AD317 Religion Today: Tradition, Modernity and Change

I think I'd qualify this tutorial as having some helpful hints in it about what's important in the course and how to approach those things. Very big on proper essay format - introduction, content, conclusion. Spelling and grammar; referencing. Suggested the importance of this by saying that in the course essay, our grade would be fixed by the time the marker got to the end of the introduction - our mark might go down after that but was unlikely to go up. I didn't believe that, I'm only reporting what I heard.

Importance of being objective - don't use "you" or "we". Use "I" sparingly.

Haralambos "Sociology: Themes and Perspectives" recommended as a good summary of the sociology of religion.

Theological perspective - emic and etic important to get to grips with, particularly for assignment one (whichever option you choose) and will continue to be important in the rest of the course, so worth some attention, especially as they are more complex concepts than they appear to be. For any religion think about the role culture plays in it.

Reductionist perspective - comes from sociology, think in terms of function of religion not of content.

Phenomenological approach - studies the belief, regardless of its objective truth, the meaning that people give to their experiences.

Secularisation theory - again comes into the whole course, therefore very important. Course title - religion today - so it's about the response of religion to modern conditions, therefore the whole secularisation thing will come up over and over again.

Useful summaries:

• Weber the place of the Protestant ethic in the growth of capitalism in wewstern Europe
• Durkheim religion as providign cohesion through ritual and communal worship. All societies divide into the sacred and the profane. Religion is some societies' response to the sacred.
• Marx religion as tool of dominant classes. Most religions originate in the oppressed classes.

We touched on how to define religion - very tricky - Smart's view is quite simply belief in a supernatural entity, which a lot of authors seem to agree with. But leaves a lot of questions unanswered.