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In Society and Lifestyles, I learned about how some religions split and changed and how religion has decreased over the years mainly in western Europe. This related to culture and many philosophers have different beliefs from this. We learned that a German philosopher called Max Weber believed in the 1800s and early 1900s that the … Continue reading “Society and Lifestyles – Monday 23rd of January 2017”

This week, I learned a lot more about religion and society. Before the lecture and tutorial I had never heard of ‘Unchurched Spirituality’, but have since learned that the term means, spirituality that is not related to or follows an organised religion and usually does not follow the doctrines of a religion. In the tutorial and independent study tasks we also learned more about the theorists behind these views such as, Max Weber, Bruce Lincoln and Karl Marx. I feel that I still don’t fully understand the works of these theorists and so will have to research more about them in my own time to gain a bit more knowledge and insight into their work and contribution to religion and society. I also enjoyed learning about the different practices and beliefs of different branches of religions, such as Jehovas Witnesses and, i.e -refusing blood and also I found some of the clips we were shown in class intriguing, i.e- the video about the church who use snakes in their beliefs and practices. I was able to see the positive and negative aspects of this. For example, the dangers of certain practices but also the benefit to that religious community such as a sense of belonging.

                I think that this module is helping me to understand further about religion and the diversity of religion in society today. I am beginning to realise that there are a lot more branches of religion that I knew of in the world and I think that this will help me when in the classroom because there will probably be a mix of cultures and religion within one class. I will have a better understanding of more cultures and not be more open minded towards a much vaster variety of religions and cultures.

This week we looked at religion, culture and ‘unchurched spirituality’. Prior to today’s class I was unaware of the ways in which religion and culture are interlinked. Similarly to last week, I felt that learning about the views of different scholars enabled us to look at the topics in more depth from a non-biased approach. This week we could compare the two scholars – Max Weber and Karl Marx – as they both had completely different views about religion. Having previously studied Sociology I have come across these two theorists before when studying social class. Regardless of being familiar with their work I was unaware of their work on religion. I am going to read more of each theorist’s work on religion to prepare me for the exam.

 

We later looked at ‘unchurched spirituality’. Over several years there has been a great decline in the number of people who would consider themselves to be religious. Unchurched spirituality are forms of spirituality that are not associated with any organised religions. I found this part of the lecture incredibly interesting, however, I also found that unchurched spirituality – in some cases- is very extreme.

My learning of the Society and Lifestyle module continues, today’s input was based on “Religion, Culture and Unchurched Spiritually. Some topics addressed today have left my rather perplexed and I will definitely have to devote further independent study to these aspects.

The lecture focused on religion, culture and the term unchurched spiritually, today I consolidated my understanding of some facets of last week’s initial lecture.  Today I learnt we acquire religion and that religion and culture inversely influence each other, conveying that religion gives us an identity and possible model a way of life, highlighting that religion can be a guidance to what we eat, wear and music we listen to, et cetera. I also learnt, in-depth, the social issues (either good or can influence problems) that can underpin religion, for instance ‘material claims’, which implies religions can encourage followers to be generous and helpful. Likewise, ‘altruism’ which is in contrast. I gained a better acknowledgment of scholars, their stance on religion/culture and their social alignment. In particularly the ideologies of Karl Marx, Max Weber and Bruce Lincoln. Further to this I understood what is meant to be ‘Unchurched Spiritually’ conveying that religion takes place outside a place of worship and the religion is not based on creed or a formed structure, this facet of religion is increasingly evolving, as ‘organised’ religion and churches decrease.

I found the concepts addressed in the lecture to be interesting and not too difficult to understand, this is in contrast to the tutorial, researching Karl Marx and the modern criticism of religion to be I discovered this to be somewhat complex to comprehend, it was rather challenging to find journals, books or academic. The main point I attained from this is presently there is not the same force or emphasis to follow a religion as there was in past centuries.

In order to advanced my understanding of the subjects of today’s inputs I will continue to look into further reading of academic journals, articles and books in addition to notes and past paper questions in order to prepare for the exam questions, but also to secure my understanding.

