You may choose any combination of the questions on the syllabus to formulate your own prompt, or you can organize your midterm essay around the following key question:
What way should we define religions, and how do they help and/or hinder?
Due Sunday, 3/28 successfully uploaded to Blackboard in proper file type by 11:59pm
You must use some material selected from Comparing Religions Ch. 1-3, as well as some from Ch. 4-6. The material selected from chapters is described below.
TOPICS:Material selected
1 Comparative Practices in Global History: If Horses Had Hands 9
The Comparative Practices of Polytheism 11
The Comparative Practices of Monotheism: Early Islam 27
The Comparative Practices of Asia: Hinduism 33
2 Western Origins and History of the Modern Practice: From the Bible to Buddhism 43
Just Upstream: Colonialism and the Modern Births of Spirituality and Fundamentalism 58
The Immediate Wake: Counterculture, Consciousness, Context, and Cosmopolitanism 67
3 The Skill of Reflexivity and Some Key Categories: The Terms of Our Time Travel 7
Patterns of Initiation 82
The Humanities: Consciousness Studying Consciousness 85
Cultural Anthropology and Initiation Rites 88
4 The Creative Functions of Myth and Ritual: Performing the World 111
Myth: Telling the Story Telling Us 113
Ritual: Acting Out the Story Acting Us 116
Comparative Practice: The Awakened One and the Great Hero in Ancient India 133
5 Religion, Nature, and Science: The Super Natural 143
The Paradox of the Super Natural 146
Food and Purity Codes: You Are What You Eat 149
How the essay should be written using the topics written above?
You must also demonstrate two main things:
- Have you read and understood a significant amount of course material, especially the textbook? (at least a week and a half’s worth)
- Have you thought about that material carefully and critically for yourself?
1400-1900 words (under by 2 words is a huge problem–like you’ll get a D or F–but over by 200 is ok)
Summarize, Criticize, and So What?
1) Summarize–Show that you read and understood the text (or texts). What is it about? Main idea(s)? Key point(s)? Explain key quote(s) in your own words.
2) Criticize–Show that you thought about it for yourself. Demonstrate critical thinking in regard to the reading. What values does it uphold and what or whom does it devalue? What is at stake in the reading, tradition, or story? What’s to be gained or lost? What work is this story or dynamic doing, and for whom? What or who is excluded from this story or marginalized by it? In whose interest was this story formed?
3) So what?–After you’ve done steps one and two, now clearly explain to your reader why that preceding discussion matters. What difference does it make to your life? To the world? What should the reader do differently or think about differently after reading your essay?
