DI3720 Religious Practices in Socio-Political Contexts

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Module description

This module offers an introduction to the study of religious practices in different areas of life. Religious practices embody beliefs through structuring particular forms of life. In many cases, they shape forms of practice beyond the explicitly religious. Taking the practices of the Christian religion as the starting point, the module explores their roots in Judaism and their interactions with social and political contexts in relation to the religious practices of other faiths. Investigating the ways in which religious practices are influenced by social and political environments and, in turn, shape their contexts is the main focus of the module. For divinity students the module opens up a way of investigating how religious beliefs practically co-determine the cultural worlds of meaning we inhabit. Students of other disciplines are invited to discover, interpret and assess the effects of religious practices on social interaction and personal formation in various fields of culture.

Intended learning outcomes

• Identify and understand religious practices as fundamental ways of structuring our embodied social and personal lives.
• Perceive communalities and differences, analogies and particularities in the practices of different religions and explore possibilities of dialogical exchange between religious traditions and their capacities to contribute to the common good of societies
• Observe the reception, appropriation and modification of religious practices in different spheres of culture: art, education, and personal lifestyles
• Reflect critically on the way political orientations comprehend, modify and utilise religious practices and so develop an independent judgment on the interrelationship between religion and politics
• Consider ways in which these interrelationships can be shaped in a beneficial way with regard to different groups in society and with regard to different societies and cultures with distinctive religious profiles and political forms of organisations