Exploring Religion, Chap. 1

1. List at least three (3) definitions of religion offered in Chapter 1 of our text.

2. Which definition does the author of the text prefer to use and why does he find it more "adequate" than the others?

3. What are three functions of religion? (name and briefly describe them)

4. What are three "broad categories" of form that religion takes? How do they relate to the functions listed in #2 above?

5. What is the difference between a "theological" versus "academic" approach to the study of religion? Which approach is taken in this text?

6. What differentiates a "functionalist" view of religion from a "substantive" view? What is meant by these terms?

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 2 

As you read, define these terms as they are being used in the text:

• Animism:

• Mana:

• Totemism:

• Taboo:

• Ancestor Worship:

• Polytheism:

• Monotheism:

• Magic:

• Primal Religions:

• Shaman:

• Archaic Religions:

• Ethnic Religion:

• Classical Religions:

• Universal Religion:

• Modern Religions:

• Pluralism:

• Secularism:

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 3 

List as many different references to (descriptive words or terms), characteristics, attributes or functions of and names for "The Holy" as you find used in chapter 3 (you should be able to find more than 50 terms).

Define these terms:

• Hierophany:

• Theistic:

• Non-theistic:

• Immanent:

• Transcendent:

• Pantheism:

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 4 

1. What are three "paths of liberation" discussed in this chapter? Name and briefly describe each:

1.

2.

3.

2. What is asceticism?

3. How is "magic" defined in the text?

4. When does religion take on the qualities of "magic"?

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 5 

1. What is the difference between "representational" and "presentational" symbols?

2. How do "signs" differ from other kinds of symbols?

3. What are three distinct kinds of presentational symbols discussed in the text?
   a. Name them; b. describe them and; c. give several examples of each:

1.

2.

3.

4. How does the text define...

• idolatry:

• magic:

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 6 

1. What is meant by "direct" language?

2. What is meant by "indirect" language?

3. What are three main uses of language identified in the text? Name and briefly distinguish between them.

1.

2.

3.

4. What are the characteristics of science and scientific language?

5. Identify three ways of scientifically studying religion. What are the respective questions these studies ask?

1.

2.

3.

6. What does a religious way of knowing offer beyond the limits of science?

7. What are four important features of religious language? Name and briefly explain each.

1.

2.

3.

4.

8. What are three forms of metaphoric language? Name and briefly describe each.

1.

2.

3.

9. What are some ways that religion and science are contrasted (i.e., are seen as different) throughout this chapter?

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 7

1. In what way are sacred stories a lie? In what way are they true?

2. What are the distinguishing characteristics of the three kinds of sacred stories discussed in this chapter?

• Myth:

• Parable:

• Sacred History:

3. What distinguishes secular history from sacred history?

4. Of the following stories, indicate which ones might be categorized as myth, which as parable and which as sacred history. Indicate why you have categorized them as you have: (if you are unfamiliar with Kipling or Aesop, check with any library)

• Rudyard Kipling’s "Just So Stories":

• Aesop’s Fables:

• The Garden of Eden (Genesis chapters 2-3):

• Noah’s Ark (Genesis 6:9-8:19):

• The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37):

• Moses and the Exodus (Exodus chapters 2-14):

• The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)

• The birth of Jesus (Luke 2:1-20):

• Birth of Buddha (take an educated guess):

• Tower of Babel: (Genesis 11:1-9):

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 8 

1. How is scripture defined in the text?

2. What is "scriptural criticism"?

3. What is "hermeneutics"?

4. Identify the scripture(s) (sacred texts) associated with each religion:

• Islam (Muslim):

• Christianity:

• Judaism:

• Zoroastrianism:

• Hinduism:

• Buddhism:

• Sikhs:

• Taoism:

• Confucianism:

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 9 

1. What is the difference between a philosopher of religion and a theologian?

2. What is "revealed theology"?

3. What is "natural theology"?

4. What are the attributes of God as understood by "classical monotheistic theology"? (list terms)

5. Briefly explain or sum up the three classic arguments for the existence of God - what does each argue?

• Cosmological:

• Ontological:

• Teleological:

6. What are some of the assumptions (as pointed out by the "counter arguments") held by each argument? (you may have to "read between the lines" to sum up what is being said).

