World Religions Chapter 1

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

-Buddhism's Bodh Gaya, site of Gautama's foundational experience of Enlightenment. -Christianity's Church of the Nativity. -Islam's sacred city of Mecca.

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

10 percent.

Émile Durkheim's definition of religion

A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden— beliefs and practices, which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them.

Who stated that religion always consists of four "domains"

Bruce Lincoln

The world religion that most emphasize doctrines is

Christianity.

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

Discourse, practice, community, and institution

Bruce Lincoln's definition of religion could not leave room for an atheistic tradition.

FALSE

In monotheistic religions, the world is normally depicted as a kind of illusion, somehow not altogether real or permanently abiding.

FALSE

Monotheism is the belief in one god who is more powerful than the rest.

FALSE

Rudolf Otto gives preference to the mystical experience, a category that includes such phenomena as Buddhist nirvana.

FALSE

The academic study of religion has been an important field of study in universities for several centuries.

FALSE

Which of the following is not typical of religious revelation?

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

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

What does Karl Marx believe?

Man makes religion, religion does not make man. "Religion is the opium of the people"

who divided the various aspects of religious traditions into seven "dimensions"?

Ninian Smart

Numinous experience

Rudolf ottos term for describing an encounter with "the holy"; It is characterized by two powerful an contending forces, mysterium tremendum and fascinans.

Neither Freud nor Marx ever tried actually to define religion; rather, they tried to explain it away.

TRUE

The traditional Catholic doctrine of purgatory anticipates an intermediary destiny somewhere between the perfect bliss of heaven and the horrible agony of hell.

TRUE

What are the seven dimensions of religious traditions?

The mythic (sacred narrative/ storytelling) The doctrinal (philosophical) The ethical (legal) The ritual (practical) The experiential (emotional) The social The material

Paul Tillich's definition of religion

The religious aspect points to that which is ultimates, infinite, unconditional in a mans spiritual life. Religion, in the largest and most basic sense of the word, is ultimate concern.

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?

What are the main 3 questions addressed by religion?

What is ultimate reality? How should we live in this world? What is our ultimate purpose?

Mystical experience

a general category of religious experience characterized in various ways for example, as the union with the divine through inward contemplation or as the dissolution of the sense of individual selfhood.

Myth

a story or narrative, originally conveyed orally, that sets forth basic truths of a religious tradition and that often involves events of primordial time that describe the origins of things.

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

an effect of societal forces.

Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy

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

What are the 4 "domains" religion always consists of? (Bruce Lincoln)

discourse, practice, community, and institution

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.

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

in their solitude

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.

Atheism

perspective that denies the existence of God or gods.

who usually experiences revelations?

revelation is usually experienced by a founding member of the religion and then written about so followers can experience a similar revelation

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.

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. correct

Nontheistic

term denoting a religion that does not maintain belief in God or gods.

Theist

term denoting a religion that maintains belief in God or gods.

Transtheistic

term denoting a theological perspective that acknowledges the existence of gods will denying that the gods are vital with regard to the most crucial religious issues, such as the quest for Salvation.

Poly theism

the belief in many gods.

monotheism

the belief in only one God.

Henotheism

the belief that acknowledges all plurality of gods but elevates one of them to special status.

Monism

the belief that all reality is ultimately one.

pantheism

the belief that the divine reality is identical to nature or the material world.

Empathy

the capacity for seeing things from another's perspective, and an important methodological approach for studying religions.

Multiculturalism

the coexistence of different peoples in their cultural ways in one time and place.

Mysterium tremendum and fascinans

the contrast ING feeling of awe-inspiring mystery and of overwhelming attraction that are said by Rudolf otto to characterize the numinous experience.

Revelation

the expression of the divine will, commonly recorded in sacred text.

William James' definition of religion

the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider divine

Modernization

the general process through which societies transform economically, socially, and culturally to become more industrial, urban, and secular; Any transformation of societies and cultures that leads to the abandonment of traditional religious values.

Secularization

the general turning away from traditional religious authority and institutions; Any tendency in modern society that devalues religious worldviews or seeks to substitute scientific theories for religious beliefs.

Globalization

the linking an intermixing of cultures; Any process that moves a society toward internationalization of religious discourse.

Globalization is

the linking and intermixing of cultures.

Urbanization

the shift of population centers from rural, agricultural settings to cities.

French sociologist Emile Durkheim insists in his definition of religion on

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

Henotheism acknowledges

the virtue of the gods, but sets forth the pursuit of pleasure as the ultimate good for humankind.

revealed ethics

truth regarding right behavior believed to be divinely established and intentionally made known to human beings.

Cosmology

understanding of the nature of the world that typically explains its origin and how it is ordered.