12.2 Local, national and universal religions

Once the great religious figures have had their experiences and people started following them, forming religious traditions, there appeared individuals such as Ananda and king Asoka in Buddhism, and St Paul and Emperor Constantine in Christianity. These figures were instrumental in forming organisations, that grew through the ages into the many different religious organisations we have today.

However, in some societies such as African traditional ones, religion has always been so interwoven with other aspects of life that there was no need for separate organisations – religion in such societies is mostly practised in the home in any case. It will be interesting to see how this will develop now that African religion is experiencing such a reawakening among African people that have been thoroughly westernised.

One way of classifying religious organisations (a typology ) is whether they are local, national or universal religions.

Local religions

These religions are usually found in parts of the world that are relatively untouched by modernisation and technology. They mostly do not have sacred scriptures and the tradition is passed on to the new generations by oral transmission. Authority lies with the male head of a household, the healer/diviner, and the tribal chief. It is estimated that there are more than a 1000 such groups in Africa alone, and many more in South America and other parts of the world.

National religions

These national religions have their own organisations and often function as separate parts of society. They have specialists such as divine kings, priests and healers who are higher in status than the ordinary citizens. In ancient Egypt there was a pharaoh who was not only the ruler of the country, but also a god and a priest. The Chinese emperor was called "the Son of Heaven" and apart from ruling the country, his task was to keep the orderly running of the world at large going by performing Confucianist rituals. Similarly, in Shinto the emperor was seen (until 1945) not only as the ruler of Japan, but as a god. When Japan and China's systems of government changed during the last century, these religions were weakened in significant ways.

Universal religions

Christianity, from its small beginnings in the Middle East two thousand years ago has spread over most of the world and more than 1.5 billion people are estimated to identify themselves as Christians.

Similarly, Islam had within a hundred years of its beginnings already spread to most of the countries of the Middle East and today it has majorities in countries from Morocco to Indonesia. It also has almost one billion adherents and is the second largest religion in the world.

Buddhism has about half a billion adherents worldwide. It has historically been less assertive in its missionary efforts than Christianity or Islam, but it is nevertheless a universal religion that welcomes newcomers from all societies.

Problems in the local/national/universal typology

Judaism is a religion to which one basically belongs because you were born to Jewish parents. But it is possible (though not easy) to convert to Judaism, and Judaism has been known actively to look for converts, even if that was long ago. Is it a local, national or universal religion?

Above, we say that "a Zulu cannot convert and become a Xhosa". But what about Johnny Clegg, the musician known all over South Africa as "the white Zulu"? There are other examples of people who have endeared themselves to members of local religions and have been adopted by them. There are even white sangomas (African traditional healers)! Does this mean that the local/national/universal classification scheme is invalid?

No, it just shows that reality sees no need to conform to the schemes human beings devise to understand it. Typologies such as this are more or less useful, once we take note of all the exceptions. The relationship between truth and usefulness is a complicated one. In fact, this way of classifying religion is starting to look outmoded. But no replacement has been widely adopted yet and you still need to know the terminology.