Deck 1: An Invitation to the Study of World Religions

Question 1

What is the definition of the following term:
-atheism:

Answer 1

Perspective that denies the existence of God or gods.

Question 2

What is the definition of the following term:
-cosmology:

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What is the definition of the following term:
-empathy:

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is the definition of the following term:
-globalization:

Question 5

What is the definition of the following term:
-henotheism:

Question 6

What is the definition of the following term:
-modernization:

Question 7

What is the definition of the following term:
-monism:

Question 8

What is the definition of the following term:
-monotheism:

Question 9

What is the definition of the following term:
-multiculturalism:

Question 10

What is the definition of the following term:
-mysterium tremendum and fascinans:

Question 11

What is the definition of the following term:
-mystical:

Question 12

What is the definition of the following term:
-myth:

Question 13

What is the definition of the following term:
-nontheistic:

Question 14

What is the definition of the following term:
-numinous experience:

Question 15

What is the definition of the following term:
-pantheism:

Question 16

What is the definition of the following term:
-polytheism:

Question 17

What is the definition of the following term:
-revealed ethics:

Question 18

What is the definition of the following term:
-revelation:

Question 19

What is the definition of the following term:
-ritual:

Question 20

What is the definition of the following term:
-secularization:

Question 21

What is the definition of the following term:
-theistic:

Question 22

What is the definition of the following term:
-transtheistic:

Question 23

What is the definition of the following term:
-urbanization:

Question 24

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

A) embraced atheistic and agnostic theories of human behavior.
B) ignored the relevance of religion as an important factor in molding society.
C) tended to take for granted that Christianity was a model of what religion ought to be.
D) was overtly influenced by Communism and therefore tended to undervalue religion.

Question 25

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

A) European exploration of distant lands and their unfamiliar "religions."
B) the expanding influence of British culture, which tended toward special interest in religion.
C) increased power of Hindu and Muslim nations.
D) the rise of deism and thus of a tendency to belittle the "religions" of others.

Question 26

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

A) at the time of dying
B) at their most heroic
C) in relationship to their community of fellow believers
D) in their solitude

Question 27

French sociologist Émile Durkheim insists in his definition of religion on

A) an emphasis of its effects on the individual's psyche.
B) the harm brought about by religion, the "opium" of the people.
C) the unification brought about by "beliefs and practices," culminating in a "moral community called a Church."
D) the notion of "transcendence" as its essential aspect.

Question 28

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

A) Immanuel Kant.
B) Karl Marx.
C) Rudolf Bultmann.
D) Paul Tillich.

Question 29

Bruce Lincoln's definition of religion emphasizes four "domains." What are they?

A) Discourse, practice, community, and institution
B) Essence, existence, freedom, and regeneration
C) Inner, outer, esoteric, and exoteric.
D) Eastern, Western, African, and Australian.

Question 30

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

A) Émile Durkheim.
B) Sigmund Freud.
C) Karl Marx.
D) Paul Tillich.

Question 31

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

A) a drug-induced illusion.
B) an effect of societal forces.
C) Christianity, without being open to the possibility of other traditions.
D) the foundation of a person's sense of being.

Question 32

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

A) consideration of the true nature of the divine is the central focus.
B) psychological and sociological studies are not highly relevant.
C) analysis of empirical data is not possible because of the nature of religion.
D) supernatural beings and events normally are held to be beyond its reach.

Question 33

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

A) What is the correct definition of "religion"?
B) What is ultimate reality?
C) How should we live in this world?
D) What is our ultimate purpose?

Question 34

We refer to a religion as theistic when

A) it denies the doctrine of an ultimate reality.
B) the divine is thought of as God or as gods.
C) it emphasizes theory as opposed to practice.
D) it features an account of creation as an act of God.

Question 35

Henotheism acknowledges

A) only one god who is thought to be qualitatively removed from the world.
B) the virtue of the gods but sets forth the pursuit of pleasure as the ultimate good for humankind.
C) six separate deities, of the four directions and of the sky and of the earth.
D) a plurality of gods but elevates one of them to special status.

Question 36

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

A) Aristotelianism.
B) Epicureanism.
C) Platonism.
D) Stoicism.

Question 37

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

A) Buddhism.
B) Islam.
C) Judaism.
D) Zoroastrianism.

Question 38

Among ancient Greeks and Romans, Epicureans were considered to be

A) atheists.
B) heretics.
C) magicians.
D) quasi-Christians.

Question 39

Monism is described as

A) hierarchical.
B) logical.
C) nondualist.
D) transtheistic.

Question 40

Which of the following is not typical of religious revelation?

A) It is recorded in sacred texts or scriptures.
B) It sets forth narratives describing the role of God or the gods in history.
C) It is brought about through prayer on the part of a congregation of worshippers.
D) It includes pronouncements directly attributed to the divine.

Question 41

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

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.
D) All of the above

Question 42

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

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.
D) All of the above

Question 43

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

A) Aristotle's concept of the Prime Mover.
B) Epicurus's theory of atomism.
C) Shinto's creation myth.
D) All of the above

Question 44

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

A) establishes the Christian ethical perspective with regard to the pursuit of wealth.
B) is pronounced in similar forms in the scriptures of virtually all of the world's major traditions.
C) pronounces that God created heaven and earth through the Logos or Word.
D) distinguishes Christianity as being the most altruistic of the world's major traditions.

