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Reimer, Pula and Nxumalo

In Reginald E. Reimer's article "The Religious Dimension of the Vietnamese Cult of the Ancestors," the author examines the cult that embodies Viet Nam's traditional animism, pointing out how its beliefs about the soul both conflict with and support biblical Christianity. He is careful to clarify, in assessing the Vietnamese cult of the ancestors, that many people fall into the ditch on one side or the other, either accepting the cult for its beneficial aspects or condemning it entirely as being inconsistent with Christianity, yet both responses are wrong. Reimer points out, surprisingly, that there are some areas of commonality between the cult and Christianity, such as the fact that both profess a belief that man has a soul and there are such things as evil spirits.

There are certainly significant areas where the Vietnamese cult of the ancestors diverges widely from Christianity. One of these is what Reimer terms the "religious eclecticism" of the cult.[1] Reimer acknowledges that the Vietnamese have the ability to accept contradictory beliefs and uses the example of a conversation with an elderly Vietnamese man to make his point. Asked if the Vietnamese believe that man has a soul, the man answered that this was what their religious beliefs said, but science did not believe this. Then he added, "Science is right...(hesitation) but man has a soul."[2] The Vietnamese ability to accept conflicting points of view and regard both as valid gives rise to other paradoxes, as well. Reimer notes that "Although the Cult of the Ancestors is the most universal and unified institution of Vietnamese Animism, specific beliefs about it are not entirely standardized, even in a given locality," but are "highly individualized."[3] This phenomenon yields myriad combinations of beliefs that vary across locales, and thus it makes the beliefs related to the cult of the ancestors complex and difficult to pin down, a characteristic ...

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Reimer, Pula and Nxumalo. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 13:18, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/2000495.html