Religious Textual Analysis

This class is all about interfaith discussions and how to engage them in our lives. For this class we had two major assignments. The first one was to go to a different person’s religious service and reflect on it. The second one was to spend an entire day in a different religion. In this paper I will discuss the two and relate them back to the books, movies, and speakers that played a role in our class. For the first assignment I went to a reformed Jewish temple called Temple B’nai Israel is was not what I was expecting, but it was definitely different. For my second assignment I wore a hijab for one day, people left me with lots of warnings to watch out for. I will take these two events and relate them to one another through other things
For this class we read, Deep Religious Pluralism by David Ray Griffin, Understanding Interreligious Relations by David Cheetham, and Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel. Each of these books has a different focus the Deep Religious pluralism book focuses on a Whiteheadian theology, the Understanding Interreligious Relations is about understanding different religions and how can work well with one another, and Acts of Faith is about Eboo Patel and his story. Though these books it has been easier to help us to understand different ways to involve others in an interreligious
This book was written for more of the common reader instead of a text book. That gave the book a completely different feel and made it easier to read. This book focuses on the idea of what it is like to grow up in a minority religion and overcome obstacles. When we are from a different religion than the majority it is easy to feel like we are alone and find it hard to fit in places. Eboo was a minority of a minority in a heavy populated Christian nation. He took the struggles that happened because of this and used them to create something that is pretty cool. I feel like this is what the assignments that we did were supposed to help us to create something wonderful. I think from the experiences that I had because of this class I will begin to make a difference, but more than likely not create anything as wonderful as the IFYC. By participating in other religions practices I will change parts of my faith and help me worship in a stronger way. It might also let other people feel comfortable asking questions as to why I do what I do and where it comes from. That is all the difference that I think I will make through continuing on through this class. So, I am not going to be as powerful as Eboo Patel when it comes to interfaith work, but because of him and this book I will be able feel better telling my