FOR PROFESSOR DALE CANNON

GENERAL QUESTIONS ON RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Be familiar with the following terms and names; be able to state their meaning. (For meanings, see R201 Lectures (1999) and R201 Glossary.)

1. What are the purposes of public education religion studies as identified in Essay I? (Essay I, H2)

2. What are the three tests (or criteria) that must be met for publically sponsored instruction in religion to be in agreement with the First Amendment according to current legal interpretion? (Essay I, H2)

3. Distinguish teaching of religion from teaching about religion, and explain why the latter but not the former is appropriate for public education in the U.S. (Essay I, H2)

4. What is empathetic objectivity and why is it important in religious studies? (Essay II, H2)

5. What is the test of empathy and what is its purpose? What is the test of neutrality and what is its purpose? (Essay II, H2)

6. Explain how religious symbols change or alter in appearance and meaning ("the threshold effect") as one moves across the threshold of the system of symbols making up a religious tradition. (Essay II, H2)

7. Why is "the threshold effect" important to understand and keep in mind when studying religious phenomena? (Essay II, H2)

8. What is the working definition of religion being used in this class? Explain with an example. (Essay III, H3)

9. What are the practical advantages of being able to recognize, and have some understanding of, the six different ways of being religious discussed in the duplicated essay? Explain with examples. (Essay IV; H3; Cannon, Six Ways of Being Religious, chs. 1 & 6)

10. Be able to identify, cite examples of, and briefly explain any of the six ways of being religious. (Essay IV; H3; Cannon, Six Ways of Being Religious, chs. 3 & 4)

11. In what ways are Judaism, Christianity and Islam internally connected with each other that the great Eastern religions are not? In other words, what makes them "blood brothers," as it were? (Essay V, H4)

12. What distinctive understanding of the nature of God is shared by the three traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? Be able to explain each of its three aspects. (Essay V, H4)

13. Be able to recognize the other six traits that distinguish Western religions (the ones we are studying), beyond their shared understanding of the nature of God, from other major religious traditions of the world. (Essay V, H4)

14. Explain the respect in which Judaism, Christianity and Islam are "historical religions." What does this have to do with the "otherness" of God as these traditions portray ultimate reality? How does it give rise in each to a "scandal of particularity"? (Essay V, H4)

QUESTIONS ON HINDUISM

Be familiar with the following terms and names; be able to state their meaning, dentify that (or those things) to which they refer, and indicate in a phrase their significance in the tradition of Hinduism. (For meanings, see R201 Lectures (1997) and R201 Glossary.)

1.  In what respect can Hinduism be said to have or not have a central story, or a story that contains all the other important stories, that articulates the primary or fundamental identity of being Hindu?  (H5; Ludwig, ch. 2)

2.  What is Huston Smith trying to say (in The World's Religions) when he claims that, taken as a whole, Hinduism says "You can have what you want."?  (H6)

3.  What are the four goals of life, according to Hinduism, and what do they mean?  (H6; Eastman, pp. 9-14; Ludwig, ch. 4)

4.  In a number of places Huston Smith (in The World's Religions) alludes to a 'cardinal tenet' of Hinduism, namely that people are different, and that religion needs to be adapted to different people's needs.  In what different ways does Hinduism conceive itself as adapting to different people's needs?  (H6; Ludwig, ch. 4)

5.  Explain the Hindu rationale for having different paths or yogas to the goal of moksha.  (H6; Ludwig, chs. 3 and 4)

6.  Explain the release from finitude (both positively and negatively) which Hinduism claims is 'what people really want' that constitutes moksha.  (H6; H5; Eastman, pp. 9-14; Ludwig, ch. 3)

7.  Explain the paradoxical claim of Hinduism that 'what people really want' they 'already possess.'  (H6; Ludwig, ch. 3)

8.  Explain each of the four classical yogas discussed by Huston Smith (in The World's Religions; Ludwig discusses three): what is involved in their pursuit, what kind of person to which each appeals, and how they differ from each other.  (H6; Ludwig, ch. 3)

9.  What does Dr. Cannon claim to be two remaining yogas in Hinduism that are not included in Smith's account?  What is involved in each of them?  (H6)

10.  What are the four traditional stages of life (ashramas) as Hinduism ideally depicts them and what is involved in each?  (H6; Eastman, pp. 45-51; Ludwig, ch. 4)

11.  Explain the nature, structure, and function of caste (varna and jati) in Hinduism.  What is its rationale (purported justification) in Hinduism?  (H6; Ludwig, ch. 4)

12.  Explain the ongoing disagreement (between the 'transpersonalists' and the 'personalists') about the nature of ultimate reality in Hindu philosophical theology.  (H5; H7; Ludwig, chs. 2 and 3)

13.  Explain the meaning of samsara (transmigration or reincarnation) as Hinduism understands it.  Why is it seen as something negative, to be ultimately transcended?  (H8; Ludwig, chs. 2 and 3)

14.  What is the nature of dharma, the moral law, for Hinduism, and how does it relate to what Hinduism variously speaks of as the ultimate reality.  (H5; H7; Ludwig, chs. 2, 3 and 4)

15.  Explain the law of karma, according to Hinduism.  How does it relate to the concept of the eternal dharma.  (H5, Ludwig, chs. 2, 3, and 4)

16.  What is the teaching of the Bhagavad-Gita regarding Arjuna's concern not to enter into battle against members of his extended family?  (H6, Ludwig, ch. 2)

17.  What is the Hindu conception of the natural universe, in its spatial and temporal dimensions?  (H8; Ludwig, ch. 3)

18.  Explain the ongoing disagreement (between dualists and non-dualists) about the 'reality' of the natural world of sense perception in Hindu philosophical theology.  (H8; Ludwig, chs. 2 and 3)

19.  Explain how the Hindu non-dualist avoids or escapes the apparent practical consequence of his world-view, that it makes ordinary responsibilities meaningless.    (H8; Ludwig, chs. 2 and 3)

20.  What is Hinduism's view of other religions?  (H8, Ludwig, ch. 4)

21.  Explain what some scholars mean in claiming that Hinduism is not a single religion but a loose amalgamation of many.  (H5; H8; Ludwig, chs. 2 and 4)

22.  In what respects is Hinduism not a universal religion, i.e., not really translatable to cultural contexts outside India?  (H8)

23.  What is the relationship of the Vedic religion to Classical Hinduism?  (H5; Ludwig, ch. 2)

Note: For 1999, the following terms and questions will not be on the exam.

QUESTIONS ON JAINISM

Be familiar with the following terms and names; be able to state their meaning, dentify that (or those things) to which they refer, and indicate in a phrase their significance in the tradition of Hinduism. (For meanings, see R201 Lectures (1999) and R201 Glossary.)

Answers to all questions may be found in Lecture H9 and in Ludwig, ch. 8.

1.  What is the central story of Jainism?

2.  What is the Jain conception of the human predicament?  And how does it differ from the conception of classical Hinduism?

3.  What is the Jain conception of the universe?

4.  Describe the Jain path to liberation.

5.  Describe the practice of nonviolence (ahimsa) as observed by a Jain monk or nun.

6.  What is the rationale which Jainism gives for their practice of nonviolence?

7.  What is the nature of Jain worship, and how does it differ from Hindu worship?

8.  In what respects is Jainism a religion of extremes?

9.  What is the difference between the major sects of Jainism?
 

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