Religious Changes as a Result of Culture

Today in class we talked about the interplay between spirituality and culture that we observed in Alter’s The Book of Psalms. In a few of my previous blog posts I mentioned various ways that religion affects cultural perceptions and social structure, but I skimmed over the instances in which religion is influenced by environmental (cultural/socioeconomic) pressures. Specifically, in my last post I mentioned that the same religious ideas can be interpreted in numerous ways as cultures change and shift perspectives. However, I would like to use this post to comment on some of my personal observations regarding the changes that culture can elicit in a religion.

This post was prompted by an article that I read earlier this year (found here). To briefly summarize, the Vatican recently released a list of actions that are now considered sinful behavior for adherents of the Catholic faith. These sins include polluting the environment and some forms of genetic manipulation. This is quite a stretch from the original seven deadly sins of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. However, as the article states, “the Vatican says it is time to modernize the list to fit a global world.”

This abrupt change is quite interesting, because before I took Rlst 100 I did not anticipate that religions would change their fundamental doctrines to function more effectively. However, if religion is a dynamic system that allows people to interpret and give meaning to their existence, it makes sense that religion can and should change to fit the environment in which it is practiced. The true nature of religion, the interpretation and usage of idea (not the ideas themselves), is readily apparent when one looks at religion this way; people are sometimes willing to change their religion as it becomes necessary.

Although it seems counterintuitive to change the traditions and regulations that have operated effectively for such a long period of time, it is this change that is partly responsible for the longevity of certain religions. If religions were static institutions they would quickly become obsolete, because society readily develops new technologies and perspectives for interacting with the world. For example, several years ago when inoculations for chickenpox were becoming available, there was some concern that the vaccines were tested using human embryos. This was a clear violation of Roman Catholic doctrine of the time, as research on human embryos was considered immoral, and “the tainted tree bears tainted fruits.” However, the church made an exception, because the good that could come out of inoculating infants outweighed the moral contradiction in Catholic law. It is changes like these that allow religion to adapt to the ever-evolving cultural climate, and this, in part, is why various religions have been so successful at spreading and maintaining a global presence.