Religion 1006,
Introduction to the Major Religions of the World; Dr. Godlas
Class time: 1:25-2:15 MW SLC
room 171. Course Webpage:
webct.uga.edu (up at the end of drop-add)
Email: godlas@uga.edu ;
Office: Peabody Rm. 217; office hrs., W 3:30-4:30, or by appt.
Office phone 2-1486; My
website: www.uga.edu/islam ; TA names and info will be posted on
WebCT and in the syllabi of your discussion sections.
Course Objectives: To gain a comparative and thematic understanding of
the religious experience of the human community as expressed in the religious
traditions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism , Buddhism, Taoism,
Confucianism, and the primal religions (of the indigenous peoples of Africa,
Australia, and the Americas). Also
emphasis will be placed on learning an analytical method for studying
religions, a method (that I call religiology) focusing on the following
categories of belief:
(a) Beliefs concerning
the basis of knowledge (What should we rely on in order to gain knowledge? What
should we rely on in order to understand and properly interpret that basis of
knowledge?) -- Epistemology
(b) Beliefs concerning
the nature of ultimate reality (What is truly real? What are some of the
characteristics of ultimate reality? What is more real, less real? What degrees
of reality are there, if any? How is what is more real related to what is less
real? What will be the nature of reality if and when the world as we know it
ends? ) -- Ontology (with subcategories of Theology [re. God], Cosmology [re.
nature of created existence], and Eschatology [re. afterlife])
(c) Beliefs concerning
the character of human nature as understood in the light of or in relation to
that reality (Who are we? How do we identify ourselves? What are
our identities?)-- Anthropology
(d) Beliefs concerning
the nature of human psychology (What does our consciousness consist of? Namely,
what are our faculties of consciousness? –e.g. mind, conscience, soul, etc.;
and What are our states or contents of consciousness? –some contemporary
answers are electro-chemical impulses, thoughts, and emotions such as love,
grief, happiness, depression, anger, ecstasy, etc. ) -- Psychology
(e) Beliefs concerning
the purpose of life (What is/are
the purpose(s) of life?)-- Teleology
(f) Beliefs concerning the
way of life that leads to that attainment (How can we achieve the purpose? What
are some of the major aspects of the method or way of life that leads to that
attainment?-- Methodology, with subcategories such as the following: social,
political, legal, economic, religio-spiritual (e.g. forms of worship).
Books:
Huston Smith, The World’s
Religions WR
Philip Novak, The World’s Wisdom WW
WebCT RELI 1006, accessible through the WebCT
page
If needed, tapes or CDs of
music will be on reserve in the reserve media room of the main library.
Requirements:
WebCT:
The only valid email address you can use for WebCT is your UGA MyID. You will
automatically be added to WebCT at the end of the drop add period. If you can’t log on after that, email
your TA and let him/her know.
WEEKLY
READING ASSIGNMENTS: Do the assigned reading in the texts and (occasionally on)
Web pages on the days listed in the schedule.
TESTS: Closed book exams. No use of notes,
books, or other written material will be permitted.
Format: Mostly essay, short answer, and
definition. Some students
mistakenly assume that because there is a lot of weight given to essay
questions on the exam, that they need not memorize important concepts, foreign
words, and facts of major importance.
This is an incorrect understanding for this class, because in order to
write the essays and short answer questions you will in fact need to have
memorized concepts, foreign words, and facts and use them in your essays. There
is only a slight chance that there will be any multiple choice, true-false, or
matching questions—if there are any such questions, they will only be worth a
small number of points. Hence, tests require a command of the material, not
merely familiarity with it.
MIDTERM: One midterm given on Monday, March 4. No makeup will be given without a
dean's or doctor's excuse. If you
do obtain such an excuse, you have three days after you return to make up the
exam. All the exams will cover the
lectures, films, music, and the required reading in WR (Smith's The World's
Religions), but NOT the WW (Novak's The World's Wisdom).
FINAL: The final exam will be on Fri, May 8,
12:00 - 3:00 pm, in the regular
class room. If you do not show up
for the final exam you will receive an F for the exam. Make up final exams or incompletes can
only be given if you have a dean's excuse.
ATTENDANCE: Attendance will only be taken for the
Breakout Sessions. This will help
your TA determine your discussion participation grade.
