Foundations
That which is set apart for reverence and distinguished from the ordinary.
What is the sacred?
The moral duty or rightful conduct appropriate to one’s role in society and cosmos.
What is dharma?
This is the Buddha's human name?
The theorist who famously described religion as the “opiate of the people” in his critique of ideology.
Who is Karl Marx?
In Catholicism, what is the name of the temporary state of purification for souls who died in God’s grace but are not yet ready for Heaven?
What is Purgatory?
An object, image, or gesture that signifies a religious idea beyond its literal form.
What is a symbol?
The principle that intentional acts produce future consequences for the spirit.
What is karma?
In Buddhism, the extinguishing of craving and ignorance that constitutes final release from suffering.
What is nirvana?
A religious form that fuses elements from different traditions into a hybrid system, such as Chinese Buddhism.
What is syncretism?
In Scientology, what is the term for the immortal spiritual being that survives death and inhabits a new body?
What is a Thetan
The branch of moral reasoning within a tradition that prescribes right action.
What is ethics?
A deity’s descent into an embodied form on earth, especially in Vaishnavite contexts.
What is an avatar?
The combined program of ethical and mental practices including right speech and right concentration.
What is the Eightfold Path?
An approach that affirms multiple religions as valid paths to the sacred or ultimate.
What is pluralism?
In the Yoruba religion, what is the name of the invisible spiritual realm where ancestors and Orishas reside?
What is Orun
Ordained individuals authorized to lead worship, interpret texts, and perform rites.
Who are the clergy/priests?
Jainism sees the primary path through life as being defined by what ethical responsibility?
What is nonviolence?
The continual round of birth, death, and rebirth from which many traditions seek release.
What is samsara?
The era, roughly 800 to 200 BCE, marked by parallel intellectual and religious innovations across Eurasia.
What is the Axial Age?
In Aztec mythology, most people who died of natural causes went to this "Land of the Dead," ruled by Mictlantecuhtli.
Who is Mictlān
A recognized subgroup within a larger tradition, often differing in organization or practice.
What is a denomination?
In Hindu thought, the individual self or soul that is ultimately identified with ultimate reality.
What is atman?
Zen Buddhism was derived in China from this Buddhist Sect that translates to "The Great Vehicle"
What is Mahayana
The Danish existentialist who insisted that authentic religious faith requires a subjective leap beyond rational proof.
Who is Søren Kierkegaard?
In LDS theology, the "Spirit World" is divided into two sections before the Resurrection: Spirit Paradise and what?
What is the Spirit Prison