RELI 4400/6400. The History of Religions. 3 hours.

Oasis Title: HIST OF REL

Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing or permission of department.

This course serves as an introduction into the actual study of religion/religions. We will place specific religious traditions — medieval monastic Catholicism, Japanese Zen Buddhism, Indian village Hinduism, Modern American Protestantism, and medieval Islamic Sufism — in the light of the ideas and theories of religious scholars.

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.

Course 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, "Paradox in Religious Language;" "Symbol and Reality"

VIII. Islam: Sufism

Nasradin

All academic work must meet the standards contained in the document titled A Culture of Honesty. All students are responsible for informing themselves about those standards before performing any academic work.

The course syllabus is a general plan for the course. Changes and variations, announced to the class by the instructor, may be necessary.