Comments on: a start on a bibliography on religion in the writing classroom

By: Daneen

Daneen — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:06:58 +0000

I just came across your website on a google search for religious writing in the composition classroom. I’m also in an English Comp MA program, and I’m thinking of examining this issue more closely for my thesis. I’d love to chat more with you about your insights. I also wanted to point out that Lizbeth Rand has a chapter in Intertexts: Reading Pedagogy in College Writing Classrooms on this topic, “Reading as a Site of Spiritual Struggle.”

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:45:30 +0000

Thanks, Shannon!
Those two examples (students) are good to hear. And that computer lab tech — wow, what an example of, like Sara says, assuming that writing about religion is writing religion (which, like writing politics, I guess we assume is more polemic than discourse?) or just that religion is not a valuable enough topic among the humanities. Of course, it seems in fact religion might be one of the MOST important topics, one of the most important areas civil discourse has to encompass (for lack of a better word).
But I also take your insight that you, the instructor, have to know enough about religion, enough to know what kind of questions to ask, in order to make the topic work.
Thanks again for your insights. Laura

Thanks, Sara. I think you’re right about people not differentiating writing about religion to writing writing. It’s a fear of religious persuasion. We kind of have that same fear of political persuasion, but not as much. With religion, we fear more than the gullible will be brain-washed, we fear too much affect (and effect!) of emotion. Interesting that we give religion so much more power than politics — either that or we give the “audience” so much less critical thinking ability. SOMEthing. Anyway, of course: I’ll send off a copy of Anderson’s article to you tonight.

And thanks, Michael, for the reminders. I keep almost but not quite getting to reading Palmer’s and Tremmel’s books. And definitely Chris Anderson’s.

By: Michael Faris

Michael Faris — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:46:29 +0000

You might also check out Parker Palmer’s book The Courage to Teach, which I’ve only read part of, and I don’t remember it being explicitly religious, but it kind of is. Chris Anderson’s book might be in order.

And, depending on how you’re focusing on religion, Robert Tremmel’s Zen and the Practice of Teaching English is amazing!

By: Sara Jameson

Sara Jameson — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:59:52 +0000

It’s interesting that some folks – students, lab technicians, maybe even faculty – confuse writing ABOUT religion with writing religion itself. History (personal, institutional) is quite different (though connected) with efforts to persuade.

On another note, would you please send me the link to Anderson’s essay? Thanks!

By: Shannon

Shannon — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:28:04 +0000

Hi Laura,
Last quarter, two of my students decided to write on religious subjects in English 102. It’s hard to deny them that right when I ask them to read “The Role of Religion” by the Dalai Lama, one of the readings in the text. I used to be the teacher that asked students not the write on religious topics, but I’ve been deliberately educating myself more on the subject so that I can allow them to write about religion and feel confident in my ability to ask them questions that will challenge their assumptions and get them to think more broadly. I think it’s been working well. One girl wrote about homosexuality. She decided to track the history of “Christian” hatred towards gay love and to argue that it does not arise from Biblical injunction. She’s probably the best writer I’ve encountered in all my years of teaching, so her paper was wonderful. Another wrote about what it means to follow Christ’s teachings. She started off with a fundamentalist, literalist approach, but by the end had developed her paper into a reflective essay in which her own views had clearly grown more complex and sophisticated. Interestingly, the first student told me she was printing out a source in the computer lab and the technician got angry because it was a religious source and therefore not “college-related.” When my student told her it was for a 102 paper, the tech told her, “I don’t think that’s possible. I don’t think any instructor here is going to let you write about religion. It just isn’t done. It’s not academic.” Ha! Shannon