Before this lesson, I thought this course, Religious Studies, was going to be filled with readings and assignments where students would be studying and comparing different religions. After reading and watching the assigned texts and videos, I now understand that we will not be taking a theological approach, rather we will be taking a more anthropological approach to studying religion, meaning we will study people, their beliefs, and their behavior, rather than studying the truths of their beliefs and the nature(s) of their god(s). I always assumed that all studies of religion were through theology, but am not informed that one can understand religion through multiple methods, including theology, sociology, neuroscience, and anthropology.
Another interesting point provided from the readings and videos, was that one does not have to be religious to study religion. When I was younger, the pastor of the Christian church I attended actually encouraged me and my peers to study other religions. At first I thought it would be a waste, because why would I need to know how to praise another god or holy spirit, if my bible taught me about and how to worship my god. But what I was told/taught and even read in William “Chip” Gruen’s article was that with the studying of religion and other’s religions, we can have a better understanding of others’ behaviors and reasons for their behaviors in society. Although I took a theological approach when studying religion when I was younger and learned about their customs and beliefs, I didn’t get an understanding of how these different religions have and continue to affect society. After Lesson 1.1 of this course, I am led to believe that we will be taking the anthropological approach to study religion and I will be fulfilled with a different type of knowledge from what I obtained when studying many different religions and their traditions.
Preparations that I took that worked well for me was re-reading articles to have a better understanding of the information given to me and doing all the assignments, such as creating Slack and Medium accounts and the survey, as soon as I gained accessed to them. When looking at what didn’t work, I see that I did not manage my time properly and will need to be more proactive when it comes to reading and watching the assigned text and videos. The professor has offered us somewhat of a guideline of dates of when we should post, so that will help with knowing when to start on my assignments. However, the responsibility of utilizing my time so that I am able to complete assignments in a timely manner for my professor and fellow students, falls on me. A way I can prepare to better this is setting a schedule of when I will work on assignments for this class that require more reading and writing than my other courses.
