Introduction to the Study of Religion 2 gives students the opportunity to develop skills introduced in Introduction to the Study of Religion 1 through the lens of exploring the notion of the religious life as constructed and contested by both practitioners and scholars. Students will be introduced to the analysis of a variety of sources, including biographies, letters, religious objects, and fieldwork observations and film, and the role of these sources in a number of broader scholarly debates will be explored. Theories about the nature of individual and collective identity will be introduced in the context of a series of case studies that place religious lives at the heart of complex social and political processes, both historical and contemporary.

On completion of the module a student will be able to:

Investigating:

Identify and gather relevant primary and secondary source materials using appropriate information technologies.

Manage engagement with primary and secondary source materials by means of the production of annotated bibliographies, reviews, and critical and question-relevant notes on primary source materials.

Recognise the argument structure of secondary source works and to consider (a) their logic of argument and (b) their use of evidence.

Engage critically with a selection of primary source materials and be able to (a) historically contextualise them (b) explore the logic of their composition.

Knowing

Demonstrate knowledge of religiously-related phenomena related to lecture topics and assessment tasks.

Use accurate technical terminology for the study of religion.

Contextualise technical terminology for the study of religion.

Arguing

Answer questions on the basis of research (formulate a demonstrable hypothesis).

Breakdown a proposed answer into logical and manageable parts (formulate subordinate hypotheses that adequately support main hypothesis).

Evidentially substantiate an argument/hypothesis (by means of the sequential substantiation of subordinate hypotheses).

Communicate effectively, orally and in writing, academic argument.

Developing

Explain the value of the Humanities and/or Social Sciences to wider society.

The module will be delivered as a series of case studies, with 2 lectures and one seminar each week in the Spring Semester.

Skills that will be practised and developed

Researching:

Distinguish between the designations ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ as contextually derived categories.

Negotiate and establish an order of priority and an order of extent of engagement with materials gathered for research.

Consider critically the logic of argument in secondary source materials.

Find topic- and question-relevant evidence in primary source materials.

Knowing:

Consider critically the use and value of such terminology.

Contextualise research and argument in terms of aspects of the intellectual history of the study of religion and the development of the Humanities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Show some awareness of issues involved in assessing the value of translated textual sources for the study of religion.

Arguing:

Formulate grammatically correct sentences.

Formulate stylistically appropriate sentences.

Reference such that the use of secondary and primary source materials can be audited by examiners.

i. Show an awareness of the appropriate forms of use of materials that are the intellectual property of others (both in the legal and the more general sense of ‘ownership’).

Use appropriate information technologies in the written and oral presentation of research findings.

Formulate an effective introduction:

ii. present the reader/hearer with an overview of the logical structure of an argument (hypothesis).

iii. present the reader/hearer with an overview of the evidence upon which an argument will be substantiated.

iv. present the reader/hearer with a break-down of the order of substantiation of main points (subordinate hypotheses) of argument. Formulate an effective conclusion:

v. present reader/hearer with a closing synopsis of an argument.

vi. present reader/hearer with suggestions as to the further development of an argument in subsequent research.

vii. present reader/hearer with an overview of the significance of the argument: for the topic; for the discipline; for the wider society.

Developing:

Students will be encouraged in (and given techniques to help them with) the development of their skills as they progress through the module. This will be facilitated through the formative feedback process and advice on how to respond to feedback but will also be facilitated through the development of communication and analytical skills in seminars and opportunities for students to consider presented case studies in more depth or suggest ways in which the issues raised might also apply to other examples.

The module will be assessed by an essay of 2,000 words (worth 50% of the final module mark) and by an examination at the end of the Spring Semester of 1.5 hours consisting of 2 questions (worth 50% of the final module mark).

Seminars will give students opportunities to discuss and explore key readings of primary and secondary literature related to the Religious Lives and also present formative assessment tasks that will help them to build on their essay writing skills, including feedback on a formative draft of their essay.

The precise syllabus content will be subject to change according to staff availability. The module will however include:

• Social theoretical, psychological, and philosophical theories of the nature of individual and social identity.
• The application and contestation of these theories in the light of anthropological, historical and textual approaches to the study of religion.
• The use of specific examples to demonstrate ways in which the social construction of religious persons participates within a nexus of social, political and power related issues, including those connected to gender and race.

Please see Background Reading List for an indicative list.

Comstock, G.L. (2003) Religious Autobiographies. Wadsworth.

Davis, C.F. (1989) The Evidential Force of Religious Experience. Oxford.

Gay, P. (ed) (1989) The Freud Reader. New York.

Gilliat-Ray, S. (2010) ‘The first registered mosque in the U.K. Cardiff 1860: the evolution of a myth’ Contemporary Islam 4 (2) pp. 179-194.

Gilliat-Ray, S. (2010) ‘Body-works and fieldwork: research with British Muslim chaplins’ Culture and Religion 11 (4) 413-432.

Halem, M. A. (2001) Understanding the Qur’an: themes and style. London & New York: I.B. Tauris.

Haley, A. & Malcolm X (1968) The Autobiography of Malcolm X (with the assistance of Alex Haley). Middlesex: Penguin.

Halliday, F. (2010) Britain’s First Muslims. London: I.B. Tauris.

Lewis, D. (trans) (2010) Autobiography of Saint Tersa of Avila.

Okeley, J. & Callaway, H. (eds) (1992) Anthropology and Autobiography. London & New York: Routledge.

Rhiel, M. & Suchoff, D. (eds) (1996) The Seductions of Biography. New York & London: Routledge.

Waardenburg, J. (ed) (1973) Classical Approaches to the Study of Religion. The Hague.

White, J. (1985) Black Leadership in America 1895-1968. London & New York: Longman.