Chapter 15. Religion
Chapter 15 Resources and Activities
Key Terms
animism: The religion that believes in the divinity of nonhuman beings, like animals, plants, and objects of the natural world.
assimilation: A response to religious diversity that welcomes people of different faiths into the majority culture on the condition that they leave their beliefs behind and adopt the majority’s faith as their own.
atheism: A belief in no deities.
church: A large, bureaucratically organized religious organization that is closely integrated into the larger society.
collective consciousness: The combined mental contents of a society that manifests itself through a religious framework.
collective effervescence: A feeling experienced by individuals when they come together to express beliefs and perform rituals together as a group.
compensator: A promise of a reward at a later, unspecified date.
creationism: The religious belief that the Universe and life originated “from specific acts of divine creation.” For young Earth creationists, this includes a biblical literalist interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative and the rejection of the scientific theory of evolution.
cult or New Religious Movement: A small religious organization that is at great odds with the norms and values of the larger society.
Darwinian evolutionary theory: A theory stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase individual organism’s ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.
deity: A god or a goddess.
denomination: A religious organization that is closely integrated into the larger society but is not a formal part of the state.
disenchantment of the world: The process by which magical and superstitious understandings of the world are replaced by scientific calculation and technical control.
dualist theodicy: Suffering is explained as a consequence of the struggle between the dual powers of good and evil, gods and demons, in which evil occasionally wins out.
ecclesia: A church that has formal ties with the state.
exclusion: A response to religious diversity which denies new religions entry into society.
family resemblance definition: A type of definition that defines a phenomenon based on a series commonly shared attributes or family resemblances — not all family members equally share these attributes or resemblances.
functional definition: A type of definition that defines a phenomenon by what it does or how it functions in society.
individual secularization: The decline in religious belief and practice of individuals.
karma: The accumulated effects of acts committed in former lives and their influence on fortunes and suffering in this life.
Mecca: The birthplace of Muhammad; a city located in Hejaz, in what is now known as South Arabia; the holiest city of the Islamic religion, and is the center of Islamic faith.
monotheism: A religion based on belief in a single deity.
misogyny: A hatred of wome