Religion: Transcendence and Immanence - Essay Example

The first aspect relates to the transcendent conception of God, which positions the sacred as a state of being or awareness that is beyond the common or mundane aspects of everyday life. The second aspect expresses the immanent conception of divinity and the view that God is personal, intimate, always present, and active in assisting individuals with their daily activities. Both views of divinity are interrelated with the philosophical foundation of God’s conception in nature, with aspects of creation, preservation, and destruction of the universe experienced as different aspects of the transcendent and immanent divinity according to the different aspects of religion and the manner that they are expressed culturally.

In looking at the attractions of the immanent and transcendent views in religion, one can better understand psychologically what the individual needs spiritually, and this can guide one’s choice of religion personally. . In both the Buddhist and Christian religions, good deeds are the path to heaven, but this reflects a transcendentalist tendency, indicating that both these religions may mix concepts related to immanence with those of transcendence in the larger body of religious belief and practice.

Transcendence suggests that God and the sacred is beyond the world we experience everyday in special states of awareness or in special events and places. This positioning of God as outside of everyday experience is problematic to me personally, but it may be a better description of the way religion is experienced by people like me with doubt. The belief in heaven is an example of the transcendent aspect in religion, and the after-death requirement of its experience means that the individual must place a lot of trust and faith in the religion to dedicate his or her life to this path.

Enlightenment as the Buddhists believe is also transcendent in that the experience is generally not accessible to us as human individuals but must be hoped for at some time in the distant future, for example in future lives with reincarnation. Both the path to heaven and the way to Enlightenment are based on transcendence, because the individual must proceed progressively, step by step, towards a future goal that cannot be experienced in this life normally. The transcendent in religion thus places the burden of proof on faith, but also sometimes fails to provide objective support for its beliefs that can be validated empirically.

This may lead to believers feeling more alienated and rejected from mainstream society when they follow these religious beliefs, because the majority of people in modern culture may be unable to believe in transcendent ideas if they cannot be proved by science. In summary,