Guided Reading for The Western Traditions.

Find the answer to each of these questions as it is given in the textbook before moving on to the next question. Some answers, drawn from the textbook alone, will be rather simplistic. They can, and should, be elaborated upon as your knowledge of the subject grows.

Pages 495 - 507:

The symbol (*) after a question indicates that these might be used for longer essays in your quizzes.

1. What does missionary activity presume?

 

2. What three traditions account for half of the world’s population? What do they have in common?

 

3. What early decision steered Christianity on its missionary course?

 

4. What has been important to the missionary spread of religions?

 

5. What happened as Greek and Roman rule followed Persian? In what context did much of the religious development of the period take place? (*)

 

6. What may membership in voluntary religious movements have offered people in the Greco-Roman empire?

 

7. What happened to the era of religious diversity initiated by Cyrus the Great of Persia? When did this happen? (*)

 

8. What was unusual about Muslim rule in northern India?

 

9. What was the principal means for the spread of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa as well as Southeast Asia?

 

10. What was an important part of the technological advantage of major religious traditions as they came to dominate smaller cultures?

 

11. What two entirely different factors influenced the reassessment and curtailment of Christian missionary activity?

 

12. For what reason were missionaries often more welcome?

 

13. What are termed "apologetic" and "polemical?"

 

14. For what reasons were mediaeval Jewish polemics composed?

 

15. What did the nineteenth century Zoroastrian polemicist, Mardan-Farrokh, do that was similar to many others?

 

16. What does fairness demand if we are to compare and evaluate religions? (*)

 

17. What two things does pluralism denote?

 

18. Are pluralism and secularism the same thing? Why or why not? (*)

 

19. On what does pluralism place a positive value?

 

20. What has the word “dialogue” come to mean in the modern era?

 

21. For what is the Muslim Indian Emperor, Akbar, highly significant?

 

22. What occurred in Chicago in 1893 and again in 1993?

 

23. To what does Oxtoby compare interfaith dialogue in the second half of the 20th century?

 

24. How does interfaith dialogue insist that one sees one’s neighbor? (*)

 

25. What do participants in interfaith dialogue insist that one set aside?

 

26. How does Oxtoby describe real inter-religious understanding?

 

27. What precipitated Jim Jones withdrawal from the United States and the movement of the People’s Temple to Guyana in 1972?

 

28. By what is the freedom to practice religion limited?

 

29. What is one answer why religious "cult" movements appeal to the children of economically privileged families?

 

30. What is the common denominator of all the religions? What is a fair test of their performance?

 

31. What sort of challenge does pluralism pose to theology?

 

32. How do thinkers in several traditions now present their heritage? What do they contend about this?

Additional Notes: