People
This is the legendary founder of Taoism.
Who is Lao-tzu?
This text is attributed to Lao-tzu, though it was most likely written by his followers. The title means, roughly, "The Book of the Way and Its Power."
What is the Tao te Ching?
This is "the Way" or the "driving force of the universe in the ancient Chinese tradition traced back to Lao-tzu.
What is tao?
This traditional practice in Chinese folk religion played a central role in the Chinese Rites Controversy. More specifically, in 1939 Pope Pius XII officially determined that this is permissible for Chinese Catholics as long as there there is no element contrary to Catholic doctrine nor any hint of superstition.
What is ancestor veneration?
This is a paradox used in Zen Buddhism, especially in the Rinzai Zen tradition, to train the adherent to abandon ultimate dependence on reason, opening the opportunity for enlightenment.
What is a koan?
Born around 551 BC (during the Zhou Dynasty), this Chinese philosopher's sayings and ideas are recorded in a famous collection titled the Analects.
Who is Confucius (K'ung Fu-tzu)?
This most famous and widely influential text attributed to Confucius only gained popularity after his death.
[Hint: It is one of the Four Books of Confucius, and it is not The Doctrine of the Mean, or The Great Learning, or The Book of Meng-tzu
What is the Analects?
This means "action without action" and it is the way that the force of the "tao" acts.
What is wu wei?
This is a Japanese term for a home-shelf used in the honoring the sacred, spiritual forces honored in the Shinto tradition.
What is kamidana?
This term refers to the unity in Christ of all the baptized who are living on earth (pilgrim Church), who are being purified in purgatory (the Church suffering), and who are enjoying heaven (the Church in glory).
What is the Communion of Saints?
In Confucian philosophy, this is the title that applies to one who has attained perfection in virtue and behavior (both jen and li) - the "superior gentleman."
Who is a chun-tzu?
This Declaration of the Second Vatican Council states that "...the Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in [any] religion..."
What is Nostra Aetate?
This is the Japanese name for any kind of spiritual force or power. These spiritual forces or powers are everywhere, inhabiting trees, mountains, emperors, holy people, and anything else that is sacred.
What is kami?
These were members of the hereditary feudal warrior class that served Japanese rulers.
[Hint: this term comes from a word meaning "to serve."]
Who were samurai?
This term refers to sudden enlightenment as advocated by the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism, as opposed to the gradual enlightenment taught by the Soto Zen school.
What is satori?
This Spanish Jesuit missionary arrived in Japan in 1549.
[Hint: St. Katharine Drexel SBS founded a university in New Orleans, LA named after this Saint.]
Who is St. Francis Xavier SJ?
This Declaration of the Second Vatican Council holds both that "the one true religion subsists in the Catholic Church" and that freedom of religion demands that "all [people] are to be immune from coercion... no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to [their] own beliefs, whether privately or publicly...within due limits."
What is Dignitatis Humanae?
This is the Chinese practice of the proper way to live. It includes courtesy, etiquette, formality, and respect.
What is li?
This term refers to Shinto festivals predominantly celebrated at local or regional shrines.
What are matsuri?
This is the divine, kami couple who formed the islands of Japan and gave birth to the goddess of the sun, Amaterasu.
Who are Izanagi and Izanami?
In 1939 under this pope, the Catholic Church officially determined that ancestor veneration is permitted for Chinese Catholics, as long as there was no veneration element contrary to Catholic doctrine nor any hint of superstition.
Who is Pope Pius XII?
While Japanese indigenous religion, or Shinto, does not have any official sacred texts inspired or revealed by deities, two texts are considered authoritative and significant for the Japanese people's religious and historical heritage. In the eighth century AD, the Japanese imperial government commissioned the Japanese people's compilation of the oral myths and legends. (Name ONE of these TWO texts)
What is Kojiki
OR
Nihon Shoki?
This term was defined by Pope John Paul II as "the incarnation of the Gospel in native cultures and also the introduction of these cultures into the life of the Church" (Slavorum Apostoli, 21).
What is inculturation?
The Chinese practice of positioning objects-especially gravesites, buildings, and furniture- to achieve harmony based on belief in yin and yang and the flow of chi, the vital force or flow of energy.
What is feng shui?
This is the mythic-legendary grandmother of Ninigi-no-Mikoto, whose descendants established the imperial house of Japan.
Who is Amaterasu?