DAILY ASSIGNMENTS

Part II: How do scholars study religion?

Day 4, Wednesday, January 25: How do scholars study religion? Different approaches. A conversation with Dr. Simran Singh.

• Reading: James C. Livingston, “Ways of Studying Religion,” Anatomy of the Sacred, Chapter 2, pp. 15-32.
  
• *Reading: Catherine Bell, "Who Owns Tradition? Religion and the Messiness of History,” Santa Clara Lecture Series, Bannan Institute, Santa Clara University. .         .           .            .           .           .

Day 5, Monday, January 30: How do scholars study religion in the field?

Note: One of the ways that scholars study religion is by doing field research, observing religious acts, ceremonies, rituals, and analyzing the data thus obtained. For this course, you will be conducting such research by visiting five different religious sites and settings over the course of the semester. Before going on these visits, you will need to prepare yourself by learning about the religious sites, settings, and activities you will be attending, as well as learning some basic skills about how to conduct field research, including what to look for. The following two readings provide guidelines for the field research that you will soon be conducting. You should begin reading these now, completing them before the first site visit several days from now.

• Reading: Miller, Donald E. and Barry Jay Seltser, "Section Three: Field Research in Religious Studies," Writing and Research in Religious Studies, Chapters 6-10, pp. 38-89.
• Reading: Tony L. Whitehead, “Workbook for Descriptive Observations of Social Settings, Acts, Activities & Events," pp. 3-4, 6-10. Yellow-highlighted sections can be skimmed over or ignored, unless you find them helpful. While there are many typos in the document, it provides an excellent overview of the sorts of things you should note on your visits: material surroundings, type of buildings, formal and informal activities, intra-community relationships, and the like. Some of these items may not be relevant later in your specific analyses, but at least you will have notes on various aspects of your visit that may not be easy to go back to and check. As for the Whitehead reading, note especially the remarks on “Cosmological Needs,” as these are critically relevant to your project.

Day 6, Wednesday, February 1: “All religion is local”

• *Reading: Timothy Beal, “Local Landscapes: Exploring the Neighborhood,” Religion in America: A Very Short Introduction, Introduction and Chapter 1, pp. 1-28.
• *Reading: Timothy Beal, “The Big Picture: Religion in America by the Numbers, and Then Some,” Religion in America: A Very Short Introduction, Chapter 2: pp. 29-57.
• Reading: Web sites of several local religious/spiritual communities that you may want to visit for your field research. Choose around 10 web sites drawn from the master list with addresses and contact numbers available here (for an Excel sheet) and here (for a pdf), prepared by former Trinity student Ivan Novak. Or you may select other local religious/spiritual communities that you can find online that you might want to visit in person, for your field research. You should complete your initial visits to the five required religious communities no later than March 31. Additional sites you may be interested in are:

Greek Orthodox: http://www.stsophiagoc.org/
Roman Catholic: http://www.catholicearth.com/beta/profile/691san-fernando-cathedral
Corner Stone: http://www.sacornerstone.org/
Seventh-day Adventist: http://www.laurelheightssdachurch.org/        

AFTER TODAY, STUDENTS IN TEAMS OF THREE (IF POSSIBLE, OTHERWISE TEAMS OF TWO OR FOUR WILL BE ALLOWED), OVER THE NEXT SEVEN WEEKS, WILL VISIT AT LEAST THREE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES/EVENTS/CELEBRATIONS. ONE WILL INVOLVE TRADITIONS OF THE ABRAHAMIC GROUP, ONE FROM THE ASIAN, AND ONE FROM NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS. PREIODICALLY, ONE CLASS WILL BE DEVOTED TO PROGRESS REPORTS FROM THE TEAMS REGARDING THEIR VISITS, WITH IN-CLASS PEER REVIEW OF THE REPORTS.

NOTE WELL: EACH MEMBER OF EACH TEAM MUST COMPLETE THE REQUIRED VISITS AS A TEAM--NO EXCEPTIONS! TO DOCUMENT YOUR PRESENCE AT THE VARIOUS RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES AND CELEBRATIONS, YOU MUST SUBMIT A SELFIE OF THE TEAM THAT INCLUDES PROOF OF YOUR ATTENDANCE AT THE SITES. TO COMPLETE THIS REQUIREMENT (AND THE NEXT), YOU WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY NEED TO BE AVAILABLE TO MAKE SITE VISITS ON SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS.

ALSO NOTE WELL: MOST RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS/COMMUNITIES HOLD THEIR MEETINGS ON WEEKENDS. SOME ALSO HAVE MEETINGS DURING THE WEEK, BUT THESE LATTER ARE OFTEN POORLY ATTENDED--ESPECIALLY FOR LESS MAIN-STREAM RELIGIOUS GROUPS. SITE VISITS WHERE ONLY 2 TO 8 MEMBERS ARE PRESENT ARE NOT VERY SATISFACTORY, GIVEN THAT YOUR TEAM WILL LIKELY HAVE 3 MEMBERS. YOUR TEAM NEEDS TO BE A RELATIVELY SMALL MINORITY, NO MORE THAN 25% OF THE TOTAL ATTENDEES. THAT WAY, THE GROUPS REGULAR ACTIVITIES CAN OCCUR WITHOUT A MAJOR CHANGE OF FORMAT AND INTERACTION BETWEEN PARTICIPANTS. ACCORDINGLY, EVENTS THAT YOU ATTEND WITH LESS THAN 9 REGULAR MEMBERS PRESENT WILL NOT QUALIFY AS ONE OF YOUR SITE VISITS. THAT IS, THERE MUST BE AT LEAST 9 MEMBERS PRESENT IN ORDER FOR YOUR SITE VISIT TO QUALIFY. THIS IS ANOTHER REASON WHY YOU SHOULD PLAN FOR YOUR VISITS ON WEEKENDS, WHEN MOST GROUPS HAVE THEIR MAJOR MEETINGS OR CELEBRATIONS.

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