Reflect and Respond

[Skip Breadcrumb Navigation]

Home

Chapter 10

Reflect and Respond

This activity contains 10 questions.

View the film, Fairytale: A True Story. Discuss the aspects of new religion and the quests for certainty displayed in the film. Reflect upon the characters of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini as reflected in the film.

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

View the film, The Razor’s Edge starring Tyrone Power (or, less preferably, the remake with Bill Murray) based on the novel by Somerset Maugham. Describe the intersection with eastern religion displayed in the film. How has the traffic at that intersection increased in contemporary western culture?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

View the film Ghost with Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, and Whoopi Goldberg. Discuss the metaphysics portrayed in the film. How have those metaphysical premises been influenced by Spiritualism?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

View the film, Defending Your Life with Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep. Discuss the impact of "New Age" ideas upon contemporary culture. Observe the cameo performance by Out on a Limb and Dancing in the Light author, Shirley MacLaine.

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

Write an essay on the historical development of new religions into major movements.

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

Discuss issues and differences surrounding the popular use of the term “cult” as opposed to the way sociologists use the term. How can you distinguish methods of religious persuasion and preaching from those of “brainwashing,” which characterizes some “cults”?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

View one of the versions of the movie Heaven Can Wait. (The 1977 film stars Warren Beatty.) If you met someone who claimed to be someone else in a different body, how might you come to decide whether or not the person was telling the truth?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

Why did the Spiritualist movement claim to be scientific? Should a religion be scientific or not? Explain what you mean by “scientific.”

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

Attend a meeting of a new religious group and write an essay describing the practical, theoretical, and sociological aspects of the faith that you observe.

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

Listen to a “new age” music recording. What aspects of the music seem to convey religious feelings or ideas – the rhythm, melody, harmonies, lyrics, instrumentation? How, if at all, do they differ from secular pop music or from classical religious music, like Handel’s Messiah, or a religious hymn you may know?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

The Submit Answers for Grading feature requires scripting to function. Your browser either does not support scripting or you have turned scripting off.

So, the Submit Answers for Grading button below will not work.

The following Submit Answers for Grading button is provided in its place and will clear your answers:
The Clear Answers and Start Over feature requires scripting to function. Your browser either does not support scripting or you have turned scripting off.

So, the Clear Answers and Start Over button below will not work.

The following Clear Answers button is provided in its place and will clear your answers: