Religion- Reflection papers

REL101(WI): World Religions

Reflection Paper #1

Religion and Spiritualty

This course involves the study of “religion,” and we will be studying a number of “religions” during these next three months. Because religion is our focus, it is rather important that we have some idea about what this term actually means. Likewise, it is quite common today to see people use the term “spirituality” rather than the traditional term religion. As we discussed in the first part of this course, and as the special reading for this section more deeply explores, neither “religion” nor “spiritualty” is easy to define, nor is it perfectly clear how these two words are related. Are religion and spirituality separate things or do they overlap? What is meant by the term spirituality that isn’t already meant by the term religion? Though these terms are familiar to everyone, it turns out that both are most difficult words to pin down. For this first Reflection Paper, you are asked to weigh in on this conflicted debate. Before you begin to write, consider what we discussed in class, read carefully the article “Religion and Spirituality” posted under “Course Materials” on Blackboard, and research at least two other articles of your choice that address this topic. Then, in your paper, offer your best insights on what you think about the effort to define religion and spirituality and how they relate to one another. Remember, take a single position, clearly state it in your thesis sentence, and then defend your position in the body of the paper. In the process, your paper can touch on any of these kinds of themes: Do you have definitions of religion and spiritual that you think work? What do you think about today’s popular trend to replace the word “religion” with “spiritual”? Is this in any way an improvement over the word religion? Is spirituality just a part of religion, is religion just a part of spiritualty, or are they separate domains? In which of the four categories—religious and spiritual, religious but not spiritual, spiritual but not religious, neither religious nor spiritual—do you place yourself and why? Is it still possible to study the phenomenon traditionally called “religion” given all of these new ways of talking about it?