Yet, since religious conceptions are not always bound to material objects, and since there is evidence that truly human beings existed even during early Paleolithic times, it is inadmissible to infer that earliest man had no religion from the mere fact that no identifiable religious objects have been found. Hoofed animals, especially sheep and oxen, played an important part as sacrifices, and bulls particularly assumed a leading role; they seem to have been relegated to the masculine sphere. Animals, viewed as the hypostases (essences) of higher beings, especially the eagle or falcon and the raven, became highly significant in shamanism. Shamanism developed, especially among the pastoralists of central and northern Asia. Although shamanism may have been initiated somewhat earlier, it was now evident, at least in some of its aspects. They may have been connected with a heavenly divinity, as later evidence suggests. The earliest evidence of human activity in any form, on the other hand, goes back more than 1,000,000 years.

Records held at the National Archives related to the Nation of Islam are mostly Federal investigations on their Black Nationalist activity across the country. Among present-day “primitives” the animalistic realm often occupies only a lower sphere of what can be considered religious, and beyond and above that sphere are still other notions about gods. That’s why worshiping their gods was a big part of Aztec daily life, and why their priests were especially important in the Aztec culture. It initially was well received, both as a religion and as a symbol of European culture. Population movement across Mozambique’s borders has been facilitated in many instances by shared language and culture. So there are no indications that Muslims are seeking to distance themselves in religious or ethnic terms from the majority population in Germany. How is it that there are so many rules and such rigorous discipline in an art that seeks to express the inexpressible naturally? The animalistic features encountered in the art of the Upper Paleolithic Period were most likely only a part of the religion that existed at that time.

As a world religion among world religions, Roman Catholicism encompasses, within the range of its multicolored life, features of many other world faiths; thus only the methodology of comparative religion can address them all. Thus it is justified that the protection of the rights of adherents of minority religions may be different from that accorded to the majority religion. These incontestable statistical and historical facts suggest that some understanding of Roman Catholicism-its history, its institutional structure, its beliefs and practices, and its place in the world-is an indispensable component of cultural literacy, regardless of how one may individually answer the ultimate questions of life and death and faith. Conversely, such questions are essential to the definition of Roman Catholicism itself, even to a definition that adheres strictly to the official Roman Catholic view, according to which the Roman Catholic Church has maintained an unbroken continuity since the days of the Apostles, while all other denominations, from the ancient Copts to the latest storefront church, are deviations from it. Niaah estimates that there are at least 8 to 10 million Rastafari worldwide spread across the Caribbean, Africa, North America, Europe and Australia.

At least in an inchoate form, all the elements of catholicity-doctrine, authority, universality-are evident in the New Testament. The present article concentrates on the historical forces that transformed the primitive Christian movement into a church that was recognizably “catholic”-that is, possessing identifiable norms of doctrine and life, fixed structures of authority, and a universality (the original meaning of the term catholic) by which the church’s membership could extend, at least in principle, to all of humanity. However, sometimes Roman Catholic mission work stood opposed to the colonizing forces and protected native peoples from enslavement and helped them achieve a certain level of economic autonomy (which was a major factor in the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Americas in 1767). Although the countries of Latin America eventually gained independence from Spain and Portugal, the religious legacy of colonialism has persisted. Inevitably, however, there arose conflicts-of doctrine and jurisdiction, of worship and pastoral practice, and of social and political strategy-among the three sources, as well as between equally “apostolic” bishops. However, we only meet the living God in the world as it is, in the common place, among all sorts and conditions of people. A study of very simple hunters and gatherers of recent times shows that several religious conceptions generally considered to be especially “primitive” (e.g., fetishism) hardly play an important part, but rather that, among other things, the supposedly “advanced” conception of a personal creator and preserver of the world does play an important part.