Higher Education

World Religions: Western Traditions: Chapter 4

Instructions: For each question, click on the radio button beside your answer. When you have completed the entire quiz, click the 'Submit my answers' button at the bottom of the page to receive your results.

Question 1:

Which of the following claims about the Gospel depiction of Jesus’ life and teachings is FALSE?
a) Many of his teachings concerned a coming apocalypse that would usher in a new age of peace.
b) He described himself as the fulfillment of a prophecy that the lame shall walk and the blind shall see.
c) He was credited with numerous miraculous cures, including exorcism and raising the dead.
d) He most often described himself using the term ‘Christos’ (lit., ‘messiah’).

Question 2:

The term ‘gospel’ literally means ________.
a) ‘God’s truth’
b) ‘holy word’
c) ‘protective incantation’
d) ‘good news’

Question 3:

Three of the four Christian Gospels are described as ‘synoptic’ (‘sharing a common viewpoint or set of theological assumptions’). Which of the following is NOT one of the synoptic Gospels?
a) Matthew
b) Mark
c) Luke
d) John

Question 4:

Which of the following statements about the Christian community in the first century CE is FALSE?
a) They unilaterally accepted that Jesus was the Son of God and that he was simultaneously divine and human.
b) They believed that the apocalypse (and the resurrection of Jesus) would be occurring in the immediate future.
c) They held a major debate about whether Christians needed to be circumcised.
d) d. As instructed by Paul, they advocated rejecting the ‘life of the flesh’ in favor of the ‘life of the spirit.’

Question 5:

Which of the following ecclesiastical roles was NOT mentioned in the New Testament?
a) Priest
b) Deacon
c) Apostle
d) Elder

Question 6:

Under which Emperor did the Roman Empire officially become Christian?
a) Diocletian
b) Constantine
c) Julius
d) Theodosius I

Question 7:

Creedal statements have traditionally played a vital role in Christianity, where they have helped to clearly define the bounds of acceptable belief. Which of the following statements concerning creeds is FALSE?
a) The term ‘creed’ is derived from the Latin for ‘belief.’
b) The Nicene Creed has a less developed Trinitarian theology than the Apostles’ Creed.
c) The Apostles’ Creed was likely not written during the Apostolic Period (the first century CE).
d) The councils of Nicaea and Constantinople were largely concerning with formulating creeds that would contradict (and thus repudiate) Arianism.

Question 8:

Which of the following statements correctly summarizes the basis of Chalcedon consensus on Christology (the viewpoint that became normative for both the Greek Church and the Latin Church)?
a) The incarnate Christ consisted of two separate persons: one divine, one human.
b) The incarnate Christ consisted of a single person, who possessed only a divine nature.
c) The incarnate Christ consisted of a single person, who possessed both a divine and a human nature.
d) The incarnate Christ was an illusion: his physical body was simply an illusion created by his omnipotent spiritual essence.

Question 9:

Which of the following saints (alongside Saint Methodius) took part in Christian missionary activity among the Slavs through his proselytizing efforts in Moravia (the modern Czech republic)? Note: One of this pair’s major achievements was the development of a phonetic Slavonic alphabet, which allowed them to translate the Bible (and the liturgy) into the vernacular.
a) St Benedict
b) St Cyril
c) St Josaphat
d) St John of Damascus

Question 10:

Various theological, cultural, and political causes led to the schism between Eastern (Greek) and Western (Roman) Catholicism in 1054. Which of the following was NOT one of the Eastern Church’s issues with the Western Church?
a) The Latin Church sent missionaries into Bulgaria, which was considered to be a Greek territory.
b) The Greek Church supported the inclusion of the term filioque (‘and the son’) in the Nicene Creed, which the Latin Church found objectionable.
c) The Latin Church viewed the authority of the pope as trumping the authority of the five Eastern patriarchs.
d) The Greek Church allowed its priests to marry, a practice that was seen as unacceptable by Latin Christians.

Question 11:

In the Middle Ages, Catholic monasticism responded to the problem of urban poverty with the creation of mendicant orders—groups of lay brothers (friars) who were not bound to particular convents and instead spent their time in service of the poor and needy. Which of the following groups is the mendicant order whose mandate centered on itinerant preaching (and, in particular, responding to the Albigensian heresy)?
a) The Cistercians
b) The Franciscans
c) The Dominicans
d) The Carmelites

Question 12:

Popular devotion during the Middle Ages often surrounded the veneration of individuals thought to serve an intercessory role between the supplicant and God. Foremost among these holy intermediaries was the Virgin Mary. Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE of the Catholic cult of Mary practiced by the Western Church during the medieval period?
a) The date of her death was celebrated through a feast called The Dormition.
b) She was understood to have been born without the taint of original sin.
c) When praying a rosary, the supplicant will say ten ‘Hail Mary’s for every ‘Our Father.’
d) She was depicted in various contexts in the artistic traditions of the day—from the mother of the newborn Christ to the mournful older woman grieving her son’s death.

Question 13:

Which of the following statements concerning the religio-political events leading up to the Inquisition is FALSE?
a) In the eleventh century, most public burnings of heretics were carried out by secular (rather than religious) authorities.
b) In the twelfth century, the Church began to design its own system of punishments for heresy. This was one component of an ecclesiastical legal system known as ‘canon law.’
c) In the thirteenth century, the Inquisition tribunal in Toulouse based their trials on the premise that the accused was innocent until proven guilty.
d) In 1252, Pope Innocent IV ruled that torturing accused heretics was acceptable.

Question 14:

According to your textbook, what was Anselm of Canterbury’s most significant contribution to Christian theology?
a) The ontological argument for the existence of God.
b) The satisfaction theory of the Atonement.
c) The doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary.
d) The mythological account of Lucifer’s Fall from Grace

Question 15:

As your textbook notes, the medieval period was characterized by extensive developments in Christian mysticism—a spiritual path that centres on achieving subjective, ecstatic experiences of the Divine. Which of the following statements is most applicable to Theresa of Avila’s mysticism, as described in her autobiography?
a) She viewed her mystical experience as centering on the dissolution of distinctions between the individual and the Divine.
b) She argued that mystical experience could only occur after a period of intense purification, known as the ‘dark night of the soul.’
c) She experienced her mystical union with the divine as a descent of tongues of flame from the heavens.
d) She described her ecstatic experience, which occurred after years of devotion, as a spiritual marriage with God.

Question 16:

Though Martin Luther had once been a Roman Catholic monk, his opposition to a particular Church practice compelled him to protest against the Church of his day. What was the initial cause of his split with the Catholic Church?
a) Opposition to the practice of selling indulgences.
b) Distrust of the authority of papal councils
c) Desire to translate the Bible into the vernacular (German)
d) Uncertainty about the propriety of certain Catholic sacraments.

Question 17:

Given the extent to which various Protestant Reformers proposed different (and at times incompatible) solutions to the perceived doctrinal and praxical problems with Roman Catholicism, it was somewhat inevitable that contention would arise within their ranks as well. Which of the following groups represents a Protestant communion OUTSIDE OF the mainstream, sixteenth-century Protestant ‘establishment’?
a) Anabaptists
b) Lutherans
c) Anglicans
d) Calvinists

Question 18:

According to the Act of Supremacy (1534), who serves as the head of the Church of England (Anglicanism)?
a) The Archbishop of Canterbury
b) The Pope
c) The Council of British Elders
d) The British monarch

Question 19:

Which of the following statements about John Calvin’s theology is FALSE?
a) Given the extent of their sinfulness, all humans are utterly dependent upon God for salvation.
b) Christ, while ultimately divine, was nonetheless created by God during historical time.
c) The entirety of history is preordained by God, which includes the question of whether individual human beings will be saved or damned.
d) Christ’s death satisfies humanity’s debt to God, since His sinlessness allows Him to serves as a substitute.

Question 20:

________, a group of non-establishment Protestants denies the divinity of Christ.
a) Mennonites
b) Unitarians
c) Puritans
d) The Amish

Question 21:

________, a seventeenth-century Protestant movement, was founded by George Fox, and centres on the premises that God cannot be found through ritual, that ecclesiastical hierarchies are unnecessary, and that good works (particularly for humanitarian causes) are valuable.
a) The Congregationalists
b) The Baptists
c) The Anglicans
d) The Quakers

Question 22:

The Catholic Church had a multipartite response to the Protestant Reformation, one of the most important components of which was the Council of Trent (1545-1563) where various theological and practical issues raised by the Protestant reformers were considered in detail. Which of the following points was NOT affirmed at the Council of Trent?
a) During the Eucharist, the bread and wine are literally transformed into the body and blood of Christ.
b) The practice of selling indulgences was affirmed as a valid exercise of ecclesiastical power. This stance was not overturned until the First Vatican Council.
c) The priests, a celibate class of religious professionals, serve as necessary intermediaries between the laity and God.
d) Both tradition and scripture are valid sources of religious truth.

