Look back at Units 1 – 4, at the definitions for religion we’ve considered as well as the ways religion impacts life globally

Week 5 Complete

Look back at Units 1 – 4, at the definitions for religion we’ve considered as well as the ways religion impacts life globally. Review as well the particular religions we’ve taken time to examine — among them Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.  In Unit 5 we have considered the religion of Islam, its origins, the Five Pillars that structure the lives of believers and the implications for culture and for daily life that emerge out of adherence to this religion. For your Unit 5 Complete assignment, you will write a comprehensive APA narrative analysis utilizing all the knowledge you have gained in REL 2050 and demonstrating your command of the central concepts and key information we’ve covered in all five units this term.

Your narrative should address all of the elements listed below and should use what you’ve learned from READ and ATTEND sections throughout the course (including Unit 5), be well-researched and contain, at a minimum 1000 words.  Be sure, in addition to course materials, that you engage — at a minimum — three scholarly sources. You should feel free to draw on sources for illustration and to support your discussion that are not scholarly — but these must be in addition to the three required sources, and must also be carefully cited. Do not self-plagiarize from the previous weeks. 

NOTE: Upon completion you will click on the Dropbox tab to submit your paper for grading. Remember to use your last name as part of the file name for the file you submit to the Dropbox.

•     Select one of the challenges of Islam (and of one other religion of your choice) in the modern world; research in the Bethel library holdings, and on the Internet, and discover how this particular challenge is being met in major Muslim societies today (be specific). Do the same with your second religion.

•     Consider one particular practice you believe important within Islam you believe also influential in the second religion you are investigating and vital to the faith of at least some believers (you may focus your narrative on a particular branch, denomination, school of thought, or sect). Provide a summary describing the practice as observed in each of the two faiths – how it developed, and why it is significant in the lives of those who keep this practice nowadays.  

•          Consider what current generational differences in attitudes can be found toward the role of religion in personal and public life among members of each of the two groups you are investigating. Be sure to consider what might account for any differences you observe.

•     Conclude your essay briefly and specifically with your own realizations as a result of writing this narrative.