Key Concepts and Figures in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Halakha

Jewish law about ritual and the practice of daily life; derived from the Torah (oral + written); "the moral way"

Spanish Inquisition

Christians reclaimed Spain from the Muslims; Jews, Muslims, and other non-Catholics forced to leave, die, or convert

Mizrahi

Jews of the Middle East (language: Hebrew, Arabic, Kurdish, Persian)

Sephardic

Iberian Peninsula/North African Jews (language: Ladino)

Ashkenazi

Jews of Germany/Eastern Europe (language: Yiddish)

Kosher

laws about food/dietary restrictions

Shema

Jewish creed; beginning "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God!

Holocaust

"shoah," systematic persecution and mass murder of Jews in concentration camps by Nazi Germany and its collaborators before and during WWII

Auschwitz

most popular Holocaust concentration camp in Poland

SS St. Louis

passenger ship arriving in Cuba hoping to get to the US, denied entry and returned to Europe, where 250+ of its passengers were killed in the Holocaust

The Law of Return

enacted in Israel in 1950, granting all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel and obtain citizenship

Shoah

Hebrew term for the Holocaust

Nakba

Arabic word for "catastrophe"

Zionism (Jewish and Christian)

movement to create a Jewish nation-state, resulting in the creation of Israel in 1948 (Jewish); Christians in support of Jews (Christian)

Maccabean revolt

Jewish uprising against the Seleucid Empire because of their persecution of Judaism and promotion of Greek culture

Convivencia

"coexistence," time of interfaith collaboration between Jews, Christians, and Muslims

Pharisees

one of the four schools of rabbinic Judaism; only group to survive; adapted to Hellenistic norms; emphasis on the oral Torah; accommodated to Greek culture and Roman rule; hoped for a messiah to bring peace and justice

Sadducees

one of the four schools of rabbinic Judaism; rejected the oral Torah and postmortem rewards and punishments; priestly party of legal and theological conservatives; lost their power after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE

Essenes

one of the four schools of rabbinic Judaism; established communities apart from the Jerusalem Temple and Roman society; members expected to be celibate and follow a strict diet; looked forward to an apocalypse to fight on God's side; strict interpretations of the law and deeply concerned with ritual purity

Zealots

political revolutionaries; convinced that people should be governed by God alone; overthrew Rome by force; many perished in Jerusalem when the Romans took the city and destroyed the Second Temple

Liberation theory

religious movement in the 60s; idea that Christians need to apply their faith to help the poor and oppressed socially and politically

Original sin

a fallen state or condition passed down via Adam and Eve to all of humanity

Justification

God's decision to declare a sinner as righteous solely based on the merit of Jesus' sacrifice

Council of Nicaea

Christian council from 325 CE; modern-day Turkey; questioned if Jesus is divine and of the same substance as God; concluded that he is divine and of the same (not similar) substance as God; established the Nicene Creed

Council of Ephesus

Christian council from 431 CE; Mary was human and gave birth to the divine Jesus (she bore God); questioned if Mary was divine, answer is no

Council of Chalcedon

Christian council from 451 CE; questioned the nature of Jesus (is he two natures or one → answer: two natures united in one); some people disagreed (those people became Oriental Orthodoxy)

Council of Synoptic

Christian council who developed the Biblical Canon in Rome in the 4th century; Matthew, Mark, and Luke

Council of Canonical gospels

not a council (?); Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; gradually accepted over time as canon

The five major episcopal areas/patriarchates

Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem

Deists

people who believe that God is like a watchmaker who creates the world and then simply observes its activities from afar without interfering; rejected the trinity; emerged in 16th-century England

Unitarians

Christians who reject the doctrine of original sin, the trinity, and the divinity of Jesus; affirm the unity of God

Mormons

members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; founded by Joseph Smith Jr and headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah; most successful new religious group in US history; practice of polygamy and theocracy

Social gospel

liberal Protestant movement that saw sin and salvation as social and worked to address structural injustice

Fundamentalism

modern Protestants who reject biblical criticism and evolutionary theory and interpret the Bible literally

"Monkey trial"

trial determining whether or not John Scopes had violated state law by teaching about evolution (rather than religion?)

