REVIEW QUESTIONS chapter 3
l. Why does the author begin the study of religious experience and forms of religious expression with a discussion of the sacred or holy? How does it fit in with the other the
2. What are some of the important characteristics associated with the experience of the sacred and what Rudolf Otto calls the “numinous” and the “mysterium tremendum
3. Several scholars point to the fact that in much religious experience “the sacred both fascinates and repels.” Why might this be so? Do you think this is characteristic of the experience of the sacred in modern life? Why or why not?
4. In Mircea Eliade’s discussion of sacred space, what does he mean by a hierophany, an aris mundi, and an imago mundi? Give an example of each of these features of sacred space.
5-Cite some examples of sacred places in some religions. Are there some places in the United States that are, for Americans, sacred space?
6- Give examples of some sacred times that represent, for some religions, periods of atonement, purification, change, renewal, or rebirth.
*Answer these questions chapter #2
1-Why may the study of theology not be the same as the study of religion? What conditions would be necessary for theology to be recognized as a scholarly field of study?
2-Why does the study of religion make use of so many methods and academic disciplines?
3-What questions does the literary scholar of religious texts seek to answer? What are the some of the questions that the historian of religion might attempt to answer?
4-Describe functionalism as a method of investigation of religion in anthropology and sociology. Try to give illustrations of a functional analysis of religion.
5-What kind of questions interest the philosophy of religion? Describe the “falsification principle” as Anthony Flew applies it in his philosophical analysis of religion.
6-Describe some of the features of Freud’s psychological interpretation of religious belief. Summarize the conclusions of Gordon Allport’s empirical study of religion about ethnic and racial prejudice.