R 204:Western Religions, Fall 1998

FIRST EXAM STUDY QUESTIONS

GENERAL QUESTIONS ON RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Be familiar with the following terms and names; be able to state their meaning. (For meanings, see R204 Lectures (1998) and R204 Glossary.)

public education religion studies (legally appropriate); empathy, empathetic objectivity, test of empathy, test of neutrality, bracketing, system of symbols, central (or primary) story, crossing the threshold, threshold effect, another world to live in, representational symbol, presentational symbol, problem of meaning, religion (generic definition of), "ultimate reality," at-onement, way of being religious, way of sacred rite, way of right action, way of devotion, way of shamanic mediation, way of mystical quest, way of reasoned inquiry, Western religions, Eastern religions, monotheism, oneness of God, holiness of God, otherness of God, revelation, historical religion, scandal of particularity, prophet, eschatological.

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, J2)

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, J2)

4. What is empathetic objectivity and why is it important in religious studies? (Essay II, J2)

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, J2)

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, J2)

7. Why is "the threshold effect" important to understand and keep in mind when studying religious phenomena? (Essay II, J2)

8. What is the working definition of religion being used in this class? Explain with an example. (Essay III, J3)

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; J3; 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; J3; Cannon, Six Ways of Being Religious, chs. 3 & 4)

11. How are Judaism, Christianity and Islam internally connected with each other? In other words, what makes them "blood brothers," as it were? (Essay V, J4)

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, J4)

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, J4)

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, J4)

QUESTIONS ON JUDAISM

Be familiar with the following terms and names; be able to state their meaning, identify that (or those things) to which they refer, and indicate in a phrase their significance in the tradition of Judaism. (For meanings, see R204 Lectures (1998) and R204 Glossary.)

Jew, Israel, Judah, Torah, Written Torah, Oral Torah, Tanakh/Hebrew Bible, Talmud, Mishnah, Exodus, Sinai, revelation, covenant, circumcision, Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, Shema, Siddur/Authorized Prayerbook, halakha, aggadah, mitzvah (plural: mitzvot), kosher, tefillin, Messiah, Messianic Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism, Judaist, Exile/Diaspora, Sabbath/shabbat, Passover, Yom Kippur, Cabala (or Kabbalah), Zohar, Zionism, Orthodox Judaism, Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Haskala/Emancipation/Enlightenment, the Holocaust, Hasidism, Abraham, Moses, David, Pharisees, 70 CE, Jerusalem, The Temple (First and Second), Yavneh (Jamnia), Zion, Philo, Akiba, Hillel, Maimonides, Israel Baal Shem.

2. What or who is a Jew? Explain something of the central meaning of what it means for a Judaist to be a Jew. (J5, J6)

3. Is there such a thing as the Jewish race? Explain your answer. (J5)

4. Explain why Judaism should not be characterized as the religion of the Old Testament. (J5, J8)

5. Explain why the following view is a misconception: Judaism is a religion of legalism in which Jews are burdened with the impossible task of fulfilling the expectations of God in their own human strength. (Beyond my lectures, see Fishbane on the tensions that have structured Judaism for a fuller explanation.) (J5; J7; Ludwig, ch. 6; Fisbane)

6. Be able to tell the central story of Judaism and to recognize its main components. How does it make Judaism a "historical religion"? (J5; "Handout on Judaism;" Ludwig, ch. 4)

7. What does the name Israel mean? What are five things to which it refers? (J7)

8. What, in this course, has been identified as the central rite (or ritual) of Judaism? Why is it so central? Explain its meaning briefly in an empathetic way. (J8; J6; "Handout on Judaism")

9. How is it that the Torah both sums up and gives focus for the whole of reality for traditional rabbinic Judaism? (J7, J8, Ludwig, ch. 5)

10. What is the relationship between the Written Torah and the Oral Torah as conceived by traditional rabbinic Judaism. What has the Talmud to do with them? What is the role of a rabbi in this relationship? (J8; "Handout on Judaism;" Ludwig, chs. 5 & 6)

11. Explain the point of the comparison between the string quartet and the study and interpretation of the Torah which was made in the film, "The Chosen People." How is the Torah studied and interpreted in Judaism? (J6, J8)

12. How does an understanding of Oral Torah help us to understand the Jewish approach to the interpretation of Scripture and its attitude to diversity in interpretation? (J8, J9)

13. In what respect is "the way of reasoned inquiry" given prominence in Judaism? In what respect "the way of right action"? (J9)

14. In what sense is the Torah a means for the sanctification of life or a "manual for the hallowing of life" (Huston Smith)? Discuss an example mitzvah, such as the observance of the Sabbath. (J8, Ludwig, ch. 6)

15. What is the traditional Jewish view of persons outside the covenant of Israel? I.e., How do the commandments of the Torah apply to them? (J5)

16. What elements were combined to form the synthesis that became traditional rabbinic Judaism that took place at Yavneh (ca. 70-120 CE)? (J8)

17. How did traditional rabbinic Judaism differ from messianic forms of Judaism. What became the traditional (pre-modern, rabbinic) Jewish understanding of the Messiah and the Age to Come? (J8; Ludwig, ch. 4)

18. Explain the respect in which Judaism cultivates a heightened moral sensitivity that is distinctive. I.e., what distinguishes Judaism's attitude toward morality? (J9; Ludwig, chs. 5 & 6)

19. Jews have traditionally been concerned with the actual or objective realization of justice within human history, and have affirmed that the destiny of nations somehow depends on this criterion. Explain this concern and conviction. (J9)

20. In what respects does Judaism tolerate and even respect a person who questions or disputes with God? (J5, J6)

21. What is Kabbalah (or Cabala)? How does it relate to traditional rabbinic Judaism? (J9, J10, Ludwig, ch. 4)

22. What is Hasidism? How did it differ from traditional rabbinic Judaism? (J10, Ludwig, ch. 4)

23. For what two principal reasons did traditional Rabbinic Judaism in Western Europe begin to break down in the modern period? (J10; Ludwig, ch. 4; Neusner, The Way of Torah)

24. In what respects has the modern era brought with it a renaissance of messianic forms of Judaism? What are those forms? (J10, Ludwig, ch. 4; Neusner, The Way of Torah)

25. Explain what Zionism is and how it represents a radical departure from traditional rabbinic Judaism. (J10, Ludwig, ch. 4; Neusner, The Way of Torah)

26. What was the traditional (pre-modern) Jewish attitude toward the Land of Israel? Toward Jerusalem? In what ways has it changed? (J10; Ludwig, chs. 4 & 6)

27. What is Reform Judaism? Explain how it is an expression of Jewish messianism. What does it take to be the mission of Judaism to the world? (J5; J10; Ludwig, ch. 4)

28. Distinguish between Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative Judaism in respect to their attitudes toward Torah and halakah. (J5; J10; Ludwig, ch. 4)