Definitions Flashcards
What religion do the terms come from and what are their significance to that religion?
Adventist
Religion: Christianity (Seventh-day Adventist Church)
Significance: Adventists are members of a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week, as the Sabbath and its emphasis on the imminent second coming (Advent) of Jesus Christ.
AMORC (Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis)
Religion: Esoteric Christianity / Western esotericism
Significance: AMORC is a modern Rosicrucian organization that promotes a mystical and esoteric form of Christianity, focusing on spiritual enlightenment, esoteric knowledge, and personal development.
Antichrist
Religion: Christianity
Significance: In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist is a figure who is prophesied to oppose Christ and substitute himself in Christ’s place before the Second Coming.
Antinomian
Religion: Christianity
Significance: Antinomianism is the belief that Christians are released by grace from the obligation of following the moral law. This view has been controversial in Christian theology, especially during the Reformation.
Apocalyptic
Religion: Various (including Christianity, Islam, Judaism)
Significance: Apocalypticism is a religious belief system that emphasizes the imminent end of the world, usually involving a final battle between good and evil. It is prevalent in the eschatologies of several religions.
Armageddon
Religion: Christianity
Significance: Armageddon refers to the prophesied location of a final battle between the forces of good and evil, as described in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament.
Audience cult
Religion: New religious movements
Significance: Audience cults involve a loosely organized collection of individuals who share an interest in new religious or spiritual phenomena, often centered around charismatic figures or new teachings.
Auditing
Religion: Scientology
Significance: Auditing is a core practice in Scientology involving a one-on-one session with an auditor using an E-meter to identify and address past traumas (engrams) affecting the individual’s present life.
Bo and Peep
Religion: Heaven’s Gate
Significance: Bo and Peep were the pseudonyms of Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, the leaders of the Heaven’s Gate cult, which believed in an imminent extraterrestrial evacuation of their followers’ souls.
Charismatic
Religion: Christianity (Pentecostalism/Charismatic Movement)
Significance: Charismatic Christianity is a form of Christianity that emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts as an everyday part of a believer’s life
Clear
Religion: Scientology
Significance: In Scientology, a Clear is an individual who has been freed from the influence of engrams and thus exhibits greater spiritual awareness, personal power, and happiness.
Container
Religion: Various
Significance: In religious contexts, the term “container” can metaphorically refer to the body or mind as a vessel for the soul or spirit, or the framework within which religious practices and beliefs are held.
Concerned relatives
Religion: New religious movements
Significance: “Concerned relatives” often refers to the family members of individuals who have joined new religious movements, who may seek to bring their relatives out of these groups, sometimes through deprogramming.
Cognitive dissonance
Religion: General psychology (applied to religious studies)
Significance: Cognitive dissonance refers to the mental discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or ideas, often observed in the context of religious conversion or apostasy.
Cyrus Seven Seals
Religion: Branch Davidians
Significance: The Seven Seals are a key element of Branch Davidian theology, as interpreted by David Koresh (originally named Vernon Wayne Howell), who claimed to be the final prophet with the ability to interpret these seals from the Book of Revelation.
Deviance amplification
Religion: Sociology of religion
Significance: Deviance amplification describes the process by which a group’s deviant behavior is exaggerated or intensified due to societal reactions, often leading to further alienation and radicalization.
Deprivation
Religion: Sociology of religion
Significance: Deprivation theory suggests that individuals may join new religious movements or cults due to economic, social, or psychological deprivation, seeking fulfillment or compensation.
Disfellowship
Religion: Jehovah’s Witnesses, various Christian denominations
Significance: Disfellowshipping is the practice of formally excluding an individual from a religious community due to doctrinal or behavioral violations, effectively cutting them off from fellowship and communal support.
Deprogram
Religion: New religious movements
Significance: Deprogramming is a controversial practice aimed at helping individuals leave new religious movements, often involving intensive counseling or even coercion to reverse the perceived indoctrination.
