Hi everyone, I hope no one minds me posting here. I have been out of education for a long time and as a condition for entry onto a Masters I am interested in I have been asked to write an essay of 1500 - 2000 words. The title is "How far are we justified in treating Paganism as a religion within the field of the academic study of religions". My field of interest is contemporary Paganism (hence the question), but I am having an awful time trying to work out exactly how to approach this! 'How far' generally means to weigh up points for and against (therefore the essay would discuss points for and against Paganism being a religion), whilst 'justify' means to give evidence for. So am I right in thinking i need to discuss the points put forward by academics so far that claim that paganism IS a religion, and weight them against those that claim it is NOT? I'm not sure if I should be saying something about the academic study of religion in general and the issues with it, whether i should include those academic mentions of paganism prior to the 1990's which tended to dismiss it as simply non religious, and whether I should say anything about the implications of studying it in an academic sense on the wider field of religious studies? Argh I just cannot seem to get past the starting block and I'm honestly wondering if this shows a blatant impossibility of me being able to cope with an MA at all! Sorry this is such a long post, I am honestly hoping this is simply a case of 'not seeing the wood for the trees' as I've been staring at the question now for days and getting more and more panicked by the second. Can anyone give a breakdown, in 'idiots guide' terms, of how to go about answering this sort of "how far are we justified" question?

Hi Newcomer,

Of course we don't mind you posting here - that's what the board is for!

Regarding your essay, I think you are overthinking it a bit, which is understandable, given what's at stake.

If I was writing this essay, I would approach it initially by "discussing the points put forward by academics so far that claim that paganism IS a religion, and weight them against those that claim it is NOT?" Like you said.

I would get my main ideas down first and then think about linking it effectively to the title and maybe have a paragraph on the academic study of religions.