Chapter 1 Quiz

Bruce Lincoln in his definition bases religion on the concept of the _______ rather than on "supernatural beings" or the like.

"transcendent"

Bruce Lincoln's definition of religion emphasizes four "domains":

(1) Discourse (2) Practice (3) Community (4) Institution

In 2009, the percentage of senior pastors in Protestant Christian churches who are women was

10 percent

Among many examples of a place of special significance established by a hierophany is

All of the above (a. Buddhism's Bodh Gaya, site of Gautama's foundational experience of Enlightenment b. Christianity's Church of the Nativity c. Islam's sacred city of Mecca)

______ explicitly denies the existence of God or gods.

Atheism

Some nontheistic religions assume the existence of divine beings while rejecting the notion that such beings can truly help humans find spiritual fulfillment; an example is

Buddhism

Swiss psychologist _______ made vital contributions to the study of religious symbolism and of the general role of the unconscious mind in the religious life.

Carl Jung

The world religion that most emphasize doctrines is

Christianity

Until the late decades of the 19th century, theorists applied the term "world religion" only to _____.

Christianity

In certain respects modern scientific explanations set forth cosmologies that are intriguingly similar to some religious cosmologies taught in the distant past, such as

Epicurus' theory of atomism

Efforts to understand religion that have continued to the present day were launched by the European Enlightenment impulse toward categorically separating religion, coupled with

European exploration of distant lands and their unfamiliar "religions"

The nineteenth-century scholar who is generally regarded as the founder of the modern field of religious studies is

Friedrich Max Müller

Enlightenment thinkers, most influentially the German philosopher ______, conceived of religion as something separate from the various phenomena the human mind is capable of perceiving.

Immanuel Kant

According to William James, religion is "the feelings, acts and experiences of individual men __________."

In their solitude

Which of the following is not typical of religious revelation?

It is brought about through prayer on the part of a congregation of worshipers.

Religion functions in an unhealthy manner as an opiate that deters the suffering individual from attending to the true cause of affliction, according to:

Karl Marx

Historian of religions _____ describes the hierophany as a manifestation of the sacred that helps a people to establish its cosmology.

Mircea Eliade

The encounter of religion and science can clearly be observed by noting the impact of Charles Darwin's ___________.

Origin of Species.

The Protestant theologian whose definition of religion connects it to a focus on "man's spiritual life" and refers to it as "ultimate concern" is

Paul Tillich

In the words of sociologist _______, "a definition is not more or less true, only more or less useful."

Peter Berger

_____ is the belief in many gods.

Polytheism

According to _______, a genuine experience of "the Holy" is characterized by two powerful and contending forces, mysterium tremendum and fascinans.

Rudolf Otto

Whereas "faith" is a natural term to use when studying Christianity, it can hardly be applied to the study of Confucianism or ______.

Shinto

Psychologist ______ asserted that religion is "the universal obsessional neurosis of humanity."

Sigmund Freud

Which of the following is not true of spiritual fulfillment?

Spiritual fulfillment can be said to consist of living in harmony with nature.

An example of pantheism, the belief that the divine is identical to nature or the material world, is the ancient Greek and Roman religious philosophy known as

Stoicism

A primary concern regarding a sound academic approach to the study of world religions involves the fact that it arose within an intellectual culture that

Tended to take for granted that Christianity was a model of what religion ought to be

We refer to a religion as theistic when...

The divine is thought of as God or as gods

French sociologist Émile Durkheim insists in his definition of religion on

The unification brought about by "beliefs and practices," culminating in a "moral community called a Church"

A statement that is foundational to the field of religious studies is:

To know one just one religion is to know none.

Which of the following is not among the prominent questions addressed by religions?

What is the correct definition of "religion"?

Certain basic and extremely significant scientific questions remain unanswered; for example,

What is the ground of consciousness?

American psychologist ______ emphasizes in his definition the individual nature of religion.

