theology test 1

Mythology

A functioning community of stories striving to maintain coherence, despite changing membership.

Religion

A belief system which incorporates myth and science, often lapsing into dogma.

Aborigine Creation Myth

A story where the All-Father wakes the Sun Mother to awaken creatures on Earth, causing conflicts, and leading to shapeshifting powers being granted and then revoked.

Inuit Creation Myth

Creation story involving water, land formed from sky rocks, and humans/animals living as one until new words containing powerful magic were created.

Yoruba Creation Myth

Olorun permits Obatala to create dry land, where he uses a bag of sand, plants palm nuts, and molds clay into beings to which Olorun gives life.

Animism

The belief that everything has a soul and that spirits inhabit the natural world.

Henotheism

The worship of one god without denying the existence of other deities.

Dukkha

Suffering that exists in the world, largely due to attachment to impermanent things.

Theravada

The oldest sect of Buddhism emphasizing monastic life and achieving arhat status.

Mahayana

Buddhist sect that emphasizes the bodhisattva path and compassion for all.

Vajrayana

A form of Buddhism that incorporates tantric practices and emphasizes direct experience.

Four Noble Truths

The foundational teachings of Buddhism outlining the nature of suffering and the path to its cessation.

Eightfold Path

A practical guide to ethical and mental development with the goal of freeing the individual from attachments and delusions, leading to understanding.

Karma

The principle of cause and effect where an individual's actions influence their future.

Asceticism

A lifestyle characterized by abstinence from worldly pleasures, often for spiritual discipline.

Teleology

A belief system based on the idea of purpose or goals, often central to various religions.

Totemism

A spiritual belief that certain objects possess divine power and represent spiritual connections.

Immanence

The belief that God is present throughout the universe and in all things.

Animism

The belief that all things, both living and nonliving, possess a spirit or soul.

Nontheism

A stance of not believing in the existence of a god.

Panentheism

The belief that God is both in the universe and transcends it.

Orthodoxy

The adherence to accepted norms and beliefs in a religion.

Orthopraxy

The emphasis on correct practices, rituals, and actions in a religion.

Anthropomorphizing

The attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities.

Iroquois, Dakota, Apache religions

all are animist and totem, landbased spirituality, and anthropomorphic, more you move, less religion completed it is

iroquois

Great spirit, invisible agent, evil minded

Many resources

Complicated religion

Dakota

Wakan tanka

Buffalo: meat, skin for clothes, good for housing, fat for oils and bones for tools Led to water, helped predict seasons  Use poop as heat source

apache

Sun? Sky? (moved a lot that they couldnt develop a religion)

Live in desert → no time for anything at all

oral

No restrictions

Land based (what u sear and hear)

Small, tight knit group (hard to move)

Spreads slowly (hard to spead)

No translation

Ask for clarification

flexible

Genocide destroys it (easy to eliminate)

written

Text is final opinion → what the right action is

Spreads out and quickly

Can carry with you and copy it

Translation → required to have interpretation

(re) interpretation

Hard to change or destroy

Has consistency

More reliable

The Dreaming

belief in powerful beings who arose out of land, created people, plant, and animal life, and connected groups of people with language and regions.

pantheism

God is across the natural world and is in everything

iconography

entire collection of symbols of deity, religion, religious practice in a specific religion (ex: murtis and drawings in Hinduism → iconography in Hinduism)

Creed (belief system), Clergy (place of worship), Ceremony (rituals)

what it takes to make a religion

yoruba

everyone experiences ayanmo, or fate/destiny. Everyone will reach Olodumare, which means to be one with divine creator. The physical world is called the Ayé and there is an ashe, which is a powerful life force possessed by everyone. Orishas help us communicate with spirits and there is a negative force (ajogun), which is something that we can escape by getting help from an Ifa, or a priest. They believe incarnation is a good thing and that gender is nonexistent in that and in God.