ib world religion vocab

Cosmology

• Scientific and philosophical study of the origin to evolution of the universe

• Different religions = different cosmologies

• Example is Israelites, they believed Earth was flat and they went either above or under after death

Human condition

What it means to be a human

Transcendence

A divinity that exists completely outside/beyond the physical universe

Religious worldview

• Framework of beliefs, values, or assumptions humans use to interpret the world

• Serves as a lens that answers life’s questions

Monotheism

Belief in one God

• Christianity

• Judaism

• Islam

Polytheism

Belief in many gods

• Hinduism

• Taoism

Pantheism

• Belief that divine reality exists in everything, whether it’s one god or many

• God and universe are identical

Nontheistic

Belief that there’s no divine being

• atheism

Transtheistic

Belief in divine/semidivine being(s) but not insisting on a god that’s essentially relevant

Monism

Belief in reality being made of one essence and can be experienced through different deities

7 dimensions of religion

Framework created by Ninian Smart to analyze how faith traditions work globally

Religious literacy

• Ability to understand/analyze how religion intersects with social, cultural, and political life

• understanding religions enough to recognize their impacts

• Helps people understand religious ideas/references around the world

Religious pluralism

• Coexistence and respect of multiple religious beliefs in a society

• Engaging with religious differences while respecting them

Interreligious dialogue

Positive interaction between people of different religious or spiritual beliefs

Ecumenism

Social/religious movement that promotes worldwide unity/cooperation between different Christian groups

Vatican ll

• 2nd ecumenical council of the Catholic Church meeting with the goal of modernizing Church practices/engaging with the contemporary world

• Nostra Aetate was written during this, promoting convos with other faiths

Nostra Aetate

Vatican ll declaration that reshaped the Catholic Church’s relationship with other religions, focused on Judaism and Islam

Antisemitism

Hostility, prejudice, or discrimination towards Jewish people; stemmed from religious discrimination, evolved into ethnic/cultural ideologies

Deicide

The act of killing a divine being, or a person who kills a god