WEEKLY
JOURNALS & MISC. ASSIGNMENTS & PROJECTS
A)
WEEKLY
JOURNALS You will prepare with a word processor a minimum of ONE journal entry, roughly one-half page each,
per the weekly assigned reading in the World's Wisdom (WW). You will then post them in WebCT
discussion forums (minimum one per forum) and a response to others (see online
discussion below). I will set up
WebCT discussion forums after the end of drop-add. The page
numbers that you will read for each forum and concerning which you will post
will be noted there. So once you
see the forums, the assignment will be clear. The form of the entry will be as follows:
At
the top of the half-page type
1a)
number and date the entry
b)
name the article, chapter, or url
Then
in the body of the entry
1)
on the first line above your quote,
indicate the page number of
the quote.
2) type a quote that was of interest
to you in that week's reading
3) explain or put in your own words the
meaning of the quote; and
4)
explain why it interested you and explain its religiological significance, if
any.
N.B.
(nota bene, i.e. Note Well!): These journals must be posted before your Friday
breakout session so that you have done them by the time of your breakout
session, which will prepare you for your breakout session in which you will
discuss the readings in WW. So YOU
MUST hand them in to your TA at the end of each breakout session. If an emergency comes up making it
impossible for you to hand them in at your breakout session, email them to your
TA, NOT to Dr. Godlas.
If
the passage is longer than a paragraph, either summarize it or choose a
particular portion to respond to.
You
will also hand these journals in to your TA at the final breakout session,
Friday, April 24. Note: print them
from a word processing program, NOT from copies made off WebCT, which will not
be accepted.
B) SACRED SCRIPTURE
SEARCH: In addition, you will be required to search a topic or person of interest to you in online versions of
the sacred scriptures we will be touching upon. The urls of these will been supplied by Dr. Godlas on
WebCT. You can search the same
topic or choose a different one in each of these sacred texts. Prepare a journal entry for each of these
along the lines of a normal journal entry, except pick a few of the results of
the search, summarize them, and note why they interested you.
Note
that your journal entries for these searches (but not any downloaded documents)
must be handed in to your TA on February 20.
C) ONLINE DISCUSSION: Using
the WebCT Bulletin Board
For
the assigned readings in the World’s Wisdom you are required to do the following:
1) to post (by the Friday
when the reading will be discussed) your journal entries, at least ONE ENTRY
PER FORUM; and
2) respond to at least One entrY of other students per forum.
(You can post your responses to your fellow students until the Friday of the
following week.) Feel free to post
and respond to more entries than are required, but NOTE WELL: if three other
students have already posted their responses to one student, please respond to
some other student's posting.
Note also that your grade may be lowered if you wait until
after your Friday breakout session to post your own journals or if you wait
longer than a week afterwards to respond to your fellow students' postings.
D)
LIBRARY PROJECT: After the librarian has introduced you to the online Religion
Index and to the Encyclopedia of Religion, you will find two periodical articles in journals physically held in
our library (NOT ONLINE) using the Religion index (one dealing with either
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; and one for any one of the other religions
noted below) and one Encyclopedia
article for each of the religions covered in class: Judaism, Christianity,
Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and either Australian
Aboriginal or Native American religion.
You will take at least one aspect from each of these articles that
interested you and write one-half page about it. (You must indicate the
category in the Religion Index where you found the article and the library call
number of the journal in our library where you actually located the article.)
In total, you will be handing in five pages. You do not hand in the articles themselves, just your own
writing about them. This must be
handed in to your TA on April 3, Friday.
E)
RELIGIOLOGICAL INTERVIEWS: Using
the religiological method, you will do four religiological analyses based on
four interviews: analyze yourself on your own beliefs, and interview one male
and female your own age and also one person of an older generation. The format of these should follow
the religiological format, giving answers per each category. Each category should be LABELED. Keep your interviews separate from one
another; in other words, DO NOT combine all of the epistemologies together, all
of ontologies together, etc.
The self analysis will be discussed on Friday, January 16. The others will be discussed and due on
Friday, January 23. All should
also be posted on WebCT by Jan. 23.
You must also respond to at least ONE other student's posting per forum.
(This is different from the normal amount of WebCT posting, which is one forum per week.)
