This module offers you the critical tools to think about religion and gain a deeper understanding of its place in the modern world. Three core questions are asked: what is religion, how do we study religion, and why should we study religion? It consists of four blocks of study based on the key frames of places, practices, texts and experiences. Within this structure, it also offers in-depth engagement with three broad religious traditions – Christianity, Hinduism and Islam – as well as various forms of indigenous religious traditions and contemporary spirituality. You'll study religion in social, cultural, geographical and historical contexts. You'll explore themes such as the internal diversity of religious traditions, their cross-cultural and transnational aspects, lived and material religion, and the fluid boundaries between the religious and the secular. It will equip you with a greater sense of religious literacy and vital skills, which can be important for lifelong learning, careers and good citizenship.
Orientation
The module begins with an introduction to the key questions: What is religion? How do we study religion? Why should we study religion? You'll reflect on the category ‘religion’ in your own locality with an interactive activity called ‘Take a picture of religion’. The unit will also get you started with a Learning Journal, which you'll develop as the module progresses.
Block 1: Places
The module then moves to explore how religions use, interpret and transform places and spaces. It begins with a case study of religious buildings in London, which includes a suite of 360-degree tours of these sites, and discusses the difference between ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ perspectives on religion. It then examines mosques in a range of geographical and cultural contexts, and the role of mosques in local communities. Attention then turns to a whole continent, India, to introduce the religious traditions we call Hinduism and how religion shapes understandings of geography and national identity. Finally, we return to cities but move from buildings to streets and spaces in a case study on Christianity in the Philippines. Here you'll encounter the theory of secularization, which is contrasted with the idea that religion is becoming more ‘liquid’ and adapting to contemporary circumstances rather than disappearing.
Block 2: Practices
In this block, the module challenges the assumption that religion is primarily about internalised ‘belief’ by focussing on religion as it is practiced and lived – in a range of practices and rituals. This block furthermore provides a gentle introduction to the theory, asking how ideas and theories may inform the observation and interpretation of religion as what people ‘do’. It begins with a unit about religion and food, asking ‘what does religion taste like?’ It then looks more closely at various practices associated with (Shia) Islam, (Nigerian) Christianity and (Swaminarayan) Hinduism in both their places of origin and the UK. This will reveal the diversity of practices within broader religious traditions and how beliefs and experiences are grounded in formal ritual and everyday life. The block considers the idea of transnational religion – and the flows and connections of religious traditions between different geographical and cultural contexts.
Block 3: Texts
This block addresses texts as a media for cosmologies, stories and doctrines. Texts are not only storehouses of information but can also be performed and are often material objects. A central theme is the diverse varieties of religious text: religious texts are not only the great canonical, written works of particular traditions, but come in a variety of forms, including oral narratives, buildings, devotional art and movies. The block begins with an exploration of the ways, some of them controversial, in which Christians interpreted the Bible and how this has changed through time. It then considers another foundational religious text, the Qur’an, and its organisation, interpretation and the way it is used in everyday life. The third unit explores Hindu temples as texts, followed by a case study on a specific branch of Hinduism, ISKCON, and how it has engaged with the translation and visual representation of its sacred texts. The final unit focuses on how sacred stories are transmitted in some indigenous religious traditions through ritual performance and oral narratives. As a whole, this block explores the variety of ways in which religious texts of many kinds can be ‘read’.
Block 4: Experiences
The focus of the final block is religious experiences. What is religious experience, and how are religious experiences represented? It first introduces ideas and theories of religious experience, and how we can study and interpret the experiences of others, beginning with a case study of Cargo Cults. It then explores the auditory element of religious experience, focusing on the question ‘What does religion sound like’? The links between religious experience, music and dance are developed by exploring mysticism in the Sufi tradition. The final chapter of the block explores the experience of pilgrimage. This includes examining the variety of different experiences people have, in both religious and ‘secular’ sites, how pilgrimage has changed through time, and why it seems to be increasingly popular for a variety of religious, ‘spiritual’ and non-religious participants.
By studying this module, you will:
Graduates who have studied religious studies are highly employable. They offer multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary skills and detailed knowledge of diverse world views and issues. Graduates can critically analyse and evaluate issues from a variety of perspectives, drawing on practical experience and academic skills. This module also develops the ability to work independently and communicate to a variety of audiences.
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
Online tutorials run throughout the module. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available.
Course work includes:
You’ll be provided with four printed module books and have access to a module website, which includes:
For one week of study, you will be required to use either Chrome, Firefox or Edge.
For a few activities, it would be helpful, but not essential, to have access to a device for making digital images (e.g. a camera with a phone or a digital camera). For one activity, it would be helpful, but not essential, to have access to a sound recording device – i.e. the kind available on many mobile phones or personal computers. However, access to these devices is not compulsory and will not disadvantage you in the module. Alternative activities will be made available for those with particular accessibility requirements.
You can study this module on its own or use the credits you gain towards an Open University qualification.
A227 is a compulsory module in our:
A227 is an option module in our:
Exploring religion: places, practices, texts and experiences starts once a year – in October.
This page describes the module that will start in October 2026.
We expect it to start for the last time in October 2028.
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