Religion - Topic One

1. Tutorial One

2. Course Coordinator Tutor
Maria Parlato Mary Taylor
CQU Shalom College
Emerald Q 4670 Bundaberg Q 4670
m.parlato@cqu.edu.au cjmttaylor@gmail.com
cjmttaylor@bigpond.com

3.  Attend tutorials – email me if you can’t make it,
should attend at least 80%,
 Participate in tutorials
 Read lecture notes and readings
 Complete assignments on time
 Follow uni procedures for extensions etc
 PLEASE sit in the centre of the room.
 Be polite and considerate
 Please check uni email regularly

4.  A Bible – lots of versions available, I like
Jerusalem Bible but Good News is good for use in
schools with Primary students. Please treat it with
respect.
 Quite a lot of Apps available

5. RELG19001 Tutorial Timetable
Date – week Uni Week Tutorial
starting
27 Feb 1 One
5 March 2 Two
12 March 3 Three
19 March 4 Four
26 March 5 Five
2 April Vacation Vacation
9 April 6 Easter Monday AT1 13 April
16 April 7 Six
23 April 8 Seven
30 April 9 Eight
7 May 10 Holiday
14 May 11 Nine
AT2 25 May
21 May 12 Ten

6. AT1
- Online Quiz – compulsory, non-graded, to be
completed during weeks 1 – 13 April
PLUS
- Three skill development activities - graded

7. AT2
- Critical essay on ONE of six possible topics
I will cover in tutorials what is expected in
assessment tasks so it is to your advantage to
listen carefully.

8.  “respect for each other and our different religious
experiences, beliefs and practices (or lack of
them) is not just an optional extra in undertaking
this course but a clear necessity”
 “may turn out to be more about raising questions
then providing answers.”
(from Lecture Notes)

9.  Please tell us:
- your name
- your course
- one thing about you

10.  Several people may
have the same experience
but perceive it differently
– we have our own unique
‘lens’.
 Hugh Mackay quote
from lecture notes.

11.  “We are all prisoners of our experience, which is
another way of saying that we bring all our
yesterdays into today to try to make sense of
what is happening to us. Our discoveries, our
learnings, our decisions gradually evolve into a
recognisable pattern, a framework or a
‘worldview’. Once that framework has begun to
develop, we tend to see the world in a highly
subjective and selective way, because we see it
through the filter of our convictions, our own
prejudices, our own point of view.”

12.  Jane Elliot’s A Class Divided
 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d10_1232295846

13. So….
(1) Our experience shapes us and how we view our
experiences.
(2) Learning takes place through our actual
experiences and what we come to know
indirectly.
(3) We can choose to be open to new experiences
and new interpretations of old experiences.

14.  What is religion?
 Streng (1985, p2) says “Religion is a means
to ultimate transformation”
- experienced through a particular system of faith
and worship
- people feel compelled to try to live in the
framework of awareness and may express this
through participating in sacred rites, performing
ethical acts etc.
 Results in the person feeling spiritually
whole.

15.  Religion is also part of culture – it has an effect on
culture and culture on it.
 Religion is a world wide phenomenon.

19.  5 world religions are considered to be the most
popular – list them.
 Which religion do more Australians claim affiliation
with?
 What percentage of Australians affiliate with this
religion?

20.  Christians 33.32% (of which Roman Catholics 16.99%, Protestants 5.78%,
Orthodox 3.53%, Anglicans 1.25%),
 Muslims 21.01%,
 Hindus 13.26%,
 Buddhists 5.84%,
 Sikhs 0.35%, Jews 0.23%, Baha'is 0.12%, other
religions 11.78%, non-religious 11.77%, atheists
2.32% (2007 est.)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktt0Nvx5IhE -Earth Religion 5000 Years
Time Lapse Map

21.  In 2001 (in 1901)
 Christianity 68% (96.1%)
 Other 4.9 (1.41%)
 No religion 15.5 (0.18%)
 Not stated 11.7 (1.49%)
ABS census data
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/46d1bc47ac9d0c7bca256
c470025ff87/bfdda1ca506d6cfaca2570de0014496e!OpenDocument

22.  When people have religious experiences they often
reflect on them and tell others about them. They
gather together, sharing and comparing their different
responses to these with one another.
 These stories are handed from one group to another
and from one generation to another. Each new group
or new generation retells and reinterprets these in
light of their own experience.

23.  The act of writing may distort the very story it is
trying to preserve. (lecture notes)
 The article by Morris makes significant points in
regard to this.
 When reading religious texts it is important to
know who wrote the text, for whom was it written
and the cultural context at the time.

24.  Oral and written stories that become the
foundation for the development of a particular
religion or spirituality. (Lecture notes)
 Can you identify the foundational texts for the
following religions – Christianity, Judaism, Islam,
Hinduism, Buddhism?

25.  Christianity - the Bible

26.  Judaism – the Torah, book of Prophets and the
Writings ( referred to as Scriptures in Jesus’
time, Christians refer to these as Old Testament)

27.  Islam – Qur’an (Koran)

28.  Hinduism – Vedas and Brahmanas

29.  Buddhism – the teachings of Gautama Buddha
and the Tripitaka

30.  “..new times bring different challenges,
experiences and stories, as well as different
understandings and interpretations of past
events and stories. For this reason then, oral
stories and written texts are very much ‘alive’,
being heard/read anew by people at different
times, in different cultural contexts and in
response to different needs and issues.”
(Lecture notes)

31.  Modern day issues and problems can be looked
at in light of these foundational texts and
solutions can be found.
 E.g. Embryonic stem cell research, gay
marriage, cloning, – not issues in ancient times.

32.  Theology is our attempt to bring our
experience of God to some intellectual
expression.
 Without faith there is no religion and without
religion there is no theology.
Faith is a personal experiential knowledge of
God.
Religion is the institutionalized, external
expression of the faith.
And theology is the attempt to understand the
symbols, myths, rituals and metaphors of
religion. (Coll,1994, p6)

33.  Theology – name given to the ‘talking about
God’ that occurs as people struggle to find the
language to describe and develop their beliefs
and understandings about God.
 Ongoing theological traditioning processes.
 Ongoing history of interpretations and
reinterpretations of these texts.
 Changing historical/social/cultural conditions
have initiated different experiences and
worldwide views and, understandably, different
theologies. (Lecture notes)

34.  Think about how women are viewed in society
has changed over time. At the time some of
these texts were written the social norm of the
time was that women were considered as much
lesser beings than men.
 Liberation theology
 Feminist theology

35.  We have to acknowledge that we all have our
own experiences which shape our view of the
world.
 Religious experience is different for everyone
but there are similarities – we tend to gather with
those who have had similar experiences.
 Foundational texts – past stories, still relevant
today and will continue to interpreted for future
issues.

36.  To ensure access to a Bible, bring next week.
 Spend sometime getting to know the layout and
how to look up references.
 Read Genesis Chapters 1 and 2