The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1751 page)

Option for Options
:

see
SECULARIZATION
.

 
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Option for the Poor
:

see
LIBERATION THEOLOGY
.

 
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(Lat., ‘work of God’). Either the divine
office
, especially as sung in choir; or (and now more commonly) a
Roman Catholic
religious association founded in Madrid in 1928 by José Maria Escrivá de Balaguer, known more fully as the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross and the Work of God. Its status since 1982 has been that of a personal prelature, its superior exercising over members a similar authority to that of a
bishop
, though not on a territorial basis. It has evoked criticism of its authoritarian style and control. Its founder was declared blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1992, despite widespread criticism in the Church of the style and speed with which this was done.

 
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Oracle bones
.

Usually the scapula and split leg bones of cattle which the Chinese of the Shang dynasty used for divination purposes. Priests wrote out on the bones questions which the king or aristocrats wished to have put to the gods. They are by far the oldest examples of the Chinese writing system and furnish the only reliable information on the religion and social culture of the first Chinese
dynasty
known to archaeology. A number of gods are mentioned, most notably the high god
Shang-ti
and the gods of wind and of millet, of various heavenly bodies, of mountains and rivers. But the most important personages questioned in the Shang oracle bones were the
ancestors
.

 
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(Heb.,
torah she-be‘al-peh
). The (in origin) orally transmitted interpretation of the Jewish written
law
. According to the
rabbis
, there are two parts of
Torah
‘one written and one oral’ (
ARN
15. 61). Traditionally both Torahs were given to
Moses
on Mount
Sinai
. Oral Torah was studied in the
academies
and eventually collected together and written down by
Judah ha-Nasi
in the 2nd cent. CE (see
MISHNAH
). Subsequently, commentary and interpretation of the Mishnah were recorded in the
Talmud
(6th cent.). In the modern era, the
Progressive
movements have largely rejected the belief in the divine origin of Jewish law and are therefore ready to disregard any
halakhic
provisions which conflict with modern secular values.

 
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see
AD
TH
.