How to Write a Case Study in Religious Studies: We Will Explain You Every Detail

Religion is a very controversial science because the beliefs of the people of the world, their values that can sometimes go to extremes, are closely intertwined with historical and current reality. This means that your main task is to apply your abilities to research and analytics, but try to refrain from personal opinion. In addition, the case study has its own writing features, which we will talk about in our article. We promise that this process will become much simpler. If you are ready, let’s get started.

Start Your Research by Choosing a Topic

So, choosing the right theme for your case study is already half the battle. As usual, you can have two options — this is an independent and predetermined choice. Each of the options has its own advantages, and our guide is suitable for any of these situations.

Here’s what you need to know about the topic and its selection. No matter what topic you choose, you need to try to be maximally objective.

Unfortunately, religion is a subject of disputes and wars between representatives of mankind, and it is important for you to remember that when writing a case study. Your task is a careful study but not a personal opinion. In addition, some scholars, in principle, do not consider religion a science, so be prepared for the fact that you will be confronted with different opinions.

What will you explore as part of this task? Speaking of religion, you will need to find a specific case or event, for example, some kind of military action within the framework of a war on religious ground. In addition, we recommend that you focus on topics that are at the junction of two sciences, such as religion and jurisprudence. The perfect trick is the Muslim country where religion rules the law. You can choose a certain event – for example, recognition of women’s rights in a certain Muslim country and carefully analyze it.

And at this point, let’s move on to direct analysis of your sources. And then we will talk more about the structure and the basic components of your case in religion.

What Can Be Used as Sources for Your Case Study

Historical Materials

To find the maximum amount of historical materials, you need to turn to books. The simplest simple way is to go to your library, yes, let yourself know, books in paper versions still exist. And your library assistant will most likely be happy to help you. Start by choosing a few suitable books. You can just take a picture or scan the pages you need and that will be your first source. However, remember that books are only suitable for a preliminary acquaintance with the topic, so to speak, to form an idea of the background of a certain event. Next, you will need another more comprehensive analysis. So let’s move on to scientific sources.

Scientific Sources

When analyzing scientific sources, do not forget that you may encounter a personal opinion. As we have said, religion is based on values that are supported only by internal beliefs, and this approach is far from scientific. However, you still need the necessary scientific materials to get a complete picture of the situation.
So, you have selected a specific event, and now you need to find a scientific analysis of this event. Find some relevant articles and read them. Read the article and immediately take notes for yourself – so you save a lot of time.

Legal Materials

If you followed our advice and chose a certain event that is on the verge of religion and jurisprudence, then you need legal sources too. If you traveled to a Muslim country, then everything is simple – the most important legislative source will be the Koran and Suna. In any case, even if your event lies on a different plane, you will still need legal materials to get an idea of the background of your case.

How to Work with These Sources?

Each time you work with sources, make notes to yourself about what served as the prerequisite for the event, in which historical reality it unfolded, what the main characters participated in the event, what problems formed its basis. Also, pay attention to whether one of the scientific researchers offers certain ways to solve this problem. This will be just fine if you can find several ready-made solutions because relying on them you can form your opinion about the strengths and weaknesses of the solution, plus propose your own and argue for it.

Let’s Start Writing

After analysis, let’s plan your article. And by the way, you can use its splice to write text.

Introduction

Despite the fact that this is the first part of your case study, we recommend leaving it for later. Do not be scared because of this advice. You are required to receive the structured paper, but no one forbids you to state your thoughts in the order in which they appear in your head. And practice shows that it is much easier to write an introduction when you have the whole main part – when you see the result in front of you, thoughts add up to logical sentences by themselves.

In any case, in your introduction, you should briefly say about the situation that you are exploring, indicating why this research is important for modern science, plus writing your thesis. We will talk about it in the next paragraph.

Thesis

As for the thesis, the same rule applies here as in the case of the introduction. If at the moment you feel that the thesis does not add up to a logical and strong statement, then it is better to leave it for later. By analogy with the introduction, you will be able to develop a strong thesis statement at the moment when you see the finished work in front of you.

How to do it? When your work is finished, try to choose your most important thoughts from it – by analogy with how we worked with scientific sources. Now try to combine your two thoughts into one, and get logical pairs. Do this again until you get a strong statement consisting of the most important thing.

Main Part

We recommend starting straight from the main body. Writing the main part has its own peculiarities in the case of case studies, so let’s look at them. By the way, here you do not need to follow a very clear line of paragraphs – use as much space as you need to show a complete picture, plus analyze the result and propose solutions. So, let’s start the most voluminous part of your work.

Background

If you have done a comprehensive study, then you already know what served as the root causes for the development of a particular event. Starting your main body, describe these factors and premises. Make a deep analysis, try to get to the bottom of things and try to show the direct relationship between the premise and the event in each of your sentences. To do it right, just remember how you wrote the cause and effect essay.

Characters

Now you can go to the characters. Speaking of religion, refrain from personal opinions and try to abide by the rules of tolerance. Do not use rude expressions, even if you have to talk about Muslim suicide bombers. Just describe the heroes as objectively as possible, from an outside observer. At this stage, you no longer need to touch on the causes or consequences – here you can give background information only regarding the heroes so that the reader of your case study understands what kind of actors are involved in the situation.

Problem or Problems

This is the most important part of your case study since here you need to highlight the main problems – it was they that served as the incentive for you to begin to study a certain situation. In the draft, you can write down your problems as a list. Next, when you write the final version of the paper, highlight one paragraph for one problem. As a general rule, five problems will be enough, but you can limit yourself to even two of them if they are significant and sufficient for your research.

Decisions Taken

Based on your problems, describe what solutions were made on the problems that you described. There is a very important point here. You need not only to describe the realities of the solutions but also to point out their strengths and weaknesses. Here you can imagine that you are writing a critical and reasoned essay at the same time. Sound the decision, point out its strengths or weaknesses, and immediately bring arguments from scientific research that will confirm your opinion.

The Solution You Propose

The solution that you offer is the first step to writing a conclusion to all the work. Think carefully before proposing a better solution. Once again, return to the background, and consider whether your decision will harm even more. And that would be very cool if you could even find the opinion of a scientist who would also support your idea. And if this idea has not yet found its scientific development, then you can safely believe that you have coped with the main task of the case study – with the analysis and development of a solution that will be conceived as a scientific novelty.

Conclusion

Before you write a conclusion, read the text of your work still. This will help you refresh the main thoughts in your head and remind you of the essence of your research in the conclusion. Basically, everything is simple – you just need to summarize everything that you have already said. Try not to leave the conclusion unfinished. Your point should be bold – do not ask rhetorical questions, and do not moralize even if a certain question within the framework of religion gives the reason for it.

Final Check

Before sending your case study to the professor, check it again. Make sure that you comply with all requirements and that your research is truly comprehensive and logical. Don’t be afraid to make edits – you still have time to create the perfect version of your paper.

As you can see, the case study is not quite simple, but definitely, it’s very interesting. This type of work gives you the opportunity to show your research, analytical and critical skills, so use it for your development!