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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