Explain How the Characteristics of Religion Interact to Create a Dynamic Living Religion

There are many characteristics which interact to create a dynamic living religion. These characteristics include ethics and morals, believers and beliefs, rituals and sacred texts. Other characteristics, according to scholars, may include structures, sacred sites and times and sacred symbols/figures.

Most religions include belief in the supernatural in some other “Ultimate Reality” beyond, yet connected to, human experience and existence. Myths and stories are often used by teachers, leaders and followers of religions to convey central beliefs as well as help explain the transcendent and/or supernatural. Beliefs and believers are what sustains a religion, thus it is essential for a religion to propagate themselves through the recruitment of new members and procreation within the community of the faith. Each religion holds certain core beliefs and worldviews which ensure the unification of a religion which can keep a religions identity and sense of community alive. Hindus, for instance, acknowledge 330 million gods and goddesses and one Ultimate Reality and/or universal spirit, the Brahman, which is considered beyond all names and forms. Without beliefs and believers, a religion would not be able sustained enough to even be able to exist.

Ethics and morals are another significant and essential characteristic of religion. Ethics is the practical application of a belief, which correlates to the religious characteristic of beliefs and believers itself. It regards and concerns one's behaviour and relationship with all of humanity, which is considered appropriate. Morals and ethics clarify what is right and wrong and what the believers/followers of a faith should do freely or should refrain completely from doing. Being a Buddhist includes the vows of poverty and chastity as well as dietary restrictions which is applied often to monks. Another example would include the general moral codes of Hindu which is ‘sadharana dharma’. It consists if codes regarding truthfulness, non-injury and generosity among other virtues. These Ethics, along with many other characteristics, in turn, create a dynamic living religion.

A dynamic religion is one characterised by energy, ambition, new ideas and practical achievements followed by a living religion which is full of life and never bereft of ideas. It is practical, real and immersed in - not removed from or afraid of - everyday human existence. As discussed earlier, following the religion of Hinduism requires beliefs and believers of the 330 million deities including following the moral codes and ethics (sadharana dharma); these characteristics collaborate to create a dynamic living religion.

In conclusion, religion has many characteristics which can interact and thus, create a dynamic living religion. A dynamic living religion is one which can attune to the changing environment and modern situation without losing its central and