F)
SERVICE PROJECT
Because being of service
is a common characteristic in most if not all of the world's religions and
cultures, you must do some meaningful service projects helping the
disadvantaged (volunteering to be of service for free to poor
people, old people, sick people, habitat for humanity, to animals, or
tutoring students in various schools or even here at UGA, or similar projects—a
list of sample possibilities will be posted to WebCT, but you are more than
welcome to create your own project) for two or three hours every four
weeks (i.e. three times during the semester). The service project (or projects)
can be done EITHER individually or in groups (of any size) and on any topic of your
choosing as long as it fits the guideliness of a "service" project and
as long as your TA and Dr. Godlas approves the project. Hence,
in principle there could be as many different projects as there are
students, although if you prefer to work in groups, that is fine. You can
of course volunteer for ongoing projects such as those organized by religious,
cultural, or civic organizations. In sum, you can work in groups or
as individuals; and also you can choose topics from the list that I
provide or create other projects (that you can work on individually or in
groups).
If you
are currently involved in any kind of volunteer service project (such as that
organized by a religious or cultural organization), you should feel free to use
that as your project or to choose something different.
You will
be required to write at least one "service project
write-up" after each of your (at minimum) three service activities
(which you will both hand in to your TA as a hard copy and post to WebCT); and
when you hand in your "service project summary and evaluation," you
must include a photograph of yourself (which can also be digitally emailed
to your TA) taken while you were involved in your service project or with
those whom you were assisting. The initial service project writeup should
describe the project in detail; it and all subsequent entries should include
what you did during each service activity as well as your subjective responses
(i.e. thoughts and feelings) while you were involved and after your
involvement, each time. You will also be required to write a project summary in
which you evaluate your project and summarize your opinion of and feelings
about your involvement.
Note
on grading criteria for the above assignments and projects: As long as you
fulfill the requirements (especially doing them on time and clearly indicating
that you have put some effort and thought into the assignment), you will
receive an "A" (95%). To the degree that the instructions are
not followed and to the extent that it is obvious that not much effort and
thought has been put into the assignment, your grade will decrease.
Grading:
27% Journals (comprised of 13%
weekly written journals; including
Religiological interviews, 11% for posting and responding to others; and 3%
sacred scripture searches) and WebCT discussion; the written journals and WebCT
discussion postings are based on Novak’s World’s Wisdom
10% Service project
6% Library project
22% Midterm
23% Final (not cumulative,
except for Religiology)
12% Discussion/Breakout
section attendance and participation
Topical Outline:
Read the chapters in Smith's
The World’s Religions (WR), and Novak's The World’s Wisdom (WW) that pertain to
each religion for the days we will cover those religions.)
Week 0 Jan 9: Discussion, why
are you interested in the class and service project ideas
Week 1 Jan 12-14; Intro and Religiology: WR 1-11
Jan 12, Hermeneutical Understanding and
Religiology; homework due for Friday is your religiological analysis of your
own beliefs;
Jan 14 Religiological Analysis
Jan 16 Discussion of your religiological
self-analysis
Week 2 WR, Judaism, ch.
VII; WW 175-190 The Teaching; and
WW 190-200 The Prophets [see instructions above for posting on WebCT]* ;
complete religiological interviews for breakout sessions; also post these on
WebCT, and respond to one other student's posting per forum.
Jan 19- MLK holiday
Jan 21 –Judaism; Service
project idea must be emailed to your TA—note your name and which breakout
session you are in.
Jan 23- discuss Judaism
readings and remaining religiological analyses.
Week 3 WR, Judaism, ch. VII
(cont.); WW 201-226 Other Writings, Talmud, Grace Notes
Required: http://www.aish.com/literacy/concepts/The_Soul.asp "The Soul" by Rabbi A. Kaplan,
required for lecture
recommended: http://www.jewfaq.org/olamhaba.htm
"Olam Haba: The Afterlife"
Jan 26-28 Judaism
Jan 30: Friday film, Judaism,
The Long Search
Week 4 WR, Finish Judaism readings; Christianity,
ch. VIII; WW 227-253 Life of
Jesus, Sayings of Jesus
February 2- Judaism http://tinyurl.com/8tf8u Interview with Kabbalah scholar
Daniel Matt on the Zohar (recommended)
February 4, Christianity
Week 5 WR, Christianity, ch.
