Humanities Homework Help
Stanford University Religious Experience Paper
Choose a worship service from a religion that is outside your own religion and foreign to your experience. The religions we are focused on this semester, other than Christianity, are Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, and Islam. Unless you are a practicing Muslim, Jew, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, or Baha’i, do not choose a Christian worship service. Christian churches include, but are not limited to, denominations such as Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Mormon, Seventh Day Adventist, Jehovah’s Witness, and non-denominational churches. If Jesus is part of their belief system, that is a Christian church. Most of you will need to observe worship in a religion other than Christianity. In order to avoid any confusion, review your choice with me and get my OK in advance.
A direct way to learn about a religion is to observe it in the midst of those who practice the religion. Many places of worship have opened back up for in-person worship as more people are vaccinated for Covid-19, however they may still have safety protocols in place. If you decide to attend and observe worship in person, be sure and check ahead of time regarding any Covid-19 or other safety protocols, and be prepared to follow them. Also confirm the time of worship, if there is a set time, and plan to arrive prior to its beginning. Be sure to allow sufficient time for travel and parking.
Otherwise, watch an on-line worship experience. Many religious communities offer virtual experiences through Facebook Live, Youtube, or Zoom. Find one of these and “attend” virtually. Please choose an experience that is either live, or recorded and posted less than a year ago.
Whether you attend in person or virtually, take note of the environment and any religious objects in use. Were other worshippers present? Was there music or chanting or prayer? What was the teaching, if any? What else did you observe? What did you learn?
Document your experience. Either take a selfie in front of the place you attend in person and include it in your post, or if you attend on-line, take a screenshot of the worship and include it and the link to the worship experience in your post. If you choose the virtual option, do notuse a video about a religion, but rather observe an entire worship experience.
Caution: making stuff up will result in lost points on your paper.
For your paper, you might consider the following questions:
How did you find this experience?
Why did you choose it?
What were your expectations?
Describe the worship space, the people, and the sacred objects.
What happened in the experience?
Describe any teachings you heard or beliefs promoted.
What questions did you have?
Would you recommend the experience to a friend?
This is a first-person paper. You will be describing your experience. Properly cite the source of your experience, using MLA format, on a Works Cited page. Except for the personal experience, no other research is required. If you do use information from a book or the internet, you must cite sources properly.
