Course Description
The nature of early primitive religions and the main outlines of the chief living religions of the world. The method will be both historical and analytical.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Additional readings and a research paper along with more extensive examinations to reflect the additional responsibilities.
Athena Title
HISTORY OF RELIGION
Prerequisite
Junior or senior standing or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered every even-numbered year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
(1) To develop the reading, writing, speaking, and thinking skills necessary for the critical study of religion. (2) To introduce the basic elements of several of the world’s religious systems. (3) To demonstrate the manner in which humans throughout the world have historically combined a variety of strategies, such as devotion, philosophy, ritual, meditation, art, and ethics, to create specific ways of living lives of well being. (4) To stimulate comparison of the ideas, practices, beliefs, and quotidian and ultimate concerns of diverse cultures. Communicate Effectively through Writing To strengthen skills in written composition, analysis, and presentation by means of projects such as essays, papers, reports, and examinations. Communicate Effectively through Speech To strengthen skills in oral expression, analysis, style, and interaction by means such as class reports, class discussion, and oral examinations. Computer Literacy To enhance and facilitate computer literacy by the use of word processing, the web, email, and OASIS through research, preparation, and presentation of work such as oral class reports and completion of written assignments. Critical Thinking To foster critical thinking by engaging in activities such as classroom discussion and debate, essay examinations, and oral presentations. Moral Reasoning (Ethics) To assist in the continued development of moral and ethical reasoning and reflection by encouraging creative thinking regarding individual and community concerns and needs, the challenging of prejudices and stereotypes, and examining rational and ethical bases of constructive social interactions.
Topical Outline
I. Dichotomous terms II. Definitions revisited III. Theorists Émile Durkheim J.Z. Smith Mark C. Taylor Immanuel Kant René Descartes Rudolf Otto Ludwig Feuerbach Paul Tillich Sigmund Freud Geraardus van der Leeuw Ludwig Wittgenstein Clifford Geertz IV. The Wages of Action Hinduism V. The Principles and Practice of Zen Buddhism The Empty Mirror VI. Christianity The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux Emmanuel Levinas VII. Symbol and language Ludwig Wittgenstein, from Philosophical Investigations: 1-38 Geddes MacGregor