Well. Not really triplicate. I’m just teasing. This was a printed attempt to provide an encylopedia of all the various religions, grouped and divided, sub-divided, sub-sub-sub-sub divided in the United States. All very scientific. But beside the point. Firstly, American religion metastasizes contstantly, ever expanding while other earlier parts die away. No printed encyclopedia can keep abreast of this – even online it would be difficult.
What interests me more is the attempt to impose order on a gloriously disorderly universe of belief. I was raised Anglican myself. Are Anglicans ‘catholic’ or ‘protestant’ or as some say, a ‘via media’, or even a religious system on their own? What about syncretism then, as Anglicanism clearly has elements of its Catholic past blended with the Protestant ideas and practices of the 16th century? This concept is sometimes derided, sometimes used as a useful tool but malleable and changeable like religion itself. Do cultures that find themselves attracted to, forced into, touched by missionary religions such as Christianity, Islam and Buddhism succumb entirely? Do they borrow bits and pieces that fit their primary beliefs? Do they find their original faith destroyed but shards of the shattered old system find their way into the new?
I tried once showing this on a chart, which needed to be three dimensional, but my technology was not up to that level, so it appeared as interconnected arms and branches with little globes of this and that. Assembling each section made sense, but standing back it appeared chaotic.
Much like my brain.
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