As a student teacher and perspective teacher it is important that I support pupils, their religion, culture and the way of life they follow, also keeping in mind that every religion is unique and have varying lifestyles.

Therefore, it is important that I continue to revise all aspects discussed today and in past lectures in order to make better sense of the topic of religion and culture, and the subsequently impact of religion and identity, ensuring I am relating my responses to scholars and their ideologies and theories.

Today has been a massive improvement compared to last week’s lecture, tutorial and independent task. I think that this was impacted by my increase in enthusiasm this week. I enjoyed today’s lecture a lot more because I understood the majority of what I was being taught straight away. I also believe the lecturer used very good examples and short video clips in explaining certain points. For example, when learning about the impacts that religion and culture has, we looked at the impact that it has on health. The lecturer then proceeded to give an example of a Jehovah’s witness, who would not accept a blood transfusion on religious grounds because it is in conflict with their religious beliefs. The lecturer also showed us a video clip on this to put this into perspective which is very useful to look back on for future reference.

We also learned about Max Weber and Karl Marx who were and still are very famous sociologists. Their views are the complete opposite of one another which I found very interesting. In the tutorial I was asked a question about Weber, how he appraised religion as culture and the importance in society. I really struggled with this question because I didn’t understand what major impacts there were in the world. I think this was because I personally believe that Marx’s view is something I would believe over Weber’s view. Although I struggled, I was able to answer because we were in groups and I could ask people questions. I will have to work on this particular topic to become less hazy on the subject.

In the independent study task I picked to write about secularization, a secular society and determining what the term ‘de-christianisation’ meant. I thought that it was a good idea to look at questions that may be similar to exam questions. I thought that the independent task could possibly have been whittled down to half an hour because I felt after a while  I was repeating myself. I also think this task could  have been done at home so we could have the choice, whether to do the independent task straight away or have a break to rest.

Overall, I can definitely say that I enjoyed this weeks input a lot more than last week’s and I am really looking forward to learning about the new topic Inclusion next week.

My learning of the Society and Lifestyle module continues, today’s input was based on “Religion, Culture and Unchurched Spiritually. Some topics addressed today have left my rather perplexed and I will definitely have to devote further independent study to these aspects.

The lecture focused on religion, culture and the term unchurched spiritually, today I consolidated my understanding of some facets of last week’s initial lecture.  Today I learnt we acquire religion and that religion and culture inversely influence each other, conveying that religion gives us an identity and possible model a way of life, highlighting that religion can be a guidance to what we eat, wear and music we listen to, et cetera. I also learnt, in-depth, the social issues (either good or can influence problems) that can underpin religion, for instance ‘material claims’, which implies religions can encourage followers to be generous and helpful. Likewise, ‘altruism’ which is in contrast. I gained a better acknowledgment of scholars, their stance on religion/culture and their social alignment. In particularly the ideologies of Karl Marx, Max Weber and Bruce Lincoln. Further to this I understood what is meant to be ‘Unchurched Spiritually’ conveying that religion takes place outside a place of worship and the religion is not based on creed or a formed structure, this facet of religion is increasingly evolving, as ‘organised’ religion and churches decrease.

I found the concepts addressed in the lecture to be interesting and not too difficult to understand, this is in contrast to the tutorial, researching Karl Marx and the modern criticism of religion to be I discovered this to be somewhat complex to comprehend, it was rather challenging to find journals, books or academic. The main point I attained from this is presently there is not the same force or emphasis to follow a religion as there was in past centuries.

In order to advanced my understanding of the subjects of today’s inputs I will continue to look into further reading of academic journals, articles and books in addition to notes and past paper questions in order to prepare for the exam questions, but also to secure my understanding.

As a student teacher and perspective teacher it is important that I support pupils, their religion, culture and the way of life they follow, also keeping in mind that every religion is unique and have varying lifestyles.

Therefore, it is important that I continue to revise all aspects discussed today and in past lectures in order to make better sense of the topic of religion and culture, and the subsequently impact of religion and identity, ensuring I am relating my responses to scholars and their ideologies and theories.