Definitions

TRUE: This is an adjective.  It means real or correct.  It means conforming to reality or fact.  It also means genuine, sincere, personally faithful, committed.  The word true can also be used as an adverb meaning accurately.  As a noun it means correct, as in alignment of a ship with True North.  It refers to acknowledgement of reality as perceived by the test of evidence.

BELIEF: Acceptance or agreement that something is true or real.  This is supported by emotional or spiritual sense of certainty.  Belief is that aspect of religious commitment which makes faith possible.  Without a belief in the truth of a set of facts, principles or assertions faith will not follow.  The first article of ‘Faith’ is the acceptance or belief in the ‘Truth.’

FAITH: A noun defined as belief, devotion or trust without logical or empirical proof.  It also means a system of religious beliefs or a specific religion (such as Catholicism) that is referred to as The Faith.  This word also means:  trust in God or a strongly held set of principles.

DETERMINE: A verb; to determine is to decide or to settle conclusively.

IDENTIFY: A verb; to identify is to recognize and to name.

CULTURE: A noun; the shared beliefs and values of a group. Culture may include customs, practices, and social behavior.

ETHNIC: Adjective; describing a group sharing distinctive cultural traits, origins, national, linguistic, racial, or religious heritage, whether or not they live in the country of their origin.

NATION: NOUN; A community of people who share a common ethnic origin, culture, historical tradition and language. They may or may not live together on one land mass or have their own government.

GUILT: To be responsible for the commission of an offense; to feel remorse for having done something wrong: self-reproach.

GOOD: Virtuous, without blemish, not harmful; that which supports and sustains Existence.

ATONE: To appease or make conciliation.  In classical religion it is to make things right between humans and God. Acts of atonement re-unite us with God, hence the word atone or at one.

AUTHORITY: In religion authority is an accepted source of power.  That source of power has the right to command, to demand obedience, to judge and to legislate with or without consultation of those to whom the legislation might apply.  In classical theistic (God centered) religions it is God who has the ultimate authority.

COHERENT: An adjective which means logically consistent.  It also means being able to hold together to form an inseparable mass.

INCOHERENT: An adjective meaning lacking clarity or organization. This might refer to an argument that is not well thought out.  It also refers to the inability to express thoughts or feelings clearly or logically.  It means not cohesive or out of phase.

CONSISTENT: This is to be free of contradiction or reliable. This is to be reasonably or logically harmonious.  In a legal matter if the evidence is consistent with a statement by a witness it is coherent.  In many contexts the words consistent and coherent are synonymous.

INCONSISTENT: Containing conflict or contradiction.  To be inconsistent is to be unpredictable, unreliable, or incompatible.  This would be to lack correspondence to a rule, principle or expectation.

RELEVANT: This is an adjective.  It means connected.  It also means having a logical relationship to something else.  It refers to social significance regarding real world events.

IRRELEVANT: This means not applicable or not important.

CONUNDRUM: A predicament or problem for which there is more than one answer, hence, a conundrum is difficult to resolve.

TRADITION: Among the many meanings of this noun are:  long- established custom or belief; a coherent body of such long-established customs and beliefs.  Traditions may be written or unwritten.  They may be part of the formal and legal aspects of a specific religion such as Orthodox Judaism or Roman Catholicism.  They may also be folkloristic.  For example, the traditions of the Jews of Eastern Europe vary widely from the traditions of the Jews of Arabic speaking countries.  Likewise, the traditions of the Catholic Church in Central Africa vary from those of Europe.

For Temple Without Walls Tradition means: Any formal or informal perspective, belief, musical expression, artistic depiction, literature or ritual practice derived from the long history of our people. No tradition has more authority or truth than another.

PROPHET: A person who speaks the will of God.  Inspired by divine inspiration the prophet reveals the will or teaching of God.  A prophet is usually recognized as possessing a profound gift of moral authority.  A prophet is an effective and dramatic orator.  A prophet may or may not be a ‘soothsayer’ or one who predicts the future.

PRIEST: One endowed with the authority to perform religious rites.  The priests in ancient Israel were determined by birth.  They were a caste of sacerdotal functionaries descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses.  Their authority was granted by God.  Their powers and responsibilities are enumerated in the book of Leviticus.

RABBI: This is a Hebrew Word which means is commonly understood as meaning, ‘my teacher.’  A more precise definition is ‘my master in traditional Jewish Knowledge.’    It was an honorary title at the outset of rabbinic tradition.  The office of rabbi became formalized several centuries after the earliest masters.  Formal education and ordination of candidates followed later.  Rabbis became the formalized clergy of Jewish Communities replacing priests as the recognized heads of the Jewish Religion.

DIMENSION: Defined simply dimension is a concept we use in an attempt to understand a discreet space or physical property.  It is one of the terms we use in our efforts to define reality.  There are four dimensions in most classical theories of physics.  These are length, width, depth and time.  String Theory now posits eleven dimensions in this unifying theory of everything.  A unifying theory of everything was Albert Einstein’s vision but was his unachievable goal.  If proved string theory has radical implications for our understanding of the nature of the universe, the meaning of human existence and the meaning of the word god.

