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Unit of study_

RLST2640: Contemporary Religious Trends

Contemporary Australia manifests low levels of institutional religion, a multi-cultural and multi-faith population, and a vocal atheist/ secularist lobby. Students explore religion in the media and law, the Constitution, and Census data on religion. Issues examined include atheism and secularity, Aboriginal religion, values, sport and ANZAC as religious phenomena.

Code RLST2640
Academic unit Studies in Religion
Credit points 6
Prerequisites:
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12 credit points at 1000 level in Studies in Religion
Corequisites:
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None
Prohibitions:
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RLST2627 or RLST3603

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. Students will be able to critically assess the role of religion in Australian culture, past and present, and understand the political meanings of particular constructions (media, legal, political) of religion;
  • LO2. Students will successfully identify the ‘religious’ elements of secular Australian observances such as Anzac Day, sporting fandom, and cultural institutions;
  • LO3. Students will develop research questions and engage a range of sources (academic publications, government reports, personal communications, media and popular discourses) to prepare sophisticated oral and written work on current issues;
  • LO4. Students will encounter Australians of diverse ethnic, social, cultural and religious backgrounds in egalitarian and ethical ways; and
  • LO5. Students will take the body of knowledge they have acquired and relate it to their own life-contexts, contributing to life-long learning.

Unit outlines

Unit outlines will be available 2 weeks before the first day of teaching for the relevant session.

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