Introduction

Question 1

Preunderstanding

Answer 1

State of one’s understanding of reality, with which one makes sense of one’s new experiences.

Question 2

Religion

Answer 2

Pattern of beliefs and practices that expresses and enacts what a community regards as sacred and/or ultimate about life.

Question 3

Monotheism

Answer 3

Belief in one God

Question 4

Polytheism

Answer 4

Belief in many gods

Question 5

Private Religion

Answer 5

Pattern of belief held by only on person

Question 6

Secularism

Answer 6

Life without religion

Question 7

Secularization Hypothesis

Answer 7

Idea that science and education diminish or end religion in the modern world

Question 8

Cultural Intelligence

Answer 8

Ability to understand, respect and deal with people of other cultures and religions

Question 9

Ritual

Answer 9

Symbolic action in worship, meditation or other religion activities

Question 10

Pilgrimage

Answer 10

Travel to a specific destination to increase one’s devotion and/or improve one’s religion status

Question 11

Myths

Answer 11

Stories that relate basic truths of a religion

Question 12

New Religious Movements

Answer 12

Religious groups that have arisen since the nineteenth century and now have sufficient size to merit study

Question 13

Laity

Answer 13

Main body of people with practice a religion

Question 14

Theology

Answer 14

Study of a religion based on a religious commitment to it, in order to promote it

Question 15

Religious Studies

Answer 15

Academic study of religion that aims to understand all religious traditions objectively, in a religiously neutral way.

Question 16

Historical-critical method

Answer 16

Study of the past using careful, scholarly analysis

Question 17

History of Religious Schools

Answer 17

The first academic method to study religion as a social and cultural phenomenon

Question 18

Sociology

Answer 18

Scientific study of groups and group behavior

Question 19

Civil Religion

Answer 19

Dominant religion of a nation or culture that typically involves some religious conviction about that nation or culture

Question 20

Cultural Anthropology

Answer 20

Scientific study of human life focused on concrete human settings

Question 21

Shaman

Answer 21

Religious specialist in an indigenous society who acts as a medium between this visible world and the spirit world

Question 22

Life-Cycle Rituals

Answer 22

Ceremony to mark an important point in life such as birth, becoming an adult, weddings and funerals

Question 23

Feminism

Answer 23

Movement for women’s equality

Question 24

Patriarchy

Answer 24

Male-domination of society

Question 25

Phenomenology of Religion

Answer 25

Study of religion through it’s observable practices

Question 26

Atheism

Answer 26

Conviction that there is no God

Question 27

New Atheists

Answer 27

Group of current atheists who have made sharp public attacks on religion

Question 28

Agnostics

Answer 28

Those who do not know if a God or gods exist

Question 29

Tolerance

Answer 29

Putting up with the views and actions of others that are opposed to one’s own

Question 30

Pluralism

Answer 30

Recognition of religious differences and dealing with the constructively