Religion Paper

Due: In class on Friday, January 9, 2015

2.25 pages single spaced (minimally 2 pages)

Just put your name – and nothing else - in the top left corner

MIDTERM TAKE HOME EXAM/PAPER

In the book, Habits of the Heart, Robert Bellah et al make the case – and provide ample evidence to support it – that those who actively belong to a church are happier (in several ways) than those who are not involved in a church. Accepting this claim for a moment, please make the case how the religions that you’ve studied this semester hold the potential for not just contributing to one’s personal happiness but to alleviating some of the social, economic and environmental issues that plague our globe.

Write a 2 page (single spaced) paper on how each of the traditions holds the potential for attending to and curbing global injustices, such as poverty, war, the environment or sexism. Select 6 ideas from this past semester that could be utilized in an effort to stem real world problems. You should have 8 paragraphs (an intro and a conclusion alongside a paragraph for each idea) that thoroughly explain how religion and its ideas have significant utility today given the alarming larger social issues that cause much current suffering. With each of your 6 ideas, thoroughly explain what the idea is exactly, and secondly its utility in the social and political sphere.