Final Reflection Paper

Final Reflection Paper

Introduction

This course has developed a great understanding of the various religions that are in practice around the world. The course gave an opportunity to look at the religious diversity existing around us and observe the cultural and religious expressions associated with each religion. The discussion and debates surrounding the issues were really thought provoking. The readings provided further helped in enlightening us about the world religions. Many concerns were raised during the observations of the various cultural and religious expressions in the light of the readings. In short, the course has been a truly mind opening experience in terms of the concepts related to various religions. It gave me a chance to explore the strategies that might be beneficial for societies served by Pastors if implemented.

Discussion

From the beginning to the end of the course, there were many instances that I found to be really interesting as well as enlightening. The reading documents helped in a very effective manner in the understanding and reinforcement of the concepts that we studied in class. The texts were easier to understand and provided examples side by side which made it very easy to grab the concepts. We studied about some of the dominant religions of the world which included Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism and the dominant values and cultural traditions in each.

The book World Religions by Mathews was one of the most comprehensive books on the subject. This useful book has helped immensely in the understanding of the richness and diversity found in the world in terms of religion. The comparative analysis of religions and the way it shows how a common set of ten themes are present in each tradition. These commonalities are quite significant and awareness of them can help in the suggestions for communal changes for the benefit of societies. Further, the text provides some wonderful photos, maps, excerpts from texts and many other similar things that aid in the deeper understanding of the concepts. The book also encourages dialogue by the survey that it gives of the world religions and many differences that lie within them.

Barbara's book, Many People many Faiths is another relevant book that provided a lot of factual information and supplemented the understanding further. Reading this book was a really enjoyable experience since it provided critical religious issues present in the world and also ways to tackle them. Role of women in different religions and current religious movements are also presented that added to the knowledge further. The most important thing about the book is that in each chapter there is a section that describes the experiences of the believers of each religion in the context of United States and the subsequent effects of their culture on the American Society in particular. Also the response of religion in the wake of developments in different areas of science and technology are presented in the book. The reflections on the impact and development of Christianity and Islam in other parts of the ...