Today’s Society & Lifestyles inputs focused on religion and culture, and how the two are connected. It’s almost a “chicken and egg” concept: throughout history, religion has influenced culture and culture has influenced religion, and the two are so closely interlinked that it is almost impossible to separate the two.
I was most interested in the concept of unchurched spirituality – this was a new term to me, however the meaning of it was not. The rise of new-age and alternative spirituality has been apparent in our society for quite a while now, and it was interesting to consider the reasons for this. The differing definitions of spirituality within different religions and cultures was also quite interesting. I guess we all have our own idea of what spirituality means, and until now I hadn’t considered that others may have a drastically differing understanding to my own.
I am still a little unclear as to how to link the theory of key scholars into the exam question; I feel that there is still a lot more reading needed to obtain a more well-rounded understanding of the theories. I intend to read more about Max Weber and Bruce Lincoln; I don’t think I can stomach Karl Marx owing to my intense loathing of the man! Fortunately, his is the one theory I know well enough to make those links already.
