REL 110 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Winfield, Kansas, Order Of Australia, Moksha
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
REL 110
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
RELIGION IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
8:00 AM - 9:40 AM
Professor Winfield
8/30/18
First Day Reading:
VAC- Hindu goddess of speech
● Speaks the world into creation
● Rises up out of the primordial waters
● As she speaks, the world is created
● Body parts become the earth → growing her body into the earth
● Goddess dismembers herself to become the world
Power of speech → Religion is a language
The truth claim (Ex. MY religion is universal) is not contingent
American Gods
Mithras- Ancient Roman God of War
→ Christmas: no record of Jesus being born, date was taken by the Church
→ Christmas is a christianized version of Mithras’ feast on 12/26
Ammet- Egypt
Jackal- Anubis, Egyptian God of the Underworld
Ma’at � - Feather, pen, scribes
Nature Religions
Transcendence: Above all
Immanence: On earth
China
Inverted bowl of the heavens, watching constellations
Heaven must be a bowl → Temple is round
West African
Orisa- Spirits, deities, forces of nature
Orisa become synchronized with Christian saints
Syncretism: The mixing and melding of 2+ religions
Ancestors
Guides throughout your life, dead or alive
When dead, there is a need to celebrate your predecessors
● Shrines
● Day of the dead
● Samhain (harvest festival) → All Hallows Eve (Halloween): souls
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
● Portrait busts (Ancient Rome)
● Wooden statues for the ‘ba’ to come back and visit the living (Egypt)
Heavenly Observation
Common across cultures
● Sacrifice to the heavenly bodies to ensure they continue rotating → allow crops to be
planted and flourish, rain to fall, ect
● Temples for the sun and moon
● Nazca Lines (Peru) → map of the stars
● Serpent Mound (Native American, Ohio) → Effigy mound
○ Curves align with solstice/equinox risings & settings
○ Creates artificial horizon points
Animals and Sacred Geography
● Mountains allow the transcendence world and immanence world to meet
● Dreamtime (Aboriginal Australia)
○ Time of mythological beginning
○ When time, animals and the land itself are one
○ Vision Quest- walkabout → go and retrace the songlines of your ancestors
until you have a meeting with your animal and are transformed
● Animal ties into myth, culture, ancestry, social structure
● Reconciliation and restoration
Nature
● Shinto- Japan
○ Kami- Special places in nature that are discerned to have a sacred presence that is
marked and protected
● Nature having a sacred presence (Ex, Lake is considered deity)
Shamans & Divination
● Ability to see into the spiritual world
● Chosen one
● Effa Board- throw cowrie shells and learn your fate
● Santeria, Cuba (get in touch through music and dance)
● Candomble
● Vodun → Voodoo
● Orisa- llegba (trickster)
Liminal time/space: in between (ex thresholds)
Nature Religions Today
● Ise (tribal compound that houses Amaterasu- sun kami)
● Feng shui- wind and water
● Ancient female fertility rights- bronze statue
● Neo-pagan groups- earth centric, feminine approach to spirituality
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Rises up out of the primordial waters. As she speaks, the world is created. Body parts become the earth growing her body into the earth. Goddess dismembers herself to become the world. Power of speech religion is a language. Christmas: no record of jesus being born, date was taken by the church. Christmas is a christianized version of mithras" feast on 12/26. Heaven must be a bowl temple is round. Syncretism: the mixing and melding of 2+ religions. When dead, there is a need to celebrate your predecessors. Samhain (harvest festival) all hallows eve (halloween): souls. Wooden statues for the ba" to come back and visit the living (egypt) Sacrifice to the heavenly bodies to ensure they continue rotating allow crops to be planted and flourish, rain to fall, ect. Nazca lines (peru) map of the stars. Serpent mound (native american, ohio) effigy mound. Curves align with solstice/equinox risings & settings.