TIME: A dictionary definition of time might be:  Time is a non-spatial continuum in which events occur in irreversible succession.  Time proceeds from the past through the present and into the future.  Time is usually represented in discreet quantities.  We think of years, days or minutes as representations of these quantities or intervals.

The quality of time might be different as perceived by string theory wherein it is posited that everything that is has an inherent connection.  This might reveal that time might be more relative than even Einstein explained.

ULTIMATE: The greatest in size or significance; the utmost; the final point or conclusion; the most extreme.  This word can also refer to the basic or fundamental fact of reality.  It can also mean the most distant or remote.

ESSENTIAL: Basic or indispensable; inherent; fundamental; necessary.

ENDURING: Lasting, continuing, durable; to continue in existence.

POSSIBLE: Capable of happening, occurring or being true without contradicting proven facts.  ‘Possible’ means that something may happen or exist.

TORAH: The Five Books of Moses, that is, the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).  Torah does not mean law.  Torah means ‘teaching.’  The five books of Scripture traditionally referred to as The Torah were fixed at a particular period, or time, in order to make it possible for the children of Israel to survive as a unique spiritual entity.

BCE (Before Common Era): Calendar dates which fall before those  marked by calendars of Western Civilization.  Scholars have used this instead of BC (Before Christ) for decades.  The use of BCE instead of BC is not intended to serve a purpose other than to illustrate the long and continuing existence of non-Christian entities.

CE (Common Era): Calendar dates of the period described by the calendar in use today.  CE is a substitute for AD.

HISTORY: This noun means a chronological record of events.  It means a branch of knowledge that records and comments upon or analyzes past events.

MISHNA: A Hebrew noun.  Mishna is a specific teaching of a recognized master Torah.  It also refers to a body of work ‘The Mishna’ which is a collection of teachings. The individual sayings, reflections and legal matters discussed are thought to have been collected over a period of three to four hundred years beginning in the second century BCE.  This collection of teachings and laws might be compared to British Common Law.

TALMUD: There are two of these.  One credited to the Jerusalem Community.   The second and more authoritative Talmud is Talmud Bavli, The Babylonian Talmud.  The Babylonian Talmud is a twenty six volume compendium of Jewish Culture and non-Biblical Tradition and law. It was includes the Mishna and a host of other sources.  The core text was essentially complete by the fourth or fifth century CE.

SALVATION: This is a noun which means preservation or deliverance from destruction.  Specific religions add such content as befits their doctrine.

RELIGION: A noun which means a belief in and a reverence for a supernatural power regarded as creator and governor of the universe.  It also means a personal or institutionalized system grounded in that belief and worship.  It also refers a set of beliefs, values and practices based upon the teachings of a spiritual leader.  Religion may also be defined as the human response to finitude.

FINITUDE: The condition of being finite.  Simply stated, living beings die.  A spiritual and emotional conflict is at the core of the human psyche, however.  It is caused by our very strong desire to live forever opposed by the fact that we will die.

THEIST: A person who accepts as true the concept that there is a Supreme Being named God.  God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, all good creator and sustainer of the world.

ATHEIST: A person who does not accept as true the idea or teaching that there is a Supreme Being named God.

AGNOSTIC: A person who does not affirm or deny the existence of a Supreme Being named God.  An agnostic is waiting for definite proof before accepting or rejecting the truth of the assertion that God exists.

SEMANTIC ATHEIST: A person who does not agree that the word god has meaning upon which we can agree.  For a semantic atheist the entire discussion makes no sense because we have no point of reference or comparison; no body of facts upon which to base a definition.  In other words, the word god makes no sense and nothing about the meaning of the word can be stated with confidence.

SANCTUARY: This is a noun referring to sacred place; a safe place.

SACRED: This is an adjective which describes a place or an object set aside for worship.  It also refers to something that is devoted to a single use or purpose.  It can also describe a lifestyle or a social context dedicated to a specific goal, such as a permanent or temporary community dedicated to the pursuit of spirituality.

REALITY: Just a brief check will suffice here.  I have no intention of venturing into the realm of radical epistemology (the study of how we know what we know) wherein we cannot prove anything about anything.  This branch of Philosophy is fascinating but it is a creation of the mind.  I will not even attempt to understand or to explain Quantum Physics and how that might impact the religious quest.

GOD: Most dictionary definitions are like this:  God is a unique being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all-knowing) creator and ruler of the universe.  God exists separate from the physical world.  There is only one God.  God is the only legitimate object of faith and worship in monotheistic religion.   The word ‘god’ may also be defined as follows: GOD IS THE ENDURING POSSIBILITY OF EXISTENCE.

JUDAISM:  The Jewish Religious Quest from its beginning until the next moment.  In this (Temple Without Walls) context the term JUDAISM is not limited to the religion which has evolved from the work of the Sages.  Rabbinic Judaism still thrives; however, the historical record reveals that this was not the first, exclusive or unique religion of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  And, it might not be the last of the religions we pursue.