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World Religions: Western Traditions: Chapter 2

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:


a) ‘To bind’
b) 'To follow'
c) 'To go over again'
d) Both a and c.

Question 2:


a) It refers to the various beliefs and practices traditionally associated with the Roman state (such as the cult of Vesta)
b) It refers to Nicene Christianity alone
c) It is a comparative term that describes the cultic observances found in any particular culture
d) It refers to the superstitious fear of gods and spirits

Question 3:


a) The flood-plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (modern-day Iraq).
b) The Greek, Italian, and Iberian peninsulas (modern-day Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal)
c) The flood-plain along the Nile river (modern-day Egypt)
d) The fertile lands between the Indus and Ganges rivers (modern-day India)

Question 4:


a) The ancient Greeks (Hellenes)
b) The ancient Egyptians
c) The Mesopotamians
d) The early Romans

Question 5:


a) storms
b) agricultural fertility
c) law
d) the creation of the cosmos

Question 6:


a) Marduk
b) Horus
c) Apollo Pythios
d) Ahura Mazda

Question 7:


a) Many gods were known by numerous epithets and possessed characterizations that differed from region to region.
b) The sacrificial rosters of these societies often contained tens or even hundreds of deities.
c) The sacrificial rosters of these societies often contained tens or even hundreds of deities.
d) The power and influence of these gods tended to be tied to particular geographical areas.

Question 8:


a) Zeus with Amon, Marduk
b) Aphrodite with Ishtar
c) Demeter with Isis
d) Dionysus with Enki, Ea

Question 9:


a) Creation was an accident inadvertently perpetrated by a careless god.
b) Creation consisted of a process of ordering pre-existing, chaotic matter.
c) The gods (and the created universe) had always existed. As such, there were no creation tales.
d) The gods created the world from nothing (ex nihilo).

Question 10:


a) The first living thing to exist was a lotus flower, which grew in a primordial earth mound revealed by receding floodwaters.
b) Atum created the world by impregnating himself and giving birth to divine twins, who served as the parents for the various generations of gods that followed.
c) Seth excreted out the material world after killing and eating the serpent demon Aphosis.
d) Ptah created the world using the power of thought and spoken language.

Question 11:


a) The Theogony
b) The Atrahasis
c) The Enuma Elish
d) The Epic of Gilgamesh

Question 12:


a) Stealing fire from the gods
b) Procreating without limit
c) Rebelling against the gods
d) Building a tower of excessive height

Question 13:


a) Sacrifice (typically of animals) was the central ritual obligation.
b) Religious festivals often included public banquets and sporting events.
c) For a sacrifice to be effective, the smoke from the offering had to ‘reach the heavens’.
d) Temples were built and maintained by devotees, as the state preferred to remain aloof from the trappings of religion.

Question 14:


a) Women of childbearing age should not be permitted to take part in religious observances due to menstrual pollution.
b) Women only have a role in the cults of female deities (such as Demeter and Cybele).
c) Women are the primary locus of religion in the populace, as they encourage men to be more devoted in their religious observances.
d) Women are allowed to take part in rituals, but are not permitted to perform sacrifices or lead prayers.

Question 15:


a) ‘sight’
b) ‘mouth’
c) ‘future’
d) ‘spiritual power’

Question 16:


a) Given the import of prophecy, only questions of political/social significance were permitted to be asked of the oracles.
b) Truths about the future were often sought by paying attention to unexplained patterns/occurrences in the natural world (e.g., stars/eclipses, the configuration of a sacrificed animal’s viscera, or the movements of smoke, clouds or oil in water).
c) Prophecies played an important role in legitimizing particular rulers and/or dynasties.
d) Though prophecies were understood to be truths revealed by the gods, the futures they predicted were not thought to be inevitable. Instead, one could petition the gods to reconsider the results of an unfavorable augury.

Question 17:


a) Osiris (the king of the underworld)
b) Anubis (the divine undertaker)
c) Ma’at (the goddess of law/justice)
d) Re (the god of the sun and ruler of the universe)

Question 18:


a) The gods should be understood anthropomorphically.
b) The gods cannot be understood anthropomorphically.
c) There is one supreme god: unmoving, all-seeing, and all-knowing.
d) Both b and c.

Question 19:


a) justice
b) mercy
c) power
d) pride

Question 20:


a) It is impossible to know whether or not gods exist.
b) Gods were invented by humans to control the actions of the weak-willed.
c) God is the creator of the cosmos.
d) All of the above.

Question 21:


a) Repent your past transgressions.
b) Offer sacrifice to the gods.
c) Raise children who will keep your memory alive after you perish.
d) Seize the day, as you will die soon enough.

Question 22:


a) They will continue to reign over human beings for all eternity.
b) After the passing of humanity, they will create a new race of beings over whom to rule.
c) They will eventually combine into a single monotheistic deity, described in very similar terms to the Abrahamic god.
d) They will eventually dissolve and pass away.

Question 23:


a) Mesopotamian
b) Egyptian
c) Greek (Hellenic)
d) Sumerian

Question 24:


a) ‘the treasure-house of the past’
b) ‘the fractured mirror’
c) ‘the mother of all evils’
d) ‘the great falsehood’