Describe the difference between the academic study of religion, and devotional practice and advocacy

 

Answer:

Academic study of religion is Religious Studies that examines beliefs, rituals, practices, and social structures from communities around the world. Students examine the history and formation of these practices, beliefs and structures, as well as their reinterpretations over time. Religions are studied academically both in their own contexts and comparatively.

Devotional practice and advocacy are formal liturgies or informal gestures, They are a form of popular piety whereby the religious sense of the faithful is expressed outside of the liturgy from which they have their source and to which they lead. They are a form of study and practice that is external to the main practice of the religion, something personal that is embarked upon to bring deeper meaning to the basic beliefs and practices of the religious life. Often times these devotional practices are contained in books with daily thoughts to take the practitioner through a meditation that might deepen their religious path. It is spread through advocacy. i.e making it well known, understood and popularized.