PHL 103: Introduction to World Religions - Exam Review

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering introductory concepts, African diaspora religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Chinese religious traditions from PHL 103 exam review.

Academic Study of Religion

An objective approach focused on describing and analyzing beliefs, practices, histories, and communities rather than determining which religion is true or ranking traditions.

Normative Ethical Question

A question addressing how human beings ought to live and act, contrasting with descriptive questions that address factual or historical realities.

Intellectual Empathy

The requirement in religious studies to accurately understand a viewpoint from the perspective of its adherents before attempting to criticize or evaluate it.

Diaspora

A population dispersed from its homeland, exemplified by the millions of Africans forcibly scattered across the Americas by the transatlantic slave trade.

Three-Tier Cosmos

An African cosmological structure consisting of the spirit realm, the human world, and the ancestor realm, all linked through ritual and reciprocal relationships.

Candomble

An African diaspora religious tradition that developed in Brazil.

Santeria

An African diaspora religious tradition that developed in Cuba.

Vodou

An African diaspora religious tradition that developed in Haiti.

Oyotunji African Village

A community founded in South Carolina by Walter King (Adefunmi) that exemplifies the reclamation, continuity, and adaptation of African religious traditions in a new setting.

Hindu (Etymology)

Originally a Persian and Greek geographic label referring to peoples living beyond the Indus River, with '-ism' added later in the early 1800s.

Brahman

The supreme, unitary reality in monistic Hinduism that serves as the source of all being, characterized as infinite being, awareness, and bliss (sat-chit-ananda).

Atman

The eternal, undying self or soul in Hinduism that transmigrates through successive incarnations and bodies.

Bhakti Marga

The path of loving devotion to a chosen deity, recognized as the most widely practiced path to liberation in Hinduism.

Bhagavad Gita

A renowned Hindu sacred text embedded in the Mahabharata, presenting the deity Krishna teaching the warrior Arjuna about the paths to liberation.

Varnas

The four social classes of traditional Hindu society: Brahmin (priests), kshatriya (warriors and rulers), vaishya (merchants and producers), and shudra (servants).

Vaishnavism

A major Hindu devotional tradition centered on worship of the god Vishnu and his avatars, including Rama and Krishna.

Gupta Era

A historical period (c. 320-540 CE) termed the Golden Age of India, marked by the rise of devotional temple worship of Vishnu and Shiva and the compilation of the epics and Puranas.

Ram Mohan Roy

A Hindu reformer known for establishing the Brahmo Samaj and leading campaigns that outlawed the practice of sati.

Satyagraha

Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent resistance, meaning 'grasping the truth,' which drew on teachings from the Bhagavad Gita.

Upanayana

The sacred-thread initiation ceremony in Hinduism that marks a boy's entry from the top three varnas into formal religious life.

Varanasi

A sacred Hindu pilgrimage city situated on the Ganges River, believed to grant immediate liberation from samsara to those who die there.

Navaratri

A nine-night Hindu festival honoring the Great Goddess in her forms as Durga, Lakshmi, and Sarasvati.

Diwali

The five-day Hindu Festival of Lights.

Four Sights

The four encounters that prompted Siddhartha Gautama to renounce his royal life: an old man, a sick person, a corpse, and a content ascetic.

Bodh Gaya

The pilgrimage site where Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment while meditating beneath a fig tree.

Middle Way

The core Buddhist path established by Siddhartha Gautama that avoids the extremes of both sensual indulgence and destructive self-denial.

Interdependent Origination

The Buddhist doctrine stating that nothing exists independently and that all phenomena arise dependent upon causes and conditions.

Three Poisons

The root causes of suffering in Buddhism: ignorance, attachment, and aversion.

Skandhas

The five dynamic bundles (form, feelings, perceptions, mental constructions, and awareness) that constitute the human person, with no permanent self beneath them.

Arhat

The exemplary spiritual ideal in Theravada Buddhism, designating a person who has achieved nirvana through individual diligence.

Pure Land

A Mahayana Buddhist tradition focused on devotion to the Amitabha Buddha and the aspiration for rebirth in the Western Paradise (Sukhavati).

Vinaya Pitaka

The basket of the Pali Canon containing the rules, ethical regulations, and discipline for Buddhist monastic life.

Samatha

Buddhist calm-abiding meditation practiced to cultivate tranquility and focus.

Vipassana

Buddhist insight meditation practiced to perceive reality as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and without self.

Ashoka

An Indian emperor who converted to Buddhism after regretting the violence of conquest, promoting nonviolence and religious tolerance via rock edicts.

Tirthankara

A Jain spiritual leader or 'maker of a ford/crossing' who reveals the crossing across the stream of rebirth to liberation.

Mahavira

The twenty-fourth and final tirthankara of the present cosmic cycle in Jainism.

Ahimsa

The central ethical vow and practice of absolute nonviolence toward all living beings, paramount in Jainism.

Karma (Jainism)

Subtle, microscopic physical matter that binds to the soul (jiva) as a result of intentional and unintentional actions.

Kevala

The highest state of omniscience or perfect, complete knowledge in Jainism, leading to liberation.

Muhpatti

A small white cloth worn over the mouth by Jain ascetics to avoid inhaling and harming airborne organisms.

Baisakhi

A Sikh festival celebrating the new year in March or April and commemorating Guru Gobind Singh's creation of the Khalsa in 1699.

Nam Simaran

The Sikh devotional discipline of remembering the divine Name through repetition, meditative contemplation, and singing hymns (kirtan).

Gurdwara

A Sikh place of worship, literally meaning 'doorway of the Guru,' which houses the sacred scripture, the Adi Granth.

Langar

The communal kitchen in a gurdwara that prepares and serves a free, strictly vegetarian meal to all visitors as an embodiment of social equality and hospitality.

Nam Japo, Kirat Karo, Vand Chhako

A foundational Sikh moral formula instructing believers to repeat the divine Name, earn an honest living, and share their earnings with those in need.

Haumai

The condition of self-centered egoism and pride in Sikh theology that separates humans from God and reinforces the five vices.

Organismic Worldview

A Chinese cosmological perspective that views the universe as an interconnected, harmonious whole operating without an external creator.

Qi

The primordial breath, vital energy, or force that constitutes, animates, and sustains all entities in the cosmos.

Shen

Beneficent spiritual beings or deceased ancestors who receive proper ritual veneration and offerings from living family members.

Gui

A troublesome or vengeful ghost in Chinese religion resulting from a tragic death or neglect by living descendants.

Yijing

The Classic of Changes, an ancient divination manual that forms one of the Confucian Five Classics.

Xiao

The foundational Confucian virtue of filial piety, encompassing devotion, respect, and duty toward parents, elders, and ancestors.

Four Sprouts

The innate inclinations toward moral goodness identified in the Mencius as the roots of human virtue requiring cultivation.

Ziran

A primary Daoist value referring to natural spontaneity, uncontrived action, and things being 'so of themselves.'

Dao (Daodejing)

The ineffable primordial source and cosmic way that precedes Tian (Heaven) and gives rise to the entire universe.

Junzi

A 'noble person' or moral exemplar in Confucianism, redefined by Confucius from a status of noble birth into an ideal attained through moral self-cultivation.