High Religion and Low Religion

2012-08-10

There are two major forms of religion. High religion is one of them, which often concern themselves with a religious text or texts, ethics, and are institutionalized. The major world religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism are examples of high religions.

The other form is low religion. Animistic religions are forms of low religion, concerning themselves with every day issues as opposed to cosmic issues. These are often amoral and informal. These everyday issues include hunting, growing crops, and curing sickness; they are concerned with surviving and getting their daily needs.

In the western world, we fail to understand what animistic cultures believe because we see the world very differently. We have the religious category, but we also have the scientific category. I am not talking about creationism versus evolution, but rather things that we know to be true. Germs cause sickness, not curses or the evil eye. But knowledge about basic science is absent in animistic societies. Most anybody in the western world does not disbelieve real science.

At the same time, we underestimate the reality of the spirit world. While animistic cultures wrongly think they can manipulate spirits, spirit forces really do exist, and they deceive people with animistic concepts. Ephesians 6:12 reads, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Spiritual powers do a very thorough job in deceiving the nations, and it takes serious undoing of the animistic worldview in order to get through to people with the gospel.