Comparative Analysis between a Catholic Church and Christian Church (Iglesia Nueva Vida)
Comparative Analysis - religious service new to you, notes on your experience and observations. Now you will use that data to analyze your visit from a phenomenological or a comparative perspective.
Description: If you choose a phenomenological analysis, you will analyze your visit on the basis of descriptions of particular phenomena (events/occurrences/happenings), such as prayer, rituals, or other religious actions, as described to you by participant(s) from that community. If you choose a comparative analysis, you will analyze your visit on the basis of one or more elements of that religious experience (prayer, elements of the religious service, behaviors of the participants), with respect to the ways in which those element(s) are similar to or different from similar events within another religious tradition (perhaps your own religious tradition, or one with which you are familiar).
Write a 4-6 paper on your field experience (submit it to the Assignments/Dropbox). First, briefly describe what you saw and experienced. What rituals were performed? What sacred objects were used? What stories were told, and how did they mediate sacred reality? Second, analyze your experience from a phenomenological or comparative perspective. Third, assess the strengths and weaknesses of your chosen approach. Fourth, address your status as an "insider" or an "outsider" and discuss what difference it made in your analysis. Fifth, in light of your site-visit and your analysis, answer the Jesuit question, "How ought one to live in the world?" The paper will be graded according to the grading rubric for written assignments, and your facilitator will provide a due date.
Part 2: PowerPoint Presentation (submit it to the Assignments/Dropbox and post it as a discussion so that your classmates may also view your work). First, select two aspects of your field experience (should have been discussed in your paper) that illustrate your chosen approach (either phenomenological or comparative). Second, create a presentation that demonstrates how that approach helped you understand what you experienced during the site visit. Third, provide a brief assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of your chosen approach. Fourth, address your status as an "insider" or an "outsider" with respect to this project, and discuss what impact it made in your analysis. Fifth, in light of your site-visit and your analysis, answer the Jesuit question, "How ought one to live in the world?" The presentation will be graded according to the grading rubric for the PowerPoint presentation, and your facilitator will provide a due date. In both your paper and presentation, please consider (and include your answer to) the Jesuit question: how ought one to live in the world?