Terms to know For Introduction to Religion
Terms
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- Axis Mundi
- Center of Existence
- Symbol
- Something concrete that stands for something abstract
- Taboo
- Prohibition from approaching the sacred
- Communion
- Evoking God, or gods in a community
- Hogan
- house of Navajo
- Hohzho
- Idea of Beauty and Harmony (belief of Navajo)
- Totems
- Animals or objects sacred to a person or gorup of people
- Sacred
- set apart
- Profane
- ordinary world
- Secular
- worldly (i.e materialism etc.)
- Anthropomorphism
- Human characteristics applied to a non-human object (same as personification)
- hierophany
- something sacred revealing itself to us
- fideism
- faith must precede knowledge
- ascetic
- person who lives a self-denying life
- animism
- belief that all things have a soul or spirit
- Analogy
- similarity between things otherwise unlike
- archetypal
- original pattern, or model from which other things such as institutions, beliefs, and behavior are patterned.
- catharsis
- cleansing or purging
- Functionalism
- Method applied to the study of religion that is not interesten in the history or evolution of religions but rather focuses on how religion functions in a particular social or cultural context
- normative
- measure or standard by which other beliefs or practices are to be judged
- omniscient
- having infinite knowledge
- omnipotent
- all-powerful
- ontological
- nature of being
- Finitude
- Limits
- Ritual
- Religion in Action
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(Catergories of Religion)
Basic Form - The traditional and oral that applies to all religions. (Primitive) basically the foundations of religion
- Cultural Form
- Religion that is tied closely to a specific culture
- Super cultural Form
- Religion that transcends geographic bounds
- Cults Form
- Religious groups outside of organized or established religions. Cults/Splinter groups are looking for more spiritual and emotional fulfillment. Their leaders are charismatic and authoritative.
- Belief
- Statements that are accepted as truth
- Mysterium
- Experience of a reality that is beyond our measures to comprehend
- tremendum
- feeling of peculiar dread and awe: 2 qualities "might" or "overpoweringness"
- fascinians
- evokes expressions of joy, praise and adoration
- Literary Criticism
- examines the sacred text of a religion
- Historiography
- examines facts of and make new facts to determine what took place
- Anthropology
- examines what functions religion served in the total life of a community in primitive societies
- Sociology
- also interested in functions, but more concentrated in modern societies
- Psychology
- examines the religious experience (?)
- Philosophy
- examines religious experience and beliefs
- Phenomenology( study of human awareness, preface of philosophy)
- to examine religious expression in its own terms