Eitzen, In Conflict and Order: Understanding Society, 14th Edition, Test Bank
Chapter Fifteen: Religion
Multiple Choice Questions
TB_Q15.1.1
Which of the following is the chapter’s definition of religion?
a. An organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods.
b. Symbolic actions that reinforce the collective remembering of the group’s shared meanings.
c. The preaching of the gospel with the intention of converting others.
d. A moral community separate from and in many ways hostile toward the secular world.
Learning Objective: LO 15.1: Compare and contrast the order and conflict perspectives of religion.
Topic/Concept: Studying Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q15.1.2
One of the defining qualities of religion described in the chapter is that in a religion, there is a
a. book of rules to follow.
b. distinction between the sacred and the secular.
c. mandate to bring others into the same belief system.
d. powerful attachment to nature.
Learning Objective: LO 15.1: Compare and contrast the order and conflict perspectives of religion.
Topic/Concept: Studying Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q15.1.3
Ritual is defined as _____. It evokes shared understandings among the believers (awe, reverence, ecstasy, and
fear), which lead to group unity.
a. an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods
b. symbolic actions that reinforce the collective remembering of the group’s shared meanings
c. the preaching of the gospel with the intention of converting others
d. a moral community separate from and in many ways hostile toward the secular world
Learning Objective: LO 15.1: Compare and contrast the order and conflict perspectives of religion.
Topic/Concept: Studying Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q15.1.4
Chapter Fifteen: Religion
Which of the following religions with a global reach has the most members worldwide?
a. Islam
b. Hinduism
c. Christianity
d. Buddhism
Learning Objective: LO 15.1: Compare and contrast the order and conflict perspectives of religion.
Topic/Concept: Studying Religion
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q15.1.5
What is defined as converting or attempt to convert someone from one religion, belief, or opinion to another?
a. Religion
b. Theodicy
c. Evangelism
d. Proselytizing
Learning Objective: LO 15.1: Compare and contrast the order and conflict perspectives of religion.
Topic/Concept: Studying Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q15.1.6
Emile Durkheim’s study of the role of the totem in the religion of Australian aborigines led him to the conclusion
that
a. people bestow the notion of the sacred onto something, rather than the object being intrinsically sacred.
b. the powerless are taught to accept religious beliefs that are against their own interests.
c. religion is the ultimate tool to promote false consciousness.
d. religion is both a source of stability and a source of conflict.
Learning Objective: LO 15.1: Compare and contrast the order and conflict perspectives of religion.
Topic/Concept: Studying Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analyze It
TB_Q15.1.7
According to Emile Durkheim, as people meet to affirm common beliefs and values, they are bound together in a
a. sect.
b. moral community.
c. cult.
d. kinship group.
In Conflict and Order, 14th edition
Learning Objective: LO 15.1: Compare and contrast the order and conflict perspectives of religion.
Topic/Concept: Studying Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q15.1.8
In Karl Marx’s view, religion _____ societal change by making existing social arrangements seem right and inevitable.
a. enshrines
b. encourages
c. inhibits
d. moderates
Learning Objective: LO 15.1: Compare and contrast the order and conflict perspectives of religion.
Topic/Concept: Studying Religion
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q15.1.9
To Marx, religion promotes the status quo by teaching the powerless to accept
a. a belief system in which the sacred is separate from the secular.
b. that people bestow the notion of the sacred onto something, rather than that object being intrinsically sacred.
c. the idea of single God in three persons.
d. religious beliefs that are against their own interests.
Learning Objective: LO 15.1: Compare and contrast the order and conflict perspectives of religion.
Topic/Concept: Studying Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q15.1.10
Which thinker demonstrated that Calvinism was instrumental in the development of capitalism?
a. Max Weber
b. Karl Marx
c. Emile Durkheim
d. Pat Robertson
Learning Objective: LO 15.1: Compare and contrast the order and conflict perspectives of religion.
Topic/Concept: Studying Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q15.1.11
Chapter Fifteen: Religion
According to Weber, the Calvinist belief in _____ led members to assume that economic success was an
indicator of God’s favor, because surely He would favor the elect in this lifetime as well as the next.
a. capitalism
b. predestination
c. evangelism
d. proselytizing
Learning Objective: LO 15.1: Compare and contrast the order and conflict perspectives of religion.
Topic/Concept: Studying Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q15.1.12
In Marx’s view, religion is _____ because it impedes social change by encouraging the oppressed to accept their
place in society.
a. a wake-up call
b. like bread and circuses
c. the opiate of the masses
d. a sacred cow
Learning Objective: LO 15.1: Compare and contrast the order and conflict perspectives of religion.
Topic/Concept: Studying Religion
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q15.2.13
Which of the following are characteristics of a church (as an ideal type) according to the chapter?
a. Membership is only through a conversion experience.
b. The belief system is rigid with an emphasis on the purity of doctrine.
c. Organization is informal and unstructured.
d. There is a tendency to compromise with the larger society and its values and institutions.
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Understand the organization of religion in the United States.
Topic/Concept: Distinctive Features of U.S. Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analyze It
TB_Q15.2.14
The chapter defines a _____ as a moral community separate from and in many ways hostile toward the secular world.
a. sect
b. religion
c. cult
d. religious retreat
In Conflict and Order, 14th edition
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Understand the organization of religion in the United States.
Topic/Concept: Distinctive Features of U.S. Religion
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q15.2.15
According to the chapter, what is the basic dichotomy between churches and sects?
a. Sects withdraw from the world and churches accommodate it.
b. Churches withdraw from the world and sects accommodate it.
c. Churches are the overarching groups and sects are small communities within a church.
d. Sects are the overarching groups and churches are small communities within a sect.
