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| Contents | Introduction to World
Religions Instructors Thomas Peterson William Cassidy Institution Alfred University Course Level and Type Introductory level course with no prerequisites. The course is one way for students in the various academic units to fulfill general education requirements. Hours of Instruction 56 hours, 4 hrs/week over 14 week semester Enrolment and Last Year Taught Course taught every semester. Regularly enrolls between 35 and 50 students. 43 students Spring semester 1998. |
This is an introductory course in religious studies. The primary objectives of the course are:
1) To gain a fundamental understanding of the general nature of religion and of various religious traditions.
2) To come to appreciate the richness and diversity as well as the commonalities of religious life in various cultures and historical periods.
3) To gain understanding about how and why people construct their religious worlds through myth, ritual, symbolism, beliefs, ethics etc.
4) To become aware of the need for religious dialogue in our contemporary world.
5) "To make the strange familiar and the familiar strange."
Denise and John Carmody, ed., The Range of Religion
James C. Livingston, Anatomy of the Sacred, 2nd ed.
John Neihardt, ed., Black Elk Speaks
A. ATTENDANCE IN CLASS
The material presented in class adds conceptual understanding and new information that is not found in the texts. "Getting the notes from someone" will not be an adequate substitute for actual attendance in terms of success in taking exams.
B. EXAMS
Four exams throughout the semester will comprise 2/3 of the grade for the course (each exam will therefore count 1/6). These exams cover material in each section and are not cumulative (except that you'd need to know major concepts from earlier sections).
C. PROJECT--"DESIGN A RELIGION"
(Thanks to Prof. Mark Juergensmeier of U.C. Santa Barbara for sharing this assignment.)
1. The project will count for 1/3 of the grade for the course. (Most of this grade will be based on a 5-6 page written paper. The oral presentation could modify the grade by raising or lowering it one grade notch; the quality of a person's participation with his/her group may also on rare occasions raise or lower the grade by a notch.)
2. In addition to class meetings, students will meet 4 or 5 times during the semester in small groups--ideally 6 students. Each group will take on the task of creating its own religion in response to specific cultural conditions of its own invention. (Specific instructions for the various meetings will be handed out separately.)
3. Each student will be responsible for designing one (or occasionally a combination) of the following components:
a) Ritual
b) The nature of the sacred and symbols
c) Myths
d) Beliefs and Doctrines about divinity
e) Social values/ Ethics
f) Communal social structure/ leadership
g) Founders/ Reformers
4. Each group will have 35 minutes to present their religion and take questions from the class. Time should be allocated fairly equally among participants in the group--each person should plan to speak about 4 minutes; that would leave about 8 minutes for comments from the class, questions, and discussion.
5. Each student will write a brief 5-6 page paper, due Thursday, April 9. Grades will be based both on how well you fulfill the specific requirements and on the usual categories of thoughtfulness, depth of analysis, organization and clarity of writing style (Good grammar, spelling etc. are assumed! Make appointment with the Writing Center if you need help).
Specific Requirements--The grade will largely be based on how well you fulfill these:
a) A brief description of the cultural conditions of your religion
b) A description of the component created and an explanation of its relationship to the rest of the religion.
c) A comparison of the created component with some examples that are parts of actual religions studied during the semester.
d) An analysis of the importance of your component to the religion created and to religious structures in general.
6. Important additional notes on individual papers:
a) The papers should be typed and double-spaced, with a wide margin on one side of the page for my comments.
b) Although you are not required to use outside sources in this paper, be sure to footnote
any idea which is not your own. Footnote anything you paraphrase. Put quotation marks around any words that you borrow and indicate its source in a footnote. (Otherwise, you would commit plagiarism, a very serious intellectual "crime.") Note: You do not have to footnote ideas that came from the class, including the readings, unless you are quoting directly from them.
Topics and Reading Assignments
The readings should be read by the date assigned. This is especially important for the primary texts in Carmody and Black Elk Speaks since they will be the background not only for lectures but also form the core of our discussions.
