religions exam III

freethought

an intellectual tradition of independent inquiry based on logic, reason, and science rather than religious authority

atheism

the belief that God does not exist

agnosticism

belief that humans cannot know whether God exists, or the position of particular individuals that they themselves do not know whether God exists

secularization theory

sociological theory that as the world becomes more modern it will become less religious

spiritual but not religious (SBNR)

identity signaling a negative view of organized religion and a positive view of personal spirituality

negative atheist

someone who does not affirm theism

positive atheist

someone who affirms that theism is false

weak agnosticism

the position of a particular individual that they do not know whether God exists

strong agnosticism

the position that it is not possible for anyone to know whether God exists

anti-theism

strong rejection of God belief, often marked by intense opposition to theists

humanism

worldview affirming the supreme importance of human beings, human agency, and human life

secularism

worldview emphasizing life on earth versus transcendent realities, often with a political focus on strict church/state separation

naturalism

anti-supernatural view that everything is caused by and explained through natural phenomena

Enlightenment

wide-ranging European intellectual movement of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that affirmed human progress and religious tolerance, and elevated science and religion over faith

pantheism

belief that God and the natural world are identical—that divinity and the universe are one

Deism

belief in a "watchmaker" God who created the world but does not intervene in it

materialism

view that everything originates in matter and is caused by material forces that can be studied scientifically

secular humanism

worldview rejecting religion and supernaturalism in order to celebrate human life here and now

Diné ("The People")

the Navajo people

Holy People (Diyin Dine'é)

superbeings who are the subjects of Navajo stories and the recipients of Navajo prayers and ceremonies

Diné Bikéyah

Navajo homeland, also known as Navajoland, set amid the four sacred mountains, as distinct from the legal boundaries of the Navajo reservation

inner form

wind-animated life force inside the outer form of a living thing; ceremonies are addressed to the inner forms of Holy People, whose outer forms are no longer in this world

medicine bundle (jish)

pouch containing powerful objects (stones, herbs, feathers, animal parts) wrapped up and used by a medicine person

ceremony

central religious activity of the Navajos, intended to restore harmony and balance

hocho

ugliness, disharmony, chaos; characteristic of the lower worlds of death

Earth Surface People

human beings, so named because they were created and live on the surface of the earth

hózhó

beauty and harmony, characteristic of the upper world at its best; the central value in Navajo life

Sa'a Nághaí Bik'e Hózhó (SNBH)

Navajo goal of life, often expressed in stories, songs, prayers, and everyday conversations; translations include "walking in beauty"

hogan ("place home")

domestic and religious structure that opens to the east and is used for ceremonies

singer (hataalii)

medicine person, also known as a chanter, who conducts ceremonies to restore individual health and community harmony

Changing Woman

epitome of goodness who brought the Diné into being and embodies the cycle from birth to puberty to maturity to happy old age

First Man and First Woman

first male/female pair, they planned, modeled, and brought into being the Earth Surface World after emerging from the lower worlds

corn

staple; food of the Holy People; crucial element (as pollen or cornmeal) in ceremonies; symbol of fertility; and repository of the powers of creation

Father Sky and Mother Earth

embodiments of masculine and feminine energy and of the gender complementarity that makes beauty and harmony possible

Coyote

key figure in Diné stories; dangerously entertaining wanderer known for stirring up chaos through his lies, lust, greed, gluttony, and impatience

Holy Wind (Nilchi)

animating life force and a source of movement for all living things, associated with breath, speech, thought, and action

Peyotism

pan-tribal religious tradition that uses the mildly hallucinogenic cactus peyote in its meetings

Native American Church

pan-tribal Peyotist organization established in 1918 and now called the Native American Church of North America

one-sung-over

patient in a Navajo ceremony

diagnostician

ceremonial practitioner who diagnoses the illness of a particular individual and recommends an appropriate course of healing (often a ceremony)

Blessingway (hozhooji)

most popular and important Navajo ceremony; preventive ritual that aims at health, good fortune, and long life

sand painting

Diné ceremonial tool made of sand and ground minerals that serves as a portal for Holy People to enter and exit a ceremony

orisha (orixa, oricha)

supernatural being and the object of devotion in Yoruba religion, said to be a divinized ancestor and/or a force of nature

Orunmila (Orunla)

orisha of Ifa divination

Ifa

divinization technique linked to a vast oral corpus of Yoruba stories

iwa pele

gentle character

Ile-Ife

sacred center of Yoruba religion, located in modern-day Nigeria

Olodumare

Supreme Being in Yoruba religion

Candomble

orisha-based and Roman Catholic–influenced Afro-Brazilian religion

Umbanda

Afro-Brazilian new religious movement emphasizing contact with an eclectic community of spirits drawn from a mix of Yoruba, Christian, spiritualist, Amerindian, and Brazilian pop culture influences

