This week we discussed religion and its impact on social change, in addition to preparing for our midterm. We took a very interesting in-depth look at African American religiosity and its role in the social world, which was a fascinating look at a culture that I, as a white man, am obviously very unfamiliar with. But it also proved to be one of the best examples I can think of for the influence religion has on society, and I greatly enjoyed getting to learn so much about it. Another fascinating aspect of this week’s class was the insight into how religion can influence its own community. The one we looked at was a fascinating example of how religion can protect a community’s unique cultural identity from the cultural bias around them; the community of the church viewed in the film reclaimed their congregation from a more white way of thinking about society, and made their service unique to their cultural identity.

Moving forward I look forward to discussing the excerpt of this next chapter, Religion in the Modern World, and the four narratives it proposed. This is clearly going to be a very complex and in-depth issue, and I cannot wait to explore it in more depth.