Reflection 18/02/19

This past week in class we have been able to see the presentations of the other groups and their case studies. Seeing these case studies I saw the different ways in which people experience religion. Each case study studied different religions and meeting places of those religions and covered a wide range of ways that people experienced and sought out information. The case study that interested me was Marion Goldman’s Passionate Journeys. This one struck me because it showed me a point of view that I had never considered before and a new way of presenting information. The way that the women were able to find their freedom and fulfillment in life from Baghwan’s teachings and center made me think about the reason that people look for different things in religion than I have been shown in my life. This is something that I saw in the presentation on Lyn Davidman’s Tradition in a Rootless World. In my experience, religion has been something that people use to explain the world around them, an exploration of the unknown. I’ve never looked at as a way of providing meaning and structure to one’s life. Looking through religious experiences through this lens has helped me to broaden my views on religion and reinforce the idea that each individual is seeking something different in their life. The structure of Goldman’s book also struck me as it provided a new way of sharing information. The use of the composites allowed the reader to connect fully with the women being discussed as connecting to the life of an individual is much easier than to a group of people. Learning about these composites, even second hand, I was able to understand the decisions of many different women and experience a different point of view. Which helped me to my earlier revelation.