Esoteric
Religion: Various
Significance: Esoteric religions or practices involve secret or hidden knowledge accessible only to a select group of initiates, often emphasizing mystical or occult traditions.
Endogenous
Religion: Sociology of religion
Significance: In religious contexts, endogenous factors are internal factors within a religious group that influence its development, such as beliefs, practices, and organizational structure.
Engram
Religion: Scientology
Significance: In Scientology, an engram is a traumatic memory stored in the unconscious mind, believed to cause irrational behavior and emotional distress until it is cleared through auditing.
Flirty Fishing
Religion: Children of God/The Family International
Significance: Flirty Fishing was a controversial practice in the Children of God (now The Family International), where female members were encouraged to use sexual relationships to proselytize and recruit new members.
Entrepreneurial
Religion: Sociology of religion
Significance: Entrepreneurial in a religious context refers to leaders or movements that adopt innovative, business-like approaches to spread their beliefs and grow their organizations.
Exemplary dualism
Religion: Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism
Significance: Exemplary dualism refers to religious systems that posit a fundamental dichotomy between good and evil, light and dark, often seen in Zoroastrian and Manichaean beliefs.
Exogenous
Religion: Sociology of religion
Significance: Exogenous factors are external influences affecting a religious group, such as social, economic, or political pressures from the broader society
Knights Templar
Religion: Christianity (historical)
Significance: The Knights Templar was a medieval Christian military order founded to protect pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land and became influential both militarily and financially before being disbanded by the Church.
Groupthink
Religion: Sociology of religion
Significance: Groupthink refers to the phenomenon where a group’s desire for harmony and conformity leads to irrational or dysfunctional decision-making, often seen in tightly-knit religious communities.
Horned God
Religion: Neopaganism (Wicca)
Significance: The Horned God is a deity in Wicca and other neopagan traditions, representing male energy, nature, wilderness, and the life cycle.
Koresh
Religion: Branch Davidians
Significance: David Koresh was the leader of the Branch Davidians, a sect that broke from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He claimed to be the final prophet and led his followers in a tragic standoff with the FBI in Waco, Texas.
Law of Love
Religion: Children of God/The Family International
Significance: The Law of Love in the Children of God (now The Family International) refers to their belief that all actions, including sexual ones, are permissible if motivated by love and intended to bring others to God.
MEST
Religion: Scientology
Significance: MEST is an acronym in Scientology standing for Matter, Energy, Space, and Time, which together constitute the physical universe as opposed to the spiritual realm.
Mysticism
Religion: Various
Significance: Mysticism involves the pursuit of direct, personal experience of the divine or ultimate reality, often through contemplative practices and esoteric traditions across many religions.
Moses
Religion: Judaism, Christianity, Islam
Significance: Moses is a central prophet in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, known for leading the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage and receiving the Ten Commandments from God
Mind control
Religion: New religious movements
Significance: Mind control refers to the alleged use of psychological manipulation by some religious groups to indoctrinate members and suppress dissent, often cited by critics of new religious movements.
Millenialism
Religion: Various (including Christianity)
Significance: Millenialism, or millennialism, is the belief in a coming transformation of society, after which there will be a 1,000-year reign of peace and prosperity, often associated with the second coming of Christ in Christian eschatology.
Postmodern
Religion: Various (especially in new religious movements)
Significance: Postmodernism in religious studies refers to the diverse, fragmented nature of contemporary religious practice and belief, often characterized by a rejection of universal truths and embrace of pluralism.
Oneida
Religion: Perfectionism
Significance: The Oneida Community was a 19th-century utopian religious community in the United States that practiced complex marriage, communal property, and Perfectionist theology.
Normative dissonance
Religion: Sociology of religion
Significance: Normative dissonance refers to the conflict between a person’s religious beliefs and the dominant norms or values of the surrounding society, often leading to tension or adaptation.
Reactive mind
Religion: Scientology
Significance: In Scientology, the reactive mind is the part of the mind that stores engrams and reacts irrationally to life events, causing emotional distress and self-destructive behavior.
