Sectarianism in the Iron Age

Sectarianism in the Iron Age

A sect is a group of people that hold different religious belief, which are often referred to as heretical. Such groups are subgroups of larger groups that separate from the larger groups because of their differences in ideologies. These people follow a specific creed and embrace specific set of opinions. Most sects are lead by their doctrinal leaders who provides them with directives on how they should behave and carry themselves. Examples of sects include atheists, 1692, Lollards 1390, astronomers 1837 among many others.

Sectarianism is exhibited in various ways. Various factors determine how the members of a given sect exhibit or carry out themselves. These factors include the activities that they do, the way they are perceived by the society and the extent of their ideologies. Other factors include the political climate of the region among many others. Most of the sects are opposed to a given school of thoughts or ideologies (Nasr, 2006). Therefore, the way they exhibit their own ideologies varies depending on the circumstances that contributed to their formation. Most of the sect will exhibit their ideologies through involvement in activism. They begun as a movement, which is agitating for a given course, and then the movement grows and becomes wide spread. Others express their sentiments and ideologies through their vocal leaders who keep in touch with various media. Through the media, they get their message conveyed to the members of the society. Others use violence. They engage in criminal activities to catch the attention of the various stakeholders and the society. Other exhibits their ideologies through peaceful agitation and expressions. They use various forms of media such as print to convey their sentiments and spread their ideologies and opinions.

Others will kill and attack those that they feel that they contributed to their demise. While others sect will excommunicate or expel the rebels or those that have refused to agree with their opinions. Some will use harassment to make the lives of other difficult to compel them to leave them or accept their ideologies. Some sects are as a result of racial discrimination. In such cases, the economic and political sanctions may be imposed to ensure that the other group suffers. In religion during the Iron Age, different sects had their own beliefs and therefore they formed their beliefs around such things as water and fire. Therefore, they managed to derive their cultural identity through their religious rituals and this happened through violent conflicts.

This explanation is instrumental in understanding the religion of the Iron Age because his is the moment that iron was used by the people in their day-to-day activities. During their period, people acquire tools that they could use to fight and therefore during the period, people ideologies begun to vary as people begun to fight for the resources. In contravention to the wishes of Zeus, this god required people to live in harmony. Therefore, the people during iron age were religious and they held the views that god named Zeus wanted them to live in peace. Therefore, due to the increase in iron age, people begun to hold different ideologies about their religious ideologies, which led to seclusions of others from certain religion groups. Those that perpetuated violence were seen to be outcasts and going against the wishes of their god.

Work cited

Nasr, V. (2006). The Shia Revival (Norton), pp. 1-160