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51 Cards in this Set
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What is an "essence"? According to W.C. Smith, do religions have an essence? Why/why not? |
An essence is a philosophical notion of that which does not change. It is given and what a thing can be reduced to. According to Smith, "there is no essence to religion" because there's no one thing/place that's common among religions. |
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Where, according to Smith, does the truth of religion lie? |
It lies somewhere in the interaction between a person and their religious material. |
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What is the main quote from Smith that the professor wants hammered in our heads? |
"Each religion is a new religion every day!" |
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Why, according to Smith and the professor, is no one threatened by the Vulcan statue of the fire god in Birmingham, Alabama? |
Because it's part of a dead religion that didn't change with history; therefore, no one still actually practices that religion and it's not a threat to the bible belt region; |
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What are the 3 sacred symbols in Pesach in Judaism and what do they stand for in Judaism? |
1) Lamb: blood over the door was a sign of salvation. 2) Bread: hasty departure from Egypt 3) Wine: deliverance from slavery; freedom. |
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On Maundy Thursday, Jesus evolves the symbolic meanings of lamb, bread and wine. This follows the gradual parting of ways between Judaism and Christianity. What are the new symbolic meanings of the 3 things? |
1) Lamb: Jesus is the lamb of God who saves the world/takes away the sin of the world. Blood of salvation. 2) Wine: Jesus's blood 3) Bread: Jesus's body |
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What is transubstantiation? |
The Roman Catholic belief that the bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Jesus, transformed mystically by the priest during mass. When the bell is rung, this is the moment of transubstantiation. |
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How is transubstantiation a departure from the symbolism of wine, bread and lamb that Jesus meant? |
It takes it literally whereas Jesus meant it metaphorically/symbolically. |
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How do the symbolism and presentation of bread and wine during services differ in Protestantism versus Catholicism? |
Catholicism: believes they're the literal blood and body of Christ. -Meltable wafers are given by the priest. Protestantism: bread and wine remain only symbols. -Wine and bread is served in platters away from the altar. |
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How did Christian priests and ministers recognize/atone for their unwitting participation in the antisemitism that led to the Holocaust? |
They changed the language of the bible to remove blame from the Jews for killing Jesus and emphasized Jesus's Jewishness. Ex: They explicitly refer to the Last Supper as a Passover Seder. |
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Where does the truth of a religion lie, according to W.C. Smith? |
In persons/in a person's actions/beliefs. |
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How do westerners versus easterners tend to equate religion (to belief or action)? What two words epitomize these differing tendencies? |
Western religions tend to equate religion to belief. -orthodoxy: right belief. Eastern religions tend to equate religion with action. -orthopraxy: right action. |
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According to Smith, how does he determine that the orange seller was true to his religion? |
Although there was no way to objectively measure the oranges being sold, the orange seller said "I am subject to Allah's word" and therefore was true to his religion because he was being honest. |
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What did Gandhi say regarding Jesus and Christians? In what context? |
"I love you Jesus but I hate your Christians!" -referring to the British Rajj who oppressed Indians. |
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Who are the 2 main characters in the story "Siddhartha" by Hesse? What's the premise of the story? |
Siddhartha and Govinda. They explore spiritual journeys toward enlightenment. |
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What does Siddhartha say to Govinda in Hesse's story regarding knowledge and wisdom? |
"Wisdom is not communicable but knowledge is". -->"In every truth the opposite is also true because everything expressed in words is only half the truth." Ex: The potential buddha already exists in the sinner and every baby has death in them as every old person has eternal life w/in them. |
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What is Paul Tillich's definition of religion? |
Ultimate Concern. |
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How do humans have to express ultimate concern/their religion, according to Paul Tillich? |
Symbolically |
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What is a symbol? |
The representation in the visible form of ideas, beliefs, actions, persons and events, frequently of transcendent realities. |
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What is the origin of the word "symbol"? |
Greek word "sunbolon"=where 2 rivers meet. |
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What did Tillich say humans should be called? Why? |
Humans should be called Homo symbolicum because symbol use is extremely pervasive in human culture. |
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What are the 6 characteristics of symbols according to Tillich? |
1) points to something beyond itself 2) participates in that to which it points (evokes a feeling) 3) Opens up new levels of external reality that were otherwise closed to us. 4) Unlocks dimensions to new depths of reality within us. 5) Cannot be created intentionally 6) Symbols are born and can die |
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What are 2 examples of symbols being living/not being able to be created intentionally? |
1) Hitler tried to create the swastika as a symbol of triumph but it became synonymous with the horrors of Nazism. 2) Betsy Ross created the American Flag which became a symbol for America. |
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What is the word "God" according to Tillich? |
The word "God" is a symbol for God. It transcends the name. "God is nothing less than a symbol for humans' ultimate concern. " |
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What is a myth? |
Symbolism combined with stories. From the Greek "mythos" |
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What according to Tillich is the problem with taking myths literally/myth literalism? |
It deprives God from ultimacy by drawing God down to the level of that which is finite and contitional. It is essentially idolatrous. |
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What are the 2 kinds of myth literalism according to Tillich? |
1) Natural Literalism: in which mythic and literal are indistinguishable. -The faith of children that we grow out of. (ex: kids believe in fairy tales) 2) Conscious Literalism: When one knows the limits of the literal but represses it. A tool of the oppressive church and an aggressor against critical theology. |
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What is a "broken myth" according to Tillich? What's an example of this? |
A myth which is understood as a myth but is not removed or replaced because it is understood as meaningful because of its symbolism. "Break open the myth to let the light of truth shine through". -Ex: Buddha's birth story. |
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What is the Protestant Principle? |
"Whatever we say about God are all human constructs". |
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What are psychogenic theories of religion? Who are 2 examples of people who thought religion has psychogenic origins? |
Theories that say religion comes from a human's head. Ex: Feuerbach and Freud. |
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Who was Feuerbach? What is meant by "devout atheist"? |
A German philosopher who was a "devout atheist" who was also a naturalist. A devout atheist in this case refers to the fact that he did not believe in God but still defended religion.
