|
|
|
|
Comparative Religion
|
|
|
|
|
|
Saint Martin's
College Humanities Division Department of Religious Studies David Suter homepage Return to course list |
Campus office: 366 Campus phone: (360) 438-4360 Office hours: On Sabbatical Email contact here |
|
|
|
|
RLS 302: Comparative Religion Choose two of the following six questions and write essays of one and a half to two pages each discussing those two questions. The exam is open book and open notes, and you may discuss the test with anyone prior to taking it. However, do not discuss it while taking it. In answering the questions, seek to convey an awareness of reading you have done for the class as well as class discussions. Be sure to handle quotations appropriately and find a shorthand way of giving credit for quotations and ideas derived from other sources. The exam is due Wednesday, February 9, in class. 1. What is meditation and what is its place in religion? Discuss in light of two of the religions we have studied so far this term. 2. Write a creative story (parable, allegory, etc.) that illustrates a central point of one of the religions that we have studied. Comment on your story to indicate what you are trying to express with it. 3. Compare the way in which two of the religions we have studied understand the nature of the human person. What makes us “us”? What is our fundamental problem as humans, and how does the religion propose to solve that problem. 4. Are Buddhism and Confucianism religions? Discuss and illustrate your discussion with specific material about the two “movements”? 5. What can you learn from the creation stories in the Vedas about why people tell stories about the beginning of the universe? 6. Why is morality in Confucianism the point of the teaching, while in Hinduism and Buddhism it’s only a step along the way? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