Santeria

orisha-based and Roman Catholic–influenced Afro-Cuban religion

terreiro

Candomble house of worship

ori

literally "head" but refers in Yoruba religion to a person's "spiritual head," or soul

babalawo ("father of the mysteries")

Ifa priest expert in divination

iyalawo ("mother of the mysteries")

Ifa priestess expert in divination

Eshu (Exu, Elegua)

trickster orisha of thresholds who facilitates (or frustrates) communication between humans and orishas

ashe (axé, aché)

sacred energy, the power to make things happen

Shango (Xango, Chango)

orisha of thunder and lightning, ancient king of Oyo during his earthly life, and now the most popular orisha in the Caribbean

Obatala (Oxala, Ochala)

orisha of creativity, closely associated with the color white

Oduduwa

creator orisha and legendary founder of the Yoruba people

Oshun (Oxum, Ochun)

the most powerful female orisha; expert in love, maternity, and the river, widely associated in the Caribbean with Cuba's patron saint La Caridad del Cobre

Ogun (Ogum, Oggun)

orisha of iron, war, and technology, said to have been the first king of Ile-Ife in his earthly life

Yemoja (Yemanja, Yemaya)

mother of the orishas and an orisha of maternity, associated with Nigeria's Ogun River and oceans in Brazil and Cuba

asiento

Santeria initiation, popularly known as "making the saint"

hajj

annual pilgrimage to Mecca and one of the Five Pillars of Islam

Mecca

Saudi Arabian city, the sacred center of the Muslim world, and the home of the Kaaba shrine around which the annual hajj revolves

mosque

place of community prayer that includes a niche in the wall marking the direction to Mecca

martyr

literally a "witness" (shahid), someone who dies in the struggle for Islam

Kaaba

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

Abraham (or Ibrahim)

major Islamic prophet and champion of monotheism

hadith

Islamic scripture, second in authority only to the Quran, consisting of the exemplary sayings and actions of Muhammad and his companions

Medina

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

prophets

human beings through whom God brings his revelations into the world, including Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and finally Muhammad, "the seal of the prophets"

Muhammad

founder, lawmaker, jurist, politician, general, family man, exemplary human, the source of the sayings and actions in the hadith, and the final prophet of Islam

Quran

Arabic words of God brought into the world through the prophet Muhammad; a short book of 114 chapters, its teachings include the unity of God, the prophethood of Muhammad, the Day of Judgment, and afterlife rewards and punishments

Sunni

majority branch of Islam that predominates in most Muslim-majority countries

imam/Imam

among Sunnis, the local leader who oversees congregational prayers; among the Shia, the community leader and a blood relative of Muhammad

Shia

minority branch of Islam now dominant in Iran

Sharia ("path to water")

Islamic law; more broadly, the Islamic way of life

Five Pillars

five key Islamic practices; Shahada, or "witnessing" that "there is no God but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God"; five daily prayers; almsgiving; fasting during the month of Ramadan; hajj

tawhid

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

Allah ("The God")

Arabic term for the singular divine and the central symbol in the Islamic tradition

shirk

idolatry; ascribing partners to God or otherwise bowing down to anyone or anything other than the one, true God

Sunna

authoritative custom and a key source of Islamic law, rooted in the Quran and hadith

Mary

mother of Jesus and the subject of a full sura in the Quran

Ali

son-in-law of Muhammad, and the person who, according to the Shia, should have succeeded Muhammad after his death

caliph

"successor" to Muhammad who governs the Muslim community

Husain

early Shia figure martyred in 680 on the Karbala battlefield and remembered especially on Ashura, the day of mourning

Sufis

members of Islamic mystical tradition intent on direct personal experience of the love of God

Wahhabism

antimodern theology emphasizing God's unity and strictly opposing shirk; now the official theology of Saudi Arabia and the guiding ideology of many radical Islamist groups

Salafis

members of a Sunni movement calling Muslims back to the allegedly pure Islam of their "pious forebears"; Salafis 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

al-Qaeda ("the base")

organization, once led by Osama bin Laden, that killed nearly three thousand people in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks

jihad ("struggle")

external struggle against enemies of Islam and internal struggle to submit to the divine

Eid

Muslim holiday feast, including Eid al-Fitr, which ends the month-long Ramadan fast, and Eid al-Adha, which falls each year during the hajj

hijab

head covering for Muslim women