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Introduction to Religious Studies
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Saint Martin's
University Humanities Division Department of Religious Studies David Suter homepage Return to course list Campus office: 366 Campus phone: (360) 438-4360 Office hours: MWF 2:00-2:50 PM; TR 10:00-10:50 AM Email contact here |
Description General Education Texts Requirements Topics and Assignments |
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As should be apparent
from reading the morning news, religion
is an essential part of the human experience. Consequently, any liberal arts
education, to be complete, needs to take account of that facet of life.
Likewise, when a university belonging to a religious faith undertakes to educate
students as whole persons, one would expect it to introduce them to the
tradition to which it belongs--if for no other reason, to familiarize them with
the values and experiences that are a part of that religious community. This
class is designed to introduce the student to some of the major world religious
traditions as well as to some of the central contemporary issues related to the
study of religion and the role of religious traditions in the world today. It is
intended to inform and provide food for thought rather than to indoctrinate. The
student should expect to learn something about the religious beliefs and
practices of other peoples and in the process to be given an opportunity to
reflect upon what she or he believes or values. From Northern Ireland to India,
the clash of different religious groups is a major factor in our world, and the
basic premise of this course is that the way to peace is through knowledge and
understanding. |
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This course qualifies for general education credit at Saint Martin's University. The aims and objectives of general education at Saint Martin's College include the goal that "Saint Martin's University graduates will have an understanding of religious and philosophical concepts and principles, and of the moral and ethical questions they will face in society and the professions." In this course, we will have several goals, including the acquisition of some exact knowledge about several of the religions of the world, a focus on the central or controlling concepts of those religions, the ability to communicate and to enter into dialog with persons of other faiths, and perhaps a better understanding of the "religious" dimension of our own lives, however we define it. |
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Texts
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The course requirements include a midterm test, a final exam, and a "reflection" paper. In addition, the student will be expected to read the assignments in advance and come to class prepared to discuss them. All written work must be the student's own. Violations of the university's policy on academic honesty (see the current catalog and the student handbook) will lead to failure of the assignment or the course, depending upon the seriousness of the offense in the judgment of the professor. In the papers, ideas and quotations derived from other sources must be properly footnoted. Late papers will be lowered a letter grade. Test and final exam. These will include both short answer and essay questions. Each will cover its own segment of the course, with the exception that the final exam will include one comprehensive essay or discussion question. Make-ups will be permitted only for reasons considered compelling by the professor. Reflection paper. A reflection paper is an essay, four to five pages in length, in which the student seeks to interpret and reflect upon the religious issues raised by the novel we are reading: in this case, Elie Wiesel's Night. The course has been designed to allow for a draft process to be followed in writing the paper to permit maximum input from the professor in the writing process.
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Schedule of Topics and Assignments I. Defining religion Studying religion presupposes we have some way of identifying the subject matter. While scholars have broad disagreements over how to "define" religion, we will take a look at the major options. Note that input (how we define religion) will to a great extent determine output (what we learn when we study it). We will also take a quick look at traditional (primitive) religion in the process. Aug. 8: Introduction to course. Defining the Indefinable: Definitions of Religion. After class, read Fisher, pp. 1-31, and see definitions of religion at the end of the syllabus. Class exercise in defining religion as "ultimate concern." Aug. 10: Dimensions of religion. Read Fisher, pp. 32-68. The Way of the Ancestors--videotape. III. Judaism Judaism is a religion small in numbers, but it plays a strategic role in our world. Most of us are conscious of the enormity of the Holocaust, but fewer are aware of a history of persecution of Jews by European Christians. Over the centuries, Jews have fared far better in Islamic than in Christian society. Judaism's contribution to the discussion of world religions is the prophetic experience of the holy as one God, whose gift to humanity is a law, the Torah, that in its essence establishes a fundamental dignity to human life. To paraphrase Elie Wiesel, God is big enough to