OUTstanding INfluences Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mount of Beatitudes

It is believed that the Mount of Beatitudes in Israel was here Jesus delivered this sermon, although the actual name and location of the site is not mentioned in the Bible and both Mount Arbel and the Horns of Hattin are also touted by some as possible sites.

The Sermon on the Mount was where Christ laid out the principle beliefs of Christianity and also, as written in the Gospel of Matthew, gave the world The Lord's Prayer.

Answer: Guru Nanak

Guru Nanak is considered the founder of Sikhism and was born in Lahore province in 1469, to Hindu parents. From a very early age, he challenged the accepted views of religion, believing that all people are equal, regardless of their caste, religion or gender. Nanak found truths in both Hindu and Muslim teachings and his teachings show a fusing of both Hinduism and Islam, stressing the importance of unity, truth and equality while also rejecting image worship, priesthood and the Hindi caste system.

Nanak undertook five udasis throughout much of Asia, in which he spread his divine message as well as debating religious ideas with opposing groups, for which he earned much love. When Nanak died in 1539, his body was covered with a cloth as was the custom. Both Hindus and Muslims wanted his body, the Hindus for cremation and the Muslims for burial, but when the sheet was removed, there was no body, only flowers, of which each group took half.

Answer: Pope Urban II

Seven years into his papacy, Pope Urban II received a request for assistance from the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Emperor Alexios wanted help taking control back in formerly Byzantine Anatolia from the Muslim Seljuk Turks.

Urban promised forgiveness for all of the past sins to any who were prepared to fight to reclaim the holy land and so the Crusades began, with the First Crusade taking place between 1096 and 1099. This First Crusade gained the liberation of Jerusalem, but unfortunately Pope Urban II died before news reached him.

Answer: Mani

Mani was the founder of the Gnostic religion of Manichaeism, which was a major worldwide religion between the third and seventh centuries, continuing until around the 14th century, although there are reports that it is still practised in some areas of China.

Mani believed that although God had partially revealed the truth through His chosen apostles, Zoroaster, Buddha, and Christ, these teachings were incomplete and Mani considered himself to be the true prophet of his day for all humanity. The six sacred books of Manichaeism, of which "The Living Gospel" was one, were written in Syriac Aramaic and as the religion spread were translated into many languages including Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Uyghur, Chinese, Greek, Coptic, and Latin.

Answer: Mount Sinai

Moses is an influential figure, particularly in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i Faith. Within Islam, Moses is a prophet, and his is the name mentioned most in the Qur'an, with many Muslims believing that the lives of Moses and Muhammad share many parallels. Within the Baha'i Faith, Moses is referred to as the "One Who Conversed with God" and is viewed as one of the most important of all of God's messengers.

Despite Judaism viewing Moses as the most important prophet to have ever lived, it should be remembered he is also viewed as a human being, and therefore not worthy of worship, an honour which can only be bestowed upon God; in Christianity, Moses is seen as a symbol of the laws of God.

Answer: Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche's "Also sprach Zarathustra" ("Thus spoke Zarathustra"), published between 1883 and 1885, tells of Zarathustra emerging from a cave after a decade of solitude and trying to engage with the people and share his wisdom.

Zoroaster, or Zarathustra founded Zoroastrianism somewhere between 1200 and 1500 BCE in ancient Iran and, contrary to the established polytheistic Bronze Age religions of the time, believed that only one God was worthy of worship. He also believed that some of the deities of the old religion, those who seemed to take delight in strife, were in fact evil spirits and adversaries of God.

Zoroastrianism is still a thriving religion with as many as 200,000 worshippers worldwide, found mainly in India, Iran, Iraq and USA.

Answer: Algeria

Now known as Annaba in Algeria, the city once called Hippo Regius has a long and interesting history. It was a major seaport and wealthy city in Roman Africa as well as becoming the bishopric of Augustine around AD 395. In AD 420, the city was laid siege to by the Vandals and after three months praying inside the city walls, Augustine died. The city's inhabitants held out for almost a further year before the city fell to the Vandals, who made Hippo Regius the first capital of the Vandal Kingdom.

Augustine is one of the most important figures in Western Christianity as he championed the religion and brought it to dominance in what was a largely pagan Roman Empire. A philosopher as well as a theologian, Augustine laid the foundation for the doctrine of original sin, set forth understanding of God's love and favour, or grace and through his writings, formulated much of the orthodoxy which still exists in the Catholic church today.

Answer: Krishna

Krishna is one of the most popular Gods within Hinduism and is depicted as a warrior, hero, teacher and philosopher. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love and is the source of many legends.

Krishna defined yoga as a balanced state, a balanced state of body, mind, emotions, intellect and thoughts and it was this balanced state which enabled him to return to his transcendent abode following his death.

Answer: Wittenberg, Germany

Martin Luther's 95 theses, which he nailed to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg in 1517, lit the fuse for the Reformation, which gave rise to Protestantism becoming the third major force in Christendom, along with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Luther was a monk who became disillusioned by the immorality and corruption he saw practised by Catholic priests and so turned his attentions to studying scripture at Wittenberg university. In 1517, angry at Pope Leo X for his tendency to forgive sins if the sinner made a donation to St Peter's Basilica, Luther nailed his 95 theses, intended to be discussion points to the church door. Luther believed that the papacy did not have the authority to interpret scripture, and was threatened with excommunication unless he recanted his views. Luther's reply that he would gladly recant, if anyone could show him any scripture that would prove he was wrong, led to his excommunication being carried out and he was declared a "convicted heretic" by the Catholic church. Whilst in hiding, Luther translated the New Testament into German, to give ordinary people the opportunity to read God's word for the first time. In 1522, Luther founded a new church, the Lutheran church, which would go on to become one of the largest branches of Protestantism, and in 2020 had an estimated 80 million followers worldwide.

Answer: Muhammed

Muhammed had an uneventful start to life, being born into the nomadic Quraysh tribe in Mecca and working with a camel train by his early teens. In his early 20s he married the woman he was working for, Khadija, and despite some opposition due to her being 15 years older than him, it was a happy and fruitful marriage which bore several children.

Muhammed was a deeply religious man, who often made pilgrimages and it was on one of these journeys when Muhammed was 40 years old, that the Angel Gabriel appeared to him in a cave on Mount Jabal aI-Nour. Although Muhammed was ridiculed when he told of his experience, the first person to believe him was his wife Khadija and she followed him as he travelled to preach his message, eventually gaining new followers at a rapid rate. Muhammed died on June 8, 632, at the age of 62, and was buried at al-Masjid an-Nabawi (the Mosque of the Prophet) and Islam continued to grow, with the religion having almost 2 billion followers now, making it the second largest religion worldwide behind Christianity.