Question 1
What is the preferred way to refer to such religious groups as the North American Lakota, or the African Yoruba?
Select one:
a. Indigenous (Native)
b. Traditionals
c. Primitives
d. Animists or Shamanists
Question 2
The later dominant sacrificial priests (or why spelling matters)
Select one:
a. Brahma
b. Brahmanas
c. Brahman
d. Brahmins
Question 3
One ironic indicator of the increasing value placed on the academic study of religion
Select one:
a. even the officially atheistic China has set up programs and majors for the study of religion in many of its universities.
b. the rapid disappearance of recognizable forms of religion renders "Religion" an endangered species
c. the Sacred/Secular conflict often renders many people spiritually schizophrenic
d. All of the above
Question 4
A rite of passage undertaken by boys, and sometimes girls, at puberty
Select one:
a. The Sacred Pipe ceremony
b. Vision Quest
c. Sweat Lodges
d. The Sun Dance
Question 5
The Taiping Rebellion in 1849 was led by Hong Xiuquang who claimed to be
Select one:
a. Jesus Christ's younger brother
b. Confucius
c. Maitreya, the expected Buddha
d. Laozi
Question 6
The most significant split in Buddhism occurred
Select one:
a. At an early Buddhist Council
b. right after the Buddha's cremation
c. in the life of the Buddha
d. not until relatively modern times
Question 7
Hinduism is
Select one:
a. the unified religion of India
b. a rejected self-designation for Hindus
c. an abstract but useful term to talk about the collective of Hinduisms
d. the preferred self-designation for many upper-class Hindus
Question 8
According to objective scholarly consensus, around 1500 B.C.E., which group invaded/migrated the declining Harappan, Indus Valley culture?
Select one:
a. Dravidians
b. Aryans
c. Nazis
d. Pakastanis
Question 9
An early strata of Indus Valley civilization, flourishing around 2500 B.C.E. is located in what present day country?
Select one:
a. Mohenjo-Daro
b. Harappa
c. Pakistan
d. India
Question 10
One of the lasting contributions of the Shang dynasty to Chinese culture was
Select one:
a. writing of "classics"
b. oracle bone divination
c. human sacrifice
d. the invention of firecrackers
Question 11
Though Hinduism hosts many gods and goddesses it finds a deep and abiding sense of the unity of reality in
Select one:
a. the idea of Shakti
b. Ganesha
c. Shiva's lingam in the yoni of the Goddess
d. Brahman
Question 12
What was it among the "Four Passing Sights" was the one ray of hope that caused the young prince to seek renunciation as a path?
Select one:
a. a decrepit old man
b. an extremely ill person
c. a corpse
d. a holy man
Question 13
The core of Vedic religion was
Select one:
a. philosophical speculation
b. meditation
c. yoga
d. sacrifice
Question 14
These earliest Sanskrit texts, originally oral, form the basis of Hinduism
Select one:
a. the Upanishads
b. the "Four Books of Eternal Knowledge"
c. the Vedas
d. Aranyakas, Hymns, and Magic Spells
Question 15
Daoism refers to
Select one:
a. the one and absolute "way" to the truth
b. diverse but related Chinese traditions
c. either philosophical or religious ways of experiencing reality
d. at least three ways of relating to reality in ancient and modern Chinese culture
Question 16
Which of the following did Daoism not directly influence?