• Cosmological:

• Ontological:

• Teleological:

7. What is the essence of the "pragmatic" and "experiential" approaches to the question of God’s existence? (answers to this question may demand your own words to sum up what the text tells you)

• pragmatic:

• experiential:

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 10 

1. According to Buddhism, what is the cause of suffering?
   
   . . . and how can it be overcome?

2. What are two different definitions of nirvana given in two different places in the text?

3. How does the text define theodicy?

4. What are some Christian understandings about the origin of evil?
   
   . . . and why God allows it to exist?

5. How does the text define reincarnation?

6. What are some Jewish and Christian beliefs about resurrection?

7. What are some ways that heaven and hell may be understood?

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 11 

1. What are some positive effects of religion in society?

2. What are some negative effects of religion in society?

3. What distinguishes "natural" religious groups from "voluntary" religious groups?

4. List some examples of "natural" or "ethnic" religions:

5. List some examples of "universal" religions:

6. What is monasticism?

7. What distinguishes a "founder" from a "reformer" of a religion?

8. List some "founders" (not "reformers") of religions (as mentioned in the text):

9. What distinguishes a "new religious group" from an "established" one?

10. What distinguishes "dominant" religious groups from "minority" or "sectarian" groups?

11. List some examples of "dominant religious groups":

12. List some examples of "minority" or "sectarian" religious groups:

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 12 

1. How does the text define "faith"?

2. What are three "dimensions of faith" by which humans respond to the sacred and what does each involve?

3. What kinds of phenomena may be associated with spiritual experience as an "altered state of consciousness"?

4. Of the five types of religious experience discussed in the text, briefly describe or define each:

• Confirming:

• Saving:

• Commissioning:

• Possessional:

• Mystical:

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 13 

1. What does the term "soteriological" (soteriology) refer to?

2. What are two ways by which the text defines "salvation"?

3. What is meant by "inner conversion"?

4. What is "structural conversion"?

5. What are three ways that a self may be "troubled"? Name and briefly describe them:

6. What is meant by "self-power" and "other-power" as regards salvation?

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 14 

1. How does the text define holy rites?

2. How would you sum up what the text says regarding the distinctions between presentational rites and representational rites?

• Presentational:

• Representational:

3. In what way can sacred rites be considered "magical?" 

In what way can they be considered "sacramental"?

4. Why are sacred rites repetitive?

5. How do sacred rites and ritual practices function on a social level?

6. Identify a sacred rite you are familiar with:
   Explain in what ways it is:

• either presentational or representational:

• sacramental or magical:

• a re-creation or a commemoration:

• and in what ways it is social in nature:

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 15 

1. What are some ritual ways that people in various religions maintain or restore ritual purity?

2. What are four reasons for making "gift offerings" (sacrifices) to a divinity? (name and describe them)

3. What are some interpretations of blood sacrifice?

4. What kinds of bloodless sacrifice do moderns substitute for human and animal sacrifice?

5. What distinguishes "special rites" from other kinds of rites?

give some examples of special rites:

6. What are three broad categories of rites? (give examples of each)

7. What are two sub-categories of rites of passage? (give examples of each)

8. What are three stages of rites of passage?

9. Rites of passage mark what four points of transformation in a person’s life?

10. What are two types of calendrical rites? (give examples of each)

11. How are life-cycle and calendrical rites contrasted in the text?

12. Identify a sacred rite you are familiar with:
    what category of rite is it?

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Exploring Religion, Chap. 16 

Define:

• Pagan:

• Heretic:

• Atheist:

• Agnostic:

1. What are three main characteristics of a humanist philosophy?

2. What positive values are found in a humanist philosophy?

3. How are humanists and religionists contrasted with each other as regards how they view the world?

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