Final Exam

Definition of Terms: Please select ten of the following terms. For each term that you select, I expect three
different and relevant facts. Each term will be worth five points for a total of fifty. Answer ten and only ten; if
you complete more, only the first ten will be graded.

Soteriology Theology

Monistic cosmology Cosmology

Peter Berger Anthropology

Client cults (NRMs) Ethics

Judge Rutherford Nomos

Glossolalia Theodicy

Holy Piby Sect

Dr. Yacub Cult

Gerald Gardiner People's Temple

Thetans The New Age

Dianetics Rastafarianism

UFO cults Joseph Smith, Jr.

The Rede Reductionism

W. D. Fard Deviance Amplification

Essay Questions: Please write a brief essay (approximately three paragraphs or more) on two of the eight
topics below. Each essay is worth twenty-five points for a total of fifty points.

1. Trace the history of Black Nationalism as it developed from Garveyism to Rastafarianism and the Nation of
Islam. What about these two NRMs appealed to certain segments of the African-American population?

2. Compare and contrast the beliefs and practices of Paganism and the New Age. Why do you think these two
traditions are often lumped together in the popular imagination?

3. Using Stein as your guide, describe the various periods of American religious history in which New Religious
Movements have arisen, and give an example of an NRM for each period. Why has the United States been so fertile
in New Religious Movements?

4. Selecting one NRM, thoroughly describe that tradition according to Benarowski's five categories.

5. Review the two competing understandings of the process of secularization (Berger vs. Finke & Stark). What is the
significance of NRMs in each theory?

6. What are some of the reasons why the period after WWII in the United States led to the rise of so many NRMs?

7. What is charisma and how would you account for it? Give some examples of role of charisma in the rise of
NRMs. How has charisma played a role in some NRMs becoming violent?

8. Both Bednarowski and Dawson argue that a new religious consciousness is emerging and that New Religious
Movements are on the cutting edge of this development. Describe the similarities and differences between
Bednarowski's and Dawson's conceptions of this new religious consciousness. Do you believe that a new religious
consciousness is emerging?