Question 23:

Which of the following claims about Catholic (largely Jesuit) missionary activity in Asia is FALSE?
a) The success of Catholic missions in India can primarily be attributed to the forced conversion of local Hindu elites.
b) Though initially successful, Japanese Catholicism was eventually suppressed by imperial edict.
c) Jesuits in China permitted Chinese converts to continue venerating both Confucius and their ancestors.
d) Many sixteenth-century Indian converts to Christianity were encouraged to do so through the provision of material benefits (such as food or employment).

Question 24:

All Christian denominations celebrate the Eucharist, though they refer to it by different names and ascribe it different levels of significance. Which of the following claims about the naming conventions of the Eucharist celebration is FALSE?
a) The term Eucharist comes from a Greek word meaning ‘thanksgiving.’
b) Roman Catholics often refer to the Eucharist as the Mass, based on the final words of the Eucharistic ritual when performed in Latin.
c) Protestants often describe the ritual as ‘Holy Communion,’ emphasizing its role as means of communing with both the Divine and one’s congregation.
d) Eastern Orthodox Christians often describe the Eucharist as the Liturgy, from the Greek word meaning ‘community.’

Question 25:

Which of the following Christian feast days commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit unto the disciples after Christ’s death?
a) Shrove Tuesday
b) The Feast of the Epiphany
c) Pentecost
d) Passover

Question 26:

Given the persecution that characterized life for many early Christians, their religious iconography tended to depict Jesus through metaphorical (or other non-representational) means. Which of the following symbols/motifs was NOT commonly used to represent Christ in the art of the first centuries of the Common Era?
a) The lamb
b) The fish
c) The sun
d) The dove

Question 27:

Which of the following statements about early church architecture is FALSE?
a) The earliest Christian congregations likely met in Jewish synagogues or private homes.
b) The first churches were built on the same plan as Roman houses.
c) Later churches were built in the style of Roman civic buildings (such as courthouses).
d) All known churches from the later Roman period follow a cruciform floor plan.

Question 28:

Which of the following statements about Protestant art, architecture and music is FALSE?
a) Some sixteenth-century Protestants made a practice of destroying religious art, as they claimed that it encouraged idolatry.
b) In most Protestant churches, the communion table is situated to allow the minister to face the congregation.
c) Many Protestant hymns consist of lyrics written for popular folksongs.
d) The majority of Protestant hymns avoid using texts from the Old Testament as sources for their lyrics.

Question 29:

Which of the following theological metaphors is most compatible with a Deist characterization of the Divine?
a) God is an unknowable enigma, far beyond human understanding.
b) God is a powerful ruler, whose ineluctable justice will ultimately bring joy to the moral and misery to the immoral.
c) God is the divine watchmaker who created the world and allows it to run following its own laws.
d) God is a fanciful projection of the human ego—He is simply ‘humanity writ large’.

Question 30:

Which one of the following ‘new American denominations’ centres on millenarian assumptions, does not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, avoids celebrating Christmas (and other ‘pagan’ holidays), and rejects certain modern medical practices?
a) The Disciples of Christ
b) The Seventh-Day Adventists
c) The Jehovah’s Witnesses
d) The Christian Scientists

Question 31:

The doctrine of papal infallibility asserts that the pope’s claims are incontestably true when he is speaking in cathedra (‘from the seat of authority’). When did this teaching become official Catholic doctrine?
a) Under Pope John XXII (1324)
b) At the Council of Trent (1545-1563)
c) At the First Vatican Council (1869-1870)
d) At the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965)

Question 32:

Which of the following was NOT one of the changes to Catholic doctrine/practice enacted at the second Vatican Council?
a) Use of the vernacular (rather than Latin) in celebrating Mass
b) Attempting to bridge the gulf between Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Christianity
c) Modernizing the dress of priests and nuns
d) Prohibiting Catholics from using contraception

Question 33:

Which of the following theologians argued that religious concern moves upward, from humanity to the Divine, stating that religion is that which is of ‘ultimate concern’ to humanity?
a) Karl Rahner
b) Karl Barthe
c) Paul Tillich
d) Alfred North Whitehead