religion

_________was a radical feminist theologian and philosopher in the 20th century. She believed that female liberation and empowerment will be realized only when women stop worshipping and putting their faith in a male‐savior (God‐Jesus).

Mary Daly

Augustinian Definition of Religion

Manichean philosophical influence on Augustinian theology and Western Christianity

. He was French philosopher and historian associated with the structuralist and poststructuralist movements.

Michel Foucault

What happens when one religious illusion collapses? (Freud. 54)

Nothing is left, but despair

hermeneutics

a critical method that is used to interpret and understand the meaning of the history of religion, theology and sacred scriptures

libation

a drink poured out as an offering to a deity/ is a ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a god or spirit, or in memory of those who have passed on. (wine, oil, ghee, milk)

feminist/womanist theology

a field of study in which women's experiences in history and society are used to interpret and engage religion

anti‐empire theories

a focus on how issues related to classism and economic injustice are the products of imperial systems and powers

postcolonialism

a product of postmodernism. This project speaks against both archaic and contemporary forms and practices of human exploitation and oppression such as slavery, imperialism, and capitalism as they relate to colonialism.

religious belief s

can be explained through the study of how the human mind works

postmodernism

celebrates individual agency and pushes society to move beyond any traditional ideas/values that do not promote forward thinking and human progress

True or False: Belief is not synonymous with faith. While belief encourages abstract understanding and knowledge about the existence of the divine, faith propels religious adherents to be active in the world. Faith, in essence, is an 'embodied epistemology

false

True or False: Despite the amazing contribution that feminist scholars have made to the study of religion in the West, feminist academic theological projects have been limited to Christianity.

false

True or False: For practitioners of indigenous religious traditions such as Haitian Vodou, having belief and faith in the divine is essential for their religious rituals and practices. In other words, they do not need to be active in the world to express their faith in the supreme being.

false

True or False: Freud does not believe that childhood experiences are a formative stage for religious beliefs/convictions. According to him, some people long for religion because it is a natural phenomenon that is connected to the function of the human mind.

false

True or False: Mircea Eliade, Ninian Smart, and Wilfred Cantwell Smith are 19th century anthropologists of religion who contended that the term religion was a modern invention. Therefore, they suggested that we replace it with the term 'faith' and 'cumulative tradition

false

according to the contemporary approach to then study of religion, comparing christianity with other world religions enables scholars to understand the truth about religion

false

the history of the academic study of religion in the west has been examined by prominent scholars from different and diverse religious and cultural background

false

religion is a product of culture (Malory nye). therefore, it is a social phenomenon that can be easily defined and understood by religious people.

false. because that religion is not a phenomenon that only those who practice it can understand

true religion

given to humankind by God for the purpose of salvation

augustines of hippo

guy who found western Christianity

Holocaust

the genocide of Jews in World War II.

Totemism

the idea that a human's soul has a spiritual connection to an animal, plant, and other physical objects (Freud, 23)

reductionism

the philosophical belief that every complex idea, thought, issue, condition, or phenomenon can be analyzed and explained through the simplest from of procedure

According to Pascal Boyer

- Religious practitioners believe in gods and the ancestors because they are convinced that the gods and ancestors are in interested in what they do. - Religious beliefs can be explained through the study of how the human mind works (Pascal Boyer, Religion Explained, 2) - There are no set views about where the human soul goes after death in most cultures (Boyer, 8). - In fact, most dead people become ghosts and ancestors

Gods in African Religions

- The Sky God in Ashanti (Southern Ghana): Nyame dua - Temple and worship dedicated to the Supreme Being

western christianity

- The church is the protective vehicle of religion and the Jesus movement - Only the church could offer salvation - No salvation outside the church - Salvation is an exclusive event - A emphasis on the fall of humankind - Emphasis on the dualism: good and evil - Pessimistic view on humanity

Erzuli Freda: A Vodou Goddess

- The goddess of purity, perfection, passion, and love - Vodou does not idealize her as the goddess of fertility - Symbolizes sublime luxury - Erzulie's presence assuages anxiety with the calmness and coolness - The matchmaker and breaker of human (romantic) relationships - She bridges the gap in the cosmic crossroads where the world of men and the world of divinity meet

the freudian answer :

- impersonal forces and destinies to be overcome with a higher principle. - man's longing for his father and comfort in the world as the basis for religious belief and hope - childhood experience as a formative stage for religious conviction and spiritual longing - an illusion based on a motivation to reach a futuristic unobtainable goal

eastern christianity

- using greek classics to interpret and understanding the Jesus movement . - universal view of salvation - a more optimistic view on humanity and human kind

religious belief as an illusion

- wishful fulfillment detached from reality - people use religion to explain why things happen in the world - An illusion based on a motivation to reach a futuristic unobtainable goal

animism

the belief in spirits dwelling in nature, including trees, mountains and rocks

____________ was Ugandan African scholar who has contributed to the field of literature and the study of African traditional religions.

