Semester 2

This blog will look at the World Religions January Term class and how the various texts of the class were evaluated for religious and theological values according to both written and oral communication skills. One aspect that I really like about World Religions was that the "texts" of the class were not limited to actual written documents, although we did look at some of those, but included a wide variety of other medium. For instance, we analyzed the Matisyahu song "Jerusalem" for a paper and listened to other audio recordings,  we visited numerous religious sites and wrote blogs combing what we had seen with what we had read and  reflecting on the experience,  and we discussed each religion with an active, practicing member of that religion, again reflecting on it in our blogs. The variety of medium that we were able to use to learn about each religion really enhanced the class and broadened our learning beyond just reading analyzing words on a page.

This is not to downplay the importance and value of reading and analyzing written religious texts because I found that to be a very valuable part of the class as well, but to stress how much the variety added to the course. In fact I wish that we had been able to read and have a day to discuss each religion before visiting the religious site because this would have helped me to come in with more informed questions and a fuller background of the religious tradition we would be visiting. This was not always possible however due to scheduling and weather constraints.

Written competency was shown most heavily through the blogs I wrote reflecting on each of the sites we had visited. I think this was a good choice of medium because we were able to use pictures to add a visual component to our reflections and share our experiences with others in the class. Written competency was also shown through papers, such as the one on Matisyahu's song mentioned earlier and through our final project. Oral competency was shown mainly through the final presentation that we gave at a nearby nursing home. For the presentation we were split up into groups of three and had to put together an oral presentation, a poster, and an experiential component. For instance my project was on Zen Buddhism and my group and I prepared a presentation about how the Japanese Tea Ceremony reflected beliefs of Zen Buddhism complete with an abbreviated reenactment of the Tea Ceremony and green tea for guests to try. I also liked that instead of presenting our projects to just our classmates, we were able to go out into the Dubuque community and present them at a nursing home there to people who hadn't had three weeks of background in world religions.

I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to take World Religions as a January Term course and for the wide variety of forms of "texts" from written to audio to visiting actual religious sites that I was able to use to evaluate the equally wide range of religious and theological values I learned about.