take care of himself. What he has to give humanity is human dignity. Aug. 15: Judaism: The Chosen People--videotape. God seeking humanity: the story of Judaism. Read Fisher, pp. 226-83. Aug. 17: The Holocaust, past, present, and future--read Night. As you read, look for the universal human dimension of the tragedy. Can you identify with Eliezer? II. Religions of the East: Buddhism We live on the Pacific rim, where Buddhism represents one of the major alternatives to Christianity. The two religions have some striking differences and startling affinities. We will look at the older Theravadin form of Buddhism, where salvation comes through the "middle way" of mental discipline, and at Buddhism in Japan, where the "other help" of Mahayana or Pure Land Buddhism stands alongside the "self help" of Zen. Aug. 22: In the Footsteps of the Buddha, Theravadin Buddhism--videotape. Read Fisher, pp. 129-75. Aug. 24: The Land of the Disappearing Buddha, Buddhism in Japan--videotape. The Great Vehicle: Buddhism in the Far East. Aug. 29: Odds and ends, review. Rough draft of reflection paper due. Aug. 31: Midterm test. IV. Christianity Christianity comes in three major varieties: Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. Central to each is Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe is the Christ or Son of God, the Word of God made manifest in a human person. Christians believe that the Son is one person of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer), which is, at the same time, one God. Each branch of Christianity shares basically the same scripture and creeds, but subtle--and sometimes not so subtle--differences emerge in the ways these scriptures and creeds are understood as well as in church government and styles of worship. Aug. 31: (after midterm test): Jesus and Christian origins. Read Fisher, pp. 284-361. Sept. 7: Rome, Leeds, and the Desert--videotape. Roman Catholicism. Sept. 12: Protestant Spirit U.S.A.--videotape. Protestantism. Sept. 14: Orthodoxy: The Rumanian Solution--videotape. Eastern Orthodoxy. Sept. 19: Discussion of Christianity V. Islam Islam, as the third of the three monotheistic faiths, shares some important beliefs and values with Judaism and Christianity. At the same time, there are some important differences. It began with Muhammad and the hejra in AD 622, the first year of the Islamic calendar. Today, Islam represents an increasingly important force in our world. Muslims believe in one God who has no equal. Islam is a way of submission to God, Allah, revealed to humankind through Muhammad, the seal of a line of prophets or messengers including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Sept. 21: Islam--videotape. There Is No God but God. Read Fisher, pp. 362-416. Final draft of reflection paper due. Sept. 26: Islam in the contemporary world. Sept. 28: Reflections on the Long Search-Videotape. Review for final exam. Oct. 3: FINAL EXAM. Definitions of religion Paul Tillich, theologian "Religion is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the question of the meaning of our life. Therefore this concern is unconditionally serious and shows a willingness to sacrifice any finite concern which is in conflict with it." Clifford Geertz, anthropologist "(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic." Emile Durkheim, sociologist "The real characteristic of religious phenomena is that they always suppose a bipartite division of the whole universe, known and knowable, into two classes which embrace all that exists, but which radically exclude each other. Sacred things are those which the interdictions protect and isolate; profane things, those to which these interdictions are applied and which must remain at a distance from the first. Religious beliefs are the representations which express the nature of sacred things and the relations which they sustain, either with each other or with profane things." Alfred North Whitehead, philosopher "Religion is what the individual does with his (or her) own solitariness; and if you were never solitary, you were never religious." Religion as a system of signification "A native thinker makes the penetrating comment that 'All sacred things must have their place.' It could even be said that being in their place is what makes them sacred for if they were taken out of their place, even in thought, the entire order of the universe would be destroyed. Sacred objects therefore contribute to the maintenance of order in the universe by occupying the place allocated to them. Examined superficially and from the outside, the refinements of ritual can appear pointless. They are explicable by a concern for what one might call 'micro-adjustment'--the concern to assign every single creature, object or feature to a place within a class." --Claude Lévi-Strauss "The man of the archaic societies tends to live as much as possible in the sacred or in close proximity to consecrated objects. The tendency is perfectly understandable, because, for primitives as for the man of all pre-modern societies, the sacred is equivalent to power, and, in the last analysis, to reality. The sacred is saturated with being. Sacred power means reality and at the same time enduringness and efficacy. . . . Thus it is easy to understand that religious man deeply desires to be, to participate in reality, to be saturated with power." --Mircea Eliade |
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