Problem: Introduction to World Religions
1. Indigenous religions are ethnic, land-bounded. What does it mean?
2. What is the impact of colonialism on indigenous religions and people?
3. What is "axis mundi"?
4. What is animism? What are the limitations of the term animism (cf. pp 36- 40)
5. Why were most pre-historic representations of the deities feminine, like in Venus figurines? (cf.p. 42). What is the importance of the woman in prehistoric and indigenous religions?
6. What is the predominant conception of time in most indigenous religions?
7. What are the characteristics of indigenous religious traditions?
8. What is a totem? Give an example of modern re-appropriation of totem beliefs.
9. What is a shaman? What are his functions?
10. What dangers do indigenous religions face today?
11. What is Rabbinic Judaism?
12. What relationship does Judaism have with Christianity and Islam?
13. If Sin is the major problem for the three Abrahamic monotheisms, does Judaism understand sin the way Christianity does?
14. How does one overcome sin in Judaism?
15. What is the covenant in Judaism? How many defining covenants can we find in Judaism?
16. What is the trinomial relation that fundamentally defines Judaism?
17. What is the importance of Egypt in understanding Judaism?
18. Judaism defines itself in opposition of Assyria/Babylon/Persia on the one hand and Egypt on the mother. What does this mean?
19. What is the importance of King Josiah in the history of Judaism?
20. What is the importance of the exile destruction of Jerusalem in 587/6 BCE and the exile of the Jewish elites to Babylon?
21. Why is Cyrus the Great of Persia the only foreign monarch called Messiah (anointed one) in the Hebrew Bible?
22. Judaism has always been a diverse religion. Explain.
23. To understand Judaism, one must understand the Talmud. Explain.
24. How does the Holocaust challenge the Jewish faith?
25. What is Zionism?
26. What is the Tanak? How does it relate to the Mishnah and the Talmud?
27. What is Bar and Bat Mitzvah?
28. What are the major and minor festivals of Judaism (cf. pp. 90-91)