Final Exam Review - Unit 1

Final Exam Review: Unit 1 Material

I. Key Terminology

• Understanding and Application: Recognize and apply the following terms within the study of religion. Understanding their use and significance is crucial.
• Terms:
  • Religion
  • Religare / Legere
  • Etymological fallacy
  • Cultural imperialism
  • Prototype theory
  • Prototypical features
  • Orthodoxy / Orthopraxy / Orthopathy
  • Ultimacy
  • Wholly Other / Numinous
  • Mysticism
  • Doctrine
  • Ethics
  • Myth
  • Ritual
  • Symbol
  • Sign
  • Totem
  • Talisman
  • Insider perspective / Outsider perspective
  • Interreligious dialogue
  • Ecumenism
  • Inclusivism / Exclusivism / Pluralism
  • Fundamental attribution error
  • Utilitarian values / Ulterior values / Ultimate values

II. Why Study Religion?

• Understanding: Studying religion helps us understand ourselves and others.
• Impact: Religion shapes moral systems, political ideologies, cultural expressions, and global conflicts.
• Importance: Religious literacy is essential for empathy, communication, and responsible citizenship in a diverse world.
• Key Reasons:
  • Promotes cultural and interfaith empathy.
  • Challenges ethnocentric assumptions through exposure to diverse perspectives.
  • Essential for informed engagement in global affairs, education, health, law, and public service.
• Quote: Max Müller: “He who knows only one religion knows none” – highlighting the necessity of understanding other traditions to fully understand one's own.

III. Defining Religion

• Difficulty: Defining religion is notoriously difficult.
• Common Definition Issues:
  • Too narrow (e.g., “belief in God” excludes Buddhism).
  • Too broad (e.g., “any system of meaning” could include sports fandom).
  • Culturally biased (based on Western Christian assumptions).
• Classical Etymologies:
  • Cicero (Relegere): “to reread carefully” – emphasizes ritual observance and tradition.
  • Lactantius (Religare): “to bind” – emphasizes a personal bond to a divine being.
• Why It’s Difficult:
  • Some traditions are theistic, others are not.
  • Prioritization varies: belief (orthodoxy), action (orthopraxy), or emotional experience (orthopathy).
  • Many traditions lack a specific word for “religion” (e.g., Indigenous traditions, Shinto, Confucianism).
• Etymological Fallacy: The origin of a word does not determine its modern meaning. The term "religion" has evolved beyond its Latin roots.
• Alternative: Prototype Theory: Use prototype theory to identify recurring features in religious systems instead of relying on rigid definitions.

IV. Prototype Theory and the Study of Religion

• Origin: Drawn from cognitive science.
• Explanation: Humans categorize things based on best examples or prototypes.
• Function: Prototypes define the “center” of a category, including ambiguous cases less centrally.
• Application to Religion: Instead of asking if something is a religion, ask how closely it resembles a prototypical religion.
• Highly Prototypical Religions: (e.g., Christianity, Islam, Hinduism) typically include:
  • A concept of ultimacy
  • Sacred stories
  • Rituals
  • Doctrines
  • Ethical teachings
  • Symbols
• Other Systems: (e.g., Confucianism, certain Indigenous traditions, modern spiritual movements) may lack some features but still function “religiously”. Prototype theory promotes flexibility, inclusivity, and respect for diversity.

V. Prototypical Features of Religion

• Core: Religions are complex systems built around shared responses to ultimacy – that which is most real and important.

1. Ultimacy

• Central Concern: The central concern of religion.
• Nature: Can be personal (God, Allah), impersonal (Brahman, Nirvana, Tao), or abstract.
• Rudolf Otto’s Categories:
  • Wholly Other: The divine as entirely beyond comprehension.
  • Numinous: The emotional response to the Wholly Other: awe, fear, attraction.

