- An undergraduate course
in
Arts and Humanities.
Why is religion controversial?
- On this page
| Course facts | |
|---|---|
| About this course: | |
| Course code | A332 |
| Credits | 60 |
| OU Level | 3 |
| SCQF level | 10 |
| FHEQ level | 6 |
| Course work includes: | |
| 5 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) | |
| End-of-module assessment | |
| No residential school | |
This course focuses on the intricate connections between religion and controversial issues, including politics, tradition, gender, multiculturalism, animism, atheism, violence, sex and capitalism. You will study processes of upheaval and change within religious traditions and some of the complex – and sometimes clashing – local, regional and national perspectives on familiar and unfamiliar controversies. Using a mix of historical, sociological and ethnographic sources, approaches and methods, this course will help you to develop your understanding of the nature and role of ‘religion’ in historical and contemporary societies. You will make significant use of the rich resources available online via the Open University library.
Modules at Level 3 assume that you are suitably prepared for study at this level. If you want to take a single module to satisfy your career development needs or pursue particular interests, you don’t need to start at Level 1 but you do need to have adequately prepared yourself for OU study in some other way. Check with our Student Registration & Enquiry Service to make sure that you are sufficiently prepared.
Register for the course
What you will study
The study material for Why is religion controversial? is presented in four illustrated textbooks each dealing with a different aspect of religion and controversy.
Book One: Controversial Figures is about four individuals each from a different religious and cultural tradition. Two of the controversial figures, Jesus and Gandhi, are famous across the globe. The other two are less well known: Hassan al-Banna, who was the founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Regina Jonas, who is widely acknowledged to be the first woman in the world to have received formal recognition as a Jewish rabbi. These four figures allow you to explore themes that run throughout the course: continuity and change, conflicting perspectives and the very idea of ‘religion’. Only one of our figures is a woman reflecting the marginalisation of women in history, including religious history. They were all rooted firmly in a religious tradition but represent some significant challenge to and break with that tradition. All four lived through times of heightened conflict, were controversial in their lifetimes, and met violent deaths. All four have inspired devotion, and their lives have, to some extent, become overlaid by myth or hagiography. All four have come to embody tensions between religion and modernity.
Book Two: Controversial Practices interrogates the boundaries between religion, culture, power and the use of force in various forms and will challenge some widespread stereotypes. You’ll explore some of the ways in which religion has been involved in different kinds of conflict, principally during the second half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century. The book explores relationships between religion and identity in relation to a range of controversial and contested understandings of gender and community. You’ll examine multiculturalism, principally in Britain; the veiling of Islamic women; connections between religion and violence; and the sex abuse scandals in children's homes run by Catholic religious orders in the Canadian province of Newfoundland.
Book Three: Controversial Ideas starts with the ideas of some of the most influential nineteenth-century critics of Christianity. It surveys the conflicts of the past while introducing the sometimes heated scholarly debates of the present. In the second chapter you will examine the ideas of four of the ‘new atheists’ – Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris – to open avenues for critical thinking about religion and atheism. Next, in this book, you will examine cognitive approaches to religion that take the mind and mental processes as the point of departure for the practice and study of religion. Finally you will examine the "new animism". This label is given to the ways in which the indigenous communities of, for example, Canada and New Zealand understand the place of humanity in the world. You will consider ways in which this animism might contribute to debates about the global environmental crisis.
Book Four: Controversial Futures examines a constellation of anxieties and risks about the future. In the first chapter you will examine what is meant by 'modern yoga' in terms of scholarly theories about its development as a globalised phenomenon and its links to popular spirituality. Second you will be introduced to a militant and conservative style of evangelical Protestant Christianity which has become increasingly important in the USA in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. You will focus, in particular, on their beliefs and expectations about the ‘end of time’. Third you will examine the allegation often made against various groups that they ‘pick-n-mix’ eclectically from whatever sources can be appropriated. In addition to questioning the accuracy of this claim, you will consider whether any religion could exist without borrowing from others. Finally you will engage with the question of whether material possessions are detrimental to religious life; whether spiritual value and market value can coexist; and whether limiting some kinds of consumption while privileging others might be definitive of particular religious perspectives.
