Foundations
That which is set apart for reverence and distinguished from the ordinary.
What is the sacred?
Directed communication with the divine or ultimate reality, frequently entailing praise or petition.
What is prayer?
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?
An object, image, or gesture that signifies a religious idea beyond its literal form.
What is a symbol?
The offering of something valuable as an act of devotion or consecration.
What is sacrifice?
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?
The branch of moral reasoning within a tradition that prescribes right action.
What is ethics?
A disciplined mental practice cultivating awareness, concentration, or insight.
What is meditation?
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?
Ordained individuals authorized to lead worship, interpret texts, and perform rites.
Who are the clergy/priests?
Dharmic sacred syllables or phrases repeated to focus the mind during ritual or practice.
What is a mantra?
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?
A recognized subgroup within a larger tradition, often differing in organization or practice.
What is a denomination?
A devotional path in Hinduism emphasizing loving surrender to a personal deity.
What is bhakti?
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?