Given your study, offer and defend a definition of
“Religion.”
Over the last seven weeks you have studied the major religions of the world as well as other minor religions.
Some of the ideas you had about what religious people believe or do may have been illustrated or clarified.
Other ideas may have been disproved or cast aside. No doubt, you have discovered the difficulties of defining
religion. Given your study, offer and defend a definition of “Religion.” Out of your readings and studying:
- Develop a well-rounded definition of religion. The definition should be as comprehensive as possible and
should evidence that you read and comprehended the assigned materials. - Analyze your definition.
a. Explain why you included and/or excluded what you did?
b. What are the strengths of your definition?
c. What are the weaknesses of your definition? (What does it leave out?) - Now that you have analyzed your definition, how might you tweak it to make it stronger?
This essay requires specific examples for support of your definition gathered from across the religions of the
world. The examples you use will demonstrate your grasp of world religions. Using a breadth of examples from
across the religions we studied will demonstrate greater mastery of the material and will yield a higher grade.
Your essay should be between 600-1000 words. No essay should exceed 1200 words.
