Burkert Early Religions

Many authors have intended to dissect and analyze religions from a single perspective time and time again. While these researchers invariably understand certain aspects about a given religion, they tend to gloss over some of the more controversial and questionable activities that are practiced in other religions. In Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions, Walter Burkert attempts to analyze common threads found in early religions in an attempt to find out the underlying principles around the formation of religious beliefs. While some are more likely than others to be commonplace, such as practices of celibacy and sacrifice, others parallel behaviors of the society in which they were founded. In this piece, Burkert looks …show more content…
As he explains, sacrifice is an essential part of all religions whether it be in the form of sacrificing virgins to a God or giving up a part of oneself in order to make a pact with their deities. He goes further, however, to question whether or not there is a reason that religions use sacrifice in an attempt to commune with the divine and the holy. As he goes further into his analysis, Burkert continues to question whether or not there is a reason that so many religions have perspectives that mirror one another due to one reason or another. He begins with the traits of early religions that were founded thousands of years ago and then moves forward in time and to different locations around the globe to find the ways that religions grow and …show more content…
While all religions believe that their own perspective on the natural and metaphysical world are correct, it is through this reading that the audience can learn about the entire process of religion formation and the ways that different people can be religious around the world. As systems of belief vary greatly depending on the area of the world, society in which they occur, and the way that different cultures understand one another, there is no true right or wrong answer on what is considered acceptable. As a result, the differing perspectives make it to where the audience can learn a great deal about how all religions mirror one another in certain aspects of their formation. For example, why did ancient religions practice human sacrifice while modern Catholics perform communion in an attempt to understand the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? In both instances it is the communion with the divine that makes these practices acceptable as one is considered murder by some standards and the other is often referred to as cannibalism as it s to represent the flesh and blood of savior. All religions evolve along similar paths in terms of how they depict the divine and how to commune with the holy spirit, and