Select one:
a. martial arts
b. landscape painting
c. music and poetry
d. the move to big and centralized government
Question 17
The end of the Zhou dynasty, known as the Warring States period saw
Select one:
a. nothing but chaos, social, and intellectual disintegration
b. a fertile fruition of thought and belief meant to address social ills
c. the once unified China divide into separate nations
d. the period of the Last Emperor
Question 18
Since the 1949 Mao Zedong communist regime, China has been officially atheist though along with promoting some elements of Confucianism other religions have been increasingly allowed with the exception of
Select one:
a. Christianity
b. Buddhism
c. Daoism
d. Falun Gong
Question 19
Most indigenous religious groups see themselves as having originated in their traditional locales despite the fact that most anthropologists think
Select one:
a. that is just typical "noble savage" thinking
b. the entire extant human race stemmed from Africa 100, 000 years ago
c. this is just the inability to distinguish between pre-contact and post-contact influences
d. it is just another misrepresentation caused by popular culture
Question 20
Immediately after his enlightenment, the Buddha
Select one:
a. entered into Parinirvana
b. taught for forty years
c. formed the Sangha
d. preached his first sermon in a deer park
Question 21
The reason why strong concepts of "Salvation," "Enlightenment," "Eternal Life," and means of escaping, transforming, or transcending the world are generally lacking from indigenous religions may be because
Select one:
a. such concepts are too sophisticated for primitive minds
b. they are too busy trying to survive in the here-and-now world to speculate about pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die matters
c. they know through astute intuition that such concepts are false
d. this world is a perfectly sufficient realm of balance and harmony in the circle of life, interwoven relationships, and suffused with spirituality
Question 22
Through most of its history, an abiding strategy that has rendered Hinduism, for the most part, virtually unassailable to outside competitors and heterodoxies:
Select one:
a. absorption, integration, incorporation, and reinterpretation
b. rigid inflexibility and intolerance
c. militant and legalistic resistance
d. threats of hell and eternal damnation
Question 23
Myths that tell of origins or the beginnings of the world
Select one:
a. Cosmogonic
b. Etiological
c. Semi-historical
d. Fictive
Question 24
What was the personal name of the Historical Buddha?
Select one:
a. Siddhartha
b. Shakyamuni
c. Yashodhara
d. Tathagata
Question 25
Kamikazi in its original context refers
Select one:
a. to a powerful mixed vodka-based drink usually downed in one shot
b. reckless, almost suicidal styles of driving
c. to the "Divine Wind," a typhoon that destroyed a Chinese fleet threatening to invade Japan in the 1200s
d. to Japanese suicide fighter pilots who crashed their planes into aircraft carriers
Question 26
In the early Vedic period, these were the soma drinking "Seers" whose altered states of consciousness allowed them access to divine revelation
Select one:
a. brahmins
b. devas
c. rishi
d. Agni
Question 27
What the academic study of religion probably will not do for you:
Select one:
a. Prove the existence of God and the superiority of one religion.
b. Provide you with broad-level, cross-cultural comparisons.
c. Expand your ability to understand and explain texts.
d. Create a sense of empathy for complex issues and positions.
Question 28
The ultimate aim of yoga is similar to the Upanishads in that it
Select one:
a. rejects sacrifice and the authority of the Vedas
b. aims ultimately at extreme flexibility and physical fitness
c. aspires to realize atman as Brahman by striping away the phenomenal flux and flow of material existence
d. desires material blessings and rewards in this life
Question 29
The name of the Yoruba high god
Select one:
a. Orisha
b. Obatala
c. Olorun
d. Odudua
Question 30
What percentage of Americans professes belief in God or some form of transcendence?
Select one:
a. 90 percent
b. 50 percent
c. 10 percent
d. a statistically negligible and declining number
Question 31
What was Confucius' real name?
Select one:
a. Qufu
b. Kong Qui
c. Kong Fuzi
d. Master Kong
Question 32
Religion may best be recognized as
Select one:
a. cultural practices among very ignorant and/or archaic peoples
b. a pre-historic phase and placeholder supplanted by science
c. a relationship with "the Sacred" exhibited throughout human time and culture.
d. superstitious and rapidly disappearing beliefs.
