Religious Beliefs
Senior 4 · General and Religious Studies
Religious Beliefs
Lesson 5 of 5
40 min
Read this illustrative case. Keza's grandmother in Nyanza scolds her for greeting an elder carelessly: "A child who respects elders will be blessed." Keza's classmate Li, whose family came from China to work in Kigali, laughs: "My grandmother says the same, and she quotes Confucius." Two grandmothers, 10,000 km apart, teach the same respect for elders and for those who came before.
This lesson studies two traditions that place the family, the elders and the ancestors at the centre of moral life: Confucianism, from China, and African traditional religion, including the traditional beliefs of Rwanda.
Definition
Confucianism: the tradition of ethics, ritual and government founded on the teaching of Confucius (Kong Fuzi, about 551–479 BCE) in China.
Analects: the collection of Confucius's sayings and conversations, put together by his disciples.
Ren: humaneness, goodness towards others. Li: ritual propriety, the right way of behaving in each situation. Xiao: filial piety, respect and care for parents and ancestors. Junzi: the exemplary or "superior" person who lives by these virtues. Tian: Heaven, the moral order above humans.
African traditional religion: the indigenous beliefs and practices of African peoples, passed on orally, which see the whole of life as religious.
Imana: God, the creator, in traditional Rwandan and Burundian belief, and still the Kinyarwanda word for God today.
Ancestors: in African and Confucian thought, the remembered dead of a family, believed to remain linked to the living.
Diviner: a specialist believed to discover hidden causes and the will of the spirit world. Syncretism: mixing elements of different religions.
Confucius lived in a time of war between Chinese states. He taught that society becomes peaceful when each person cultivates virtue and fulfils the duties of his relationships. Three sayings from the Analects (translated by James Legge) show his core ideas.
| Idea | Analects (Legge) |
|---|---|
| Ren and li | "To subdue one's self and return to propriety, is perfect virtue." (Book XII, 1) |
| Xiao, the root of goodness | "Filial piety and fraternal submission!—are they not the root of all benevolent actions?" (Book I, 2, the words of his disciple Yu) |
| Care for parents, living and dead | "That parents, when alive, be served according to propriety; that, when dead, they should be buried according to propriety; and that they should be sacrificed to according to propriety." (Book II, 5) |
| Reciprocity | "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." (Book XV, 23) |
Later Confucian teaching organised social life into Five Relationships (Figure 4). Each carries duties on both sides: a ruler who is not kind loses his claim to loyalty.
Is Confucianism a religion? It says little about God or life after death, and when a disciple asked about serving the spirits of the dead, Confucius replied: "While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve their spirits?" (Book XI, 11). Yet it includes rituals for ancestors, reverence for Heaven (Tian), temples to Confucius and a sacred text. Many scholars call it an ethical and religious tradition rather than a religion in the Abrahamic sense.
African traditional religions differ from people to people, but scholars such as John S. Mbiti, the Kenyan theologian, found common features. Mbiti described African peoples as deeply religious, with religion present in every part of life, from birth to farming to death.
| Feature | What it means |
|---|---|
| A Supreme Being | One creator God, often seen as far above daily life but the source of all |
| Spirits and ancestors | The remembered dead remain part of the family; they are honoured and may be asked for help |
| Oral tradition | No written scripture: beliefs pass on through myths, proverbs, songs and rituals |
| Ritual and sacrifice | Offerings and ceremonies mark birth, naming, marriage, harvest and death |
| Community | A person is a person through others; wrongdoing harms the whole community |
| Healers and diviners | Specialists treat illness and seek the causes of misfortune |
In Rwanda, traditional belief centred on Imana, the one creator. The belief lives on in the language: many Rwandan names contain the word, such as Habimana ("God exists"), Uwimana ("the one who belongs to God") and Nsengimana ("I pray to God"), and the Kinyarwanda Bible calls God Imana. In the 2022 census only 2,112 residents (0.0% after rounding) named a traditional religion as their own; most Rwandans are Christian or Muslim, but traditional values of respect for elders and community remain part of Rwandan culture.
| Tradition | Elders and parents | The dead |
|---|---|---|
| Confucianism | Filial piety is the root of goodness | Ancestors honoured with rites according to propriety |
| African traditional religion | Elders hold wisdom and authority | Ancestors remain family members and may be asked for help |
| Christianity | "Honor your father and your mother" (Exodus 20:12) | The dead are remembered and prayed for in some churches, but worship belongs to God alone: "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3) |
| Islam | Kindness to parents is commanded | Muslims pray for the dead, but worship belongs to God alone: "Say: He is Allah, the One!" (Surah 112:1) |
All four honour parents and remember the dead. They differ on whether the dead can act for the living and whether they may receive offerings. Christians and Muslims who keep traditional respect for elders, while worshipping God alone, show that culture and faith can meet without syncretism.
Warning
Common mistakes
Important
Discuss. Analects XV, 23 says: "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." Compare it with a saying about community from Rwandan tradition that you know, and with teaching from the Bible or the Qur'an. Is this rule enough to build a good society? (You will meet the positive form of the rule in Unit 12.)
TED-Ed: "Who was Confucius?" by Bryan W. Van Norden, about 5 minutes. Note what ren and li mean, and why Confucius thought rituals matter.
Practice
Key points
Further reading
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the opening case, Figure 4, the tables and the exercises.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Match each Confucian term to its meaning.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
