I took this test roughly a year ago. It was a tough but fair test, which most of the DANTES tend to be. For study I used two of the recommended texts. Be prepared to answer questions on each of the religions you study. Being comfortable with only the Christian and Jewish background will NOT be enough. Billy
I would be helpful if you would (1) not "shout" with uppercase letters and (2) post just once with your question, listing the tests for which you seek assistance. Thanks. Rich Douglas, Internet Interpol
OK Mr Cop, but the poor fellow's question was 'did you took the test' ? Now did you took it? Are you going to took it, or won't it be tooked by you? It may be very tookable.
No, I never tookted it. I never even sawl it. Jus' ma luck, 'cause the Baby Jesus done past me bye.... Rich Douglas
I don't think that choice of text is very critical in an intro to world religions course. Any competent survey text will probably do. You can get new hardback copies of 'World Religions', edited by Geoffrey Parrinder, from Barnes and Noble online for $14.95 or something. Very readable and interesting. Good illustrations. I grabbed a copy myself. This book has the strong advantage of including chapters on unusual subjects like prehistoric, tribal, African, Australasian, Meso-American, iron age Northern European, Mesopotamian, Greek and Roman, ancient Iranian and other religions that often aren't covered in introductory texts. Reading this stuff gives you an idea of the tremendous range of human religious expression, allowing for wider comparative perspectives. You can skip these chapters if you like, assuming this stuff isn't on the Dantes syllabus. There are strong sections on all the usual suspects like Islam, Judaism, Mahayana and Southern Buddhism, Hinduism, Chinese religion(s) etc. This is just one text suggestion out of dozens possible. Like I say, carefully reading the relevant sections of any competent world religions survey text will probably be enough to pass the test.
Bill - you're not getting into religion as well? Bloody hell - half of this @#&* group are parsons! Now, if there were Levicoffian parsons, that would be OK, but .... Peter French
My favorite intro-to-world-religions book is Peter Occhiogrosso's The Joy of Sects (Image-Bantam, 1994). It's technically trade rather than a textbook, but it's huge (626 pages) and covers all the bases in a cheery-but-respectful manner. Geoffrey Parrinder is also awfully good, and I second Bill Dayson's recommendation on that front. Good luck! Cheers, ------------------ Tom Head www.tomhead.net co-author, Bears' Guide to the Best Education Degrees by Distance Learning (Ten Speed Press) co-author, Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead (Osborne/McGraw-Hill)
I'm technically not--but I've long said that one of the reasons I don't go to church is that as soon as I find one I like, I'll get ordained and pastor it. There was a time, a few years ago, when I very nearly began the process of becoming a Unitarian-Universalist minister. So I don't know; it'll probably happen eventually, as it's in my blood (my father and uncle are licensed SBC ministers, both of my grandfathers were either licensed or ordained ministers of the SBC or Methodist tradition, three of my great-grandfathers were ordained ministers, etc). Cheers, ------------------ Tom Head www.tomhead.net co-author, Bears' Guide to the Best Education Degrees by Distance Learning (Ten Speed Press) co-author, Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead (Osborne/McGraw-Hill)
I know. Weird, isn't it? I've always been interested in religion. My distance MA last year concerned the theory of religious imagery. But I'm definitely atypical among the hordes of theologians on this discussion group. I have absolutely no interest in being a clergyman. I find the idea of being a spiritual director for anyone besides myself to be hubris and presumption. In fact, I'm not even a Christian. Never have been. When I was a child, our home was always as Buddhist as it was Christian. I'd characterize myself today as a religious agnostic, I guess. Far from wanting me to lead their churches, most evangelicals smile thinly and try to keep their children from talking to me. I suppose that I'm Levicoffian in that sense...
Nobody would want me to lead an evangelical church, but the Unitarian-Universalist Association is hardly known for its evangelistic fervor; about 40% of its members classify themselves as agnostics or atheists. (In fact, the closest I think I've ever come to being an evangelical was when I recommended the UU denomination to a militantly atheistic friend up north--he and his wife have since joined, and they're having a ball.) That said, I've always found it easy to get along with evangelicals; if I don't get aggressive about my beliefs, they don't get aggressive about theirs. That's assuming they're not hate-filled people, of course, but hate-filled people all sound alike to me anyway. I can't tell angry evangelicals from angry Wiccans anymore. Cheers, ------------------ Tom Head www.tomhead.net co-author, Bears' Guide to the Best Education Degrees by Distance Learning (Ten Speed Press) co-author, Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead (Osborne/McGraw-Hill)
_Religions of the World_ by Lewis F. Hopfe, Mark R. Woodward. Less than the text's full fourteen chapters need to be studied for this DANTES exam. That means less than 300 of its easy reading pages are relevant. <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/002356931X/qid%3 D1003871125/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F0%5F1/107-9106053-0325306> Avg. Customer Review: 4 and 1/2 stars The publishers online web-site features online quizes with eachchapter of the book; best of all, it's free! "Welcome to the online study guide to accompany the text, Religions of the World, 8th Edition. Features of this site include: --chapter learning objectives that help students organize key concepts. --online quizzes which include instant scoring and coaching." <http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/hopfe/> And finally, used copies for less than $10 are available from amazon.com, or from half.com (and most of the sellers are students like you, anyway). --Orson