Question 33
Having been open to Buddhism and Shinto, a crux in the reception of Christianity was reached in the 1500s when
Select one:
a. Buddhism was completely supplanted by Christian conversions of the aristocracy
b. legislation for universal toleration was enacted
c. the emperor made Christianity the official religion
d. dozens of Christians were crucified and over forty thousand were killed
Question 34
The preferred self-designation of the Sri Lankan Buddhists
Select one:
a. Hinayana
b. Theravada
c. Mahayana
d. The Great Sangha
Question 35
A symbol that expresses the essence of reality
Select one:
a. the Swastika
b. ganja on the Ganges
c. a cremation mound
d. the mantra Om (Aum)
Question 36
Tibetan Buddhism is often referred to as a third branch and is also known as
Select one:
a. Zen
b. Pure Land
c. Mahayana
d. Vajrayana
Question 37
A bodhisattva is
Select one:
a. one of the strongest ideals of Theravada
b. an enlightened being who forgoes his own entrance into full Nirvana to become a sort of cosmic crossing guard for
c. comprised exclusively of converted foreign deities
d. the super-abundant Buddha of the Pure Land
Question 38
Shinto means literally
Select one:
a. indigenous religion
b. the religion of the land
c. nature religion
d. the way of the gods
Question 39
In choosing to eat and restore his body to healthy substance, thus rejecting asceticism, the Buddha forged?
Select one:
a. The Middle Path
b. a religion of indulgence and sensuality
c. a community that values obesity
d. the legend of the "Fat Buddha"
Question 40
The term "Buddha"
Select one:
a. is a proper name and refers exclusively to the founder of Buddhism
b. is a title or level of accomplishment which anyone may attain
c. refers primarily to statues of a big-bellied figure
d. is drawn from the term "Bodhi" which refers simply to a type of tree
Question 41
One of the things King Ashoka did after his conversion to Buddhism
Select one:
a. was to make Buddhism the official religion of the empire
b. was to collect all the Buddhist sutras into a single canon
c. was to eradicate the rivals of Buddhism in a bloody campaign
d. was to send a cutting of the original Bodhi tree to Sri Lanka where it took root as did Buddhism
Question 42
One of the major developments of the "Mahayana" movement
Select one:
a. was a greater outreach, inclusion, adaptation, and assimilation of popular and indigenous religious elements
b. the establishment of the Pali Canon
c. a unification between Hinayana and Maha-Sangha factions
d. the first major missionary efforts of Buddhism
Question 43
What is considered to be the most influential and popular Hindu scripture today?
Select one:
a. The Vedas
b. The Ramayana
c. The Laws of Manu
d. The Bhagavad Gita
Question 44
In the 1500s C.E. after surges of renascent Hinduism, and extreme Muslim persecution, the only form of Buddhism to survive on the Indian subcontinent was in
Select one:
a. Myanmar (formerly Burma)
b. Thailand
c. Cambodia
d. Sri Lanka
Question 45
Founded the first successful Hindu missionary movements in the West
Select one:
a. Ramakrishna
b. Vivekananda
c. Paramahansa Yogananda
d. Maharishi Bakhtivedanta
Question 46
Confucius is best characterized as
Select one:
a. a reformer who breathed new life into the meaning of ancient traditions
b. a radical revolutionary
c. a mystical visionary with a new revelation
d. the most popular civil servant and teacher of his day
Question 47
One of the main Buddhist responses in the modern world is a social and political activism called "Engaged Buddhism" and founded by
Select one:
a. the Dalai Lama
b. Thich Naht Hanh
c. Tenzin Gayatso
d. Avalokiteshvara
Question 48
A good way to initially classify Vodou
Select one:
a. Santeria
b. Rastafarian
c. black magic
d. Afro-Caribbean
Question 49
That "all life is suffering" is part of
Select one:
a. The Four Noble Truths
b. The Eightfold Path
c. The Three Characteristics of Existence
d. The Five Precepts
Question 50
What is generally not characteristic of a Shaman?
Select one:
a. ability to travel into the spirit world in trance-like states
b. constantly plays tricks on people, characterized in North America by a Coyote form
c. evokes animals as messengers to other spirits
d. heals illnesses
Question 51
In which film did Keanu Reeves depict Siddhartha gaining enlightenment and becoming the Buddha under the Bodhi Tree?
