Goal: To demonstrate deep engagement with a specific idea about the stakes involved in thinking critically about religion through a focused analysis and close reading.

At the end of unit 1 (Questions/Answers) and unit 4 (Identities/Critiques) you will complete a short response paper drawing from one of the specific prompts below. These prompts are designed to focus your attention on a specific, significant aspect of the reading that hopefully reveals something why it is important to think critically about what religion is and what it does. These responses are due by 5pm on Fri., Sept. 20 and Fri., Dec. 13.

Unit 1 prompts:

a. When you started this class, what associations or definitions did you attach to the term "religion"? Pick one of the readings from this unit that challenged or altered those associations or definitions.

b. Pick one of the readings from this unit and describe the role history plays in its analysis: this could be the kinds of historical sources the author uses or the way an author distinguishes between historical periods.

Unit 4 prompts:

a. Pick one of the readings from this unit and describe the role power plays in its analysis: this could be attention to forms of control or liberation within religious contexts or the way an author draws attention to the coercive or liberatory aspects of religion itself.

b. Think about what initially drew you to the study of religion (even if this is your first class!). Pick one of the readings from this unit and ask: Why is this author writing about or studying religion? How are their reasons similar or different from what drew you, or your fellow students, to the study of religion?

Comparison responses

Goal: To synthesize knowledge about how religion is theorized and studied through a focused comparison of two or more sources.

At the end of unit 2 (Origins/Theories) and unit 3 (Approaches/Methods) you will complete a short response paper drawing from one of the specific prompts below. These prompts are designed to focus your attention on how different theorists of religion approach the same topic or idea and hopefully reveal something about how and why the study of religion unfolds in the way it does. These responses are due by 5pm on Fri., Oct. 11 and Fri., Nov. 15.

Unit 2 prompts:

a. David Hume proposed "polytheism or idolatry" as the original form of religion; E.B. Tylor proposed "savage animism, founded on a doctrine of souls." What do these respective theories about the original form of religion assume about human nature and progress? Which makes more sense to you upon first reading?

b. Sigmund Freud called religious ideas "illusions, fulfilments of the oldest and must urgent wishes of mankind." Emile Durkheim wrote that "nearly all the great social institutions have been born in religion." What do these descriptions of religion assume about human nature and progress? Which makes more sense to you upon first reading?

Unit 3 prompts:

Robert Orsi wrote: "The discipline of Religious Studies has always been organized around a distinct set of moral values and judgments." Compare the "moral values and judgments" as you perceive them in two of the following authors by trying to deduce how each feels (positively or negatively) about religion as a category of human life: Marx, Geertz, Asad, Eliade

Mircea Eliade explained his work in this way: "Our primary concern is to present the specific dimensions of religious experience." Choosing two of the following authors, explain what "specific dimension" occupies them and what this focus might tell us about why they study religion: Marx, Geertz, Barrett, Orsi.