Many of the world’s more than 6,000 religions are revealed religions; that is, the basic premise of the religion was somehow revealed to an individual by a supernatural force or being. In religions which are often classified as “primitive,” “shamanistic,” or “animistic” there is an assumption that each individual has a personal contact with the supernatural or the spirit world. However, this contact reveals a personal spiritual path rather than one which is to be followed by other people. In these shamanistic religions, emphasis is on personal participation, while in doctrinal religions the emphasis is on belief. In the doctrinal religions, the supernatural forces—often called gods—give an individual guidelines, rules, laws, rituals, and other things which are to be followed by the community.
Revealed religions are not really new religions, but are simply variations of existing religions. One element that is important, however, is a charismatic leader who can inspire others to follow the revelation. In their book Thinking Big: How the Evolution of Social Life Shaped the Human Mind, Clive Gamble, John Gowlett, and Robin Dunbar write:
“Charismatic leaders play a particularly important role in religion. Most of the doctrinal religions were founded by a single charismatic leader, from Zoroaster to Gautama Buddha and Jesus Christ to the Prophet Mohammed. Each of today’s major religions began life as a minority sect of some predecessor religion.”
In his book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens describes revelation this way:
“On certain very special occasions, it is asserted, the divine will was made known by direct contact with randomly selected human beings, who were supposedly vouchsafed unalterable random laws that could then be passed on to those less favored.”
Christopher Hitchens goes on to say:
“In some cases—most notably the Christian—one revelation is apparently not sufficient, and needs to be reinforced by successive apparitions, with the promise of a further but ultimate one to come.”
In most cases the revelation was initially transmitted orally. These revelations often sparked new religious movements, particularly if the leader was charismatic. In most cases, however, the new religion would die with its founder.
When the new religious movement survived the death of the founder and became successful, the revelations might be written down, often long after the founder had died. Once written down, the revelations could become dogma. In her book The Great Transformation: The Beginnings of Our Religious Traditions, Karen Armstrong notes:
“The switch from oral tradition of religion to a written text was a shock.”
Armstrong goes on to say:
“Religious truth sounded completely different when presented in this way. Everything was clear, cut-and-dried—very different from the more elusive ‘knowledge’ imparted by oral transmission.”
Islam
One of the best-known revealed religions which made the transition from oral tradition to writing is Islam. In 610 CE, Muhammad began to receive revelations from the angel Gabriel. These messages were memorized and transmitted orally to his followers. Over the years, the passages were written down on pieces of pottery, stone, palm leaves, and the shoulder-bones of camels. Later they were compiled into a single book.
Code of Handsome Lake
A lesser known example of a revealed religion which was originally transmitted in oral form and later written down is the Code of Handsome Lake. Beginning in 1799, the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake had a series of visions which provided the theology of a new religion. Handsome Lake died in 1815 and with the help of Handsome Lake’s nephew, Blacksnake, the Code of Handsome Lake was written down and published in 1850. Today, the Code of Handsome Lake is still practiced among the Seneca and is considered to be a traditional Indian religion.
God Worship Society
In 1837, a Chinese prophet, Hung Hsiu-Ch’uan (also spelled Hong Xiuquan; 火秀), had a series of visions, which included seeing Confucius being punished for his faithlessness. He would later interpret these visions as visiting God and Jesus Christ. He concluded that he was the Chinese son of God and the younger brother of Jesus. He proclaimed that he had been called through revelations to destroy demons and pagan idols and to restore the worship of the one true God. He preached against opium, fortune-telling, and fornication. Responding to this vision, he organized the God Worship Society (拜上帝會) which stressed the Christ-like virtues of equality and morality. He preached a mixture of communal utopianism, evangelism, and Christianity.
Tenrikyo
While in most cases the prophets of revealed religions have been men, there are also some examples of women prophets. In Japan, Nakayama Miki, also known as Oyasama, received a number of revelations regarding the teaching and promoting of the Joyous Life which is to be cultivated through acts of charity and mindfulness. Her son and husband had been sick and the family called in a Buddhist monk to exorcise the spirit that was causing the illness. The monk had to leave for a while and asked her to take over. God—Tenri-no-Mikoto—then possessed her. Following this she developed healing powers. Nakayama Miki wrote two sacred books: Mikagurauta and Ofudesaki. These deal with the basic tenets of the religion. Tenrikyo (天理教) emerged at a time of great change in Japan.
Mormonism
Not all revealed religions were originally transmitted orally: some modern religions went directly from revelation to written form. The most famous of these is Mormonism, a religion revealed to the nineteenth-century American prophet Joseph Smith. In an article in The Indian Historian, John Price reports:
“Smith said that an angel by the name of Moroni came to him and instructed him on the location, translation, and protection of engraved plates that described the history of the Americas prior to Columbus.”
Smith used seer stones for the purpose of translating the plates.
In his book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins writes:
“Joseph Smith, its enterprisingly mendacious inventor, went to the lengths of composing a complete new holy book, the Book of Mormon, inventing from scratch a whole new bogus American history, written in bogus seventeenth-century English.”
Wodziwob’s Ghost Dance
While many revealed religions die with their prophet, there are some cases in which the prophet realizes that the revelation was false. One of these involved the nineteenth-century Paiute prophet Wodziwob in Nevada. In 1868, Paiute healer Fish Lake Joe, also known as Wodziwob, had a dream which empowered him to lead the souls of those who had died in previous months back to their mourning families. Wodziwob already had the power to lay next to a patient, send his soul out, and bring the patient’s soul back to the body, thus restoring life.
He exhorted the people to paint themselves and to dance the traditional round dance. In this dance, men, women, and children joined in alternating circles of males and females dancing to the left with fingers interlocked with the dancers on each side. As the dancers stopped to rest, Wodziwob fell into a trance. When he returned he reported that he had journeyed to the land of the dead, he had seen the souls of the dead happy in their new land, and that he had extracted promises from them to return to their loved ones in perhaps three or four years. The new religious movement quickly moved to other tribes, including the Ute, Gosiute, Washo, Mono, Modoc, Klamath, Shasta, Karok, Achumawi, Northern Yana, Wintun, Hill Patwin, and Pomo.
In 1872, the Paiute had now been dancing under the direction of Wodziwob for four years. At this time, he had another dream in which he realized that the souls of the dead which he had seen were only shadows. With horror, Wodziwob realized that his prophecy was no more than a cruel trick of the evil witch owl. He confessed his sad disillusion to the Paiutes, and they ceased dancing to attract back their loved ones. Wodziwob died shortly after this.