KEY TERMS: Exploring the Sacred Paths

Question 1

Aesthetic

Answer 1

Concerning beauty or artistic perception; important for religious expression.

Question 2

Cosmogonic Myth

Answer 2

Sacred story that tells of the creation or founding of the world and of basic human realities.

Question 3

Ethics

Answer 3

Thought and study about moral decisions on the basis of traditions of right and wrong.

Question 4

Healing Rituals

Answer 4

Religious rituals devoted to promoting health, often complementary to modern medical practices.

Question 5

Kenosis

Answer 5

“Emptying out”; in ritual, the movement of separation or doing away with the old state.

Question 6

Liminal

Answer 6

In ritual, the state between separation (kenosis) and restoration (plerosis).

Question 7

Monism

Answer 7

The view that all reality is one unified divine reality.

Question 8

Monotheism

Answer 8

Belief in one almighty God, separate from the world.

Question 9

Myth

Answer 9

Story about sacred beings in the beginning of time, telling how existence came to be as it is and providing the pattern for authentic life.

Question 10

Nondualism

Answer 10

View that ultimate reality and the phenomenal world are not different.

Question 11

Path of Transformation

Answer 11

Practice in a religious tradition that changes one from the wrong or inadequate state to the ideal state.

Question 12

Plerosis

Answer 12

“Filling up”; fulfillment or restoration movement of ritual.

Question 13

Polytheism

Answer 13

The belief that many divine powers share in the world’s operation.

Question 14

Religious Traditions

Answer 14

Sacred stories and basic ideas and practices that religious communities “hand over” from generation to generation; that which is handed over is thought to maintain a recognizable unity while changing over time.

Question 15

Rites of Passage

Answer 15

Rituals connected with the critical changes or passages in a person’s life, especially birth, puberty, marriage, and death.

Question 16

Rituals

Answer 16

Activities of many kinds that connect people with sacred realities, including prayer, sacrifice, chanting, pilgrimage, festivals, disciplines of meditation, and much more.

Question 17

Sacred Space

Answer 17

Space that is made special by connection with the sacred, providing orientation and rootedness for a people.

Question 18

Sacred Story

Answer 18

Master story of a religion, providing identity for the adherents.

Question 19

Sacred Time

Answer 19

Special time of ritual and festival, when mythic events are made present once more.

Question 20

Sacred, The

Answer 20

What is experienced as ultimate reality, the mysterious Other that is the ground of ultimate value and meaning.

Question 21

Symbols

Answer 21

Words, pictures, ideas, rituals, and so on that evoke deep meanings by connecting with sacred reality.

Question 22

Transformation

Answer 22

The act of reaching the ideal state of wholeness, perfection, or salvation.

Question 23

Understanding

Answer 23

“Standing under” another’s way of thought and life, comprehending it by reference to one’s own experience.

Question 24

Worship

Answer 24

Respectful religious activity in special times, directed towards sacred beings or realities of ultimate value.