Comparative Religions Midterm
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114 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Divine | representative of the gods |
| Ethical | right action |
| fundamentalist | one who rejects important aspects of modernity and wants to go back to what he or she perceives as the purity of an authentic social/political order manifested in the sacred way of life of his or her ancestors |
| globalization | the idea that all the world's religions have members in every country or society. Anyone using the Internet can view the major temples, shrines, churches, mosques, or monasteries from around the world and offer ritual prayers or make monetary offerings to them |
| heretic | from the ancient Greek, meaning "to choose." In our postmodern world every religious person becomes a heretic, one who is not simply born into the given religion or identity but must choose it, even if it is only to choose to retain the identity offered by the circumstances of his or her birth |
| metanarrative | a grand cosmic and/or historical story accepted by the majority of a society as expressing its beliefs about origin, destiny, and identity |
| modern | a civilization that separates its citizen's lives into public and private spheres, assigning politics ot public life while restricting religion to personal and family life. |
| myth | from the Greek "mythos" meaning story. A symbolic story about the origins and destiny of human beings and their world; myth relates human beings to whatever powers they believe ultimately govern their destiny and explains to them what the powers expect of them |
| orthodoxy | acceptance of "right beliefs" or "doctrines" based on sacred texts as formulated by religious authorities |
| orthopraxy | the practice of "right action" or rituals as prescribed by sacred traditions |
| postmodern | a society typified by diversity in both beliefs and social practices that has no single dominant metanarrative and is skeptical of finding either certain knowledge or norms in any public form of truth. |
| premodern | a civilization in which there is no separation between religion and society. A dominant religious metanarrative provides the most certain truths people believe they know. By being a member of that culture, one automatically participates in its religious vision and lives by its religious norms |
| religion | from Latin religare, "to tie or bind" |
| ritual | actions that connect the individual and the community to the sacred |
| secular | nonreligious |
| transcendent | beyond all finite things |
| via analogia | a way of knowing spiritual reality through the use of analogy |
| via negativa | a way of knowing the highest spiritual reality by negating all the finite qualities and characteristics |
| animism | religious tradition whose basic perception entails belief in an inner soul that gives life and ultimate identity to humans, animals, and plants and that places primary emphasis on experiential rituals in which humans interact with other souls. |
| Circular time | the awareness, more prevalent in hunter-gather than in industrial societies, that life is governed by the rising and the setting of sun, the phases of the moon, and the seasons of the year. |
| cosmogony | mythological account of the creation |
| "Dreamtime" | in Aboriginal legend, the time when the world was being created |
| Emile Durkheim | sociologist who theorized that religion's power to bind human communities together is what established it and keeps it central to human life |
| Homo religiosus | religious humanity. A term coined by comparative religions scholar Mircea Eliade to indicate that religious practice was universal to all humans |
| numinous | the human perception of the sacred |
| shaman | ritual specialists, intermediaries who attempt to connect this world to another realm of being impinging on humanity. By these rituals, they knit together the community in the face of the chaos of disease, death, and discord |
| sorcerers | mediums who manipulate the spirit world and coerce the supernaturals without their consent, often for their own benefit, and against community values. |
| soul belief | E.B.Tylor's theory. The human perception that there is an invisible soul or intangible spirit inside our visible, tangible bodies is universal. |
| spirit flight | soul journey. A shaman's attempt to locate another person's soul, perhaps because it has wandered off in this world or needs assistance to reach the afterlife dwelling place of the clan's ancestors |
| spirit medium | person who is believed to communicate with the dead. |
| syncretism | the weaving together of alien and indigenous religious beliefs and practices; or the combining of elements from different practices to create a new religion. |
| taboo | forbidden |
| totem | symbol taken from the natural world that stands for a social group possessing a common origin and essence |
| tutelary spirit | a supernatural agent, often an ancestral spirit, whose help is required by a shaman to perform the difficult soul journeys, negotiate with evil spirits, compel a soul to return, or increase the shaman's healing powers |
| white shaman | Westerners who create global organizations propagating a purported universal shamanic tradition, charging high fees for tours, courses, initiations, and healing services, some pledging to use some of the proceeds to assist indigenous shamans |
| Ashkenazi | Jews whose traditions originated in central and eastern Europe |
| Bar mitzvah | the rite of passage for boys whereby they become full members of the religion of Judaism who are able to read and interpret Torah |
| Bat mitzvah | in modern times a parallel rit for girls to become full members of the religion of Judaism has been established. |
| covenant | the agreement between God and the people ISrael whereby they are chosen to be God's people; God agrees to guide and protect them; the people agree to follow God's commandments |
| diaspora | the dispersion of a religious people outside their geographic homeland, where they must live as a minority among others |
| dual Torah | the scriptures of Rabbinic Judaism, composed of the written Torah and the oral Torah |
| gentile | anyone not Jewish |
| halakhah | the commandments of God revealed in the Tanak and commented on in the Talmud; to walk in the way of God by obeying his commands or laws |
| haredim | Jewish ultra-orthodox movements that reject all modernist forms of Judasim. |
| Hasidism | a form of Judaism emerging in the eighteenth century, focused on piety and joy, with strong roots in Jewish mysticism |
