Hi, my name is Evija Johnston and before this lesson, I already had an idea of what this course was going to be about. Since I was little, I had heard about Christianity and I even went to a Christian private school. What I like about this course so far and from all the articles I’ve read and the videos I’ve seen, it does not focus on a certain type of religion, but instead if focuses on them as a whole. I learned that anthropologically-based study of religion studies people, their beliefs, and their social systems, whereas theological study of religion studies God, or the gods, and their impact on people. One of my favorite quotes from William Gruen’s “The Case for Religious Studies” says, “to understand their actions, we must also understand their motivations.” What worked well with my preparation for today was taking notes as I read the texts so I could pull out my favorite quotes and also writing down definitions of terms and words I have not heard before.