Deck 4: Scripture As Source and Authority

Question 1

What is the definition of the following term:
-Adi Granth:

Answer 1

The primary holy text of Sikhism, which is the poetry of the founder Guru Nanak and successive leaders. It is ultimately considered the holy guru.

Question 2

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

Answer 2

The sayings of Confucius, collected to become one of the "Four Books" taken as scripture in Confucianism.

Question 3

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

Answer 3

A group of writings, especially scriptures, that form a limited and defined group, thus amounting to a list of a religion's authoritative texts.

Question 4

What is the definition of the following term:
-closed canon:

Question 5

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

Question 6

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

Question 7

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

Question 8

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

Question 9

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

Question 10

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

Question 11

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

Question 12

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

Question 13

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

Question 14

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

Question 15

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

Question 16

The general concept of scriptural authority means

A) all religious texts are attempts to tell us absolute truths that cannot be questioned.
B) scriptural texts are really just human attempts to "put a face on God."
C) scriptural texts claim some kind of relation to higher knowledge of Ultimate Being and therefore rightly direct their followers.
D) scriptural texts can mean anything we want them to mean.

Question 17

Our reading notes that scriptures across all of the world's religions

A) provide the only true basis for all beliefs.
B) can never be changed or ignored.
C) are the direct words of God but can be changed by later revelations.
D) have different levels of authority and importance and sometimes do not get used at all.

Question 18

Besides the Bible, name two primary religious scriptures and the religions in which they are used.
a. The text is ___________________, used in the religion of ___________________.
b. The text is ___________________, used in the religion of ___________________.

Question 19

Orthodoxy refers to

A) right kind of practice.
B) right kind of experience.
C) straight doctrine.
D) straight teeth.

Question 20

The sacred scriptures for Sikhism are known as

A) Guru Nanak.
B) Adi Granth.
C) Gobind Singh.
D) the Holy Quran.

Question 21

Muslims say that the Prophet Muhammad

A) is an incarnation of God.
B) incorporated his own personal thoughts and reflections in his letters, including his responses from letters he received from others.
C) recited the unmediated divine revelation, that is, reciting only the words God gave him to recite.
D) was writing only his own ideas that have no real religious authority.

Question 22

Christians say that the Apostle Paul

A) is an incarnation of God.
B) incorporated his own personal thoughts and reflections in his letters, including his responses from letters he received from others.
C) recited the unmediated divine revelation, that is, reciting only the words God gave him to recite.
D) was writing only his own ideas that have no real religious authority.

Question 23

The "logic of sacredness" is illustrated in which of these models of authority?

A) A text has authority from a prophet who has authority from God.
B) A prophet has authority because a text says so.
C) God has authority because a text says so.
D) Your instructor has authority because university policies say so.

Question 24

The sayings of Confucius are collected in a text called

A) the Sutras.
B) the Analects.
C) the Confucian Bible.
D) "Confucius say. . . ."

Question 25

Sages are not prophets, yet their writings often are considered scripture because

A) followers believe the founders have special insight into the nature of Ultimate Being.
B) followers are forced to conform to their teaching by religious authorities.
C) followers memorize clever sayings that sounds like homespun wisdom.
D) sages have great marketing agents that help get their texts onto bestseller lists.

Question 26

These founders' words can be trusted as holy scripture because

A) the Quran was written down by Muhammad himself.
B) the New Testament was written down by Jesus himself.
C) the sermons of the Buddha were written down by the Buddha himself.
D) none of the above

Question 27

According to our text, when religious followers quote scripture to make a doctrinal point

A) they are merely being closed minded.
B) they are appealing to religious authority the way many of us appeal to authority for information we do not have on our own.
C) they are incapable of thinking for themselves.
D) they can now be confident that they cannot be mistaken.

Question 28

Our textbook notes that the Ramayana of Hinduism is a scripture that is

A) open to adaptation and change by its followers.
B) an evident forgery that has fooled many Hindus.
C) unquestionably fact based in its historical foundations.
D) highly dubious in its historical foundations and is therefore largely ignored by Hindus nowadays.

Question 29

Our text suggests that a religious teaching might, in fact, decide not to appeal to scripture because

A) scriptures, being written, cannot be easily adapted to changing conditions.
B) reading scriptures is not as lively and interesting as storytelling or enactment.
C) it is better to have a living teacher than a dead text.
D) all of the above

Question 30

"Secondary scriptures" appear in some religions, including Islam and Judaism, because

A) the primary scriptures are found to be faulty and in need of correction.
B) the primary scriptures may not be clear in their meaning and require an authoritative source to aid interpretation.
C) new prophets come along that add new words directly from God.
D) followers get tired of the old rules and want some new teaching.