Select one:
a. The Buddha's Most Excellent Adventure
b. The Matrix
c. Little Buddha
d. None; Keanu Reeves could never portray the Buddha
Question 52
Jainism is
Select one:
a. the largest religion of India
b. etymologically related to a Sanskrit word for "conquer" which makes them among the fiercest warriors in Indian history
c. typified by Mahavira, a former disciple of the Buddha
d. etymologically related to a Sanskrit word for "conquer" which relates to the internal struggle to overcome the Self
Question 53
The canon of Buddhist sutras formed at the fourth Buddhist council in the first century B.C.E. known as the Pali canon is also called
Select one:
a. "The Palm Leaf Gospel"
b. the Tipitaka
c. the Sutta Pitaka
d. the Abhidamma Pitaka
Question 54
Buddhism is
Select one:
a. the largest religion of India
b. etymologically related to a Sanskrit word for "awakened" which means they rarely ever sleep and practice severe forms of sleep deprivation
c. typified by Mahavira who was a disciple of the Buddha
d. etymologically related to a Sanskrit word for "enlightened" which relates to overcoming the illusions of "Self" and impermanence.
Question 55
mong the many acts of puja (worship or veneration) one of the major pilgrimage events in the world is
Select one:
a. cremating the dead
b. the kumbha mela
c. burning incense before an image of Shiva
d. bathing in the Ganges
Question 56
One of the positive and unprecedented consequences of Buddhism in North America
Select one:
a. celebrity converts
b. the use of Zen for sports
c. the portrayal of Buddhism in Hollywood films and other art forms
d. it fosters forms of inter-Buddhist dialogue and cooperation that has never yet been seen in Buddhism
Question 57
A major contribution of Women's Studies to the study of religion:
Select one:
a. The creation of the Women's Liberation Movement
b. the restoration of leadership roles to women within every major religion and denomination
c. proof positive of a pre-historical Matriarchal golden age
d. demonstration of patterns of male-domination and patriarchy in the suppression of women in religions world-wide
Question 58
During the seventh and eighth centuries it became official doctrine that the Japanese emperor was the descendent of the "Sun Goddess"
Select one:
a. Kojiki
b. Amaterasu
c. Izanagi
d. Izanami
Question 59
Though once used generically for spiritual intermediaries such as "Medicine Men" and tribal healers, this designation is currently used sparingly by cultural anthropologists.
Select one:
a. totemism
b. manaism
c. primitivism
d. shamanism
Question 60
What accounts for the different spellings in transliterations of Chinese terms, for example between Daoism andTaoism?
Select one:
a. the inability of the Chinese people to speak their own language correctly until Western scholarship standardized it
b. the difference between the Wade-Giles and the newer Pinyan system of transliteration
c. poetic license
d. an antiquated and imprecise system of transliteration versus a modern and a science-of-linguistics informed system
Question 61
What was most likely responsible for Muslim and Christian missionaries mistaking Eshu as demonic or even the Devil?
