Ch.1vocab.txt

Rejection of belief in personal gods (and by extension spiritual reality in general).

An approach to the study of religion that seeks to understand religion by looking for that which is common among religions.

“Myth of origins”. Recounts the story of how that which is ultimate gave rise to all experienced reality.

Focuses on understanding that include the phenomenological, historical, functional (psychological, sociological, or anthropological), and comparative methods. Goal is to understand religion and the roles it plays in human life.

Myths that relate to that which ordinary time is moving, rather than that from which it comes.

Religious (or theological) approach to studying religion and the philosophical. The goal is to judge the truth of religion or religions.

Belief in the existence of one all-powerful god, to the exclusion of other gods.

False stories that conflict with what we know empirically to be true.

Celebrating times of transition in the lives of an individual or group.

An approach to the study of religion that attempts to understand religion from the perspective of religious persons themselves.

The truth claims of religion are assessed not from the perspective of a particular religion but from the standpoint of their susceptibility to being proven or disproven on the basis of rational argument.

Belief in the existence of a plurality of personal gods.

Human transformation in response to perceived ultimacy.

Mark and order times of transition in the life of the individual.

Actions within time and space that bring the power of myth into the lives of the people who practice them. It’s symbolic action that enables persons to participate in transformation in response to ultimacy.

Having to do with observable reality, as opposed to spiritual. They have nonspiritual, this-worldly ultimacies.

Something that stands for something else.

Belief in the existence of personal gods.