The specific availability for this course is not currently known. If you would like to know if this course will be offered during your session, please contact us.
This course introduces students to the history of Religious Studies as an academic discipline and to the methodological approaches that set it apart from anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and history. The fundamental terms that characterize the discipline (religion/religions, God, faith, belief, ritual, experience, liberation, territory, conflict) are discussed, and students are given a selection of four religious texts, to which these methods are critically applied. Possible texts may include a selection from the following: The Mahabharata; Yann Martel's Life of Pi, John Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks; Levi-Strauss’ The Raw and the Cooked, Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind; Sam Gill’s Storytracking; Michael Taussig’s Defacement; Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle; The Journal of a Russian Pilgrim; The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti.