A. INTRODUCTION--What is religion? What is being religious?
Jan. 20, 22, 23--Film, Leap of Faith (Steve Martin, commercial film)
B. COMPONENTS OF RELIGIONS
1. Beliefs and Doctrines: Concepts of Divinity
Jan. 27--Carmody, ch. 28, Camus, The Plague; Livingston, pp. 96-99, 170-181
Jan. 29--Livingston, pp. 185-189; Carmody, ch. 11, from Tao te Ching
Jan. 30--Livingston, pp. 190-198; Carmody, ch. 14, from The Talmud on Doctrine of God
2. Community: Values and Leadership
Feb. 3--Carmody, ch. 21, Life Is with People; Livingston, pp. 288-293, 311-324
Feb. 5--Livingston, pp. 297-303; Carmody, ch. 16, Confucius, book IV of Analects
EXAM I--Friday, Feb. 6
3. Rituals
Feb. 10--Carmody, ch. 8, Black Elk, "Crying for a Vision"; Livingston, pp. 104-126
Feb. 12--Carmody, ch. 9, Malcolm X, "Mecca"
Feb. 13--Carmody, ch. 10, Liz Harris, "Holy Days"
4. The Sacred and Symbols
Feb. 17--Carmody, ch. 31, Otto, "Mysterium and the Holy"; Livingston, pp. 56-60
Feb. 19--Livingston, pp. 60-70, 74-82
Feb. 20--Time scheduled for groups to meet on group projects--Meeting II
5. Myths
Feb. 24--Livingston, pp. 82-88
Feb. 26, 27--Carmody, ch. 5, from The Mahabharata; Carmody, ch. 4--from Ogotemmeli
EXAM II--Monday, Mar. 3
6. Founders and Reformers
Mar. 5--Livingston, pp. 136-139; Handout, on Life of Muhammad
Mar. 6--Carmody, ch. 24, Starhawk, "Goddess Religion"
C. CASE STUDY: LAKOTA RELIGION IN TRANSITION
Mar. 17--"Primal Religions & Visions"--BES, xi-xix and chs. 1-4; Livingston pp. 293-297
Mar. 19--"Sun Dance and Warfare"--BES, chs. 5-11
Mar. 20--"Shamanic Initiation and Ritual"--BES, chs. 12-18
Mar. 24--Film, Wiping away the Tears
Mar. 26--"The Ghost Dance and Cultural Revitalization"--BES, chs. 19-25 & Postscript
EXAM III-Friday, March 27
D. GROUP PROJECT REPORTS
Mar. 31, Apr. 2, Apr. 3, Apr.7 (note papers due Wednesday, April 9)
E. RELIGIOUS WAYS OF LIBERATION
1. "Introduction: Goals of Liberation"
Apr. 9--Livingston, pp. 371-372
2. "Way of Grace"
Apr. 10, 14-- Livingston, pp. 338-345, Carmody, ch. 7, Gospel of St. Mark (I recommend your reading a more modern translation, however);
3. "Way of Devotion"
Apr. 16, 17, 21--Livingston, pp. 346-350; Carmody, ch. 2, Julian of Norwich; Video: Hinduism and the Song of God (Hartley Films, Cos Cob, CT)
4. "Way of Meditation"
Apr. 23, 24, 28--Livingston, pp. 245-249, 361-367; Carmody, ch. 1, Kapleau, Three Pillars of Zen; Video: I Am a Monk (Hartley Films)
5. "Way of Action/ Obligation"
Apr. 30, May 1--Livingston, pp. 350-361, 303-311; Carmody, ch. 22, from Gandhi's Autobiography; Carmody, ch. 18, from Laws of Manu; Carmody, ch. 26 from Gutierrez
EXAM IV--Monday, May 11, 3:30 p.m.
Both instructors use a variety of pedagogical techniques, including lecturing, videos, breaking the class into groups of 6-7 students to answer specific questions from the readings, especially the primary source readings. The Carmody book of primary sources contains a wide range of interesting readings and works fairly well in the course. Black Elk Speaks has been a good way for us to pull together the categories of religion that we develop in the first half of the course. The book also helps us show the importance of cultural and historical contexts for the development of religious practices, ideas, and organization. We are not as satisfied with the Livingston textbook for several reasons, including too many sections with overly complicated material--e.g., a discussion of deontology. Some sections are, however, very accessible. This is why we only assign about ½ of this book. There are not many textbooks that take a comparative approach to teaching world religions. (Another one that has just been published is Introduction to the Study of Religion, Nancy Ring et al., Orbis Press. Neither instructor has had time to evaluate the work, but it may well be a replacement for Livingston.)
We are very committed to using a comparative approach to world religions (rather than going religion by religion). When we taught the course in the more traditional way, we found ourselves reducing religion to ideas and beliefs in order to make each of 6 religious traditions comprehensible in a semester. Both of us want to emphasize the non-ideational, non-theological material. Students now see that a Roman Catholic's experience of worship may be more similar to a Hindu's than to a Baptist's; Gandhi may have more in common ethically with Gustavo Gutierrez than with Manu's laws etc.
Although some major videos are listed in the syllabus, we also use occasional slides or small sections from videos to highlight some aspect of religion. (For example, the opening sequence --about 10 minutes – from Peter Brook's 6 hour film on the Mahabharata is a good way to introduce "myth.") We place a high pedagogical value on varying teaching techniques. Splitting the class into small groups for a 10 minute discussion on a specific topic reinvigorates the class and gets students involved. This can work in large groups.
Finally, we both have groups of 5-7 students create their own religion. This is described in the syllabus below. We both want to thank Mark Juergensmeier, presently at the University of California in Santa Barbara, for this assignment. It works very well with our students. The only problem with it has been an occasional group where a couple of students don't take responsibility and leave the others in the group "high and dry." We've found it very important to have a spokesperson for each group talk with the instructors about any potential problems.
Note: a second version of this course complements the first.
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