US History Handout

Mr. Kalahar

Types of Religion and Religious terms…

ANIMISM

A belief in spiritual beings;  belief that spirits or souls are the cause of life in human beings; they picture souls as phantoms, resembling vapors or shadows, which can transmigrate from person to person, from the dead to the living, and from and into plants, animals, and lifeless objects.

ATHEISM

The denial of or lack of belief in the existence of a god or gods.

BUDDHISM

A major world religion founded in northeastern India and based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who is known as the Buddha, or Enlightened One.

CATHOLICISM

A sect of Christianity that is orthodox in its nature according to laws of the Roman Catholic Church.

CHRISTIANITY

The most widely distributed of the world religions, having substantial representation in all the populated continents of the globe. Its total membership may exceed 1.7 billion people, and is based on the teachings and life of Jesus Christ.

CHURCH

All the followers of a religion, especially the Christian religion, considered collectively.

CULT

A quasi-religious group, often living in a colony, with a charismatic leader who indoctrinates members with unorthodox or extremist views, practices, or beliefs.

CIVIL RELIGION

A quasi-religious loyalty based on citizenship (patriotism).

DEISM

Belief in the existence of a God based on the evidence of reason and nature; rejecting supernatural revelation.

FAITH

An attitude of the entire self, including both will and intellect, directed toward a person, an idea, or as in the case of religious faith a divine being.

FUNDAMENTALISM

A conservative movement among Protestants in the United States, which began in the late 19th century. It emphasized as absolutely basic to Christianity the following beliefs: the infallibility of the Bible, the virgin birth and the divinity of Jesus Christ, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross as atonement for the sins of all people, the physical resurrection and second coming of Christ, and the bodily resurrection of believers.

HINDUISM

Religion that originated in India and is still practiced by most of its inhabitants, as well as by those whose families have migrated from India to other parts of the world. Hinduism is a major world religion, not merely by virtue of its many followers (estimated at more than 700 million) but also because of its profound influence on many other religions during its long, unbroken history, which dates from about 1500 BC.

ISLAM

One of the three major world religions, along with Judaism and Christianity that profess monotheism, or the belief in a single God. In the Arabic language, the word Islam means "surrender" or "submission" to the will of God.

JEHOVAH WITNESS

A Christian sect, founded in the late 1800’s, that believes in the imminent destruction of the world’s wickedness and the establishment of a theocracy under God’s rule.

JUDAISM

Religious culture of the Jews (also known as the people of Israel); one of the world's oldest continuing religious traditions......It is a system of sanctification in which all is to be subsumed under God's rule that is, under divinely revealed models of cosmic order and lawfulness.

MONOTHEISM

Belief in the unity of the Godhead, or in one God.

MORMANISM

Joseph Smith receives the “golden plates” from an angel which were translated in the Book of Morman and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was born. Brigham Young took the persecuted Mormans to Utah where they exist today. Many problems with their polygamous views.

POLYTHEISM

Belief in the existence of many gods or divine beings

PROTESTANTISM

Any Western Christian religion not adhering to the laws of the Catholic Church or any Eastern Church.

SECULARIZATION

The historical decline in the importance of the supernatural and the sacred (in contemporary society).

SECT

A religious organization that stands apart from the larger society.

THEISM

Broadly speaking, theism is the belief in any god or gods.

TOTEMISM

A complex system of ideas, symbols, and practices based on an assumed relationship between an individual or a social group and a natural object known as a totem. The totem may be a particular species of bird, animal, or plant, a natural phenomenon, or a feature of the landscape with which a group believes itself linked in some way.

TRANSCENDENTALISM

A philosophy based on the doctrine that the principles of reality are to be discovered by the study of the processes of thought. A philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and the spiritual aspects in all things.

Types of Government…

Absolutism

A system of government where there are no constitutional limits imposed on the rulers

Anarchy

A rejection of imposed governments and the view that society should be ordered through freely co-operating individuals.

Authoritarian

Rule by command with little or no attention to public opinion, individual rights or public consent

Autocracy

Government through a single leader who uses power in an arbitrary way rather than through reference to a system of law.

Communism

A doctrine which advocates common ownership of all property with a strong government in place

Democracy

A form of government where the people exercise political power

Dictatorship

A form of political rule by one person who governs unrestricted by legal, constitutional or conventional constraints

Fascism

A form of government placing the nation and state above the individual in all aspects. The duty is to the nation first.

Oligarchy

A form of government which consists of rule by a small and unrepresentative elite group who rule in their own interests, especially the accumulation of wealth and privilege.

Plutocracy

A system where the rich rule and the poor have no share in government

Populism

A system which is based upon direct communications with the people

Republic

A republic is a system where the head of state is not selected on a hereditary basis.

Socialism

A system where the community has some control over the means of production

Theocracy

A form of government where the rulers claim to be ruling on behalf of a set of religious ideas, or as direct agents of a deity.

Totalitarianism

Often linked with modern nation states where the emphasis is on technologically advanced instruments of mass communications. This allows the people to be organised, mobilised and controlled.