What aspects of the practice, belief, behavior, or nature of it and its followers are likely to be brought out or hidden?

Instructions
In both your midterm and final essays, Id like you to delve deeper into one of the concepts/chapters, using either a case study from the book that weve covered, or one of your own choosing that is pertinent to a chapter weve covered in Hedges. Should you choose to focus on a case study in the book, your thesis statement could respond to one of Hedges questions. For instance, Hedges gives us the example of Falun Gong, and asks, Are there analytical benefits in calling Falun Gong a religion? What aspects of the
practice, belief, behavior, or nature of it and its followers are likely to be brought out or hidden? In your thesis, you may argue that categorizing Falun Gong as a religion, given the notion of religion assumed by the World Religions Paradigm, fails to account for the benefits sought for the body and indeed, the followers of Falun Gongs focus on perfection in the here and now. Alternatively (or additionally!), you may wish to argue that recognizing Falun Gong as a religion actually challenges us to broaden our definitions of religion to better account for non-Western, non-Christian religious practices and beliefs.

Your essay should take Hedges description of the case study (or a case study of your choosing), and of the relevant discussion of theory and method, as a starting point. You should incorporate at least two secondary sources (peer-reviewed articles or books) from outside of class into your essay, deepening your understanding of the particular practice at hand, and of the theory referenced by Hedges.

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