Transcendentalism

idea that God is found less in church and more in nature (religion = natural, internal); post-Protestant movement

Transubstantiation

Roman Catholic doctrine that the bread and wine used in the Mass are ritually transformed into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ

Evangelicalism

Protestant style that cut across denominations; includes the conversion experience (conversionism), divine inspiration of the bible (biblicism), doctrine of Jesus' death on the cross (crucicentrism), and the missionary and evangelistic effort (activism)

First Great Awakening

18th century; created a sense of "us" among religious people; focused more on personal religious experiences rather than practice/formal structures; religious revival; started in Britain, impacted the colonies

Second Great Awakening

19th century; Protestant religious revival; led to the creation of denominations and social reform

The Great Schism

Christianity's first major schism → Oriental Orthodoxy (after Jesus was declared to be one person in two natures; second major schism → Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Roman Catholicism

Pentecostals

conservative Protestants who affirm both the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a second experience of grace (after conversion) and the gifts that come with that experience; includes speaking in tongues

Sacraments

seven of them; Roman Catholic; lead to divine grace: baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance (or reconciliation), anointing, holy order (or ordination), and marriage (matrimony)

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Christian tourist spot in Jerusalem; controlled by six different Christian groups; also called the Church of Resurrection; commemorates the events of Jesus' final hours; various ceremonies and rituals take place here

Our Lady of Guadalupe

popular Catholic saint in the Spanish-speaking world; most visited Christian pilgrimage site located in Mexico City

The Syllabus of Errors

issued in 1864 by Pius IX, Roman Catholicism's longest-running pope; rhetorical blast against the high crimes and misdemeanors of the modern world; defends miracles and divine revelation

Garden Tomb

popular Christian pilgrimage site; believed to be Jesus' tomb that he resurrected from

Qur'an

"recitation," Arabic words of God brought into the world through Muhammad; 114 chapters; teaches the unity of God, Muhammad's prophethood, Day of Judgment, and afterlife rewards and punishments; main purpose is to provide a warning; divided into verses (ayas) and chapters (suras); divided into 30 equal parts; various writing styles; two main categories: Meccan and Medinan

Hadith

Islamic scripture; second in authority to the Quran; consists of the sayings and actions of Muhammad and his companions; six main collections; gives insight into many mundane matters about Muhammad

Sunnah

sacred text about Muhammad's way of life

"Rightly guided caliphs"

four caliphs believed to be "rightly guided" by Sunni Muslims; Abu Bakr (632-634), Umar (634-644), Uthman (644-656), and Ali (656-661); Ali is the only one supported by Shia Muslims

Mecca

Saudi Arabian city and birthplace of Muhammad; where he lived when he received the revelations that became the Quran; geographic center of the Muslim world; home of the Kaaba (where the hajj revolves)

Medina

Islam's second holiest city; the place where Muhammad and his followers migrated in 622 and established their community and calendar; where his mosque and tomb are located

Hijra

migration

Tafsir

divine unity; God is not three but one, and God is unique, unequaled, and without partners; central teaching in Islam

Jihad

"struggle," external struggle against enemies of Islam (militaristic) and internal struggle to submit to the divine (spiritual)

Ka'ba

cubic House of God in Mecca toward which Muslims pray every day and around which pilgrims walk during the hajj; typically covered in an ornate black cloth and includes a sacred black stone said to have fallen from heaven

People of the book

Christians and Jews; Islamic term that doesn't directly include Muslims

Iberian Peninsula

ruled by Muslims in the late 15th century during the convivencia; shared languages and learning during the period of coexistence

Jahiliyya

pre-Islamic Meccan community; "age of ignorance," religious practice varied; almost the opposite of Islam

Salafism

Sunni movement calling Muslims back to the allegedly pure Islam of their "pious forebears," reject as illicit "innovations," not only Islam's legal schools but also Shiism and Sufism

Nation of Islam

religious movement drawing on both black separatism and Islam, established in 1930 in Detroit and later popularized by Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali

Operation Ajax

the US' strategy for getting Iranian ruler (Mohamed Sanghedi) out of power during the Iranian Revolution

Operation Cyclone

CIA operation to arm, fund, and train Afghan mujahideen soldiers to fight against the Soviet Union, starting in the late 70s

