Essay Assignment
Religious Studies 1000 — Religions of the World
Length: 500-600 words — approx. 2-3 typed/printed pages in a 12 point font;
Double-spaced; margins should be 1.5 inch top and left, 1 inch bottom and right.
Please include a title page on which you include your name, student number, and the name of the topic on which you choose to write.
Late essays will not be accepted without official medical documentation, or unless permission of the instructor has been granted prior to the due date.
Value: 30% of final grade
Write an essay on one of the following topics. All topics are based exclusively on the first chapter of the textbook. You need read nothing else to accomplish this assignment. Just read the first chapter of the textbook.
1) Traditionally academic fields of study are often defined by their own method. For example, historians developed the historical method, sociologists are rigorous about the application of the sociological method to the analysis of social institutions, and anthropologists have developed their own methods for analyzing tribal cultures. According to Robinson and Rodrigues (henceforth R&R), how does Religious Studies deal with the issue of methodology? Things to keep in mind and address if you choose this topic: is there a method unique to Religious Studies? If so what is it and how does it work? If not, how does Religious Studies deal with the issue of methodology? If it doesn’t have a method, can Religious Studies really be defined as an independent discipline, or in what sense can it be defined as a discipline?
2) One of the main questions Chapter One sets out to explore is, what is religion? We often think we know exactly what a religion is and what the word “religion” means. But when we slow down to think seriously about it, the picture is more complicated and more complex. How do R&R approach this question? Is there a single answer? What is R&R’s answer? Illustrate their answer/position with a few examples taken from the first chapter of the textbook.