Also said, "You are what you eat." |
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Feuerbach was a naturalist. What is a naturalist? |
A person who believes everything has a natural, rational and biological explanation/cause. |
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What is Uniformitarianism? |
A prescientific worldview that the world is the same as it has always been and operates in the same ways as always. Kind of the opposite of naturalistic thinking. |
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What according to Feuerbach is the definition of religion? |
The relation of a person to him/herself. He believed that humans project qualities they themselves admire onto a concept of "God". |
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What is the basic message of Feuerbach's idea of "Religion as a Projection of Human Nature"? |
He believed that humans project qualities that they wish to embody themselves onto a "cosmic screen" that they call "God". In the process of projection, you alienate yourself from this "being" and therefore become emptied and alienated from yourself and your own secret ideals. |
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What is emphasized by the phrases "Spare the rod, spoil the child." and "Spare the rod! Spoil the child." in reference to Feuerbach's beliefs about religion? |
He believes that interpretive choice about a religion reveals nothing about God but reveals everything about the human who makes it. "All attributes of the divine nature are therefore attributes of the human nature. " |
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Who was the founder of Psychoanalysis (the "talking cure")? |
Sigmund Freud |
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What is the main message behind Freud's text, "Religion as Wish Fulfillment"? |
He extends Feueurbach's notion of religion as a projection--> Humans project a need for fatherly protection in the face of the unforgiving forces of nature. Humans create from within their own minds God/the divine to rob the universe of its terror. His definition of the psychogenic nature of religions is based on the child/father relation which is founded in childish helplessness in the face of existential angst and founded on strong patriarchal imagery for God in Judeo Christian texts. |
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Freud came up with the "Three Functions of the Gods". What are they? |
1) Exorcise the terrors of Nature 2) Reconcile us to the cruelties of fate/death 3) Compensate us for the sufferings of life. |
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What does it mean to "Exorcise the terrors of nature" (Freud's first function of the Gods)? |
It means to humanize nature and distinguish good nature from bad nature. |
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What does it mean to "Reconcile us to the cruelties of fate/death" (Freud's second function of the Gods)? |
Convince us that it's God's will when bad things happen to us and that it's all part of his plan/punishment for sin. |
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What does it mean when Freud says that "an illusion is not the same as an error"? |
An illusion might happen, although they are rare. For example, a little girl waiting to become a princess (it MIGHT happen). |
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According to Freud, a belief is called an "illusion" when its purpose is _______________. What does this mean regarding religion? |
Wish fulfillment. Religion is the ultimate neurosis of humanity/the ultimate form of wish-fulfillment. |
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For Freud, God is the ultimate ____________. |
Father figure. |
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Who was Rudolph Bultman?
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An active Christian scholar that resisted HItler and was a pioneer of Form Criticism (helped determine the JEDP authorship of the Torah). |
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What is Cosmology? what Greek words does the word come from? |
-"kosmos"= world/universe -"logos"=word/reason Cosmology=The account or theory of the origin/framework of the universe as a whole. |
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What is the 3-tiered cosmology of the New Testament? |
1) Heaven above 2) Earth 3) Hell below |
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What is the problem with the 3-tiered cosmology of the Christian bible according to Bultman? |
Human science has advanced to the point where we can no longer seriously believe in this cosmology literally. |
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What is "kerygma" according to Bultman? |
"preaching". Ex: "the kerygma is incredible to the modern man for he his convinced that the mythical view of the world is obsolete". |
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What did Bultman say that we must do to theology in order for it to remain true and relevant in these modern times? |
We must "demythologize" it--strip it of its mythical framework. |
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Bultman explores one aspect of the New Testament in order to support his idea of demythologizing it to keep it relevant. What does he say/ask/propose? |
"Since blind acceptance of mythology would be irrational, what then does it mean to descend to hell?" |
