APOL 201 MIDTERM (Latest
2026/2027 Update) | Complete Exam
Questions with Verified Answers
Question: What are the two cultural metaphors?
Correct Answer — Like an odor; life software.
Rationale: These metaphors illustrate that culture is pervasive
and often operates beneath conscious awareness. Like an odor,
culture surrounds and influences people, while “life software”
describes the underlying assumptions, values, and patterns that
shape how people interpret and respond to life.
Question: What is View 1 on culture according to Chuck
Colson?
Correct Answer — Chuck Colson: “Our beliefs about the
world.” If a culture is good, this is because individuals have
embraced good values which lead to good choices. Individual
minds change + individual heart change = cultural change.
Rationale: View 1 emphasizes the individual as the primary
agent of cultural change. From this perspective,
,transformation begins when individuals experience changes in
their beliefs, values, hearts, and choices, which can
collectively influence the broader culture.
Question: What is View 2 on culture according to Clifford
Geertz?
Correct Answer — Clifford Geertz: “Denotes a historically
transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, actions,
institutions, and power structures, which form a system of
inherited conceptions.”
Rationale: Geertz's view emphasizes that culture extends
beyond individual beliefs. It is historically transmitted through
symbols, practices, institutions, and structures of power that
collectively shape how people understand and organize their
world.
Question: What are important points of clarification regarding
culture and Christianity?
Correct Answer — Individual conversion, the renewal of
hearts and minds, and restoration of individuals to God is not
only important, it is central to Christianity. However, if we are
asking the question of what culture is and how culture
changes, we have to say more. While changing hearts and
minds are relevant to cultural change, they are not decisive in
,cultural change. Hunter has noted that it (cultural change)
“often seems eerily independent of majority opinion.” The
seculars are in the minority and yet they yield a
disproportional amount of the influence within our culture.
View 1 of culture neglects to emphasize the institutional
nature of culture and the way culture is embedded in
structures of power.
Rationale: Christian transformation includes individual
conversion and renewal, but cultural change also involves
institutions, networks, historical forces, and structures of
power. Therefore, individual transformation is important
without being the sole mechanism that determines cultural
change.
Question: What is Proposition 1 on culture?
Correct Answer — Culture is a system of truth claims, moral
obligations, activities, institutions, and products which (a)
communicate, (b) orient/cultivate, (c) reproduce.
Rationale: Culture communicates beliefs and values, shapes
how people understand and live in the world, and reproduces
those patterns through institutions, practices, and products
across generations.
Question: How does culture communicate?
, Correct Answer — The messages communicated by culture
express various concerns that together communicate a vision
of the meaning of life. Meaning is communicated by form and
content.
Rationale: Cultural forms and content communicate
assumptions about what is valuable, meaningful, desirable,
and true. These messages influence people's interpretation of
life even when they are not explicitly stated.
Question: How does culture orient and cultivate people?
Correct Answer — TV; College Football; The American
Calendar; The Shopping Mall.
Rationale: Everyday cultural practices and institutions shape
habits, desires, priorities, and expectations. These influences
cultivate people by repeatedly exposing them to particular
patterns of living and understanding.
Question: What is the third function of culture?
Correct Answer — Culture reproduces.
Rationale: Culture reproduces itself by transmitting beliefs,
practices, values, symbols, and social patterns through
institutions and relationships, allowing cultural norms to
persist across generations.
2026/2027 Update) | Complete Exam
Questions with Verified Answers
Question: What are the two cultural metaphors?
Correct Answer — Like an odor; life software.
Rationale: These metaphors illustrate that culture is pervasive
and often operates beneath conscious awareness. Like an odor,
culture surrounds and influences people, while “life software”
describes the underlying assumptions, values, and patterns that
shape how people interpret and respond to life.
Question: What is View 1 on culture according to Chuck
Colson?
Correct Answer — Chuck Colson: “Our beliefs about the
world.” If a culture is good, this is because individuals have
embraced good values which lead to good choices. Individual
minds change + individual heart change = cultural change.
Rationale: View 1 emphasizes the individual as the primary
agent of cultural change. From this perspective,
,transformation begins when individuals experience changes in
their beliefs, values, hearts, and choices, which can
collectively influence the broader culture.
Question: What is View 2 on culture according to Clifford
Geertz?
Correct Answer — Clifford Geertz: “Denotes a historically
transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, actions,
institutions, and power structures, which form a system of
inherited conceptions.”
Rationale: Geertz's view emphasizes that culture extends
beyond individual beliefs. It is historically transmitted through
symbols, practices, institutions, and structures of power that
collectively shape how people understand and organize their
world.
Question: What are important points of clarification regarding
culture and Christianity?
Correct Answer — Individual conversion, the renewal of
hearts and minds, and restoration of individuals to God is not
only important, it is central to Christianity. However, if we are
asking the question of what culture is and how culture
changes, we have to say more. While changing hearts and
minds are relevant to cultural change, they are not decisive in
,cultural change. Hunter has noted that it (cultural change)
“often seems eerily independent of majority opinion.” The
seculars are in the minority and yet they yield a
disproportional amount of the influence within our culture.
View 1 of culture neglects to emphasize the institutional
nature of culture and the way culture is embedded in
structures of power.
Rationale: Christian transformation includes individual
conversion and renewal, but cultural change also involves
institutions, networks, historical forces, and structures of
power. Therefore, individual transformation is important
without being the sole mechanism that determines cultural
change.
Question: What is Proposition 1 on culture?
Correct Answer — Culture is a system of truth claims, moral
obligations, activities, institutions, and products which (a)
communicate, (b) orient/cultivate, (c) reproduce.
Rationale: Culture communicates beliefs and values, shapes
how people understand and live in the world, and reproduces
those patterns through institutions, practices, and products
across generations.
Question: How does culture communicate?
, Correct Answer — The messages communicated by culture
express various concerns that together communicate a vision
of the meaning of life. Meaning is communicated by form and
content.
Rationale: Cultural forms and content communicate
assumptions about what is valuable, meaningful, desirable,
and true. These messages influence people's interpretation of
life even when they are not explicitly stated.
Question: How does culture orient and cultivate people?
Correct Answer — TV; College Football; The American
Calendar; The Shopping Mall.
Rationale: Everyday cultural practices and institutions shape
habits, desires, priorities, and expectations. These influences
cultivate people by repeatedly exposing them to particular
patterns of living and understanding.
Question: What is the third function of culture?
Correct Answer — Culture reproduces.
Rationale: Culture reproduces itself by transmitting beliefs,
practices, values, symbols, and social patterns through
institutions and relationships, allowing cultural norms to
persist across generations.