Question 45

Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy

A) asserts that divine truth can be known only through a mystical experience.
B) promotes Catholic teachings as fundamental to leading a religious life.
C) describes the encounter with "the Holy" as "numinous."
D) can be summarized as the application of Platonic philosophy to Jewish theology.

Question 46

Which of the following is not true of spiritual fulfillment?

A) Buddhist nirvana is a form of spiritual fulfillment.
B) Spiritual fulfillment can be said to consist of living in harmony with nature.
C) Christianity offers spiritual fulfillment by offering salvation from the effects of sin.
D) Spiritual fulfillment is always thought to be achievable in this lifetime.

Question 47

According to Bruce Lincoln's book Holy Terrors,

A) almost every religious tradition holds a belief in some form of hell.
B) children have an innate capacity for belief in divine beings that diminishes as they grow older.
C) religion has the potential to facilitate and even to escalate violence.
D) religions that teach the existence of demons also acknowledge the existence of ghosts.

Question 48

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

A) doctrinal and ritual.
B) causal and reactionary.
C) artistic and architectural.
D) sacred and profane.

Question 49

The world religion that most emphasizes doctrines is

A) Buddhism.
B) Christianity.
C) Hinduism.
D) Judaism.

Question 50

Ninian Smart's material dimension of religion involves

A) the place of artistic creations and natural entities in religious traditions.
B) atomic theory.
C) the effects of capitalism on the development of religions.
D) beliefs concerning the social structures underpinning religions.

Question 51

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

A) globalization.
B) modernization.
C) colonialism.
D) traditionalism.

Question 52

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

A) expatriation.
B) gentrification.
C) centralization.
D) urbanization.

Question 53

Globalization is

A) the linking and intermixing of cultures.
B) imperial expansion and domination.
C) the embrace of a common religion worldwide.
D) the tendency to understand the world cultures in a new way thanks to new technologies.

Question 54

A general feature of modernity is its tendency to

A) deny the authority of tradition and the past.
B) emphasize the strength inherent in traditional ways of living.
C) look to religion as a means of facing global challenges.
D) reject secular worldviews as socially disadvantageous.

Question 55

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

A) 5 percent.
B) 10 percent.
C) 15 percent.
D) 20 percent.

Question 56

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

A) the exploration of space.
B) the encounter of religion with science.
C) the environmental crisis.
D) the widespread application of the World Wide Web.

Question 57

Which is an example of a basic and extremely significant scientific question that remains unanswered?

A) About how old is the universe?
B) Does God exist?
C) What is the ground of consciousness?
D) What is the meaning of human existence?

Question 58

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

A) Sigmund Freud
B) Karl Marx
C) Friedrich Max Müller
D) Friedrich Nietzsche

Question 59

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

A) need to balance the perspectives of insider and outsider.
B) pervasive role of the natural world in religious traditions.
C) tendency of religious belief to intensify among people who live alone.
D) problem of focusing only on the individual aspects of religion, without considering the societal aspects.

Question 60

The capacity for seeing things from another's perspective is

A) audacity.
B) complacency.
C) empathy.
D) synchronicity.

Question 61

This statement is foundational to the field of religious studies.

A) To know one just one religion is to know none.
B) If you follow a religion, do not study it.
C) All religions are equally true.
D) Religions evolve; God does not.

Question 62

Psychology is an especially useful disciplinary approach when trying to

A) explain mythological accounts of the fate of souls in the afterlife.
B) make sense of the modes of religious experience.
C) discriminate between individual and societal aspects of a religious tradition.
D) interpret the meaning of religious language.

Question 63

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

A) anthropology.
B) neurotheology.
C) philosophy.
D) sociology.

Question 64

"World Religions" has been a prominent course of study in American colleges and universities for nearly a century.

Question 65

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

Question 66

Most cultures through history have had neither the conceptual category nor a term meaning "religion."

Question 67

Over the course of the past century, scholars from various academic disciplines have gradually come to a general consensus over how to define the term "religion."

Question 68

The attempt to define religion is a relatively recent phenomenon, beginning for the most part with the European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century.

Question 69

A sound definition of religion need not accommodate the distinction between "religion" and "spiritual," because for all practical purposes the terms mean the same thing.

Question 70

Karl Marx was a thoroughgoing idealist who insisted that religious ideas can cause great changes in the economy.

Question 71

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

Question 72

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

Question 73

Theology, the field of inquiry that focuses on considering the nature of the divine, is an important example of doing and being religious.

Question 74

Usually, explanation of the nature and role of the divine takes center stage in a religion's belief system.

Question 75

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

Question 76

Quasi-divine figures, such as angels and demons, though difficult to categorize, are important elements of religion nonetheless.

Question 77

According to a May 2015 Pew Forum study, 8.2 percent of people in the United States identify as atheist, agnostic, or "nothing in particular."

Question 78

Some Hindus are monistic and some are polytheistic, but never at the same time.

Question 79

Among nontheistic religions in particular, revelation usually combines textual transmission with a direct experience of revelation.

Question 80

Religious cosmologies typically describe both the origin and the status of the universe.