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.