Rel 198 - 06
Akhenaten
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Essay
Exam Questions for all 3 exams of Fall 2006 To prepare for the exams you will need first to be clear on all major concepts, then create an orderly outline of how to explain the ideas or materials, and then select some clear and detailed illustrations wherever that is relevant. I strongly recommend creating a series of topic sentences to memorize. My goal is to increase your understanding of the materials to the point where you can explain them clearly to someone else. Do not write as though for me, the instructor. Write for intelligent high school seniors who are unfamiliar with the information and analyses and who therefore need to have everything explained clearly and illustrated well. For each exam one questions will be selected by a draw of the card for all to answer. You will each individually then select one of the other questions to answer also. REL 198: Essay questions for Exam #1. Context: The introduction to the textbook establishes a few background ideas for the book as a whole by describing ideas about the nature of religion (and unreligion) as part of human development both individually and through history. Chs. 2 through 4 then review the basic evolution of ideas about the mysteries of life from primitive beginnings up through the establishment of the universalist religions with belief in a single Ultimate. All this provides a framework for subsequent chapters. The essay questions are intended to provide a chance to review this framework in some detail so that it is familiar enough to be useful in understanding later chapters. Questions 2. Cite and describe all the occasions of syncretism which appear in the text, both those explicitly called that and others also, whether in polytheistic religion or historic. Include whatever cultural background events help to make sense of each case. 3. So far in the text you have encountered two chapter, 2 & 4, giving reasons why people might be religious (or non-religious). Briefly list and describe each of the major types of reasons, providing names of major proponents of each, when names have been given. 4. Compare and contrast Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist notions of the Ultimate, citing some of the extra readings which describe how readily we can understand what these Ultimates are like. Describe which clues best lead in the direction of each, according to the textbook. 5. Discuss why an Ultimate and Infinite God is less vulnerable to skepticism than an anthropomorphic concept of God, including even a Merely Perfect Person. What sort of human experiences and basic human characteristic does the textbook argue is the basis for belief in a truly Ultimate Reality?
Questions for exam #2 Questions for exam #3
[final exam] |
