World Religion Day January 2021
More than 4000 religions and spiritual traditions are currently identified by scholars of religious studies. These span from historic religions such as Bronze Age or Neolithic (think the Ring of Brodgar on Orkney or Stone Henge in Wiltshire), Middle Eastern religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Indic religions such as Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism, East Asian religions such as Confucianism, Shintoism and Taoism, indigenous religions such as traditional and diasporic African religions, through to new religious movements such as post-theistic religions (religions that think about spirituality after belief in God or gods has ended) and naturalistic religions. The world of religions and spiritual traditions is as diverse and fascinating, and potentially problematic, as human beings are.
Religions and spiritual traditions help human beings to think about ‘the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything’ to recall the immortal phrase from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (and reveal my age and misspent youth through this recollection!). They help human beings to explore the big Why of existence and the smaller whys of the contingency of existence that our human consciousness raises. Why does the universe exist? Why do our individual lives exist within the universe? What is the purpose of life, and of our own lives, when so much about the universe and about our own lives is contingent on random events and circumstances?
In this sense religions and spiritual traditions help us to think about the purpose and directions of our individual lives amid the contingency of life itself. This includes the contingency of our parents having met and conceived us at the point when they did which underpins our individual existence. It also includes the contingency of the ecosystems on which the life of the planet depends and on which in turn our lives depend. Those ecosystems of course include pathogens that are able to jump species barriers and mutate as the pandemic continues to remind us very vividly and painfully a year after COVID-19, or SARS-CoV-2, was identified.
World Religions Day is celebrated on or around the third Sunday of January, so 17 January this year. It was announced by members of the Baháí faith in the United States in 1949 (the year after the founding of the NHS in the United Kingdom) and first celebrated by them and others in 1950. Their intention in announcing the day, and establishing its celebration, was to increase understanding of, and respect for, the many different religions and spiritual traditions that exist. They hoped to promote peace between people individually and collectively through increasing understanding and respect between them given that religions and spiritual traditions play such a significant role, directly and indirectly, in shaping the cultures and societies that in turn shape our view of the world and of what is meaningful and ethical, individually and collectively.
Some religions and spiritual traditions focus primarily on orthodoxy, right belief, and some focus primarily on orthopraxis, right practice or right living. Both focuses aim to help human beings to exist on the planet and in the world, and in relation to each other, as spiritual beings: as beings who have meaning, purpose, hope, connection and a sense of transcendence within the immanent or immediate circumstances of their lives. Both focuses recognise, albeit in different ways, that we human beings are spiritual beings who tell stories about the world and about our lives in order to make sense of life and of the contingency of our lives. The stories that we tell ourselves and each other and pass down the generations, in turn help to shape and sustain our spirituality and us as spiritual beings.
What does it mean for people of faith and no faith to celebrate, or mark, World Religions Day in 2021, as we go through the dark days and long nights of winter in the northern hemisphere, and the dark days and long nights of the current critical phase of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Many religions and spiritual traditions use light during the darkest season of the year to symbolise the renewal of life that comes with the return of light as winter gives way to spring. They symbolise the renewal of life itself as a source of hope and encouragement to help their followers through the dark days and long nights. Through offering that source of hope and encouragement, they help their followers to say ‘Hallelujah anyway, Hallelujah anyway’ as we are reminded by the lyrics of a House Gospel song that was written to make sense of the pandemic and released to help others to make sense of the pandemic as one member of the House Gospel Choir said in an interview on Woman’s Hours. Through offering that source of hope and encouragement religions and spiritual traditions helps us to accept the contingency of our lives and to draw on our resilience to live through it and beyond it.
The hope and encouragement, of which light is a source as it symbolises the renewal of life, is bound up with another property of light: to show up that which is hidden by darkness or a lack of light, whether it is dust or inequality and injustice. The COVID-19 pandemic in many ways shines a light on our society and shows up the neglect, inequality and injustice that blight the lives of so many individuals and so many communities, leading to mental ill health, physical ill health, increased mortality and other harms along lines of gender, race and class.
As we go through these dark days and long nights, perhaps try to focus on a source of light that is meaningful to you:
The physical light of the winter sun during a walk or run.
The more metaphysical light of the life that is given and received each time that we respect each other, care for each other and love each other – in response to, and in spite of, the challenging circumstances of the pandemic.
The more metaphysical light of scientists and healthcare professionals from around the world pooling their knowledge and skill to create a vaccine.
As we go through these dark days and long nights, perhaps try to focus on that which the pandemic has shown up to you:
The dust of neglect in our personal lives as we navigate the crisis.
The inequality and injustice that have caused the poor to be disproportionately harmed by the pandemic.
And perhaps ask yourself what you hope for when we get to the other side of the pandemic. The pre-pandemic status quo? A post-pandemic reframing of the social contract in order that we all are respected, cared for and loved because of the humanity that we share through the vulnerability of our bodies? A more specific personal hope for you, your family, friends, neighbours and colleagues?
© 2021 Julia Bebbington Babb