Kamille Ward

Faith, Religion, and Society

Dr. David von Schlichten
December 5, 2018
Take Home Final Exam
PART ONE: How has the course made you more aware of religion as a part of contemporary
culture?
There is no conclusive definition for religion. It can be defined as a specific system of belief,

worship, or conduct that prescribes certain responses to the existence and character of God.

However, religion can also be defined as a set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices pertaining to a

supernatural power that controls human destiny. Many people have different ideas of their own

religions, and it can be defined based on the religion that you believe in. I think that this course

was a good way for me to learn about other religions in the world that I was not very familiar

with before taking this course. I think that this course has also allowed me to think of events that

happen in the world from a religious standpoint. For example, when the synagogue shooting

happened in Pittsburgh, I was able to try to grasp the fact that it was a religious hate crime,

instead of thinking of it as any other mass shooting that happens in the United States. I think that

religion is an important part of our society, giving people a set of rules, or guidelines to follow to

have a rite of passage to the holiest place, or paradise. If religion didn’t exist, I believe there

would be a lot more hatred in the world because people wouldn’t care what they did because

they have nothing to look forward to in their afterlife. Religion also encourages people to do

good deeds and serving is a big part of the Christian faith as well. At the beginning of the

semester, we read the book Man’s Search for Meaning and something that I took from the book

was the quote “So live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted

the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!” I think that this quote shows that people
should live their lives with goodness in their hearts. However, I believe that religion is becoming

less important in people’s lives than it was in the past. People no longer believe that the Bible is

the only thing that teaches us to live our lives. Religion, however, also causes a lot of problems

in the modern world because there is a lot of hatred based on differences of human beings.

PART TWO: How has the course helped you to understand faith and spirituality as an integral
part of being human? 
Religion can be a central part of one’s identity. Faith and spirituality can be a roller

coaster that has its up and downs, and life is the same way. In being a human, a person’s

confidence in God can increase or decrease in certainty depending on where a person is in their

stage of life. This course has helped me to understand that. Faith can be such a complex topic

and it is important to find ourselves within our faith and spirituality. I think that it is an important

part of human existence to find your faith and spirituality in who you are. Reading A Man’s

Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl allowed me to understand the meaning of life as a human

being in a deeper way. In the book, he states “The meaning of your life is to help others find the

meaning of theirs.” This quote is important because many people in the world become very

selfish and only care about themselves, but in order to be an integral part of society as a human

being, a person should be selfless and care more about helping others than helping themselves. I

think in order to be a decent human being and a functional part of society, this course has taught

me to respect other religions, especially because a lot of religions believe a lot of the same

things, just in different ways. Overall, this course has taught me a lot about being a good person

in general and I think that living your life faithfully to your religion can help with doing

everything to be the best version of yourself that you can.

PART THREE: How has the course assisted you in your personal faith journey?
 This course has helped me greatly in my own faith journey. I have always been raised a

Christian and I have always believed in God, however there has been a few bumps in the road

where I have lost track of my faith and my relationship with God. There have also been times

where I have doubted God due to bad things that have happened in my life. I think it is normal to

have rough patches throughout your faith and this course helped me to understand that. I think

that it is normal because in order to believe in God and our religion, we need to understand it for

ourselves, and not for what our parents and grandparents have told us. In “Does My Head Look

Big in This? By Randa Abdel-Fattah, there is a quote that states “What’s the good of being true

to your religion on the outside, if you don’t change what’s on the inside, where it really counts?”

This quote stood out to me because it is very true, you cannot claim a religion if you don’t take

action to follow the guidelines of that religion. I have recently found my relationship with God

again, and I look to the bible and prayer in hard times that I have faced. This course allowed me

to have a deeper understanding of a lot of religions in the world. I think that this course has

allowed me to slightly understand why bad things happen in the world. We may not understand it

at the time, but bad things happen to make room for good things to happen in our lives. Other

religions see it differently, such as Hinduism. They believe that there is bad karma due to bad

deeds done. Islam sees suffering as Allah’s, or Gods, way of a test of humility and faith. They

also believe that suffering and adversity can strengthen one’s faith. Overall, throughout this

course, I have been curious, and it allowed me to dive deeper into my faith.

PART FOUR: How has the course helped you to understand the basic faith traditions of Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam? Write briefly about the similarities among these three. 
This course has helped me understand more about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

There are many differences between the three faiths but there are also many similarities between

them. They are all known as Abrahamic religions that worship the god of Abraham, which
means that all three religions worship the same God. Judaism, Christian, and Islam all participate

in fasting and all three religions have a Judgement after death. All three religions believe that

God is the creator of the universe and are monotheistic faiths. Judaism refers to God as Yahweh,

and the holy book of Judaism is known as the Tanakh, which includes the Torah, Nevi’im, and

the Ketuvim. We had the option to read the Torah, Ketuvium or the Nevi’im in class to have a

deeper understanding of Judaism. They also believe that Jesus Christ was an ordinary Jew. They

also believe that Abraham was the founder of Judaism. Christians believe that God exists in the

Trinity, with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The holy book of Christianity is known as the

Bible and Christians also believe that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary and is the

founder of Christianity and is the second part of the trinity. The religion of Islam refers to God as

Allah and the holy book of Islam is the Qur’an. Muslims believe that Mohammed was the

founder of Islam and that Jesus was a prophet, sent by Allah and born of the Virgin Mary. I was

not very familiar with any of these religions before taking this class and it has allowed me to

understand more about Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

PART FIVE: How has the course enabled you to understand and apply Catholic Social Justice
teachings?
Learning about the Catholic Social Justice teachings was interesting to me and it was

some of my favorite content from the class. The Catholic Social Teachings are as followed; The

Dignity of Every Person and Human Rights, Solidarity and Common Good, Family Life,

Subsidiarity and the Proper Role of Government, Rights and Responsibilities, The Dignity of

Work and the Rights of Workers, Colonialism and Economic Development, Peace and
Disarmament, and Option for the Poor and Vulnerable. I believe that the Catholic Social

Teachings were followed by many more people, there would be a lot more good in the world.

Viktor Frankl suggests “Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a

whole it would be easy to condemn.” This shows that there is kindness all over the world, and a

person’s religion does not change that, even if it is not the same religion that you follow. I feel

like the principles of Catholic Social Teachings are a guideline for people to live their life.

Especially after writing my CST paper, I see how a lot of the Catholic Social Teachings concepts

relate to the real world. One of the CST principles that stood out most to me included the Option

for the Poor and Vulnerable. This principle stands out to me the most because I truly have a soft

spot for the homeless and people going through hard times in their life. I also thought that the

solidarity principle was important for our society. There is still racism due to ethnic, race, and

economical differences between people in society. I think that a lot of the hate in the world and

this principle means that we should be united as one human family no matter our differences. If

the Catholic Social Teaching principles were applied to everyday life for most people, a lot of

the deaths and hatred in the world due to racism could be eliminated.