2. Doctrine

• Definition: Formal teachings that provide structure to religious belief.
• Function: Codify responses to ultimacy.
• Examples:
  • Christianity: Trinity, Incarnation
  • Hinduism: Karma, Dharma
  • Buddhism: Four Noble Truths, Śūnyatā

3. Ethics

• Origin: Flow from doctrine and express how to live in light of ultimacy.
• Function: Provide moral frameworks and social guidance.
• Examples:
  • Ahimsa (nonviolence) in Jainism and Hinduism
  • Ten Commandments in Judaism and Christianity
  • Eightfold Path in Buddhism

4. Myth

• Definition: Sacred stories that convey spiritual or moral truths.
• Nature: Not falsehoods – myths deal with truth beyond historical fact.
• Examples:
  • Creation in Genesis
  • Buddha’s enlightenment
  • Ramayana and Mahabharata

5. Ritual

• Definition: Prescribed actions that enact or dramatize sacred truths.
• Function: Reinforce myths, doctrine, and ethics through experience.
• Examples:
  • Mass or Eucharist in Christianity
  • Passover Seder in Judaism
  • Puja in Hinduism
  • Tawaf around the Kaaba in Islam

6. Symbol

• Definition: Point to deeper spiritual truths and may participate in the reality they represent.
• Difference from Signs: Signs merely inform; symbols invite transformation.
• Subtypes:
  • Totems: Collective identity (e.g., Lion of Judah).
  • Talismans: Personal spiritual empowerment (e.g., mezuzah, scapular).

VI. Catholic Church Documents on Other Religions

• Context: Second Vatican Council (1962–65).
• Outcome: Articulated a new vision of interreligious dialogue and inclusivity.
• Significance: These three documents remain foundational:

1. Lumen Gentium – “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church” (1964)

• Affirmation: Salvation is possible outside the visible Catholic Church.
• Inclusion: Non-Catholic Christians, Jews, Muslims, and even sincere non-believers are all “related in various ways to the People of God.”
• Holy Spirit: Teaches that the Holy Spirit operates in all who sincerely seek truth and do good.
• Theology: Grounded in the theology of grace and the inclusive vision of God’s mercy.

2. Unitatis Redintegratio – “Decree on Ecumenism” (1964)

• Emphasis: The unity of all Christians despite divisions.
• Action: Encourages study, dialogue, and cooperation with Orthodox, Protestant, and Anglican communities.
• Recognition: Elements of sanctification and truth exist outside the Catholic Church, including Scripture and sacraments.
• Shift: A major shift from previous “outside the Church, no salvation” exclusivism.

3. Nostra Aetate – “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions” (1965)

• Affirmation: Truth and holiness exist in other religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Indigenous traditions.
• Specifics: Specifically denounces antisemitism and affirms the ongoing covenant between God and the Jewish people.
• Basis: Seeks dialogue based on shared dignity and spiritual seeking.
• Importance: Considered the Church’s most important statement on interfaith relations.

Theology Behind the Shift – Karl Rahner’s “Anonymous Christianity”

• Argument: God’s grace can be operative in people who have never heard the Gospel explicitly, as long as they respond to truth and love in their lives.
• Function: Supports the inclusivist logic found in the documents above.
• Root: Rooted in a theology of God’s universal self-communication through grace.

VII. Values in Religious Practice

• Mix of Values: Not all values expressed in religious life are ultimate; a religion may involve a mix of value types:
  • Ultimate values: Aim toward ultimacy (e.g., compassion, liberation, union with the divine).
  • Utilitarian values: Practical goals (e.g., health, prosperity, social order).
  • Ulterior values: Self-serving or coercive (e.g., manipulation, power).
• Understanding: Understanding these distinctions helps evaluate whether a practice is authentically religious or distorted for non-religious ends.

VIII. Ethical Study of Religion

• Goal: Students must learn to study religion respectfully and critically.
• Guiding Principles:
  • Let religions speak for themselves – avoid imposing external categories.
  • Compare ideal to ideal and flaw to flaw – don’t romanticize your own tradition.
  • Recognize diversity within each religion – no religion is monolithic.
  • Acknowledge bias and cultural imperialism – especially in how religions have historically been studied.
• Fundamental Attribution Error:
  • The tendency to explain others’ bad behavior as due to character, but our own bad behavior as circumstantial.
  • Avoid this in comparative religion.

IX. Dangers of Religious Distortion

• Potential Harm: Religion can inspire great good — but also great harm when manipulated.
• Examples of Distortion:
  • ISIS in Islam
  • Kach Movement in Judaism
  • Ku Klux Klan in Christianity
  • Hindutva Extremism in Hinduism
  • Khalistan Separatism in Sikhism
• Quote: “Religion in the hands of the ignorant or manipulative is the most dangerous weapon in the world.”
• Requirement: The ethical study of religion requires vigilance against such abuse — and deep empathy for religion’s liberating and transcendent possibilities.