Studying religion

This unit will give you an opportunity to think about some of...

This unit will give you an opportunity to think about some of the key concepts and methods of the discipline of Religious Studies. You will meet examples of different forms of religious practice and belief, mostly from Britain and India.

When you have completed this unit you should:

be able to discuss some of the ways in which the concept of ‘religion’ has been and is used in the study of religion;
have gained some practical experience in the study of religion through exploring examples of religious activity in Britain and India on ‘special days’;
be able to identify and to evaluate critically the motives, concerns and methods that typically distinguish the academic study of religion known as religious studies from other approaches to religious belief and practice.

By: The Open University

Duration: 20 hours
Published on: Monday 20th June 2011
Level: Introductory
Posted under: Religious Studies

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Studying religion

Introduction

This unit will give you an opportunity to think about some of the key concepts and methods of the discipline of religious studies. You will meet examples of different forms of religious practice and belief, mostly from Britain and India, and will compare the ways in which boundaries are drawn (or not drawn) between what is held to be ‘religious’ and ‘non-religious’ in two different societies.

The aim of this unit is to explore three key questions:

Why study religion?
What is religion?
How should religion be studied?

The unit begins with a series of video clips on religion in Liverpool.

This material is from our archive and is an adapted extract from An introduction to the humanities (A103) which is no longer taught by The Open University. If you want to study formally with us, you may wish to explore other courses we offer in this subject area [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

Next: Learning outcomes