World Religion 1st Semester

Vocabulary flashcards covering core terms, scholars, and concepts introduced in the lecture on the nature and elements of religion.

Religion

A system of beliefs, practices, and values that links humanity to the divine or sacred and unites believers into a moral community.

Religare / Religio (Latin)

Root words of 'religion' meaning “to tie or bind,” referring to binding humans to the divine and to each other.

Re-ligare (Molloy)

'Re' (again) + 'ligare' (to join); conveys the idea of reconnecting humanity with the sacred.

Relegare

Latin for “to tread carefully,” implying respect and care for both natural and supernatural realms.

Worldview

A coherent and comprehensive set of beliefs covering life’s ultimate questions and guiding human conduct.

Belief

An assertion held to be true, such as the existence of God, souls, or universal justice.

Belief System

Interrelated, coherent, and comprehensive network of beliefs forming a worldview.

Comprehensive (in worldview)

Accounts for a wide range of phenomena and human concerns (e.g., meaning, death, ethics).

Coherence (in beliefs)

Logical consistency and interrelation among beliefs within a system.

Spiritual World

A non-physical, transcendental reality accessed through faith, visions, revelations, or mystical experience.

Faith

Trust or confidence in spiritual truths without reliance on empirical verification.

Sacred

That which is set apart from the ordinary, treated with reverence, and perceived as having inherent value.

Profane

The ordinary, secular realm contrasted with the sacred.

Inherent Sacredness

Value possessed by something spiritual in itself (e.g., God, souls, ultimate principles).

Derived Sacredness

Value granted to physical objects or places because of their connection to something inherently sacred.

Ethical Codes

Moral guidelines within a religion that govern relations with the divine and with other people.

Community (of believers)

An organized group sharing and practicing a common religious belief system.

Hierarchy (religious)

Structured leadership within a religious community, assigning rights and duties to various ranks.

Sacred Writings

Authoritative texts containing teachings, stories, laws, and prophecies of a religion.

Central Stories

Narratives explaining origins, divine manifestations, or exemplary actions that shape religious identity.

Rituals

Ceremonies reenacting sacred stories or expressing devotion through symbolic acts.

Artistic Expressions (religious)

Music, dance, architecture, sculpture, poetry, drama, and other arts inspired by and used in religion.

Spirituality

Personal quest for connection with something greater than oneself, seeking meaning and transcendence.

Religiousness

Organized expression of spirituality through communal beliefs, practices, and traditions.

Friedrich Schleiermacher

Theologian who defined religion as the feeling of absolute dependence on the divine.

James Martineau

Philosopher who saw religion as belief in a divine mind and will ruling the universe.

James C. Livingston

Scholar defining religion as activities and beliefs directed toward what is sacred in value and transformative power.

Emile Durkheim

Sociologist who described religion as a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things forming a moral community.

Ninian Smart

Religious studies scholar who identified six dimensions of religion: ritual, mythological, doctrinal, ethical, social, experiential.

Rudolf Otto

Theologian emphasizing religion as experience and expression of the holy (numinous).

J. Milton Yinger

Sociologist defining religion as a system through which people confront life’s ultimate problems.

Traditional Theism

View that God (or gods) is a transcendent being existing outside the natural world.

Pantheism

Belief that God is identical with the natural world, immanent in all things.

Panentheism

Belief that the natural world exists within God, who also transcends it; God has no identity apart from the world yet is more than it.

Transcendence

Quality of existing beyond the physical universe or ordinary experience.

Immanence

Presence of the divine within the natural world and human experience.

Divine Absolutes

Ultimate questions about God’s reality, number, and relationship to the world.

Sacred vs. Ordinary Value

Sacred objects have mind-independent value; ordinary objects have value only relative to human interests.

Respect for the Sacred

Acts such as prayer, offerings, or tithing performed to honor sacred entities or objects.

Reward (religious)

Benefit believed to follow respect for the sacred, in this life or an afterlife.

Vision / Revelation

Supernatural disclosure of divine truth to humans.

Mystical Experience

Direct, non-ordinary encounter with ultimate reality, often ineffable and transformative.

Song and Dance (ritual)

Artistic rituals expressing praise or thanksgiving to the divine.

Architectural Design (sacred)

Religious structures whose form embodies and communicates spiritual meaning.

Shintoism (ethical code exception)

Religion that, unlike most others surveyed, lacks a codified set of ethical commandments.