Religion Thesis Statement

Week Outline
Preliminary Thesis Statement: Religion is an essential constituent of any civilization with a unique spiritual pathway.
Main Point: Religious spirituality establishes the framework for human social and cultural development.
1. Topic Sentence: Ancient people being unaware about the outside world created for themselves the hierarchy of Gods to ask for protection and support.
Example: Paganism had a tendency to be polytheistic. People worshipped a variety of gods and goddesses, spirits representing national and local heroes, as well as natural phenomena. Pagans also honored their ancestry and ancestors.
BBC - Religions - Paganism: Pagan beliefs. (2016). Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2016, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/beliefs/beliefs.shtml

Topic Sentence: Religious beliefs and practices lead to social and personal transformation.
Example: Religious faith can have an enormous power the consequences of which either human flourishing or provoking fear and intolerance. There are notions of healthy and unhealthy religious ideas and cults. Society should receive knowledge about core beliefs of the world religions and, as a result, it may affect the social and personal transformation.
Ferguson, D. (2010). Exploring the spirituality of the world religions. London: Continuum.
The book reveals the spirituality of world religions with the description of values and practices, which give a deep understanding of the cultural context of every nationality. The author describes his own reflections and explorations that give the view of a certain religion from the inside.
3. Topic Sentence: The Christianity is a unitary phenomenon that spans vast geography.
The existence of Christianity enumerates almost 20 centuries and for this period it made a long way in development and expansion. The Christianity was born in Palestine in the 1st century AD and spread to various corners of the world.
Kennedy, P. (2011). Christianity : An Introduction. London: I.B.

Elverskog, J. (2010). Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
The book is a good example of comparative analyses of two religions throughout the history. The author gives a view on the religions in the global context.
5. Topic Sentence: The contemporary world today combines a wide diversity of world religions and in order to preserve peace people ought to display high level of mutual tolerance.
Example: In ancient times, so-called “dark ages”, the religion was forced to people in cruel way declared as “holy wars”. Though, the reasons for conquer of the lands were to broaden the boundaries, possess the agriculture territories and trading centers.
Neusner, J. & Chilton, B. (2008). Religious Tolerance in World Religions | Templeton Press. Templetonpress.org. Retrieved 12 August 2016, from