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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Why were Jews and Muslims able to accept Darwin's theories?
(a) They are less concerned about the discoveries of the origins of life.
(b) They do not believe in the creation story.
(c) They do not believe God created all things.
(d) They take the creation story literally.

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

4. What is an inherent danger in a personal God?
(a) It leads adherents of a religion to want to blend with other religions.
(b) It confuses many adherents of a religion.
(c) It leads adherents of a religion to imbue in the Deity their own prejudices and limitations.
(d) It leads to multiple misunderstandings.

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

6. 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?
(a) Moses Mendolssohn.
(b) Max Bruch.
(c) Baruch Spinoza.
(d) Oskar Schindler.

7. 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.

8. Christianity attempted to qualify the highly personalized cult of God incarnate by introducing ____________.
(a) The doctrine of the transpersonal Trinity.
(b) The doctrine of the impersonal Trinity.
(c) The doctrine of the impersonal God.
(d) The doctrine of the one and only God.

9. What is a spiritual longing for the redemption of Israel as foretold by the ancient prophets?
(a) Safedism.
(b) Sufism.
(c) Kabbalism.
(d) Enlightenment.

10. The original intention of the Zionists was to do ____________.
(a) Provide a spiritual center for the focus of the people of Israel.
(b) Intimidate the Christians.
(c) Cause chaos among the people of Israel.
(d) Found a Jewish state.

11. The history of the emergence of the Judaic scriptures can be interpreted as ____________.
(a) The refinement and later acceptance of the transpersonal Yahweh.
(b) The refinement and later abandonment of the transpersonal Yahweh.
(c) The refinement and later abandonment of the tribal and personalized Yahweh.
(d) The refinement and later acceptance of the tribal and personalized Yahweh.

12. By 1492, the last Muslim stronghold in Spain had fallen to ____________.
(a) The Christian forces of Ferdinand and Isabella.
(b) The Christian forces of Constantine.
(c) The Christian forces of Franz Ferdinand.
(d) The Christian forces of Pope John Paul.

13. The scientific work of Charles Darwin and the writings of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud led to the conclusion that ____________.
(a) The traditional religions were blasphemous.
(b) The traditional religions were now inadequate.
(c) The traditional religions were correct.
(d) The traditional religions were completely inaccurate.

14. Karen Armstrong passionately believes that human beings have, in the 4000 years of the quest delineated in her book, always sought ____________.
(a) Power and might.
(b) An answer to the questions raised by religion and the idea of God.
(c) Harmony and understanding.
(d) Peace and love.

15. The effect of this behavior towards Jewish people was ____________.
(a) To begin Kabbalism.
(b) To end Kabbalism.
(c) To evoke a new form of Kabbalism.
(d) To return to a traditional form of Kabbalism.

Short Answer Questions

1. Was tolerance of other religions was evident in Christian Spain?

2. Who was a Dutch Jew who had become discontented with the ideas in the Torah and joined a group of Gentile freethinkers, which led to his expulsion from the synagogue of Amsterdam?

3. Some scholars suggest that the decline of Muslim science marked the beginning of ____________.

4. In this chapter Karen Armstrong outlines the developments in the nineteenth century which led to ____________.

5. The principle of "being born again" and the practice of mysticism-for-everyone resulted, occasionally, in violent ecstasies as witnessed in the gatherings of ____________.

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