David Morgan Religion Analysis

Throughout the course, we learned about different religion theorists and how each individual uniquely defined religion. David Morgan defined religion as “what someone believes, which consist of a discrete, subjective experience of assent to propositions concerning the origin of the cosmos, the nature of humanity, the existence of deities, or the purpose of life” (Morgan 1). The service at Holy Family Catholic Church in Winston-Salem, NC, exhibits a variety of religious practices. Morgan’s description of religion as a system of beliefs established embodied forms of practice which reinforces to “believe” in the religion, you must “practice” the religion. My experience visiting the Catholic church demonstrated that participating in religious practices

The priest was the main leader of the service and the ordained deacon assisted him in a couple different tasks. For example, he held the holy book that the priest was reading from. During the Catholic service I attended, the people knew exactly what to do and when to do it. At multiple times during the service, the congregation stood up all together and recited a prayer with the priest. For one prayer, the congregation all joined hands and offered each other the sign of peace, which was a handshake. When the time came for communion, everyone kneeled and waited for the priest to prepare the bread and wine. Christ’s blood was represented by wine and His body was represented by bread. Row by row, the people of the Catholic church received the body and blood of Christ. During this service, a variety of embodied forms of religious practices were

Morgan considers that religious belief can be expressed by “memory, imagination, sensation, emotion, ritual, and action” (Morgan 3). Morgan is saying the belief in a religion does not exist solely in the brain of its’ believers. Belief in a religion is created by participating in religious practices. During the service, the members of this Catholic church participated in multiple religious practices. They received communion, recited prayers and offered each other the sign of peace. Before the service started, the man sitting next to me said, “Communion is the most sacred part of the service, it is when you accept the body and blood of Christ into your body.” If Morgan would have attended this service, he would have said that this is an important part of the Catholic ritual that is learned by each generation and is a part of the embodied forms of practice. He would have said that observing communion was one of the most important things that I could have observed. Witnessing their most important ritual allowed me to witness a religious practice that constituted belief. At the service I attended, I observed people kneeling and folding their hands to pray. Somewhere along the lines, someone taught each child how to properly practice Catholicism. Morgan would have been curious about “how, when, and where people teach their children what they teach them” (Morgan 6). He would have described