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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In the west the Christian form of mysticism rested not on imagery, but on ____________.
(a) Dancing and singing.
(b) Speaking in tongues.
(c) The silent, inward experience, where the contemplative had to pass beyond language and the conscious mind.
(d) Constant prayer and recitation of Scripture.

2. What movement does Armstrong identify as a possible direction for a new philosophy for religion and God?
(a) The Quaker movement.
(b) The Christian Fundamentalist movement.
(c) The Islamic movement of the Falsufahs.
(d) The Orthodox Jewish movement.

3. Why is a personal God necessary?
(a) Mankind does not like to be alone.
(b) Humanity needs a divine companion.
(c) Mankind is only interested in those like oneself.
(d) As a stage of moral development in enshrining the values of society and thus conformance to its mores.

4. Was tolerance of other religions was evident in Christian Spain?
(a) Frequently.
(b) Somewhat.
(c) Yes.
(d) No.

5. Some scholars suggest that the decline of Muslim science marked the beginning of ____________.
(a) Conservatism in Islam.
(b) The decline of Islam.
(c) Decadence in Islam.
(d) A resurgence in Islam.

6. Sigmund Freud considered belief in a God as ____________.
(a) An illusion.
(b) Understandable.
(c) Unusual.
(d) Typical.

7. In 1626, a wealthy Sephardic Jew in Symrna, called Shabbetai Zevi, started a movement in which he declared ____________.
(a) The Messiah had come to the Americas.
(b) He was the Son of the Messiah.
(c) He was the Messiah and that redemption was at hand.
(d) The Messiah was Jesus Christ.

8. The principle of "being born again" and the practice of mysticism-for-everyone resulted, occasionally, in violent ecstasies as witnessed in the gatherings of ____________.
(a) Mennonites and Quakers.
(b) Shakers and German Baptists.
(c) Quakers and Shakers.
(d) Pennsylvania Dutch and the Amish.

9. How did the teachings of the Northern European mystics affect the religious establishment?
(a) It angered them.
(b) It shocked them.
(c) It excited them.
(d) It scared them.

10. In the same spirit of tolerance and acceptance, what formed an important part of policies of the Moghul emperor in 1560?
(a) Muslim beliefs.
(b) Muslim sects.
(c) Non-Muslim religions.
(d) Muslim customs.

11. In the Eastern church the experience of God was characterized as being like ____________.
(a) Thunder and lightning.
(b) Sunbeams that can be seen by humans without them observing the sun, the source of the light.
(c) Raindrops on the soil.
(d) Rainbows and doves in the sky.

12. These practices emphasized the internal journey to experience the Deity and preached the principle that ____________.
(a) God resides in each individual.
(b) God resides in the earth.
(c) God resides in the holy.
(d) God resides in holy places.

13. Despite the conservatism occasioned by the rise of _____________ and the suppression of independent reasoning in the Sunni madrasahs, scholars, such as Mulla Sadr (ca 1571-1640), taught a philosophy that fused metaphysics and spirituality.
(a) The Messiah laws.
(b) The Shariah laws.
(c) The Muslim laws.
(d) The Shari laws.

14. What approach to religion does Armstrong advocate?
(a) The desirability of a compassionate approach to religion.
(b) A fundamentalist approach.
(c) A mystical approach.
(d) The rationalistic and literal interpretation of the sacred scripts.

15. In the Western world, the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries saw the development of entirely new cultures stemming from ____________.
(a) The Baroque Period.
(b) The Northern Renaissance.
(c) The Medieval Period.
(d) The Italian Renaissance and the beginning of the scientific discoveries.

Short Answer Questions

1. Karen Armstrong suggests that all of these types of movements in these three religions are ____________.

2. The original intention of the Zionists was to do ____________.

3. Who was the German philosopher who propounded the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment and paved the way for Judaism to enter the arena of modern Europe?

4. Advances in Western science led to ____________.

5. More and more writers and philosophers struggle to develop ideas which might replace ____________.

(see the answer keys)

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