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Understand the organization of religion in the United States.
Topic/Concept: Distinctive Features of U.S. Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q15.2.16
What is defined as a special charm or appeal that causes people to feel attracted and excited by someone (such as a
sect leader or politician)?
a. Amulet
b. Charisma
c. Talisman
d. Magnetism
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Understand the organization of religion in the United States.
Topic/Concept: Distinctive Features of U.S. Religion
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q15.2.17
Before the beloved minister of the small church retired, the church council asked him to bestow his blessing on the
new minister and tell the congregation that they should follow him with happy hearts. The term ________ describes
what the church council was attempting to do.
a. transfer of power
b. being a team player
c. routinization of charisma
d. getting over the hump
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Understand the organization of religion in the United States.
Topic/Concept: Distinctive Features of U.S. Religion
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
TB_Q15.2.18
Chapter Fifteen: Religion
One sign that a sect may be ready to develop into a church is when the charisma of the leader evolves into
_____; that is, whoever holds the position possesses charisma.
a. routinization of charisma
b. transfer of charisma
c. charisma of succession
d. charisma of office
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Understand the organization of religion in the United States.
Topic/Concept: Distinctive Features of U.S. Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q15.2.19
Which term is defined as a religious legitimation for a situation that otherwise might cause guilt or anger (such as
defeat in a war or the existence of poverty among affluence)?
a. Theodicy
b. Theocracy
c. Deism
d. Doctrine
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Understand the organization of religion in the United States.
Topic/Concept: Distinctive Features of U.S. Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q15.2.20
Typically, the members of a _____ give extreme devotion to a charismatic leader who requires much of them (their
material resources, their work, a demanding lifestyle, and a total, intense commitment).
a. sect
b. cult
c. church
d. religion
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Understand the organization of religion in the United States.
Topic/Concept: Distinctive Features of U.S. Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q15.2.21
In Conflict and Order, 14th edition
The notion prevalent among many Americans that the United States and its institutions are sanctified by God
has been labeled the _____ of the United States.
a. foundational principle
b. cult
c. civil religion
d. antithesis
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Understand the organization of religion in the United States.
Topic/Concept: Distinctive Features of U.S. Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q15.2.22
Unlike many other societies, in the United States there is a wide diversity of
a. opinion.
b. levels of education.
c. incomes.
d. belief systems.
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Understand the organization of religion in the United States.
Topic/Concept: Distinctive Features of U.S. Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analyze It
TB_Q15.2.23
Outsourcing is the practice of shifting work done domestically to an entity in another society. Today, according to the
chapter, even some _____ are being outsourced to India, at a rate of about 90 cents each.
a. votes
b. debates
c. prayers
d. sects
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Understand the organization of religion in the United States.
Topic/Concept: Distinctive Features of U.S. Religion
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q15.2.24
As of 2014, what percentage of Americans expressed a belief in God or a universal spirit?
a. 17%
b. 39%
c. 54%
d. 86%
Chapter Fifteen: Religion
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Understand the organization of religion in the United States.
Topic/Concept: Distinctive Features of U.S. Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q15.2.25
The chapter argues that in the United States today, if politicians want to be successful, they must show some
semblance of piety by occasionally invoking the blessings of the _____ God associated with our civil religion.
a. nondenominational, nonsectarian
b. Roman Catholic
c. angry, jealous
d. fundamentalist Protestant
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Understand the organization of religion in the United States.
Topic/Concept: Distinctive Features of U.S. Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q15.3.26
The chapter argues that sects and churches tend to have a social-class bias—the lower the socioeconomic
status, the greater the probability of belonging to a(n)
a. sect.
b. mainstream church.
c. orthodox church.
d. cult.
Learning Objective: LO 15.3: Explain how religion perpetuates systems of inequality.
Topic/Concept: Class, Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q15.3.27
The most affluent of the major religions is _____, with 67% of households making more than $75,000 a year in 2010.
a. Episcopalian
b. Reform Judaism
c. Presbyterian
d. Roman Catholicism
Learning Objective: LO 15.3: Explain how religion perpetuates systems of inequality.
Topic/Concept: Class, Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q15.3.28
In Conflict and Order, 14th edition
The following people all attend the same church. In general, which is most likely to be a elected or appointed to
a position of influence?
a. 24-year-old man with a young family, who works in the warehouse of a major fullfillment company at a
salary of almost $38,000 per year.
b. 35-year-old single female associate attorney making about $90,000 per year.
c. 65-year-old female retired teacher with an annual income of about $43,000 per year.
d. 72-year-old man who is a former pilot with a retirement income of over $160,000.
Learning Objective: LO 15.3: Explain how religion perpetuates systems of inequality.
Topic/Concept: Class, Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
TB_Q15.3.29
The leaders of _____ were almost exclusively African American clergy.
a. the communist witch hunts of the 1950s
b. the 1970s crusade against atheism
c. swing-era bands and orchestras
d. the civil rights movement in the 1960s
Learning Objective: LO 15.3: Explain how religion perpetuates systems of inequality.
Topic/Concept: Class, Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q15.3.30
Feminist theologian Mary Daly said, “As long as God is male, the _____.”
a. male is God
b. Earth is female
c. Church is female
d. Holy Spirit is female
Learning Objective: LO 15.3: Explain how religion perpetuates systems of inequality.
Topic/Concept: Class, Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q15.3.31