VIII (cont.); WW 253-279 The Life
of the Early Church, Grace Notes
Recommended for lecture: “The
Soul in Christian Thought,” from “The Soul” in Catholic Encyclopedia http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14153a.htm
February 9-11 Christianity
February 13 Librarian for
library project, 1st service project write-up due
Week 6 WR, Finish
Christianity readings; Islam, ch. VI;
WW Qur’an: Mecca and Medina Suras 281-287; Qur’an: Selections
Thematically Arranged 287-312
Required for lecture and
journal: Terrorism is at Odds with Muslim Tradition by al Fadl,
http://www.muslim-lawyers.net/news/index.php3?aktion=show&number=78
February 16 -Christianity
February 18- Islam:
Additional journal assignment:
familiarize yourselves with Dr. Godlas’ website “Islam and Islamic Studies
Resources,” http://www.uga.edu/islam ,
pick one article on Islam from the main page and one from an interior page, and
do a summary and response for each.
February 20 Sacred
Scripture search due
Week 7 WR, Islam, ch. VI (cont.); Hadith: Sayings and
Traditional Accounts and Grace Notes 312-332
Required for journal: Read
one article dealing with women in the topics section of the website of the
Muslim Women’s League http://www.mwlusa.org
February 23- Islam
February-25 Islam
February 27- Film Muhammad:
Legacy of a Prophet
Week 8 Finish Islam readings
March 2 Islam
Reading: From Dr. Godlas’
website: The Events of Sept. 11 and Islam:
http://www.uga.edu/islam/nineeleven.html (recommended)
March 4 Midterm
Week 9 March 9-13 Spring Break
Week 10 WR, Hinduism, ch. I; WW Early Vedas,
Upanishads 1-24
March 16-Hinduism
March 18- Hinduism
March 20 Film, India the
Infinite, 2nd service project write-up
Week 11 WR, Hinduism, ch. II
(cont.); WW The Bhagavad-Gita, Grace Notes 24-48
WR, Buddhism, ch. III; WW Buddha’s Life, Rebel Saint,
Core Doctrines 49-77
March 23- Hinduism March 24 Tuesday, Withdrawal
deadline
March 25 Bhuddism
Week 12 WR, Buddhism, ch. III
(cont.); WW Mahayana Buddhism: Tibetan and Zen Buddhism, Grace Notes 77-109
March 30 Buddhism
April 1 Buddhism
April 3 Library Project Due
Week 13 WR, Buddhism, ch. III
(cont.); Confucianism, ch. IV; WW
Confucianism: Confucius the Man 111-118; Mencius 134-138; The Confucian Project
and The Great Learning 119-134
April 6 Buddhism
April 8 Confucianism
April 10 3rd service
project write-up
Week 14 WR, Confucianism, ch. IV (cont.); WW
Taoism: Tao Te ching, Chuang Tzu and Grace Notes 145-174
April 13- Confucianism
April 15- Confucianism
April 17- Service project
summary and evaluation
Week 15 WR, Taoism, ch. V; WW Primal Religions:
Beginnings, Returning to the Sacred 333-79
April 20-22 Taoism
April 24, your grade so
far, Final Breakout Session
Week 16 WR Primal Religions (Australian, Native
American, African) ch. IX;
April 27 Primal Religions
April 29 reading in African Religion:
Prof. John Mbiti “General Manifestations of African Religiosity” http://www.afrikaworld.net/afrel/mbiti.htm (a link is also on the WebCt home page)
April 30 Thursday (a Monday
schedule) Concluding Remarks:
differences, similarities, understanding and truth
Final Exam Fri, May 8, 12:00 - 3:00 pm, location: regular
classroom. University mandated no exceptions unless you have three exams on
this day.
The UGA Academic
Honesty Policy will be followed.
In other words, all academic work
must meet the standards contained in "A Culture of Honesty." Students are responsible for informing
themselves about those standards before performing any academic work. The link to more detailed information
about academic honesty can be found at
http://www.uga.edu/ovpi/honesty/acadhon.htm
The instructor
reserves the right to make any changes to this syllabus. The
course syllabus is a general plan for the course; changes may be necessary but
will be announced and posted on WebCT.