in India|caste]] and [[tribe]]s such as [[Agarwal]], [[Arora]], [[Brahmin|Brahman]], [[Bhat]], [[Bhatiara]], [[Chamar]], [[Chuhra]], [[Dhobi]], [[Dogras|Dogra]], [[Indian Gorkha|Gorkha]], [[Jats|Jat]], Meo and the like. Some indicate occupations of occupational castes as for instance, [[Zamindar]], [[Mahajan]], [[Bhishti]], [[Mallaah|Mallah]], [[Nai (caste)|Nai]] and [[Hajjam]]. A good many more are clan or family names like [[Kapoor]], [[Saraswat Brahmin|Sarsut]], [[Mohyal Brahmin|Muhial]], [[Uttaradi Math|Utradi]] and [[Janjua]]."'' <ref name="NWFP1911"/>{{rp|75}}<br>''"[[Hinduism]], as it exists in the [[North-West Frontier Province]], is but a pale reflection of the system which flourishes in the [[United Provinces (1937–1950)|United Provinces]] and other areas to the east. Even of the [[Derajat]], where, as we have seen, the Hindu population is proportionately most numerous, the writer of the [[Dera Ismail Khan District|Dera Ismail Khan]] [[Gazetteer]] notes, "the Hindus of this district are less particular in the matter of caste prejudices and observances than down country Hindus. Most of them will drink water that has been carried in Mussaks (skins for carrying water) or out of [[Lota (vessel)|lotas]] detached from a working well. They habitually ride on [[donkey]]s and do a multitude of other things which an [[Orthodox Hinduism|orthodox Hindu]] would shrink from. All [[idolatrous]] observances are kept very much in the background. Except a few small images (thakurs) kept in their [[mandirs]] they have no [[Cult image|idols]] at all. Nor is it their habit to take their [[Gods in Hinduism|gods]] about in [[procession]]. No one, in fact, sees anything of their worship. They burn their dead, and throw the ashes into the Indus. They always keep a few of the bones, and take them, when the opportunity offers, to the [[Ganges]]... There are a good many [[Dharamshala (type of building)|dharamsalas]], [[mandirs]], and dawaras at Dera Ismail Khan and in the cis-Indus tehsils"."'' <ref name="NWFP1911"/>{{rp|93}}<br>''"The marriage customs of the [[Hindus]] have been influenced by [[Islam]], notably in regard to the age of [[Marriage in Hinduism|marriage]]... Hindu rules regarding [[Communal meal|commensality]] between different [[Castes in India|castes]] have been relaxed... any distinct caste organization is virtually non-existent in rural areas. Outside the towns Hindus still live in a condition of dependance on their [[Mohammedan|Mohammadan]] overlords. The [[Arora]], the [[Khatri]], or the [[Bhatia caste|Bhatia]] shop-keeper in a village is a hamsaya of the proprietors of the land; that is to say, he lives rent free in a house which does not belong to him, and in return for this, and for being allowed to reside unmolested in the village, has to render certain services to his protectors."'' <ref name="NWFP1911">{{cite web|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/saoa.crl.25394102|title=CENSUSCensus OFof INDIA,India 1911. VOLUMEVol. XIII13, NORTHNorth-WESTwest FRONTIERFrontier Province : Part I, Report; part II, Tables|jstor=saoa.crl.25394102 PROVINCE|access-date=21 January 2024 |date=1912 }}</ref>{{rp|93–94}}}}

{{seefurther|Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion}}

The [[Baháʼí Faith|Baháʼís]] follow [[Bahá'u'lláh]], a prophet whom they consider a successor to [[Muhammad]], [[Jesus]], [[Moses]], [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]], [[Zoroaster]], [[Krishna]] and [[Abraham]]. This acceptance of other religious founders has encouraged some to regard the Baháʼí religion as a syncretic faith. However, Baháʼís and the [[Baháʼí literature]] explicitly reject this view. Baháʼís consider Bahá'u'lláh's revelation an independent, though related, revelation from God. Its relationship to previous [[Dispensationalism|dispensations]] is seen as analogous to the relationship of Christianity to Judaism. They regard beliefs held in common as evidence of truth, [[Progressive revelation (Baháʼí)|progressively revealed by God]] throughout human history, and culminating in (at present) the Baháʼí revelation. Baháʼís have their own [[Sacred text|sacred scripture]], interpretations, laws, and practices that, for Baháʼís, supersede those of other faiths.<ref name=PSEncyclo2000IA>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://archive.org/details/conciseencyclope0000smit/page/276 |title=progressive revelation<!--- yes, it's lowercase ---> |pages=276–277, 291 |last=Smith |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Smith (historian) |encyclopedia=A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baháʼí Faith |year=2000 |edition=illustrated, reprint |publisher=[[Oneworld Publications]] |place=[[Oxford]] |isbn=1-85168-184-1 |via=[[Internet Archive]] |url-access=limited}}</ref><ref>Stockman, Robert (1997). ''[http://bahai-library.com/articles/rg.syncretism.html The Baháʼí Faith and Syncretism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709021654/http://bahai-library.com/articles/rg.syncretism.html |date=2011-07-09 }}''.</ref>

Recently developed religious systems that exhibit marked syncretism include the [[Afro-American religion|African diasporic religions]] [[Candomblé]], [[West African Vodun|Vodou]] and [[Santería]], which analogize various [[Yorùbá mythology|Yorùbá]] and other [[List of African deities|African deities]] to the [[Saints of the Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic saints]]. Some sects of Candomblé have also incorporated [[Native American deities]], and [[Umbanda]] combined African deities with [[Kardecist spiritism|Kardecist]] [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualism]].