CHARACTERISTICS:

1. PRE-TECHNOLOGICAL WORLD VIEW2. ALL-ENCOMPASSING NATURE OF RELIGION

3. LACK OF RIGID BOUNDARIES BETWEEN THE SPIRITUAL AND SECULAR DIMENSIONS OF

LIFE4. USE OF ORAL RATHER THAN WRITTEN CANON

5. ENACTMENT OF MYTH IN RITUAL

Primal Religions

Pre-Technological World View

In a technological environment, the world is divided up into separate realms of experience that are stored in separate pockets or files in the mind: work-leisure, job-home, physical-spiritual, secular-religious, public-private.

This can be understood at the result of industrialisation which took people out of agrarian communities in order to fuel urban factories etc

This process meant people’s work and family lives became very disjointed and separate – we moved away from a more connected way of living.

Even religion became something that happened in the private sphere. Has this continued today??

A Holistic World View

The primal consciousness has not been altered by the conditions just described.

The primal world is not fragmented but remains whole.

All of life represents the sacred: Divine worship, for example, would not be regarded as an "activity" to be separated or isolated from other "activities."

Life as lived is a sacred "activity" in and of itself. One worships as one breathes. Work and play (not "leisure") are not so much opposites but simply two sides of the same coin.

Nature/Land

The physical location of the community is the spiritual pivot of the universe: eg this is where the Spirit Beings walked over the mountains. This waterhole is where I was created and will return to when I die (indigenous Australian)

The primal consciousness is identified with the earth in this particular place. In other words, one's physical place is one's spiritual base (consider the sacred site of Uluru).

Word in Yolgnu Matha for Mother and land are the same word!

A sense of awe and reverence is expressed for the “principle of life” underlying all in nature

Oral Canon: set of sacred oral stories

Where do ancestors live? In the soul or in a text?

There are advantages and disadvantages to each.

Words have life and breath. Stories may change and evolve, but they are always relational events (“And then what happened?!”).

Texts, on the other hand, preserve story, tradition, information, etc. as a constant. But how often do we go and read them? We often seem content simply to know they are there safe and sound (i.e., in the library).

Sense of Timelessness

Time is better thought of as "timelessness."

In the West or in technological cultures, time is linear.

This implies that time and history are "going somewhere," i.e., in fulfillment of a destiny or purposefulness.

Primal time is not linear but eternal.

"Eternal" does not mean "forever," as the idea of forever is in itself linear (i.e., going on and on). Eternity simply "is."

This "isness" or beingness is the stable, unchanging backdrop within which the gods and ancestors simply "are."

It is encountered in any number of ways, such as dance and song, art, etc.

Primal people may indeed speak of "the Past," but this should be understood not as chronological but causal: the past is not "back then" but closer to the original Source of things.

Primal Religions are Mythical

The myths are “timeless fundamental beliefs” which are set forth in the form of stories.

The myths also serve as exemplary models, offer taboos re incest for example Lightning Man in Kakady National Park

Ritualistic

Rituals may be:

1. Re-enactments of myths: rituals and rites of passage are rehearsals or performances of the original creative act.

Creation, therefore, is not a chronological event that took place"back then," but an ever-presentness ie the Concept of The Dreaming

2. Prescribed celebrations for great moments of life ie. Initiation ceremony

Rhythmic

Rhythm is a cyclical view of life in which:Successful living is achieved through

harmony and balanceAnything upsetting the balance and

harmony is a problem to be avoided or corrected

Differences Between Primal Religions and The Biblical Worldview

Primal Religions have multiple gods, Christianity has only one God

Primal religions believe that gods and humans belong to one cosmic system, each depending on the other.

Christianity believes that God is unique and not dependent on anything but him/herself

Primal religions mix magic and religion

Primal Religions and Smart’s Dimensions

Which of the dimensions do Primal Religions seem to possess? Why?

Are there some dimensions that you think Primal Religions would emphasise slightly less..and which might they emphasise more”