. Okot p'Bitek

He was French anthropologist and ethnologist; his work contributed to the field of anthropology of religion as well as the theory of structuralism and structural anthropology

Claude Lévi‐Strauss

She is an Indian feminist theorist who uses the term subaltern to talk about the marginalization of colonized people, especially women

Gayatri Spivak

Odomankoma

God of Mercy and Abundance

Dualism

Good vs. Evil/God vs. Satan/ Heaven vs. Hell

_________ is French philosopher and father of the deconstruction philosophical project

Jacques Derrida

The Practice of Religion

Religion is about standing alone on your own feet, being yourself, and accepting your own individual existence

The Categorization of Vodou Spirits or Lwa

The Vodou spirits are categorized into two rites: the Rada and Petwo

true religion means

The human person's being totally submitted to the will of the (Christian) God

is belief just an abstract religious declaration?

according to David Morgan, belief is what happens when a human person is in touch with all his/her senses: touching, seeing, smelling

liminality

being between two states, conditions, or regions. the word also has a religious undertone, especially in relation to rituals. liminality means someone's being at the threshold of completing a ritual. this term could also be used to define the social situation and status of a group of people who live on the margins of society

monotheism

belief in one supreme god

the councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon

doctrines around the personhood of Jesus and the trinity in 4th and 5th centuries c.e Nicaea: focused on the trinity question - whether Jesus was equal to god the father and the holy spirit chalcedon: concerned with the christological question. Chalcedon dealt with and established the christological and divine status of Jesus in the greco - roman

Filioque

double procession of the Spirit from the Father (God) and the Son (Jesus)

1. True or False: Belief is a difficult theological concept to define, given that every religious culture has its own approach to the relevance of belief to people's everyday routines. Despite this, all religious people would agree that it is a perception that can only be used to explain matters of faith.

false

Even though Augustine believed that true religion can only be revealed by God through Christ, his theology promotes religious pluralism as well as the idea of salvation being a universal inclusive event.

false

True or False: Because Judaism and Christianity share many theological commonalities, it makes sense that both of them would associate the term love with the definition of belief.

false

religion

is a socio - cultural phenomenon that is difficult to define

nyame

is the god of the akan people of ashanteland. the sky god in Ashanti (souther Ghana) : nyamedua

anthropology of religion

is the study of humanity in relation to religion.

embodied epistemology

knowledge that is inherent in the human person

religion according to Malory nye

religion is a loose and ambiguous term that is not definable

totems

sacred objects or animals. the person believing in a supernatural being or sensing that certain objects or entities

animatism

seeing the world in terms of magical, impersonal forces

max weber

that it was religion that produced social groups

Emile Durkheim

that social groups produced religion

polytheism

the belief in more than one god or goddess

True or False: According to Gregory Alles, world events such as the Holocaust and Cold War have compelled many religious people to reconsider their definitions of "Truth." These events have also expanded the scope of the study of religion in the West. Religious plurality, as a result, has become one of the ethical compasses for the study of religion in places such as the United States.

true

True or False: According to post-modern thinkers such as Michel Foucault, academic discourse about religion has traditionally been narrowly centered on men. For them, religion is a human activity which has been used to condone political dominance cultural hegemony, social oppression, and economic exploitation.

true

True or False: Belief is what happens when a human person is in touch with all his/her senses: touching, seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, and emotion.

true

True or False: Today the field of the study of religion has been expanded so widely that scholars of religion are now using other non-theological data sources such as radio, television, the internet, and even comic books.

true

although there is not a linear history of religion, if we perceive it in terms of progression it would be accurate to maintain that the existence and history of religion can be traced back to then prehistoric society and primitive culture.

true

even though many religious people would disapprove of the use of social scientific methods to study religion, these approaches enable humans to comprehend the association of religion with the human situation, its impact on the human psyche, and its function in society

true

poststructuralism

used by American academics to refer to the writings of continental philosophers and critical theorists in the mid to late 20th century