1. What is the main concern of the recent report of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, "Religion and the Curricululm," and what in general does it propose?
2. What conditions must public education religion studies meet to be consistent with current legal interpretation of the First Amendment?
3. More generally, what sort of study of religion is appropriate in the context of public education?
4. What does the instructor propose as the purpose of public education religion studies beyond the purposes of having historically and culturally informed citizens?
5. Why is it that so many disciplines are involved in the study of religion? Explain with some examples.
6. Characterize the phenomenological approach to the study of religion. How is it different from, yet related to, other approaches to the academic or objective study of religion? Be able to discuss some example contrasts here.
7. What are the limitations on the phenomenological approach to the study of religion? What are some questions it is unable to answer? What would be a misuse of this method?
8. Explain the difference between understanding and believing in connection with the study of religion as we are pursuing it? Explain how the understanding we are pursuing is not itself religious, but is rather objective, neutral, or secular. To what extent is understanding in this manner a religious tradition very different from one's own possible?
9. Why is it important to recognize the reality of the religious phenomenon being studied as Other, as standing above and beyond the developing interpretation one has of it? In this connection, what does an objectivity appropriate to the study of religion mean as a goal to pursue?
7. Reply to someone unacquainted with this course who asks: "Doesn't the objective study of religion tend to erode and undermine faith?" Explain your answer. On the other hand, is a faith of one's own a hindrance, a help, both, or neither?
8. What is empathetic objectivity and why is it needful in the study of religion?
9. How is an empathetically objective interpretation of a religious tradition similar to participation in theatrical drama?
10. What is the test of empathy and what is it for?
11. What is the test of neutrality and what is it for?
12. What is the meaning of "bracketing" in the phenomenological study of religion? What is its purpose or function? Use examples.
13. What sorts of things makes up the "perspective" or "insider's view" of a religious tradition (cite examples) -- that is to say, its "moccasins" -- such that an outsider might take it up empathetically?
14. Explain the "threshold effect" whereby religious symbols change or shift in their appearance and meaning, as one moves from being an outsider to being an insider (if only "as if an insider" in an act of empathy).
15. Why is it important to take the "threshold effect" into account in developing empathetically objective interpretations of religious phenomena?
16. In what lies the religious function of religious phenomena? In other words, what makes them come alive religiously?
17. Give and explain the instructor's definition of religion. Explain with examples.
18. What is "the problem of meaning" and how does it relate to the instructor's definition of religion?
19. Identify and explain briefly some of the fundamental yearnings in humankind to which religious traditions are considered by insiders to carry an answer? In general, how do people in religious traditions characteristically attempt to satisfy those yearnings (which are different aspects of what Geertz calls "the problem of meaning")?
20. What is the significance of recognizing that religions are systems of symbols allowing for differing interpretations? What are some of the factors that govern difference in interpretation?
21. In the most general terms, what is a "way of being religious" according to the instructor's theory of ways of being religious? (This is not asking what each of the six ways of being religious are, but rather what they all share in common. I.e., what kind of thing is a "way of being religious"?)
22. Be able to cite two examples of any one of the six ways of being religious and explain, briefly, how they are examples of that way.
23. If differences in ways of being religious is not the basis of difference between religions (at least between major traditions), in terms of what sorts of things lies that difference? Illustrate with examples.
24. Why is it important to be able to recognize the many different ways of being religious? State some of the major advantages and explain with examples.
25. How is an understanding of the different generic ways of being religious an aid to dialogue between religions?
26. How is an understanding of the different generic ways of being religious an aid to ecumenical dialogue within a single religion?
26. What is religious common sense? Explain with the use of examples.
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Direct suggestions, comments, and questions about this page to Dale Cannon.
Last Modified 4/1/98