The word 'Shinto' was an answer in my crossword this morning, and it got me thinking.
We've all probably heard of the Japanese national religion of 'Shinto', but do we know anything about it? I went to Wiki to find out more.
Shinto focuses on ritual behaviour rather than doctrine. The philosophers James W. Boyd and Ron G. Williams stated that Shinto is "first and foremost a ritual tradition", while Picken observed that "Shinto is interested not in credenda but in agenda, not in things that should be believed but in things that should be done." The scholar of religion Clark B. Offner stated that Shinto's focus was on "maintaining communal, ceremonial traditions for the purpose of human (communal) well-being". It is often difficult to distinguish Shinto practices from Japanese customs more broadly, with Picken observing that the "worldview of Shinto" provided the "principal source of self-understanding within the Japanese way of life". Nelson stated that "Shinto-based orientations and values lie at the core of Japanese culture, society, and character".
It does sound a much more sensible 'religion' than most. Without a single deity, they see gods (Kami) in all of nature, more as a spirit that should be revered than something to be 'worshipped'.
I think we could all learn from Shinto; then maybe much of the world would stop fighting over 'My god is better than your god', etc.
There is no 'Holy Book' in Shinto, no doctrines, no silly miracle stories. The Japanese live their religion. They are 'practitioners' rather than 'believers'.
I must say; I do like that.
13 comments:
I'm sorry about the highlighted text. I have no idea what happened.
I think the text is highlighted because of the dark background, or we wouldn't be able to see it.
Or not, I seem to have got that wrong! No idea....
Maybe, but it looks horrible.
Cro, That's often the text effect you get when you copy and paste into a Google blog post. I wonder if you copied and pasted it in.
Shinto sounds like an interesting concept.
I copied the detailed bits from Wiki. Is there a way to get rid of the highlighting?
Ah, I thought you did. Not sure how to get rid of the highlighting though. I often see that text effect when I copy and paste something interesting into my Google practice blog.
I'm guessing you might not want to repost the whole thing without copying and pasting.
Not really!
I agree. Shinto seems an eminently sensible creed to follow.
No-one really mentions it. What a shame.
I knew virtually nothing about Shinto so your post is very interesting. I shall tell people I am a follower of Shinto. Or maybe not. Locals consider me foreign enough. They don't need more evidence
To get rid of the highlighted text box, you have to change the colour of your blog background, to one one of a similar colour to the text you are importing. Usually white, then it won't be so obvious.
We all know the name, but very few know anything about it. It's much more interesting that I'd imagined. I shan't be joining either!
Post a Comment