Table of Contents
The study of religion is an academic discipline involving religious institutional beliefs and behaviors. Compared to theology, it does not dwell on the attempts to understand the supernatural. Religious studies attempt to understand, interpret, and explain the historical and social impact of faith or one’s belongingness to a religious group.
See the fact file below for more information on Religious Studies Curriculum or alternatively, you can download our 15-page Seasons Curriculum worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.
Key Facts & Information
Short video explainer
- Before we start, watch a short and simple video explainer about Religious studies found on the PDF download.
What to Consider
- Multiple perspectives – Religious studies can be seen through various lenses such as philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and psychology. Religion is a fundamentally contested concept.
- Religion is part of a culture – Similar to language, values, and traditions, religion is part of one’s culture. It is a tool for us to understand other people’s values and societies.
- Learning second-order concepts – In addition to understanding and comprehension, learners are expected to analyze and find connections and relationships within the diaspora of religion.
- Goal – Religious studies is challenging to teach due to the societal stigma created, and not legal boundaries. Learning religious studies aims to eliminate discrimination and intolerance and not impose a specific belief system.
- Use of historical events – Unlike theology, which tries to comprehend the supernatural, religious studies can explore the development of major religions across history and how they impacted societies today.
- If you’re looking for ideas on how to celebrate religions from around the world, you might find this article of ours useful. Similarly, teaching religious studies is about developing empathy and tolerance towards difference, and you’ll get loads of useful information from our article on teaching empathy.
How to deliver
- First, teaching and learning religion in schools is legal. However, like politics, racism, and sex education, religion remains a sensitive and complicated topic to discuss in classrooms. As teachers, we should not be limited by the fear of retribution or criticisms we might get from discussing religion.
- Before exploring the features of various religions, we need to be clear that the definition of religion changes over time and may be different from who is talking. For example, in the late 19th century, anthropologists such as E. B. Tyler defined religion as believing in supernatural beings. Early anthropologists thought that animism was the root of all religion.
- Like other developmental topics in history, we can introduce religious studies using a timeline to show the chronology of events. In this sense, when we say chronology, we do not refer to specific dates in time. Discussion can be as simple as retelling the era when people believed that all things represented spirits.
- We may start with how the people during the Stone Age used the experiences for survival. On top of their priority to eat, hunter-gatherers identified what are poisonous or satisfying through their experience. They believed that things that surrounded them, such as the sun, sky, fire, stones, wind, rivers, trees, and the moon were animate beings with spirits.
- Things or events that they couldn’t explain were associated with the will of the spirits or gods. For example, thunder and fire were viewed as a form of magic. Since then, storytelling about things they couldn’t explain, such as the creation, began to flourish.
- As time passed, scholars criticized Tyler’s definition of religion as too simplistic. For sociologists such as Emile Durkheim, he defined religion as a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite in one single moral community called a church all those who adhere to them. Durkheim emphasized religion as an institution in every society.
- Due to its complexity, another philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein compared religion to games with various rules and features but may share a family resemblance.
- Despite being defined mainly by Western scholars, learning about religion opens our understanding to Eastern, Western, and Indigenous cultures. Many of our learners may assume that there are only Catholic Christians or being a Muslim is a religion. We may clarify this by presenting a map showing our students the diverse religion worldwide.
- Moreover, all religions are guided by scriptures or tenets that believers consider being the pillar of their faith or belief system. With no intentions of questioning their faiths, it is essential to impart to our students the historical and socio-cultural basis of specific practices such as washing and functions of the hands, avoiding particular foods, and following a list of commandments.
- Considered a sacred ritual in almost all major religions, washing or ablution was also a hygienic custom. For Muslims, cleanliness is a branch of their faith. As mentioned in the hadith,
“There are ten demands of pure nature: trimming the mustache, letting the beard grow, suing miswak, snuffing up water into the nose (during ablution), paring the nails, washing the bases of the finger joints; plucking the underarm hair, removing the pubic hair and removing impurities with water from the affected part after a call of nature.”
- Ablutions are practiced by almost all religious traditions such as in Judaism (tevilah and netilat yadayim), Orthodox Judaism (mikveh), Christianity (rinsing of hands following the act of Communion), Hinduism (abhisheka), and Buddhism (funerals).
