Useful Terms
The following are terms (found in the readings) for which you will be held responsible in class discussions, assignments, and exams, and which are just good to know.
Approaches:
apologetics
“first order” vs. “second order”
“insider” perspective vs. “outsider” perspective
“teaching” religion vs. “teaching about” religion
“inner logic”
Definitions:
“cluster” definition
hermeneutics
“history of religions”
phenomenology
reductionism
semiotics
“substantive” definition vs. “functional” definition
typologies
Sacred Powers:
agnosticism
animism
anthropomorphic
atheism
deism
dualism
henotheism
monism
pantheism
pantheon
polytheism
trinitarianism
totem
unitarianism
Myth:
cosmogonic myth
cosmological myth
eschatological myth
etiological myth
hierophanic myth
numinous
Epic of Gilgamesh:
Enkidu
Gilgamesh
Ishtar
Utnapishtim
Ritual:
“betwixt and between”
communitas
“ideological” rituals
jubilation
liminal
mortification
purgation
“revitalization” rituals
sacrifice
scapegoat
“salvation” rituals
“technological” rituals
“therapeutic / antitherapeutic” rituals
Experiencing the Sacred:
archetype
numinous
“religious” experience
Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane:
ab origine
axis mundi
boundaries / thresholds
hierophany
homo religiosus
“in illo tempore”
mysterium fascinans & mysterium tremendum
“sacred” vs. “profane”
sacred space vs. sacred time
Good & Bad; Good & Evil:
anomic
apocalypse/apocalypticism
“cargo cults”
ethics / morality
eschatology
jihad
millenarianism
nomos
syncretism
theodicy
Religion, Law, & Politics:
civil religion
lex talionis
theocracy
Organization:
charisma
“church”
cult
institutionalization
routinization
sect
text
In the World / Beyond the World:
annihilation
apocalypticsm
completion
diversity
eshcatology
exclusivism
inclusivism
pluralism
salvation
secularization
