Exam 1 Study Guide

Western Religious Traditions

Be familiar with the material in these sections or documents from the class website:

• Possible Definitions of Religion
• Important Dates
• Important Terms
• Thirteen Principles of Maimonides
• Defining Orthodoxy in the Early Church
• The Nicene and Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creeds (just the Nicene Creed)
• The Five Pillars of Islam

Be familiar with the material in Urubshurow's book Introducing World Religions, especially the following sections:

• The Insider-Outsider Challenge
• Three Functions of Religion in Society
• Subtle Erasures
• Meaningful Performance in World Religions, especially "Seven expressive functions"
• "Players" and "Texture" sections within chapter on a specific religious tradition

Other than the dates listed in "Important Dates," you will not be asked about any specific dates. However, you should be able to put important people and/or events in chronological order. For example, you should know that the sequence of Persian empires is Achaemenid, Arsacid, Sasanian. You should also know that the four Rightly Guided Caliphs precede the establishment of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates/empires and that the two Vatican councils come after the Protestant Reformation.

Sample discussion/short answer questions:

• Discuss at least three different definitions of religion. (You do not need to memorize the exact words of the definitions on the class website, but you should know the basics of at least three definitions that you find most compelling.)
• How do you think religions without written texts evolve over time in comparison with religions with written texts?
• In what ways did Zorostrianism influence the three Abrahamic religions?
• During the Sasanian period, the persecution of followers of Zurvanism was more intense than the persecution of Jews, Christians, and Manicheans. Why? Are there other examples of followers of the "orthodox" form of a religious tradition persecuting the followers of a "heterodox" form of the same religion?
• Compare and contrast Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist Judaism.
• What do you think of the various Jewish responses to the Shoah? Do any of them hit home for you?
• Discuss the emergence of Christian orthodoxy in the first four centuries of Christian history.
• Was the accession to power of the first Christian emperor Constantine ultimately a positive or a negative for the development of the Christian faith? For the development of European history?
• Discuss the advancement of knowledge during the Middle Ages in Christianity and Islam.
• How does the Christian view of God differ from the Jewish and Muslim views of God?
• How does the Muslim view of the Quran differ from the Jewish and Christian views of their scriptures?
• Muhammad emphasized the priority of the whole Muslim community over allegiance to tribes and clans. How successful has Islam been in overcoming tribalism? How do Islam's successes or failures in this area compare with other religious traditions?

See also the sample multiple choice questions in Canvas.