Your first essay asks you to think about the ways in which people experience fai

Your first essay asks you to think about the ways in which people experience faith and religion. After learning about and engaging with various expressions of religious experience, you will be asked to (virtually) “attend” a religious service. A list of suggestions and links will be made available on Blackboard. You must choose to attend a service of a religion with which you are not already familiar. If you are religious, or have (semi-)regularly attended or are otherwise familiar with religious services from one particular faith, please choose a different faiths’ religious service to explore for this experience. Because of the ongoing pandemic, this virtual experience will be different from attending in person— which would normally have been the preferred method of engagement—as you will not necessarily see other people as they participate in the religious experience, and will not have the same sensory experience as you would have in person. (For example, you will not be entering a specific building that is demarcated as ‘sacred space,’ you will not smell any incense used, you will not hear the echoes of congregants chanting in union, etc.) However, please do take this time to immerse yourself in the experience as much as possible: find a quiet space, turn off your cell phone and other distractions, and be ‘present’ in the virtual service. Reflect on your experience and how you think faith participants would experience the religious service. In addition to the religious service video you watch, you must use and cite at least two sources from our class material. Use the following questions to guide your thinking and formulate your thesis. (You are not expected to address all of them in your short essay—please pick one or two to focus your essay.) Be sure to describe the religious experience of the people attending as part of your reflection and answer to the questions. • What did you learn from this experience? In what ways were you/religious participants engaged? How were these various engagements reflective of or different from the religious experiences we have read about in our texts? • Does the religious experience of participants in the religious service you attended align with one (or more) of the types or religious experience suggested by the “Religious Experience: What Does it Mean to Encounter the Divine” chapter? How so? • Did your attendance at a religious service give you any insight into the relationship between religious experience and religious beliefs or faith? How so? • If you have previous knowledge or experience to allow a comparison, or if you attended more than one virtual religious service: do you think there is a ‘common core’ to religious experience as mediated by religious services? How so? Essays must follow the guidelines in the syllabus and must include in-text citations and a bibliography. Essays #1 and #2 ought to be 2-3 pages in length, Times New Roman 12-point font, double-spaced with one-inch margins.

The post Your first essay asks you to think about the ways in which people experience fai appeared first on homework handlers.