- Known as kashrut, observant Jews follow dietary laws. Jews believe that a list of food suitable for consumption is called kosher based on the Torah. Based on archeological evidence, non-kosher foods such as fish without scales and pork were heavily eaten in ancient Judean settlements in Israel in the 8th century BCE. Scholars believed that the prohibitions and laws were written by the few literates who mainly categorized clean and unclean animals and were associated with social classes and maintaining Israel’s status as the chosen people.
- Moreover, historical scholars such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe suggest that religious tenets like the Ten Commandments evolved from ritualistic to more ethical. Some argued that the commandments attempt to preserve social harmony by prohibiting people from committing murder, theft, and adultery. On the other hand, some believed that it focused on the proper worship of Yahweh.
- In addition to language, tradition, and values, religion is a cultural construct many may see as a barrier amongst people throughout history. For example, the First Crusade launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II called Christians in Europe to secure their holy sites against the Muslims. This movement marked the beginning of the centuries-long conflict between Christians and Muslims, not only in Jerusalem but also in many parts of the world where conflict may exist.
- Another example was the persecution of Jews in the Medieval period. Anti-semitism in Europe had been a long-standing part of Jewish history. In 1290, an Edict of Expulsion banished all Jews in England. In 1396, about 100,000 Jews were sacked from France. In 1421, thousands were forced to flee from Austria. Dreadful events in history such as the Black Death and Christian murders in Europe blamed the entire Jewry. Despite being victims of the plague, they were accused of poisoning the wells and spreading disease. In contemporary history, Nazism in Germany exterminated about 6 million European Jews.
- If we studied the long history of conflicts between Christians and Muslims and Jews and Christians, it is not a secret that religious differences were not the only reasons for these bloodsheds. Political, economic, and territorial ambitions played critical roles in these conflicts, often coated with a more powerful tool to persuade people – religion.
- People with limited knowledge and insufficient analysis of these events are more vulnerable to religious-based prejudice and hate. Incidents of hate crimes against Muslims in the US became more pronounced after the 9/11 attack in 2001. Anti-semitism in the US tripled in 2021 following the Israel-Gaza violence.
- As teachers and parents, we can break the religious-based stigma societies have created and continue to use to separate one another.
- Most books may dwell on the gruesome events in history because the more conflict it presents, the more fascinating it is. Given the historiography, we, as teachers and parents, can always present the other beautiful side and how religion connects people. For example, the Quakers in the United States petitioned the abolition of slavery and supported the women’s suffrage movement. As a matter of fact, renowned suffragists minister Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Alice Paul were born in Quaker families. English philanthropist and prison reformer Elizabeth Fry was also a Quaker.
- Another example in American history was Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X; both were African-American ministers who became the face of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. King was a Baptist minister, while Malcolm X or Malik was the spokesperson for the Nation of Islam.
- We can also present religious studies to our learners by discovering the origins of events and holidays. For example, the history of Christmas and how the celebration differs from culture to culture. The significance of All Souls’ Day and Dia de Los Muertos to Christianity and why commemorations differ. The importance of Ramadan and Hajj to Muslims, Hanukkah and Passover to Jewish people, and Diwali to Hindus.
- It is also fascinating to relate geography to one of the most significant practices across religions. Pilgrimage is a family resemblance among Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, and Sikhs which engages them in journeys to visit their respective holy or sacred sites. Pilgrimage sites for Eastern religions can be found in Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka, while the origins of Western religions can be mapped in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Rome, and Germany.
Learning outcomes
- According to scholar Jonathan Z. Smith, religion is not a native term; it is a term created by scholars for their intellectual purposes and therefore is theirs to define. This means that religion is subjective and a generic concept that does not perfectly apply to every culture and society.
- The goal of learning religious studies is never to impose a belief system on anyone. Like other disciplines under the social sciences, it aims to deepen our understanding of others’ cultures, values, and history and eliminate intolerance and hate.
- We should never forget that prejudice and discrimination only exist to people with insufficient knowledge and understanding of other people’s backgrounds, values, and culture.
Religious Studies Curriculum Worksheets
This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about Religious Studies Curriculum across 16 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Religious Studies which is an academic discipline involving religious institutional beliefs and behaviors.
Complete List Of Included Worksheets
- Teaching Religious Studies
- Short video explainer
- What to consider
- How to deliver
- Learning outcomes
- Lesson Plan Template
- Suggested Worksheets
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Use With Any Curriculum
These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.