Chapter 17

Question 1

A process of decline in the influence of religion. Can refer to levels of involvement with religious organizations (rates of church attendance), the social and material influence wielded by religious organizations, and the degree to which people hold religious beliefs

Answer 1

Secularization

Question 2

An activist Catholic religious movement that combines Catholic beliefs with a passion for social justice for the poor

Answer 2

Liberation theology

Question 3

A set of beliefs adhered to by the members of a community, incorporating symbols regarded with a sense of awe or wonder together with ritual practices. Do not universally involve a belief in supernatural entities

Answer 3

Religion

Question 4

A belief in one or more supernatural deities

Answer 4

Theism

Question 5

Large bodies of people belonging to an established religious organization

Answer 5

Churches

Question 6

Religious movements that break away from orthodoxy

Answer 6

Sects

Question 7

A religious sect that has lost its revivalist dynamism and become an institutionalized body, commanding an adherence of significant numbers of people

Answer 7

Denomination

Question 8

Fragmentary religious groupings to which individuals are loosely affiliated but that lack any permanent structure

Answer 8

Cults

Question 9

The sense that our own abilities as human beings are taken over by other entities

Answer 9

Alienation

Question 10

That which inspires attitudes of awe or reverence among believers in a given set of religious ideas

Answer 10

Sacred

Question 11

That which belongs to the mundane, everyday world

Answer 11

Profane

Question 12

Worldly thinking, particularly seen in the rise of science, technology, and rational thought in general

Answer 12

Secular thinking

Question 13

A theoretical framework within the sociology of religion that argues that religions can be fruitfully understood as organizations in competition with one another for followers

Answer 13

Religious economy

Question 14

Belief in a single god

Answer 14

Monotheism

Question 15

Belief in two or more gods

Answer 15

Polytheism

Question 16

A set of religious beliefs through which a society interprets its own history in light of some conception of ultimate reality

Answer 16

Civil religion

Question 17

The broad range of religious and spiritual groups, cults, and sects that have emerged alongside mainstream religions

Answer 17

New religious movements

Question 18

Associations of people who join together to seek to spread a new religion or to promote a new interpretation of an existing religion

Answer 18

Religious movements

Question 19

The inspirational quality of leaders that makes them capable of capturing the imagination and devotion of a mass of followers

Answer 19

Charismatic

Question 20

Religious movements that seek to enhance followers’ ability to succeed in the outside world by helping them unlock their human potential

Answer 20

World-affirming movements

Question 21

A general term to describe the diverse spectrum of beliefs and practices oriented on inner spirituality. Paganism, Eastern mysticism, shamanism, alternative forms of healing, and astrology are examples

Answer 21

New Age movements

Question 22

Religious movements that are exclusive in nature, highly critical of the outside world, and demanding of their members

Answer 22

World-rejecting movements

Question 23

Groups who exercise control over their members by making them subsume their individual identities in that of the group, compelling them to adhere to strict ethical codes or rules, and sometimes forcing them to withdraw from activity in the outside world

Answer 23

Total institutions

Question 24

Religious movements that emphasize the importance of inner religious life and spiritual purity over worldly concerns

Answer 24

World-accommodating movements

Question 25

The linking of strongly held religious convictions with beliefs about a people’s social and political destiny

Answer 25

Religious nationalism

Question 26

A period during which the political influence of established religions is successfully challenged

Answer 26

Disestablishment

Question 27

A form of Protestantism characterized by a belief in spiritual rebirth

Answer 27

Evangelicalism

Question 28

Evangelists who are highly anti modern in many of their beliefs and adhere to strict codes of morality and conduct

Answer 28

Fundamentalists