Select one:
a. the fact that trickster figures often blur the distinction between good and evil
b. he is in fact the Yoruban Devil
c. because many Yorubans fear him
d. because he often functioned to promote morality
Question 62
To refrain from stealing, intoxicants, and sexual immorality are part of
Select one:
a. The Four Noble Truths
b. The Eightfold Path
c. The Three Characteristics of Existence
d. The Five Precepts
Question 63
Confucianism is best understood as
Select one:
a. the predominant religion of China
b. an inappropriate and maladroit term introduced in the 1500s C.E. by Catholic missionaries
c. a term with a discernable history that is used by both outsiders and insiders
d. another branch of Daoism
Question 64
Principles in the Yi Jing that flux and flow are natural, and that the universe and humans are good
Select one:
a. is a result of oracle bone divination
b. ironically justifies human sacrifice
c. inform and influence both Daoism and Confucianism
d. are quickly forgotten in the Zhou dynasty
Question 65
The concept of salvation, or release from rebirth
Select one:
a. moksha
b. karma
c. dharma
d. samsara
Question 66
Impermanence and "no-soul" are part of
Select one:
a. The Four Noble Truths
b. The Eightfold Path
c. The Three Characteristics of Existence
d. The Five Precepts
Question 67
Ifa refers to
Select one:
a. a much feared god who can strike people with smallpox
b. ancestor veneration
c. a system of divination
d. Vodou
Question 68
Whatever scholars think about the murkiness of Daoism's origins the most probable accounts of its beginnings take into consideration
Select one:
a. the irrefutable historical existence of its founder Laozi
b. its universal presence across all classes in the early first millennium B.C.E
c. an internal consistency that rivaled that of both Confucianism and Buddhism
d. that whenever it originated it was a religious system by 300 B.C.E and strongly associated with the Daode Jing and other literary works
Question 69
This path embraces forbidden, libidinal, erotic, sensual, esoteric, and highly energetic sexual practices
Select one:
a. bhakti
b. right-handed tantra
c. left-handed tantra
d. mantra
Question 70
The injunction to take refuge in the Buddha, his teaching, and the community are known as
Select one:
a. the four noble truths
b. the eightfold path
c. the three jewels
d. the dharma
Question 71
The Ch'an school introduced in China by Bodhidharma around 520 C.E. is best known
Select one:
a. as one of the strongest ideals of Theravada
b. by its Sanskrit root, dhyana
c. by its Japanese form, Zen
d. a branch of Chinese Doaism
Question 72
The language of the Aryans and their subsequent scriptures was
Select one:
a. Sanskrit
b. Harappan
c. Tamil
d. Hindustani
Question 73
Yoga can best be characterized as
Select one:
a. a low-impact form of exercise
b. sitting in lotus position
c. something to do in gyms and health clubs
d. a psycho-physical discipline proceeding from discipline to liberation
Question 74
Doctrine of the endless cycle of suffering and continual rebirth
Select one:
a. karma
b. dharma
c. samsara
d. nirvana
Question 75
The only effective method of following the Dao according to Daoism is by
Select one:
a. a rigorous discipline and a strong moral code
b. fllial piety
c. wu wei
d. control over emotions, mind, and nature
Question 76
Prior to the arrival of Buddhism in Japan the religion could best be characterized as
Select one:
a. loosely organized
b. highly localized but uniform
c. comprised of many local shrines, recognition of a variety of kami, and an emergent mythology
d. devoid of any discernable structures
Question 77
An approach to the study of religion from the "inside," from the perspective of revelation and "faith seeking understanding."
Select one:
a. sociological
b. historical
c. theological
d. biological
Question 78
What is the principle of cosmic vital energy in ancient Chinese thought?
Select one:
a. Dao
b. De
c. Qi (or Chi)
d. Tian
Question 79
In what caste was Siddhartha Gautama most likely born?
Select one:
a. Brahmin
b. Kshatriya
c. Vaishya
d. Shudra
Question 80
Pre-patriarchal female shamans or contemporary "shrine maidens"
Select one:
a. kami
b. miko
c. Izanagi
d. Izanami
Question 81
The use of "history" to interpret indigenous religions is limited by the fact that most indigenous cultural recollections are
Select one:
a. ritualistic
b. mythical
c. oral
d. bad written record keepers
Question 82
One of the practices developed in the Shang dynasty that has gained popularity in the West
Select one:
a. feng shui
b. oracle bone divination
c. human sacrifice
d. ancestor veneration
Question 83
Many of the terms conventionally used to refer to some groups, like "American Indian" were a result of
