Analogous activities: Tools for thinking comparatively in religious studies courses
This article discusses an experiential teaching method that uses secular activities that are simple, accessible, and analogous to religious practice in order to facilitate comparative religious study. These "analogous activities" - for example, social rituals, stillness, yoga, a social med...
| Published in: | Teaching theology and religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
[2019]
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| In: |
Teaching theology and religion
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| RelBib Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion AH Religious education ZF Education |
| Further subjects: | B
comparative study of religion
B Experiential Learning B introductory courses B lived religions B Religious Practice |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This article discusses an experiential teaching method that uses secular activities that are simple, accessible, and analogous to religious practice in order to facilitate comparative religious study. These "analogous activities" - for example, social rituals, stillness, yoga, a social media fast, singing, nonviolent communication, and mindfulness meditation - provide a third point of reference that allows students to pivot between their understanding of religion and those of practitioners and scholars of religion. Experiential learning can be quite successful if deliberately sequenced to allow students to encounter a series of interpretive frameworks and structured with prompts and parameters that encourage reflection and critical analysis of their experience. In my course engaging in analogous activities not only impacted students' understanding of Asian religions, but also led them to question two previous assumptions: first, that religious beliefs were more important than religious practices, which is particularly problematic in regards to Asian religious traditions that place more emphasis on orthopraxy than orthodoxy, and second, that religion was something separate from one's everyday or lived reality. |
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| ISSN: | 1467-9647 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Teaching theology and religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/teth.12478 |