exam 1

Question 1

Rudolf Otto’s formulation of the numinious:

Answer 1

The idea of the holy. Comes from latin word numina which means powers or spirits. Something from beyond, creature feeling- feeling overwhelmed and submerged by things you cannot describe it is supreme, you cannot explain. Extraordinary

Question 2

Mircea Eliade’s formulation of sacred space:

Answer 2

significant space where you can connect with the sacred “The fixed point of the turning world.” It could be different depending on the person. A place where communication with sacred power is made possible. Axis mundi

Question 3

-Umphalos:

Answer 3

Naval

Question 4

-Homo religious:

Answer 4

religious creature –Thomas O’Dea

Question 5

-substantive definition of religion:

Answer 5

tries to define what religion is in essence

Question 6

-functional definition of religion:

Answer 6

What religion does –Marx-Religion dulls the pain of human existance

Question 7

-Western bias:

Answer 7

Christian Judaism God

Question 8

-value bias:

Answer 8

You can tell by looking at the way it is defined, how the author feels about it

Question 9

-emic approach to religion:

Answer 9

the insider experience, bias social conditioning

Question 10

-etic approach to religion:

Answer 10

the outside approach objectivity, lack of experience

Question 11

philosophical approach:

Answer 11

concerned with examining the principles and rules that govern logic, theories of knowledge, morals, aesthetics, and metaphysics, that is, the nature of being or reality

Question 12

phenomenological approach:

Answer 12

concentrate on types of religious experience as it directly presents itself to those engaged in religious activity

Question 13

historical approach:

Answer 13

“what really happened” “Facts” deems appropriately relevant based on counts of evidence. Helps distinguish historical science from myths, legends, and tales but also how religions developed and how these traditions may differ from earlier decades

Question 14

functional approach:

Answer 14

Asks how the religious beliefs and institutions of society elicit acceptance of or sanction certain behavior, and how these factors assist in the integration and cohesion of that society. How do the dynamics of human social life and institutions effect changes in religious life and, in turn, how religious belief and behavior act on and transform social behavior

Question 15

mysterium tremendum et fascinans:

Answer 15

Numinous experience, mystery, fear, joy or comfort

Question 16

hierophany:

Answer 16

When profane and sacred meet, an opening to the holy or devine, a place where communication with sacred power is made possible

Question 17

Religion (Emile Durkheim)

Answer 17

serves to create social bonds, connects us to our past

Question 18

Mircea Eliade:

Answer 18

an important historian of religion and the manifest ways in which the sacred appears in space and time.

Question 19

axis mundi:

Answer 19

The center of the world, it is the point where symbolically speaking, the world rotates

Question 20

sacred:

Answer 20

evokes mixed responses, sacred power shows itself ambiguously, simultaneously as it awes

Question 21

profane:

Answer 21

everyday life

Question 22

life-cycle rites:

Answer 22

help individuals through the difficulties such critical passages in life from one state to another, as well as assist society in accepting sifnificant changes in status of loss of members

Question 23

liminality:

Answer 23

transitional stage

Question 24

communitas:

Answer 24

spontaneous bond of communication between members of a society

Question 25

social puberty rites:

Answer 25

transition from asexual world of childhood to an adult society that is differentiated by sexual roles

Question 26

vocation initiation rites:

Answer 26

initiation ceremonies for special groups or fraternities that consist of an elite class of persons who have demonstrated that they possess a special capacity to understand the sacred mysteries or are gifted with unique abilities or spiritual powers

Question 27

marriage and funeral rites:

Answer 27

marriage is hedged around by numerous taboos and customs, such as the throwing of rice or grain at the bride to ensure her fertility, the seclusion of the bride and groom for a period, the changing of clothing before the marriage, and the tying of knots and the exchanging of rings to strength the marriage bond

Question 28

life crisis rites:

Answer 28

undertaken to meet a specific crisis in the life of an individual or community, such as illness, miscarriage, failure in the hunt, or drought

Question 29

calendar/seasonal rites:

Answer 29

closely associated with the rhythmic changes of nature; with the cycles of the sun and moon; with winter, spring, summer, and autumns well as with seed time and harvest

Question 30

Adoration

Answer 30

praying

Question 31

Thanksgiving

Answer 31

thank god for food

Question 32

petition

Answer 32

calendar seasonal

Question 33

penanie/purification

Answer 33

apologize

Question 34

literary criticism:

Answer 34

Critics who as certain highly important questions regarding these sacred texts or scriptures

Question 35

Historiography:

Answer 35

the historian selects the accounts or the evidence that she or he deems appropriate and relevant, based on some principles of choice.

Question 36

Anthropology:

Answer 36

Has to do with the study of human beings and societies viewed primarily as both the creators and the creations of culture.

Question 37

Sociology:

Answer 37

focuses attention on social behavior and the way in which religion interacts with other dimentions of our social experience.

Question 38

Psychology:

Answer 38

achieved the status of a scientific discipline only in the late nineteenth century.

Question 39

Philosophy:

Answer 39

greek philosophia or the love of wisdom, concerned with examining the principles and rules that govern logic, theories of knowledge, morals, aesthetics, and metaphysics that is, the nature of being or reality.

Question 40

Phenomenology:

Answer 40

most illuminating approach to the study of religion, that which appears, phenomenologists focus on religious experience

Question 41

Totem:

Answer 41

special vehicles or bearers of sacred power

Question 42

imago mundi:

Answer 42

an image of the original world order

Question 43

sacred time:

Answer 43

Holy days, religious festivals, individuals pass ordinary, profane time into sacred time

Question 44

representational symbols:

Answer 44

Tie together things that are distinct even when there may not be any natural or symptomatic connection between the symbol and the thing symbolized. “Green, proceed”

Question 45

presentational symbols:

Answer 45

one that often takes the form of an icon, meaning sacred “image” or “likeness.” “map, geographic”

Question 46

second-order religious discourse:

Answer 46

: A more abstract form of discourse that seeks greater clarity and coherence by translating the symbolic and mythic language into concepts and doctrines

Question 47

Bronislaw Malinowski:

Answer 47

myth is an indispensable feature of all cultures. Myth or sacred table is unique and must be distinguished from legend and fairy tale