Religion through Ritual

Abstract

This chapter addresses the ramifications of, as well as strategies for, teaching ritual as a central feature of religion. This marks an important change in the approach to teaching both religion and ritual, and one of the functions of this book is to address specific issues that this change poses to teachers and scholars. It is a continual challenge to imagine how to teach religion, using ritual, in introductory courses, in courses on specific traditions, and in advanced classes that include more of the theory of the field and extended individual projects. Teaching religion with a significant focus on ritual does not merely challenge the tradition of thinking about religion; it challenges every religion major to try to make sense of discrepancies in views about religion that they learn from other faculties