"One word of truth outweighs the whole world."
-
Russian proverb
Sessions: Tuesday/Thursday
12:30 - 1:45, Harris Hall 445
Office Hours :
MW 10 - 11, 12 - 2, T/Thr 11 - 12:30, F 10 - 11
Office Email:
Student email will be responded to within 24 hours
Texts:
Dakota, Kathleen Norris
Learning to Love, Thomas Merton
The Other Side of the Mountain, Thomas Merton
Dillard Reader, Annie Dillard
Cross Creek, Marjorie Rawlings
The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery O'Connor
World-wide web sites
for both assigned and free reading
Course_Description
The following course explanation, in its totality, is a syllabus that is dynamic and flexible
according to the needs of the learners and of the learning process. It is not presented
as complete at the beginning of the study, but as an initial trajectory for the study. More
specific guidance and resources will be available as needed along the way. You, the learner,
have a key voice in the directions our study of world religions take so that our work will be
significant for you and for the class as a whole within a learner/student-centered context.
This course is a reading,
discussion and writing oriented course. Through the media of telecomputing
we will be
able to have a semester-long
contemplative focus upon the writings, interpretation and evaluation of
those writings,
and upon our own thinking
and thinking about our thinking. We will critically and creatively
think about what is the
nature and meaning of nature
and experience We will risk approaching universal human themes
through specific,
unique individuals and the
stories they have to tell.
This is a course about stories
and finding ways to express what one thinks, feels and experiences, and
how evocative
and how language can be used to portray spiritual and human perceptions
and perspectives. Someone has said that "the
destiny of the world is
determined less by the battles that are lost and won, than by the stories
that are loved and
believed in." We will
read the stories of others and perhaps write more of our own stories along
the way.
The goal is not the accumulation
of information, but the growing into wisdom with the help of the writers,
cultures
and religious traditions
we will encounter and engage.
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Course
Objectives
By the end of this course
it is hoped and expected that each student will be able to read more deeply,
interpret
more analytically and creatively,
think more critically, reflect for the purpose of integration, communicate
in writing
more precisely, concisely
and imaginatively, express one's ideas orally to others with greater clarity,
and, importantly,
have had an enjoyable educational
and personal time of it all.
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Computing
in this Course
Each student needs to have
the basic ability to use email that is web-sensitive such as Netscape Messenger
or Microsoft
Outlook and to be able to
find and utilize world-wide-web resources that are available for the study
of religion and religions
through use of a web browser
such as Navigator (4.0 or higher) or Internet Explorer (4 or higher).
The course will include
sending and receiving email,
web site readings and research, an electronic discussion list (with web
archive) and electronic publication of student writings, both individual
and collaborative.
The educational use of telecomputing
will facilitate ongoing asynchronous discussion, submission and revision
of student
writings, peer review of
student writings, collaborative group writings and projects, individual
communication with the
professor, or among students,
and publication of an electronic course journal with student contributions.
Telecomputing
tutorials are available as is guidance on how to engage
in respectful communication on the Internet
(netiquette).
In using web sources, please refer to Documenting
Sources from the World Wide Web.
The purposes of the using of computer technology in this study are as follows:
Writing Across
the Curriculum
This study is a Writing
Across the Curriculum (WAC), writing-intensive, course where
writing is fully integrated into all
aspects of the learning
and reflection process. In this process one's writing skills are
further developed in the context of
both learning to write and
writing to learn. There are no exams in this course, but there are in-
and out-of-class writings,
a formal, revised essay,
group writings, oral presentations or debates with written components.
On-line writing resources
are available. All
writings are to be completely the work of the individual or the group doing
the writing, thus avoiding
all plagiarism.
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Attendance
Policy
Attendance at every class
is expected and necessary to best benefit the act and art of learning through
the discussion
and writing orientation
of this course on a very complex subject. Anyone not willing to be
responsible for attending all
classes is advised not to
take this course.
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Drop Policy
The official withdrawal
policy is observed where the withdrawal ("W") period for an individual
course begins
January 18th and ends March
17th.
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Course
Evaluation
Discussion List & Writings
20%
Course Journal
30%
Group Project
20%
Final Essay (revision)
30%
*
Voluntary
participation in the writing, editing & publishing of issue of the
course journal is available
All writings need to be
received on time (allowing for computer system outages) for full evaluation.
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"Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established,
that, unless we love the truth, we canot know it." -
Pascal