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INSTRUCTIONS:
This take-home exam covers the assigned readings from the beginning of
the semester through the materials assigned for September 29 " Religion,
aging, and health connections: A preview." Answer three of the following
questions. In an organized but succinct essay, you should be able
to satisfactorily answer each question in 4-5 typewritten pages; please
do not go beyond this page limitation. If your original draft is
longer, edit and tighten your argument. If it is too brief, rethink
your strategy and consider a competitive explanation to the one(s) already
presented. For each essay, draw upon the available course material
and use (and cite) at least 3 readings. Completed
exams are due by the end of the day (4 pm) of October 8.
1. Choose one. a. Simmel (p.108-09) writes: “The faith that has come to be regarded as the essence and substance of religion is first of all a relationship between human beings; for this relationship is a matter of practical faith and by no means merely a lower form, or attenuation, of theoretical belief…. In all this there is a peculiar mixture of faith as a way of “knowing” with practical impulses and emotional feelings.” [italics original]b. Berger (p. 88-89) writes: “’Other worlds’ are not empirically available for the purposes of scientific analysis. Or, more accurately, they are only available as meaning enclaves within this world, the world of human experience in nature and history. As such, they must be analyzed as are all other human meanings, that is, as elements of the socially constructed world.” [italics original]What does this mean? Your responsibility is to explain Simmel’s idea to a naïve audience who has not read the materials assigned in the seminar. So, perhaps, imagine your audience to be a small cluster of Holy Cross students who are attending a day colloquium on Religion & Modernity. Choose any two. 2. Johnstone contends that faith is a common ingredient in relationships between people, and much of our interaction is founded on faith. Peter Berger directs us to see how religious mystification can alienate and facilitate a further process of falsification described as “bad faith.” To understand Johnstone’s and Berger’s premise, you certainly need to appreciate the “social construction of reality” perspective. Most people are not familiar with this perspective, but most can intuitively understand it. Develop an essay that provides to original illustrations of how mystification alienates and falsifies. 3. Jeffrey Levin’s 1994 article in asks if there is an association between religion and health, and if so, is it valid? He argued that the answer to his first question is a “guarded yes” and “probably” best answers his second question. Do you agree? Drawing on Rowe & Kahn’s discussion of the important of “connectedness” to elders’ health and your other readings, develop an essay that either extends or critiques Levin’s assessment of the ways religion and health are linked. [Footnote: The question of causality is not a concern; I prefer to agree with Peter Berger’s view that it isn’t any sloppiness in thinking, rather there is an intrinsic “dialecticity” to these phenomena and, thus, religions might affect aging as much as aging might affect religion.] 4. We have read several articles and one book which address how individuals life trajectory could be characterized as “successful aging.” Develop an essay, which distinguishes successful aging from normal, usual aging. Imagine the essay as something you might read to a group of students in the early weeks of their “introductory” social gerontology course. 5. As we learn, new information routinely displaces myths and misinformation. You have been confronted with new information about religion, faith, and aging since the semester began. Develop an essay addressing common sense myths about religious experience and spirituality. Have the essay identify and debunk at least three myths that others commonly hold regarding the meaning of “being religious.” 6. In an essay, develop a tread that links the following comments: “A fundamental observation is that individuals internalize the religion of their group essentially the same way they learn the language of their culture, or their sex role, or the lifestyle of their social class” (Johnstone, p. 69). “Although the role of religion in fostering coherence has received little direct scrutiny, researchers frequently have suggested that strong religious beliefs and experiences may deepen this sense of meaning and comprehensibility…” (Ellison, p. 82) |
