Review - Religion in America

Question 1

What are the four rites of passage common to many religions?

Answer 1

Birth, puberty, marriage & death

Question 2

Contextualization for the gospel message involves what three cultures?

Answer 2

Speakers culture
Recipient culture
Biblical culture

Question 3

What is Mrs. Delke’s approach for why you should study different religions even when you already believe that one is the truth?

Answer 3

It is the loving thing to do

Question 4

Mrs Delke said that all of Jesus teachings can be summed up in one question you should ask about any action or attitude to bring clarity about what is “right”, What is that question?

Answer 4

What does love require of me?

Question 5

How is “love” defined by Jesus?

Answer 5

Doing what is in the OTHER person’s best interest, no matter how hard it is for you personally

Question 6

According to Jesus disciple, John, how do we know what love is?
KNOW VERSE FROM MEMORY

Answer 6

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ died for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

Question 7

What is “folk religion”?

Answer 7

Religion that deviates from the original form

Question 8

A religion is the beliefs and practices that lead to ……

Answer 8

Transcendence which gives meaning and value to life.

Question 9

T/F The religiously “unaffiliated” in America has increased within the last decade.

Answer 9

True

Question 10

T/F Americans believe everything more so than nothing

Answer 10

True All religions are valid attitude

Question 11

T/F The original monotheism view of the origin of religion is the only model that acknowledges religious/spiritual reality

Answer 11

True

Question 12

Explain what the subjective model of the origin of religion is based on and then explain why it is an insufficient explanation.

Answer 12

Claims religions are an invention of human psyche to fulfill some psychological need (i.e. need for a perfect father or need for idealistic traits like love or power)
- Problems are
1- Everything pointed to as a cause may be an effect of a religious reality
2- Doesn’t explain historical origin of religion. When did religion begin

Question 13

Identify and describe the stages of religious development in the evolutionary model of the origin of religions

Answer 13

Mana - a spiritual force - impersonal, in everything that exists
Animism- specific spirits in the world- usually nature and ancestral spirits
Polytheism - many gods
Henotheism - belief in many gods but worship of only one
Monotheism - belief in one god

Question 14

What is the evidence that the evolutionary model is not accurate?

Answer 14

A No examples of cultures growing in this order

B Cultural students reveal changes of religious stages in the opposite direction and out of order

Question 15

What is original monotheism and what evidence is there to support it?

Answer 15

Belief that God himself initiated religion from beginning of man’s existence.
Includes concept of creator God and shattering of perfect relationship by disobedience.
Evidence- earliest scriptures of ancient religions promote this idea
-anthropology shows most religions started with monotheistic or supreme god

Question 16

What is a ritual according to our text?

Answer 16

Repeated action to receive some kind of desired reward or result.

Question 17

T/F The U.S. is still predominantly a Christian nation(Protestants, Christians, and Orthodox)

Answer 17

True

Question 18

When you state that all religions are equally “true”, you are inferring that all of them are equally not a part of reality. What is the logic for that thought?

Answer 18

Opposing claims cannot both be true. Religious claims run into this problem. Logic tells us that truth is grounded in reality. Therefore we would only see all religious claims being “true” in the non-real world of people’s opinions

Question 19

What is contextualization? Why is it an essential skill in our diverse American cultural landscape? How does “cultural sensitivity” fit into this. SHORT ANSWER

Answer 19

• Contextualization - taking idea from one perspective and communicating it to make sense to a person with a different perspective