Question 31

Name three secondary religious scriptures and the religions in which they are used.
a. The text is ___________________, used in the religion of ___________________.
b. The text is ___________________, used in the religion of ___________________.
c. The text is ___________________, used in the religion of ___________________.

Question 32

Matching: The letter of the correct definition is given in the space provided.
-Canon

A) A "letter," especially one written by a Christian leader and included in the New Testament.
B) A limited and defined group of officially collected writings.
C) Sermons, usually of the Buddha, collected as Buddhist scripture.
D) "Straight practice," the official rituals and moral practices of a religion.
E) "Straight teaching," the official beliefs of a religion.

Question 33

Matching: The letter of the correct definition is given in the space provided.
-Epistle

A) A "letter," especially one written by a Christian leader and included in the New Testament.
B) A limited and defined group of officially collected writings.
C) Sermons, usually of the Buddha, collected as Buddhist scripture.
D) "Straight practice," the official rituals and moral practices of a religion.
E) "Straight teaching," the official beliefs of a religion.

Question 34

Matching: The letter of the correct definition is given in the space provided.
-Orthodoxy

A) A "letter," especially one written by a Christian leader and included in the New Testament.
B) A limited and defined group of officially collected writings.
C) Sermons, usually of the Buddha, collected as Buddhist scripture.
D) "Straight practice," the official rituals and moral practices of a religion.
E) "Straight teaching," the official beliefs of a religion.

Question 35

Matching: The letter of the correct definition is given in the space provided.
-Orthopraxis

A) A "letter," especially one written by a Christian leader and included in the New Testament.
B) A limited and defined group of officially collected writings.
C) Sermons, usually of the Buddha, collected as Buddhist scripture.
D) "Straight practice," the official rituals and moral practices of a religion.
E) "Straight teaching," the official beliefs of a religion.

Question 36

Matching: The letter of the correct definition is given in the space provided.
-Sutra

A) A "letter," especially one written by a Christian leader and included in the New Testament.
B) A limited and defined group of officially collected writings.
C) Sermons, usually of the Buddha, collected as Buddhist scripture.
D) "Straight practice," the official rituals and moral practices of a religion.
E) "Straight teaching," the official beliefs of a religion.

Question 37

According to the author, our textbook could be considered holy scripture.

Question 38

According to the author, because Laozi was not a prophet, we should not think of his writings (i.e., Daodejing) as Daoist scripture.

Question 39

A religious text cannot be considered scripture by its followers unless it appears to humanity straight from God, without any human intermediary.

Question 40

Scriptures were just written by human beings, but they can still be holy text.

Question 41

Even though the Buddha's followers wrote down the Buddha's sermons (i.e., sutras), they can still be considered Buddhist scripture.

Question 42

The Quran in Islam is an emphatically closed canon.

Question 43

The Hindu scriptures are emphatically considered a closed canon.

Question 44

The process by which the Christian New Testament became a closed canon was pretty simple.

Question 45

Once a person has scriptural authority in his or her hands, it settles any doctrinal problems.

Question 46

All religions use scripture as the final, best authority for settling religious questions.

Question 47

In your own words, describe the story of the formation of the Adi Granth, given as the case study at the beginning of this chapter. Use the story to explain the notion of the authority of the text.

Question 48

Explain the concept of orthodoxy and discuss how appeals to scripture help to establish orthodox teaching. Use an example from the text.

Question 49

In our reading and in class, it was suggested that scripture often provides a kind of link between a religion's founder and the idea of doctrinal authority. Use an example you know or from the reading and explain both of these terms and how scripture provides the link between them.

Question 50

Explain the difference between an authoritative religious text (using an example from this chapter) and an authoritative nonreligious text (such as an expert's book on chemistry or a biography of Abraham Lincoln).

Question 51

Describe how and why a religious believer might appeal to scripture to help settle problems or establish orthodox beliefs within his or her religion. Also note some problems with appeals to scripture. In general, do you think a religion is made stronger or weaker with emphasis on the authority of a written text?

Question 52

Choose any two scriptures you know about or can research and explain the texts' origins and source of authority. Raise historical questions about the founders/writers involved and about the closed or open nature of the canon. Finally, try to evaluate the dependability of each text.