Maimonides

Jewish philosopher who approached Jewish law through the rationalist lens of ancient Greek philosophy; Messiah skeptic; worked as a medical doctor and wrote a commentary on the Mishna and a code of Jewish law

Regina Jonas

reform rabbi born in Berlin, Germany; first woman to be ordained as a rabbi in 1935; killed in the Holocaust

Sally Priesand

first American woman rabbi as a part of the Reform movement in 1972 (Cincinnati)

Judith Plaskow

theologian; argued that women remain "other" and alienated, even in non-Orthodox congregations; called for Judaism to move beyond the restructuring of Jewish law and focus instead on reimagining Jewish theology

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

first Jewish woman appointed to the US Supreme Court

Elie Wiesel

Holocaust survivor; won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986; wrote a book about God and the human condition

Giustavo Gutierrez

Peruvian theologian; Dominican priest; joined other Latin American liberation theologians to rewrite Christian theology; believed that Jesus was a revolutionary who sided with the poor over the rich

James Crone

Founder of Black Theology

Mary Daly

Roman Catholic theologian; eventually rejected Christianity altogether; feminist theology; first woman to deliver a sermon in Harvard's Memorial Church; criticized sexism in Catholicism

Desmond Tutu

South African Anglican bishop, theologian, and human rights activist

Muhammad

final prophet in Islam; born in Mecca; died in Medina; lawmaker, politician, general, messenger, etc; source of the hadith

Khadija

Muhammad's wife; the first person to believe in Muhammad (first Muslim); her business introduced Muhammad to the "wider world"

Ali

Muhammad's son-in-law; believed by the Shia to have been personally chosen by Muhammad to be his caliph

Rabia al-Adawiyya (aka Rabia of Basra)

Sufi mystic; first female saint of Sufism

Hussain

early Shia figure martyred in 680 on the Karbala battlefield; Ashura (day of mourning) dedicated to him

Saladin

Founder of the Ayyubid dynasty; Important figure of the third crusade, he spearheaded the Muslim military effort against the crusader states in the Levant

Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

Prominent Fulani Muslim prince from West Africa who was kidnapped and trafficked to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade, having previously owned and sold slaves himself

Andalus/Andalusia

People of Andalusia (Muslim ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula)

Akbar

16th century Mughal emperor; reigned from 1556-1605; controlled most of the Indian subcontinent due to policies of religious tolerance

Rumi

Persian Sufi mystic; poet; known for writing part of the Persian Quran; reflected on longing and loss through the lens of Sufi teaching(s)

Muhammad Ali

boxing champion; raised Baptist but publicly joined the NOI and changed his name; pushed for social justice; lost his boxing license and later earned it back, resulting in being disowned by the NOI

Malcolm X

popularized the Nation of Islam; became a Muslim spokesperson after his conversion to Islam in 1948

Questions

For each religion, know: story of origin (including known founders and their roles), diversity within, the four-part model, holy days and rituals, sacred sites, sacred texts, birth and death rituals, and controversies.

Judaism

Story of origin: no one founder

Judaism Diversity

Three main groups: Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative

Judaism Ethnic Groups

Main ethnic groups: Ashkenazi (Germany), Sephardic (North Africa), Mizrahi (Middle East), and Ethiopian

Judaism Rabbinic Schools

Four schools within Rabbinic Judaism: Sadducees, Zealots, Essenes, Pharisees

Judaism Four-part Model

Problem → exile, Solution → return, Techniques → narrative and law, Exemplars → rabbis

Judaism Holy Days

Passover - celebrates the freedom from slavery in Egypt

Judaism Holy Days

Shavuot - celebrates the day Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai

Judaism Holy Days

Rosh Hashanah - Jewish New Year

Judaism Holy Days

Yom Kippur - the day of Atonement

Judaism Holy Days

Hannukah - eight day festival celebrating the purification of the Second Jewish Temple

Judaism Coming of Age

bar/bat mitzvah - coming of age ceremony (ritual)

Judaism Sacred Sites

Jerusalem, Israel, Western Wall, Jerusalem's First and Second Temples

Judaism Sacred Texts

Torah (written: Tanakh, oral: Talmud); Hebrew Bible sometimes referred to entirely as the Torah