Religion Flashcards
System of beliefs, traditions, and practices around sacred things; a set of shared “stories” that guide belief and action
Religion
Holy things put to special use for worship and kept separate from the profane; realm is unknowable and mystical so it inspires us with feelings of awe and wonder
Sacred
Things of mundane, everyday life
Profane
Worship of a god or gods as in Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism
Theism
Adherence to certain principles to lead a moral life as in Buddhism and Taoism
Ethicalism
Belief that spirits are part of the natural world as totemism
Animism
Big group of congregations that share the same faith and are governed under one administrative umbrella
Denomination
Group of people who gather together especially for worship
Congregation
General movement away from religiosity and spiritual belief toward a rational, scientific orientation, a trend adopted by industrialized nations in the form of separation of the church
Secularism
Presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups in our society
Pluralism
Peter Berger’s term to describe the entire set of religious norms, symbols, and beliefs that express the most important thing in life; namely, the feeling that life is worth living and that reality is meaningful and ordered and not just random chaos
Sacred canopy
Members of any denomination distinguished by four main beliefs
- The Bible is without error
- Salvation comes only through belief in Jesus Christ
- Personal conversion is the only path to salvation
- Others must also be converted; they proselytize by engaging with wider society
Evangelicals
Religious adherents who follow a scripture using a literal interpretation of its meaning
Fundamentalists
Individual’s spiritual feelings, acts, and experiences
Religious experience
Contemporary religious movement that encourages followers to look to religion for meaning, wisdom, and profound thought and feeling rather than for absolute truths on how the world works
Reflexive spirituality
A conservative Protestant church that attracts at least 2,000 worshippers per week
Megachurch
Promises of future rewards such as salvation or eternity in heaven
Supernatural compensators
Religious bodies that coexist in a relatively low state of tension with their social surroundings; have mainstream “safe” beliefs and practices relative to those of the general population
Churches
High-tension organizations that don’t fit well with the existing social environment; usually most attractive to society’s least privileged–outcasts, minorities, the poor–because they downplay worldly pleasure by stressing otherworldly promises
Sects or sectarian groups
Religious movement that makes some new claim about the supernatural and therefore does not easily fit within the sect-church cycle
Cult
