Why does religion conjure deep feelings among believers? How does religion condition personal behavior, organize communal action, build institutions, and sustain communities? In this course, we investigate the cognitive and cultural roots of religious ideas and sentiments and how they serve to order and classify the world around us. In turn, we examine how these ordering structures and classification systems build and bind a community of believers.
Anonymous AY25/26 Sem 2
About the Instructor
Prof Hanisah was generally quite engaging when it came to handling the class. Her sense of humour makes the 6-8pm class a little bit more survivable, and the lesson readings were generally helpful in providing a structure for analysing things. There was a section in the first seminar where she gave the class a brief overview on how to tackle readings, which was really helpful. The class tends to open with a student-led introduction of a topic and (a student-led) class activity, followed by a monologue section where Prof Hanisah goes into her own notes on the reading.
Content (Structure/Organization)
The course is broadly split into three main themes on the science and sociology of the religious experience, religious encounter and finally a section on how religion shapes a worldview. We had a screening of Midsommar during the final lesson.
Manageability of Workload
Naturally the readings can take up quite some time, and I procrastinated quite a bit for the final essay. I spent about a good 2 hours or so per week handling the readings.
The main deliverables are hence:
1) a presentation (usually done as a group; pick one week's topic and open the class discussion)
2) a short viva voce presentation on a religious practice/ritual
3) a final essay, pick a prompt out of three
Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades
I haven't gotten my grades at the moment due to the recent Canvas crash, but I'm projecting something around a B to C range.
Learning Value/Recommendation
Pretty useful, the frameworks (e.g. Rudolf Otto, Berger) are scoped to analysing religion, but they're honestly generalisable to any sort of human experience. My classmate and I used to use 'B-state' and 'D-state cognition' from one of the readings as catchphrases outside class.
Additional Comments/Word of Advice
The class had a 6-8pm slot during in the semester I took it, but don't let that deter you if you're curious about dissecting the science and sociology of the religious experience ! The class size is quite small, and that personally makes class participation a bit less daunting in my opinion.