William James

_______ Buddhism refuses to make much at all of death beyond acknowledging its natural place in the order of things.

Zen

Henotheism acknowledges

a plurality of gods but elevates one of them to special status

Myth as understood by the academic field of religious studies is

a powerful source of sacred truth

Unlike the early chapters of the Book of Genesis, some religious traditions

all of the above (a. deemphasize the role of the divine will in bringing about the world b. describe the advent of the principal deities after the universe itself has been created c. depict gods and humans as sharing the world)

Underlying Durkheim's definition is a theory that reduces religion to being

an effect of societal forces

Among ancient Greeks and Romans, Epicureans were considered to be

atheists

A sound study of the world's religions, emphasized by Friedrich Max Müller, features a ________ approach.

comparative

Religious understanding of the nature of the world is known as ___________.

cosmology

A general feature of modernity is its tendency to

deny the authority of tradition and the past

Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy

describes the encounter with "the Holy" as "numinous"

Religious scholar Ninian Smart's "dimensional" scheme divides the various aspects of religious traditions into seven dimensions, which include

doctrinal and ritual

The capacity for seeing things from another's perspective is

empathy

Historical transformations, accelerated during the past several centuries by such diverse and powerful factors as colonialism, the scientific revolution, and economic ________, have reshaped religious traditions.

globalization

According to Bruce Lincoln's definition, the fourth "domain" of religion is __________.

institution

The so-called Golden Rule set forth in the Christian New Testament

is pronounced in similar forms in the scriptures of virtually all of the world's major traditions

Psychology is an especially useful disciplinary approach when trying to

make sense of the modes of religious experience

The general process through which societies transform economically, socially, and culturally, the net effects of which include increased literacy, is

modernization

Hindus who embrace _____ believe that all reality is ultimately one.

monism

The most pronounced religious effects of globalization pertain to the closely related phenomenon of _________, the coexistence of different peoples and their cultural ways in one time and place.

multiculturalism

Rather than depending on empirical verifiability or rational coherence for their power, _______ are simply accepted by believers as true accounts.

myths

Modes of experience such as Buddhist ______ are by definition beyond the reach of empirical observation and of description.

nirvana

Monism is described as

nondualist

One basic concept with regard to a proper academic approach to the study of religions is the maintenance of a healthy balance between the perspective of an insider and the perspective of an ________.

outsider

The disciplinary approach that in certain respects is the closest to actually doing religion (or theology) is

philosophy

For many individuals who live in religiously ____ societies, it is difficult to regard any one religious worldview as the only viable one.

pluralistic

Along with being cross-cultural, religious studies is multidisciplinary, or _________, drawing on the contributions of various disciplines and fields of study.

polymethodic

Some religions emphasize ________, asserting that God, or some other supernatural force such as Hindu dharma (ethical duty), has established what constitutes right behavior.

revealed ethics

Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism all maintain belief in _____, the "wheel of life."

samsara

Globalization, like modernization, has nurtured the notably modern process of _______, the general turning away from traditional religious authority and institutions.

secularization

For the academic study of religion, as opposed to doing religion or being religious,

supernatural beings and events normally are held to be beyond its reach

Perhaps no single phenomenon has been more challenging to traditional religious ways—and more nurturing of secularization—than

the encounter of religion with science

Globalization is

the linking and intermixing of cultures

The attempt to understand a goldfish in a pond is analogous to the study of religion insofar as it illustrates

the need to balance the perspectives of insider and outsider

Ninian Smart's material dimension of religion involves

the place of artistic creations and natural entities in religious traditions

Both the numinous and nirvana are examples of _____ states of existence.

transcendent

A significant demographic effect of modernization involving the shift of population centers from rural, agricultural settings to cities is

urbanization

The net effects of modernization include increased literacy, improved education, enhanced technologies, self-sustaining economies, and the increased role of _____ in various aspects of society.

women