Throughout the course you will have access to a website which will guide you to a wealth of scholarly resources. You will find a range of audio and visual material including original footage from India, Canada and Germany, as well as specially produced interviews with academic experts and religious practitioners. You will be assisted to develop the necessary independent skills to access appropriate electronic books and journal articles via the Open University library so that you can follow up on your own interests. The course will culminate with an extended essay in which you will be able to demonstrate those skills.
You will learn
You will learn to develop your general thinking, study and communication skills and, in particular:
- ways to analyse the complex, subtle and sometimes controversial ways in which religious ideas and practices are embedded in society and culture
- some of the ways in which religious ideas and practices reproduce and destabilise societal and cultural norms
- the range of levels – individual, community, national and global – at which religious ideas and practices are significant
- how to analyse the extent to which translation and communication of religious ideas can cause misunderstanding, tension, conflict and controversy
- how to think clearly and in an informed way about a subject acknowledged to be of growing importance in today’s world.
Entry
This is a Level 3 course. Level 3 courses build on the skills and subject knowledge acquired from studies at Levels 1 and 2. They are intended only for students who have recent experience of higher education in a related subject.
The Level 2 course Introducing religions (A217) would be ideal preparation for this course, although it is not a formal requirement. It provides an introduction to the study of religions, using appropriate technical language and methodologies through exploration of the major features of six religious traditions including their historical development, beliefs and social forms. If you are not intending to study A217 please see the Preparatory work section below.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
Preparatory work
If you have not studied the Level 2 course Introducing religions or previously studied religion at a comparable academic level, you are advised to do some preparatory reading.
Why is religion controversial? will not provide you with background information about the practices and beliefs of religious traditions and the ways in which we study them in universities. You should therefore read introductory textbooks about Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism before you begin. A good place to start would be the Oxford University Press, Very Short Introductions series.
Regulations
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the Module Regulations and the Student Regulations which are available on our Essential documents website.
If you have a disability
Written transcripts of any audio components and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of printed material are available. Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader. Other alternative formats of the course materials may be available in the future. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.
If you have particular study requirements please tell us as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Visit our Services for disabled students website for more information, including:
- help to determine your study requirements and how to request the support that you need
- Disabled Students' Allowances (DSAs)
- using a computer for OU study
- equipment and other support services that we offer
- examination arrangements
- how to contact us for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.
Study materials
What's included
Course textbooks and a website with interactive audio and visual material, and access to a range of scholarly resources including journals and electronic books.
You will need
You will need a headset with a microphone and earphones to record the audio presentation component of the second tutor-marked assignment (TMA).
Computing requirements
You will need a computer with internet access to study this course as it includes online activities, which you can access using a web browser.
- If you have purchased a new desktop or laptop computer since 2007 you should have no problems completing the online activities.
- If you’ve got a netbook, tablet or other mobile computing device check our Technical requirements section.
- If you use an Apple Mac you will need OS X 10.6 or later.
You can also visit the Technical requirements section for further computing information including the details of the support we provide.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You will have a tutor who will help you with the study material and mark and comment on your written work, and whom you can ask for advice and guidance. We may also be able to offer group tutorials, day schools, and online tutorials that you are encouraged, but not obliged, to attend. Where your tutorials are held will depend on the distribution of students taking the course.
Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.
Assessment
The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above.
You will be expected to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) online through the eTMA system unless there are some difficulties which prevent you from doing so. In these circumstances, you must negotiate with your tutor to get their agreement to submit your assignment on paper.
Assessment is an essential part of the teaching, so you are expected to complete it all. You will be given more information when you register.
Future availability
The details given here are for the course that starts in October 2013. We expect it to be available once a year.
How to register
To register a place on this course return to the top of the page and use the Click to register button.
Distance learning
The Open University is the world’s leading provider of flexible, high quality distance learning. Unlike other universities we are not campus based. You will study in a flexible way that works for you whether you’re at home, at work or on the move. As an OU student you’ll be supported throughout your studies – your tutor or study adviser will guide and advise you, offer detailed feedback on your assignments, and help with any study issues. Tuition might be in face-to-face groups, via online tutorials, or by phone.
For more information read Distance learning explained.
Undergraduate
| Course facts | |
|---|---|
| About this course: | |
| Course code | A332 |
| Credits | 60 |
| OU Level | 3 |
| SCQF level | 10 |
| FHEQ level | 6 |
| Course work includes: | |
| 5 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) | |
| End-of-module assessment | |
| No residential school | |
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