[Western Oregon University]

R460:COMPARATIVE RELIGION

SPRING 1999 SYLLABUS MWF 1 PM (HSS 335) FOR PROFESSOR DALE CANNON Email:  cannodw@wou.edu Office Hours:  MWF 11-12, TTh 2-3, and by appointment.

 

OBJECTIVES

FOR ORIENTATION

 

EMPATHETIC OBJECTIVITY: the discipline of making real to yourself the inward life, the subjective reality, of the lives lived within traditions other than your own as they truly are (thereby discovering what is like yourself in the stranger) and coming to recognize and understand your own tradition objectively as one among others (thereby discovering what is strange about yourself).

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1.  A persistent determination to understand the unfamiliar empathetically and the familiar objectively--and, more generally, to cultivate the discipline of empathetic objectivity in understanding and interpreting the religious phenomena we will be studying.

(2) Thoughtful preparation for and active participation in class discussion on the basis of scheduled readings and other assignments.

(3) Regular attendence and active participation in class.

(4) Two take-home examinations that relate to readings and class session content.

(5) Each student is to be placed in one of three groups whose responsibility is to become (as far as the class is concerned) experts on one of the three sub-traditions we will be studying.

(6) A final paper/research project in which you interpret, compare, and contrast in an empathetically objective but comprehensive manner an instance of the way of devotion from each of two different religious traditions.

 
COURSE TEXTS
 

TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE

(Some of the items are available on library reserve; others are in the reference collection or in the stacks.  A few--marked with an asterix *-- are not available in this library, but are particularly recommended and should be available in area libraries--e.g., Willamette University--and available on interlibrary loan.)

Mar  31  Introduction to the Course and to Each Other

Apr  2 - Apr 9  An Empathetically Objective Approach to Religious Studies
                        and Different Ways of Being Religious

Apr 12 - 16  The Way of Devotion as One Way Among Others

April 16  First Examination due.

Apr 19 - 30  Krishna and Vaishnava Bhakti Spirituality

May 3-14  Shinran, Amida, and the Spirituality of Jodo Shinshu

May 21 Final date for my review of your final paper outline and bibliography.

May 17 - 28  Wesley and Early Methodist Spirituality

 
May 31 Memorial Day – no school

Jun 2 - 4  Comparative Review of the Three Traditions

June 9 Final Examination due Wednesday at Noon
 

RELIGIOUS STUDIES ESSAYS I: Public Education Religion Studies

RELIGIOUS STUDIES ESSAYS II: Empathetic Objectivity . . .

EASTERN RELIGIONS VIDEO LIST

WESTERN RELIGIONS VIDEO LIST

MLA FORMAT
 

 

Western Oregon University

Copyright © 1997 Western Oregon University Direct suggestions, comments, and questions about this page to Dale Cannon.

Last Modified 6/17/99