Chapter 13 - Terms

Question 1

sacred

Answer 1

Durkheim’s term for things set apart or forbidden that inspire fear, awe, reverence, or deep respect

Question 2

profane

Answer 2

Durkheim’s term for common elements of everyday life

Question 3

religion

Answer 3

according to Durkheim, beliefs and practices that separate the profane from the sacred and unite its adherents into a moral community

Question 4

church

Answer 4

according to Durkheim, one of the three essential elements of ­religion—a moral community of believers; also refers to a large, highly organized religious group that has formal, sedate worship services with little emphasis on evangelism, intense religious experience, or personal conversion

Question 5

state religion

Answer 5

a government–ponsored religion; also called ecclesia

Question 6

civil religion

Answer 6

Robert Bellah’s term for religion that is such an established feature of a country’s life that its history and social institutions become sanctified by being associated with God

Question 7

functional equivalent

Answer 7

a substitute that serves the same functions (or meets the same needs) as something else; for religion, an example is psychotherapy

Question 8

rituals

Answer 8

ceremonies or repetitive practices; in religion, observances or rites often intended to evoke a sense of awe of the sacred

Question 9

cosmology

Answer 9

teachings or ideas that provide a unified picture of the world

Question 10

religious experience

Answer 10

a sudden awareness of the supernatural or a feeling of coming in contact with God

Question 11

born again

Answer 11

a term describing Christians who have undergone a religious experience so life-­transforming that they feel they have become new persons

Question 12

modernization

Answer 12

the transformation of traditional societies into industrial societies

Question 13

spirit of capitalism

Answer 13

Weber’s term for the desire to accumulate capital—not to spend it, but as an end in itself—and to constantly reinvest it

Question 14

Protestant ethic

Answer 14

Weber’s term to describe the ideal of a self–denying, highly moral life accompanied by thrift and hard work

Question 15

monotheism

Answer 15

the belief that there is only one God

Question 16

polytheism

Answer 16

the belief that there are many gods

Question 17

animism

Answer 17

the belief that all objects in the world have spirits, some of which are dangerous and must be outwitted

Question 18

anti-Semitism

Answer 18

prejudice, discrimination, and persecution directed against Jews

Question 19

reincarnation

Answer 19

in Hinduism and Buddhism, the return of the soul (or self) after death in a different form

Question 20

cult

Answer 20

a new religion with few followers, whose teachings and practices put it at odds with the dominant culture and religion

Question 21

charismatic leader

Answer 21

literally, someone to whom God has given a gift; in its extended sense, someone who exudes extraordinary appeal to a group of followers

Question 22

charisma

Answer 22

literally, an extraordinary gift from God; more commonly, an outstanding, “magnetic” personality

Question 23

sect

Answer 23

a religious group larger than a cult that still feels substantial hostility from and toward society

Question 24

evangelism

Answer 24

an attempt to win converts

Question 25

ecclesia

Answer 25

a religious group so integrated into the dominant culture that it is difficult to tell where the one begins and the other leaves off; also called a state religion

Question 26

denomination

Answer 26

a “brand name” within a major religion; for example, Methodist or Baptist

Question 27

secular

Answer 27

belonging to the world and its affairs

Question 28

secularization of religion

Answer 28

the replacement of a religion’s spiritual or “other worldly” concerns with concerns about “this world”

Question 29

secularization of culture

Answer 29

the process by which a culture becomes less influenced by religion