Final Exam Study Guide

Unit 1 - Introduction

• Critical Empathy
  • Relationship with others lens
  • Critical: using our faculties like observation, judgement, understanding, and classification (asking critical questions and using proper judgement)
  • Empathy: the ability to “feel into” another’s religions tradition
  • Pillars of critical empathy
  • Mythological: stories and records of the past serve to establish and maintain tradition
  • Material: physical dimension, manifest not only in the works of people, but in the preservations of artifacts and sacred places
  • Doctrinal: leaders and scholars have sought to provide a systematic explanation of what adherents are meant to believe
  • Ethical: religious beliefs underpin a value system defined by laws that promote specific behaviors
  • Experimental: all religions are responses to certain significant experiences of their founders and followers
  • Ritual: practices to which a religious tradition adheres and which provide a spiritual awareness
  • Social: organizational structures that provide for the collective experience of adherents and identify the group within the wider society
• Holy Envy
  • Relationship with self lens
  • Holy envy: a sentiment felt for one aspect of another tradition that is enviable
  • I feel holy envy for
  • Judaism’s sense of community
  • Buddhism and Hinduism’s emphases on letting go and being more flexible
  • Islam’s specific methods of praying
• Nostra Aetate
  • Intellectual understanding lens

Unit 2 - Islam

• 5 Pillars
  • Shahada: one God + prophet Muhammad
  • Prayer: 5x/day, face Mecca
  • Fasting: Self-discipline, commemorates Hirja
  • Wealth sharing: 2.5% of all possessions for those who can afford
  • Pilgrimage (hajj): Allah forgives your sin if you make the journey
• Qu'ran & Sunna
  • Qu’ran
  • 114 suras (chapters)
  • Offers complete worldview — way of life, culture, society, governance
  • Sunna
  • Teachings of Muhammad (separate from Qu’ran)
  • Muhammad is human but revered
  • Hadith: model for being muslim
• Life of Muhammad
  • Born 570 AD, orphaned, married Khadija
  • 610 AD: Angel Gabriel appeared, told him to “Recite / Proclaim” 3x (night of power & excellence)
  • Had to flee (hirja)
  • Made Medina and Mecca holy cities

Unit 3 - Hinduism

• Brahman / Atman
  • Brahman: the source/essence of the universe, the grounding of all existence
  • Can be achieved differently by different people
  • We shouldn’t hurt other beings because ultimately we’re all one
• Samsara & Moksha
  • Samsara: wheel of rebirth/reincarnation
  • Death isn’t final, everything is reincarnated
  • Moksha: infinite release; escape from reincarnation
  • Many paths to attain (marga)
• Dharma & Karma
  • Dharma: ethical duty
  • Sacred duty, moral guidance
  • Love everyone, reject selfishness
  • Determined by gender, caste, stage of life
  • Karma: moral law of cause and effect that determines the nature of your reality
  • Explains “luck” and privilege
• Marga (3 types)
  • Karma marga: doing the right thing because it is the right thing (not for reward, recognition, or success)
  • Jnana marga: study with many texts and teachers to become detached and see self in third person
  • Often involves yoga and meditation
  • Bhakti marga: loving devotion to one’s god or goddess
  • Focus more on gods/goddesses than needs and desires of self
  • Worship through prayers, visiting shrines, candles, offerings, incense, rituals, visiting temples

Unit 4 - Buddhism

• Life of Buddha
  • Born around 560 BCE, died around 480 BCE
  • Warrior Class; Feudal Lord (very privileged)
  • Parents made sure he never encountered any suffering
  • Encountered suffering during the four passing sights at ~20
  • Deprived of senses, then gave into
  • Created middle way
• Concept of self
  • Must discover self to achieve nirvana
  • Accept that not everything about self is real
• 4 Noble Truths
  • Life is discomfort (dukka)
  • Suffering is caused by desire (tanha)
  • Suffering can stop
  • This can be done through the eightfold path
• Nirvana
  • Enlightenment
  • Final nirvana happens at bodily death

Unit 5 - Judaism

• Chosen People
  • God sees them as a holy nation, a treasured possession
  • God will keep his deal with Jewish people if they keep theirs with him
• History & State of Israel
  • Very controversial
  • Jews emigrated to Israel before WWI
  • Was part of the Ottoman Empire
  • The League of Nations in 1922 recognized the need for a Jewish homeland
  • Many international treaties before and after reaffirmed this
  • This land was already occupied
  • Palestinians and Jews both claim the land as their homeland
  • Very complicated conflict
  • Many countries declared war on Israel
• Holocaust / Sheol
  • More than exile, inquisition—anything that’s been faced before
  • Shook the faith of many Jewish people; common questions included

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