Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
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Category of Belief

This page groups beliefs by the kind of claim they make. Wikipedia notes that "in epistemology, philosophers use the term belief to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false." Browsing by category-of-belief lets a visitor compare beliefs that share the same basic kind of claim.

Facts
Overview
What Defines This Grouping
Rules a tradition states about what may be eaten and how it must be prepared. They rest on unrelated logics and are not one rule: kashrut and halal are laws of permitted species and slaughter; Jain and much Hindu abstention follows from ahimsa, non-injury, and reaches foods those laws never touch; the Latter-day Saint Word of Wisdom rests on a nineteenth-century revelation. 2
Status
Standing as a Comparative Category
A standard analytic category in the study of religion 3
Directory
Category
Beliefs & Restrictions 1
Learn More
The dietary restrictions

This group holds dietary restrictions, the beliefs that govern permitted and forbidden food and drink, from the kosher and halal laws of Judaism and Islam to the vegetarianism of several Indian traditions. Food rules are a visible and daily marker of religious identity and obedience.

The browser will find the dietary restrictions the atlas gathers. The entries describe each rule and its rationale, noting the tradition that observes it.

Category of Belief
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
John Bowker (ed.), Oxford University Press, 1997View the Source
3. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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