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| Religion in Personal Writing | |
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| Introduction: How do individuals write about religion? | |
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| from The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-Three Women Search for Understanding | |
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| Three mothers form a group to learn, and to help their children learn, about each other's faith | |
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| "Physics and Grief" | |
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| Monaghan struggles to find meaning in the death of her husband | |
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| "The Water Will Hold You" | |
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| The writer tries to find comfort in prayer as her mother battles a terminal illness | |
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| from The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness | |
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| During a trip to Jerusalem, the author discovers beauty and compassion not only in her own religion of Christianity, but also in the unfamiliar faiths of Judaism and Islam | |
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| Connecting the Readings | |
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| Writing Projects | |
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| For Further Reading | |
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| Religion in Sacred Writing | |
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| Introduction: How do stories create and affirm religious belief? | |
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| Judaism: from the Torah (JPS) | |
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| The story of Abraham commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac | |
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| Christianity: from the New Testament (NSRV) | |
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| The Sermon on the Mount and the Parable of the Good Samaratin | |
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| Islam: from the Qur'an | |
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| The story of Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers | |
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| Hinduism: from The Bhagavad Gita | |
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| The story of Krisha revealing himself to the warrior Arjuna | |
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| Buddhism: from Dhammapada by Siddhartha Gautama | |
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| The story of Siddhartha's birth, temptation, and discovery of suffering in the world | |
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| Taoism: from Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu | |
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| The riddles of the Tao: If the Tao can be understood, then it is not the Tao | |
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| Connecting the Readings | |
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| Writing Projects | |
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| For Further Reading | |
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| Religion in Academic Writing | |
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| Introduction: How do academic disciplines write about matters of religion? | |
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| Literary Studies: Jack Miles, "Can God's Life Be Written?" from God: A Biography | |
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| The author explores God as a character who is unlike any other character | |
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| Religious Studies: Elaine Pagels and Karen King, "Reading Judas" from Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity | |
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| Two scholars investigate the recent discovery of a new, unknown gospel and consider its implications | |
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| Cognitive Science: Steven Pinker, "The Evolutionary Psychology of Religion" | |
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| The author-using biology, psychology, and neuroscience-explores how the human brain is "wired" to form beliefs | |
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| Sociology: Christian Smith et al., from "Mapping American Adolescent Subjective | |
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| Religiosity and Attitudes of Alienation toward Religion" in the journal Sociology of Religion | |
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| Researchers survey the attitudes of teenagers and college students | |
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| Psychology: Paul Harris and Melissa Koenig, from "Trust in Testimony: How Children Learn about Science and Religion" in the journal Child Development | |
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| Two researchers perform experiments with children to find out at what stage of development human beings form beliefs | |
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| Economics: Laurence R. Iannaccone, "Progress in the Economics of Religion." | |
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| An economist proposes that economics can be used to understand religious choices and the "marketplace" of religion | |
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| Questions about Content and Rhetorical Analysis | |
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| Connecting the Readings | |
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| Writing Projects | |
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| For Further Reading | |
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| Religion in Public Issues | |
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| Introduction: How are issues of religion written about in a pluralistic society? | |
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| What should the role of religion be in American society? | |
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| "Take Back the Faith" | |
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| "One Nation Under Secularism" | |
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| "Atheists' Bleak Alternative" | |
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| Student Essay, "Is the U.S. a Christian Nation?" | |
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| This chapter presents two readings from a liberal perspective and two from a conservative perspective | |
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| What is our responsibility to the environment? | |
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| Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action, by the Evangelical Climate Initiative | |
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| The Cornwall Declaration, by the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation | |
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| Two organizations take conservative and progressive approaches to the environment | |
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| Should Evolution and Intelligent Design be Taught in Schools? | |
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| "Teach Evolution, and Ask Hard Questions" | |
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| "To Debate or Not to Debate Intelligent Design?" | |
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| Stanley Fish, "Academic Cross-Dressing: How Intelligent Design Gets its Arguments from the Left" | |
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| Two professors-one in the sciences and one in the humanities-argue that schools should "teach the conflict" of evolution vs. intelligent design. A third professor explores the rhetoric of that argument | |
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| Is a Religious Display on Public Property Acceptable? | |
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| "Why the Commandments Make for Such Messy Law" | |
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| An expert on law explores the strengths and weaknesses of both sides of the argument: should the Ten Commandments be displayed on public property? | |
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| Is there a "Culture War"? | |
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| "This Season's War Cry: Commercialize Christmas, or Else" | |
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| "The Lord of Misrule is Coming to Town" | |
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| Is Christmas being banned from stores, schools, and public property? Two writers with different political perspectives debate this question about Christmas | |
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| Questions about Content and Rhetorical Analysis | |
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| Connecting the Readings | |
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| Writing Projects | |
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| For Further Reading | |
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| Religion in Our World | |
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| Introduction: How will we write about religion in the coming years? | |
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| Popular Culture | |
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| Student Essay, "E-Faith in the Shopping Mall" | |
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| The writer explores the impact of new developments such as electronic Bibles, video games, web sites, and mega-churches | |
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| Islam | |
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| "How Does It Feel?" | |
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| The author describes what life is like for a Muslim in the U.S. after 9/11 | |
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| "Muslims in America" | |
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| A professor of Islamic studies describes Muslim communities and their struggle against prejudice | |
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| Science | |
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| "E.T. and God" | |
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| A scientists speculates: if we find life elsewhere in the universe, what effect will that discovery have on faith and religion here on earth? | |
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| "Is God an Accident?" | |
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| A scientist wonders how science in the future might discover why belief exists | |
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| Questions about Content and Rhetorical Analysis | |
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| Connecting the Readings | |
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| Writing Projects | |
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| For Further Reading | |