1. Ninian Smart - The 7 Dimensions of Religion
Ritual
Repeated actions
Material
Items + places
Social
People + roles
Experiential
Experience
‘Beat the Expert’ – before the animations on this slide, see if any table groups can name or make 7 groups or common ideas from their mindmaps – can they match Ninian’s academic brilliance? You could try this challenge as a class if you think that is more appropriate for your class. For example, hand out 3 Post-It Notes to each table to name 3 between them.
Reveal Ninian’s 7 dimensions and then what each of them means (VERY simply!)
Mythological
Stories
Ethical
Rules + Guidelines
All religions include 7 common ideas
Doctrinal
Beliefs + Meanings

2. Ninian Smart - The 7 Dimensions of Religion
Social
People + roles
Learning Objective
To enquire into the aspects of religion that create a sense of community.
To evaluate the importance of the hajj in creating a sense of community in Islam.
All religions include 7 common ideas

3. Which is most important?
Individual
Family
Is it more important to think as “me” or “we”?
Which is most important to you?
Community
Quick start question to get students thinking. Discuss as a whole class or think, pair, share getting students to give reasons for their answers.
Nation

4. The Brotherhood of Islam (ummah)
In the social dimension of religion we see how creating a sense of community is of absolute importance in religions. In Islam, many argue that thinking as a “we” is more important than as “me”. In Islam, the concept is called the ummah and it means the family or “brotherhood” of all Muslims. Whether believers are from different countries, cultures, backgrounds, rich, poor, old, young etc, all are part of the family of the faith.
Task
How does the hajj create a sense of community?
Introduce the basic idea of the ummah. Then ask the reflection question drawing out the unity and equality of all believers expressed in the ritual actions of tawaf (like planets around the sun, feeling at home etc). Then watch the documentary getting students to note down anything they see that helps to create a sense of community – how does hajj create a sense of community? They can bullet point these in their books. Documentary link:
Reflection
What have tawaf and the kaaba got to do with this?

5. Evaluating the importance…
You need to complete the sentence below evaluating how significant hajj is for creating a sense for community for Muslims. After the first ellipsis you need a word or words that show the degree of your opinion, i.e. absolutely important, wonderful, poor, ineffective, quite good etc. Then you need to give at least one reason why this is the case. Complete the following…. “I think that hajj is… for creating a sense of community in Islam, because…” “A question I would like to ask a Muslim is…”

6. Make your own… Social People + roles
You are now going to create your own…. You must include…
A principle of brotherhood – what will your religion call its principle of brotherhood (like ummah)?
A sense of community – How will your religion create a sense of community between believers and devotees?
Different roles – are there going to be leaders in your religion who will be responsible or in charge or lead everyone else? If so, who, how many, what will you call them, what will they do etc?