Gift economy, human limitations, hierophany, Marathon Monks…

After watching the documentary on the Marathon Monks (in addition to the videos and readings from this week) please explain the “gift economy” and the role of human limitations and hierophany in the journey of the Marathon Monks on Mt. Hiei in Japan. Address the topics above in 300 – 500 words. Written Assignment Rubric Below are three criteria that we will use when grading your written work. The percentages are only to indicate how I weight these aspects of your writing: Clarity. The viewpoints you present in your writing must be clearly conceived and well argued. Your writing style should be straight-forward, easy to read and should be clearly related to the issues you wish to address. Topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph are helpful in establishing the issue and argument for the reader at the outset. (40%) Engagement with the material. Entries are to be related to the reading material. They are not reviews of what has been stated in the book but are your critical analysis of the reading. Avoid direct quotes. Instead seriously take-up what you consider to be the key issues for the study of religion in the reading. An analysis of the issues discussed in the course become clearer the closer your writing is to the texts used in class. (40%) Creativity. The work of Religious Studies, and perhaps the Humanities in general, is essentially creative. Interpretation of religious phenomena requires that you come to some meaningful relationship with your object of study. This is one of the defining characteristics of creativity. You have a unique and important contribution to make to our collective understandings. There are no predetermined experts in the area of interpretation, only well refined and well- argued positions. Your interpretations will be dealt with as importantly as you regard them yourself. (20%)