Richard S. Ascough

Department
of Religious
Studies

Fall-Winter
2000-2001

Correspondence Course

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Continuing & Distance Studies

This course is built around two areas of investigation. One is concerned with the classical approaches to religion taken by the secular sciences but increasingly viewed as the science of religion. Not only questions of what religion is, but how and whether it can be studied scientifically are investigated. The second area of investigation is to examine contemporary models of religion, particularly in relation to the secular. The adequacy of these models will be examined both critically and constructively.

The material used for the assignments will consist of selected readings from The Reader in Comparative Religion, edited by Lessa and Vogt. The readings largely deal with primitive or archaic religion, though not exclusively. There are reasons for this. First, the selections come from areas sharply differentiated from the religious traditions familiar to the student. To understand religion it is often easier to examine a culture and a tradition which is not one's own. Objectivity is easier and one is less involved in defending or attacking. Furthermore, the rituals, myths, and other data are often difficult to understand, and so interpretation becomes like solving a mystery or puzzle.

Tools and opportunities for using the tools are provided for trying to make sense of the often obscure, complicated, and foreign phenomena by which people have sought to solve insolvable problems, give meaning to their lives, or bring society together by consecrating kings and priests and telling myths about them. Assignments will be directed toward not just the understanding of the readings but giving students the opportunity to test their capacity to interpret data.

Instructor

Richard S. Ascough
Department of Religious Studies
Queen's University
Kingston, ON, Canada, K7L 3N6

Telephone: (613) 533-6000 x78066

rsa@post.queensu.ca
http://post.queensu.ca/~rsa