| Israel | either Jews as a religious people or the land and state of Israel, depending on the context |
| Kabbalah | Jewish mysticism |
| kosher | what is suitable or fit, used especially in reference to foods permitted by Jewish dietary laws |
| Rabbinic | teacher; came to designate the Judaism of the dual Torah created by the Pharisees, which came to be normative in the premodern period |
| Sephardic Jews | Jews whose traditions originated in Spain and Portugal |
| synagogue | a community centered on the study of Torah and prayer to God, the buildings used to house these activities also came to be known as this |
| Talmud | the oral Torah, recorded in the Mishnah and the commentary on the Mishnah called the Gemara. There are two Talmuds: the Bavli (Talmud of Babylonia) and the Yerushalmi (The Jerusalem Talmud). The former is considered the more comprehensive. |
| Tanak | the written Torah, or Hebrew Bible, made up of Torah, Neviim, and Ketuvim. |
| temple | a place to worship God or the gods in diverse religions; in Judaism only one was allowed for the worship of God in Jerusalem. |
| Tzaddik | in the Hasidic tradition, a righteous man, as powerful as the rabbi in a traditional Talmudic community, but revered for mystical piety and devotion, not Talmudic scholarship. |
| Zionism | the desire to return to the land of Israel as a homeland, in modern times, the secular movement stated by Theodor Herzl that led to the formation of the state of Israel. |
| Zohar | major book of Jewish Kabbalism: The Book of Splendor |
| Augustinian | refers to views of St. Augustine's views that separation of church and state in which both are answerable to each other and both exist to promote the spread of the Gospel |
| Catholic | those churches that define their Christian authenticity through apostolic succession |
| Christ | from greek translation of the Hebrew word meaning Messiah or Anointed One. |
| Constantinian | view of the unity of church and state attributed to Emperor Constantine. |
| deism | Enlightenment view that God created the world and left it to run on its own |
| evangelical | refers to pietistic Christian movements that arose in response to the Enlightenment. Emphasizes the unifying power of conversion as an emotional transformation rather than a rational/dogmatic one. |
| fundamentalist (Christians) | term first emerged to refer to evangelical Protestants who believed that certain fundamental truths of the Gospel were threatened by modern interpreters. |
| Gospel | literally "good news". First four books of New Testament. |
| grace | expresses the idea of unmerited divine love and assistance given to humans |
| heresy (Christian) | came to be used as a negative term for choosing to believe doctrines viewed as erroneous by those who considered themselves more orthodox |
| incarnation | the eternal word of GOd is embodied in the flesh of Jesus during his earthly life. |
| justification by faith | humans are saved by faith as a gift rather than through works of obedience to the law. started by Martin Luther. |
| Kingdom of God | the kingdom occurs whenever humans live in accord with the will of God and especially at the end of time when God will be all in all |
| Original sin | the sin of Adam and Eve. Said to have affected all human beings by corrupting their will so that they are often unable to do the good they intend |
| Pentecostal | refers to churches that emphasize possession by the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues |
| Protestant ethic | coined by sociologist Max Weber. Calvanist branch of Reformation: belief in working hard and living simply. Predestination. |
| redemption | root meaning is "to be rescued or freed." |
| sacraments | ritual actions such as baptism and Holy Communion, said to impart the grace of God to Christians, usually through the mediation of ordained clergy. |
| syncretistic | the identification of the gods of one religion with the gods of another so that on'es own gods are seen as the same as those of the other's religion but under different names |
| Trinity | God as Father, Son, and Holy spirit. God is transcendent. |
| two natures, one person | Jesus is fully human except for sin, God is fully present in him and united to him. Affirmed by Council of Chalcedon 451. |
| ayatollah | sign of god, title used by certain Shiah religious leaders. |
| bida | innovation or deviation in religious belief or practice |
| caliph | successor of Muhammad as the political and military head of the Muslim community |
| Dar al-Islam | the house or abode of Islam, as opposed to the ho use of war; territory controlled and ruled by Muslims |
| Dhimmi | protected non-Muslim peoples. Refers to Jews and Christians. |
| Fatwa | legal opinion or interpretation issued on request by legal expert to either judges or private individuals |
| Fiqh | understanding; science of Islamic law; human interpretation and application of divine law |
| Five Pillars | ... |
| Hadith | narrative report of Muhammad's sayings and actions |
| Hajj | annual pilgrimage to Mecca |
| Halal | permitted, allowed food has been slaughtered in religiously prescribed manner. |
| Hijab | Veil |
| Hijra | migration of muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 |
| Imam | In Sunni Islam, prayer leader. In Shiah, Muhammad's descendants. |
| Islam | submission or surrender to God |
| Jihad | to stive or to struggle to realize God's will, lead a virtuous life, spread Islam. |
| Mahdi | expected or awaited one (at the end of time to usher in the perfect Islamic society of truth and justice) |
| Mosque | Islamic temple. |
| Mufti | legal expert, adviser, or consultant, one wh oissues fatwas to judges and litigants. |
| Muslim | one who submits or surrenders himself or herself to God. |
| People of the Book | Jews and Christians. Zoroastrians. |
| Quran | revelation, recitation, message. Muslim scripture. |
| Ramadan | month of fasting, ninth month of Muslim calendar. |
| Salat | prayer five times a day |
| Shahadah | declaration of faith. There is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger |
| Sharia | Islamic Law, straight path |
| Shaykh | master, teacher, head of Sufi order |
| Shiah | follow leadership of Ali, nephew and son-in-law of Muhammad. Leadership belongs to descendants. |
| Shirk | polytheism, idolatry. |
| Sufi | one who wears wool. Muslim mystic or ascetic. |
| Sufism | Islamic mysticism |
| Sunnah | Muhammad's example, live out principles of the Quran |
| Sunni | accept sunna and historic succession of Caliph. |
| Ulama | Religious scholars |
| Ummah | community of Muslim believers |
| Zakat | Almsgiving. 2.5%. |
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