ABSTRACT
Part II of the book is concerned with selected religious teachings and beliefs and their implications for people’s lives, while acknowledging that ‘belief’ is more central to some religious traditions than others. Comprised of two chapters, it provides those unfamiliar with one or more of the religious traditions with a basic common level of religious literacy and reviews the evidence on how people living in Sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia understand and interpret some of the key beliefs. Many beliefs are drawn from written (and sometimes oral) texts, so the first part of the chapter examines the roles and status attributed to the religious texts, which determine their use and perceived authenticity, as well as influencing adherents’ attitudes to their own and others’ religious beliefs. The texts are a primary source of conceptions of transcendental reality, which are outlined in the second half of the chapter, alongside the findings of quantitative and qualitative research that reveal adherents’ own beliefs with respect to God or the divine, their views on the existence and roles of supernatural forces or beings other than God, and their reports of religious experiences.
