Religion

Question 1

System of beliefs, traditions, and practices around sacred things; a set of shared “stories” that guide belief and action

Answer 1

Religion

Question 2

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

Answer 2

Sacred

Question 3

Things of mundane, everyday life

Answer 3

Profane

Question 4

Worship of a god or gods as in Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism

Answer 4

Theism

Question 5

Adherence to certain principles to lead a moral life as in Buddhism and Taoism

Answer 5

Ethicalism

Question 6

Belief that spirits are part of the natural world as totemism

Answer 6

Animism

Question 7

Big group of congregations that share the same faith and are governed under one administrative umbrella

Answer 7

Denomination

Question 8

Group of people who gather together especially for worship

Answer 8

Congregation

Question 9

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

Answer 9

Secularism

Question 10

Presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups in our society

Answer 10

Pluralism

Question 11

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

Answer 11

Sacred canopy

Question 12

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

Answer 12

Evangelicals

Question 13

Religious adherents who follow a scripture using a literal interpretation of its meaning

Answer 13

Fundamentalists

Question 14

Individual’s spiritual feelings, acts, and experiences

Answer 14

Religious experience

Question 15

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

Answer 15

Reflexive spirituality

Question 16

A conservative Protestant church that attracts at least 2,000 worshippers per week

Answer 16

Megachurch

Question 17

Promises of future rewards such as salvation or eternity in heaven

Answer 17

Supernatural compensators

Question 18

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

Answer 18

Churches

Question 19

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

Answer 19

Sects or sectarian groups

Question 20

Religious movement that makes some new claim about the supernatural and therefore does not easily fit within the sect-church cycle

Answer 20

Cult