Operating Thetan
Religion: Scientology
Significance: An Operating Thetan (OT) in Scientology is a spiritual state where an individual is believed to be free of the limitations of the physical world and operates at a high level of spiritual awareness and ability.
Raelian
Religion: Raelism
Significance: Raelism is a UFO religion founded by Claude Vorilhon (Rael), which teaches that life on Earth was created by an extraterrestrial species called the Elohim and emphasizes universal love and world peace.
Proselytize
Religion: Various
Significance: Proselytizing is the act of attempting to convert people to a particular religion or belief system, a common practice in many religious traditions seeking to spread their faith.
Rajneesh
Religion: Rajneesh movement (Osho)
Significance: The Rajneesh movement, founded by Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later known as Osho), promotes spiritual enlightenment through meditation, dynamic exercises, and the rejection of traditional societal norms.
Rosicrucian
Religion: Rosicrucianism
Significance: Rosicrucianism is a mystical and esoteric tradition based on purported ancient wisdom passed down through secret societies, emphasizing spiritual enlightenment and alchemical transformation.
Rationalization
Religion: Sociology of religion
Significance: Rationalization in a religious context refers to the process by which religious beliefs and practices become more systematized, bureaucratized, and aligned with scientific and rational principles.
Routinization of charisma
Religion: Sociology of religion
Significance: The routinization of charisma refers to the process by which the charismatic authority of a religious leader is institutionalized into a stable, enduring organizational structure after their death or departure.
Sabbath
Religion: Judaism, Christianity (Seventh-day Adventists)
Significance: The Sabbath is a day of rest and worship observed on the seventh day of the week (Saturday)
Satanic Bible
Religion: Satanism (LaVeyan)
Significance: The Satanic Bible, written by Anton LaVey, is the central religious text of LaVeyan Satanism, outlining its philosophy, rituals, and ethical teachings.
Seven Seals
Religion: Christianity (Branch Davidians)
Significance: The Seven Seals are a prophetic element from the Book of Revelation, interpreted by the Branch Davidians and their leader David Koresh as a timeline of apocalyptic events.
Shift to risk
Religion: Sociology of religion
Significance: Shift to risk refers to the tendency of religious groups to take greater risks or adopt more extreme behaviors under certain conditions, such as perceived existential threats or charismatic leadership.
Social Encapsulation
Religion: Sociology of religion
Significance: Social encapsulation describes the process by which a religious group isolates itself from the broader society, creating a self-contained social and cultural environment.
Subversive
Religion: Various
Significance: In a religious context, subversive groups or ideas challenge and seek to undermine established religious or social norms, often leading to conflict with mainstream institutions.
Tantric
Religion: Hinduism, Buddhism
Significance: Tantra is a spiritual tradition within Hinduism and Buddhism that focuses on ritual practices, meditation, and the use of symbolic and esoteric techniques to achieve spiritual enlightenment and liberation.
Thetan
Religion: Scientology
Significance: In Scientology, a thetan is the true spiritual self of an individual, akin to the concept of the soul, which is believed to be immortal and capable of transcending the physical universe.
Transit
Religion: Various
Significance: Transit in a religious context often refers to the passage of the soul from one state or realm to another, such as from life to afterlife, or between reincarnations.
Ukiah
Religion: Peoples Temple
Significance: Ukiah, California, was the location of the headquarters of the Peoples Temple before the group, led by Jim Jones, relocated to Jonestown in Guyana, where the tragic mass suicide/murder took place.
Unfreezing
Religion: Psychology of religion
Significance: Unfreezing refers to the initial stage of changing deeply held beliefs and behaviours, often used in the context of religious conversion or deprogramming.
Waco
Religion: Branch Davidians
Significance: Waco, Texas, was the site of a 1993 standoff between the Branch Davidians, led by David Koresh, and federal authorities, which ended in a deadly fire that killed 76 people.
White Night
Religion: Peoples Temple
Significance: “White Night” was a term used by Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple to refer to a state of emergency, culminating in the mass suicide/murder in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978.