Select one:
a. listening carefully to the group's self designation
b. long-standing internal traditional categories
c. European Colonialism
d. carefully weighed anthropological categories
Question 84
Among the first introductions of Buddhism to the West was a bestseller called The Light of Asia written by
Select one:
a. Allan Watts
b. D.T. Suzuki
c. Edwin Arnold
d. Robert Pirsig
Question 85
The Mahayana doctrine of Trikaya refers to
Select one:
a. the three jewels
b. the three baskets
c. the three branches of Buddhism
d. the three bodies of the Buddha
Question 86
As a result of the "pushback" of Shinto against Buddhism beginning in the 1700s
Select one:
a. Buddhism was completely supplanted by Shinto
b. Shinto invented the Toril to create some parts of Japan into sacred spaces
c. Daoism finally got its foot in the door
d. Shinto developed a stronger intellectual tradition and began a move towards extreme nationalism
Question 87
Though it is often difficult to separate specific Shinto ethical precepts from their Confucian and Buddhist overlays one principle is a certain Shinto precept:
Select one:
a. What goes around comes around
b. Loyalty is the highest love
c. "Cleanliness is next to godliness"
d. being right with reality means keeping one's person, home, and business clean
Question 88
The compassion Jains (and other religions of India) exercise toward all living entities, whether human, animal, plant, or microbe is best summed up in the concept of
Select one:
a. ajiva
b. ahimsa
c. Nirvana
d. organic farming
Question 89
One of the two basic forms of meditation that has several steps or stages, each stage transcending the former till all perceptions of self and phenomena are surmounted to a state of unlimited consciousness that leads to a state of nothingness characterized as nirvana
Select one:
a. Deep Heart Prayer
b. Trance Meditiation
c. Insight Meditation
d. Chanting the Lotus Sutra
Question 90
Koans are
Select one:
a. riddles and anecdotes meant to aid enlightenment
b. sticks used in Japanese fencing
c. meaningless jokes full of non-sequiturs and no punch lines
d. parables from the life of the Buddha
Question 91
Rev. Pat Robertson's blaming of the Haiti earthquake on a long-standing pact between Vodou and the Devil is the type of mis-representation and demonization known as
Select one:
a. Zombie Bombing
b. Inside knowledge
c. Gris Gris
d. Exoticism
Question 92
Until what year was the official policy of the United States government to assimilate Native Americans unto their ultimate cultural disappearance?
Select one:
a. 1800
b. 1884
c. 1934
d. the 1950s
Question 93
The earliest period for which there is good evidence is the Shang dynasty, which flourished in the Yellow River valley around
Select one:
a. 3000 B.C.E.
b. 1500 to 1122 B.C.E.
c. 200 B.C.E
d. 1500 to 1122 C.E.
Question 94
Hindutva, or, "Hindu Fundamentalism," is responsible for
Select one:
a. toleration of other religions
b. pro-Muslim dialogue and reconciliation
c. openness to Christian missionary endeavors in India
d. militant protests and violence against non-Hindus
Question 95
At the early stages of Chinese cultural and religious development we can discern a concern for
Select one:
a. philosophical Daoism
b. emperor worship
c. use of animal bones for divination
d. fortune cookies
Question 96
The Japanese innovation that introduced the chanting of the Lotus Sutra as a sufficient and, in fact, only efficacious means to achieve enlightenment
Select one:
a. Zen
b. Pure Land
c. Nichiren
d. Samaurai
Question 97
Though for Jains the world is made up of the five eternal building blocks of soul, matter, time, motion, and rest; it can readily be segregated into two categories
Select one:
a. real and unreal
b. mobile and immobile
c. jiva and ajiva
d. good and evil
Question 98
Seven years after he renounced the world, at the pinnacle of his renunciation, asceticism, and study with several holy men Siddhartha had accomplished
Select one:
a. nothing
b. enlightenment
c. nirvana
d. reducing himself to skin and bones
Question 99
The Sacred
Select one:
a. refers exclusively to an overriding belief in a single, all-powerful God.
b. always implies some form of personal deity or deities.
c. has no concrete examples in human experience.
d. refers to central, important, holy, and/or transcendent orientations and/or experience.
Question 100
Though "Sacred Places" play a role in practically all religions their function for Indigenous religions are
Select one:
a. the result of over-romanticized "noble savage" thinking
b. practically non-existent
c. hard to imagine since so many tribes have been dis-placed from their traditional habitats
d. extremely intimate, localized, and imbued with a sense of living spiritual vibrancy.