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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Part I, Chapter 1, which of the following does Chesterton recommend doing?
(a) Turning to religion for answers.
(b) Maintaining a universal perspective.
(c) Accepting mankind without explaining it.
(d) Rejecting science.

2. What does Chesterton think of the theory that mankind is solely motivated by economic reasons of subsistence?
(a) That it is fundamentally and universally true.
(b) That it is the primary motivating factor only when subsistence is threatened.
(c) That it is absolutely untrue.
(d) That it is true except in the case of religion.

3. If man was once no more than an animal, what does does Chesterton say might be entertained?
(a) None of these.
(b) That he might return to be one again.
(c) Animals doing things in the providence of man.
(d) The intervention of God.

4. According to Chesterton, how does monotheism become polytheistic?
(a) Mankind fears the largeness of a single god and so creates others.
(b) None of these.
(c) Dissention about the details of the one God create different versions of what was originally just one.
(d) Through the amalgamation of other pagan religions.

5. Which of the following is a statement Chesterton makes about paganism?
(a) That paganism is the root of all practice within Christianity.
(b) Paganism is used to explain human fears.
(c) That even pagan religions incorporate the notion of one all powerful supreme being.
(d) That paganism naturally subsides in the face of Christianity.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Chesterton say should not be done with mythologies?

2. What does Chesterton say is the main fault with comparing religions?

3. According to Chesterton, how much did the philosophies of the great thinkers like Aristotle influence the religious spirit of the time?

4. Which of the following does Chesterton say of myths?

5. What place does Chesterton say was the center of antiquity?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the example Chesterton uses of nomadic peoples to explain the classification of religions.

2. Explain the significance that Chesterton gives the cave drawings regarding the nature of the cave man.

3. In the beginning of the introduction, Chesterton uses an analogy of a boy leaving his farmland home and looking back on his homeland as he does so. What is he trying to explain or make clear with this analogy?

4. Explain how, according to Chesterton, monotheistic religion becomes polytheistic.

5. Explain how and why, according to Chesterton, the pace at which things move changes our perception of them.

6. How does Chesterton refute the statement that prehistoric man "wore no clothes"?

7. How does Chesterton define the view of non-Christians who live in a Christian society?

8. What concept regarding civilization and barbarism throughout history does Chesterton refute? What does he say?

9. How does Chesterton describe the religious experience of the Carthaginians?

10. How does Troy and the Iliad enter into Chesterton's argument?

(see the answer keys)

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