Getting started  (Page 2/4)

And they saw with amazement the coming of the Children of Ilúvatar, the Elves and men, the Firstborn and the Followers. And amid all the splendours of the world, Ilúvatar chose a place for their habitation in the midst of the innumerable stars.

The following questions can now be asked:

• Would you regard this as a religious text? Why? Or why not?
• Where would you place it in terms of the historical phases of religion?
• To which "family of religion" would this religion belong?

Clearly, this is a religious text. It describes a supreme creator god called Ilúvatar and an unspecified number of lesser beings, who are however much more than human ("angels"), one of whom rebels against the creator and tries in vain to create a flaw in the creator’s plan (a "devil"). It describes the creation of the world and how humans and other beings were created in order to live there. The themes are clearly religious.

We do not really know if this text was only an artistic creation or whether it really functioned as part of the religion of the Siberian civilisation. But perhaps we then found out that the archaeologists also found little statues arranged in a circle around a much larger central statue, with one place in the circle unoccupied. Now we are much more confident that this text was indeed part of a religion, for the statues seem to depict the events it describes. We do some more investigations and discover that, until very recently, the people who live in the area today told very similar myths - even the names are more or less the same. Slowly, we can start to build up a picture of the beliefs of these people.

In terms of the historical development of religions, this religion would most likely fit into "Religion IV: the religions of early state societies with writing” (what this means will be described in a later chapter). We base this conclusion on the fact that it was written down on a scroll, and that it had been found in a tomb along with other objects that show evidence of a high level of civilisation.

In terms of the "families" or "clusters" of religions, we would probably have to say that this belongs with the "Religions of the Near East" (again, something we will explain later. For now, just go with it). The clear indications of monotheism (worship of a single God) and the creation of the world from nothing in our text allow for no other conclusion. The fact that Siberia is rather far away from the Near East is irritating, of course, but perhaps further excavations will show a historical link.

How would we introduce this new religion to our students? In reality, of course, we would want to know a lot more about it before we did such a thing, but since this is an imaginary example, let us proceed! We would neither have to believe in Ilúvatar ourselves, nor would we need to denounce this religion as an example of "absurd heathenism". We would approach the subject with great sensitivity to the fact that these were once the dearly-held beliefs of people. To teach religion takes respect and open-mindedness, but also a tough-minded insistence on presenting the facts of the case.