RELI/PHIL 350: COMPARATIVE RELIGIONS
Kenneson - Spring 2000

Office: FOB #112                                                                     Office Phone: 423-461-8797
                            Office Hours: MWF 2:30-3:30 pm; TuTh 2:00-3:30 pm

PURPOSE
        Many scholars have noted that the United States was (and in many ways continues to be) the great "Protestant Experiment." While non-Protestants in some cases managed to gain a toe-hold early in the republic’s history, only recently has their status as second-class citizens been called into question. And even though Will Herberg’s classic text of the mid-1950s--Protestant, Catholic, Jew--may have been widely viewed as doing justice to the reality of American life of that era, such a work looks almost quaint from the vantage point of the new millennium. No longer can (or should) we assume that our neighbors or co-workers will be fellow Protestants. Of course, if one shifts one’s view away from the United States, the picture changes even more dramatically. Although Protestants account for roughly one-third of the population of the U.S., Protestants account for less than 7% of the world’s population. There are nearly three times more Roman Catholics and Moslems in the world (19% and 18% respectively) than there are Protestants, and almost twice as many Hindus (13.5 %). The list goes on and on.
        In light of this reality, the question that serves as the premise of this course is as follows: Can one presume to be an educated person in today’s world and know next to nothing about the customs, beliefs, rituals, and ways of life of the other 75-90% (depending on whether you count the "non-religious") of the world’s population? If not, then one has to begin somewhere. The aim of the course is to make a start at introducing students to those ways of thinking and living that animate the rest of the world beyond American Protestantism.

OBJECTIVES (What we do hope to do in this course):
To analyze critically the concept of "religion" as commonly understood in Western societies.
To be introduced to a number of "religious" traditions other than evangelical Protestant Christianity.
To develop skills as an empathic interpreter of "religious" traditions other than one's own.
To gain a clearer understanding of the impact of "religious" convictions and practices on everyday      life.
To gain an appreciation for the diversity present within "religious" traditions, as well as across them.
To gain a clearer understanding of some of the distinguishing features of the world's "religious"            traditions.
To gain a clearer understanding of some of the similarities among many "religious" traditions.
Having accomplished the above, to see one's own "religious" tradition with a new perspective and renewed appreciation.

NON-OBJECTIVES (What we do not plan to do in this course):
To resolve difficult and important questions about the relationship between Christianity and other "religious" traditions. 
To develop apologetic strategies for demonstrating the superiority of Christianity to other traditions.
To develop strategies for evangelizing those from other "religious" traditions.

ETHNIC STUDIES REQUIREMENT
As many of you know, this course fulfills your ethnic studies requirement. Since this feature of the course is vital to its place in the Milligan curriculum, it seems prudent to make you aware of the objective of ethnic studies courses at Milligan College.

The objective of the Ethnic Studies requirement is to help students understand and respect ethnicities with roots primarily outside of Western Europe, thereby opening the door to other value systems and to ways of looking at the world which have not been their own, and, hopefully, stimulating them to rethink their attitudes and beliefs about ethnic groups in ways that are faithful to the universal gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

        Given that 93% of the world’s population is not Protestant, any attempt to understand these people will require a willingness to investigate the deeply held convictions that animate their lives. This is why the majority of our time and energy will be devoted to listening to adherents of these traditions, either through written accounts, video presentations, or in-class presentations by invited guests.

APPROACH
Our task is a huge and daunting one. In one semester we can only hope to introduce you to some of the many influential wisdom traditions around the globe. Our approach will focus on immersing ourselves as much as possible into the tradition under consideration. To the extent possible, we will strive to let advocates and practitioners of these different traditions speak for themselves.
There are many resources at our disposal of which we would be wise to avail ourselves. These include such things as the following:

Sacred texts 
Artistic expressions
Invited guests/practitioners
Autobiographies
Scholarly articles
Popular presentations in the media (newspapers, magazines, television, film)
Educational videos
CD-Roms
Internet Web Sites
Optional "road trips"

REQUIREMENTS AND EXPECTATIONS
Students are expected to attend all class sessions. Since this course meets only once a week, missing a session is equivalent to missing an entire week's worth of material. Much of what you learn in this course will be learned during our time together; please be here every week.
Students are expected to complete all the reading in a timely fashion. Again, since this course meets only once a week, you will need to prepare throughout the week rather than the night before. You will likely need 6-9 hours to prepare adequately for each weekly session.
We will begin each session with a short 10-15 minute quiz over the assigned material. I will average your top 10 scores, and this average will constitute 40% of your semester grade. The quiz will begin promptly at 3:30. If you are absent or tardy you will not be given the opportunity to make up the quiz.
Here is the breakdown for grading:
40%--Weekly quiz average (top 12 scores).
20% --Final exam.
20% --Semester project. 
10%--Class participation (Attendance; active listening and discussion).
10%--Contributions to our class web page.

SEMESTER PROJECTS
You are expected to submit a semester project no later than April 10th. These may take a variety of forms. You are urged both to be creative and to plan a project that genuinely interests you. Here are a few suggestions to consider, though they should be regarded primarily as imagination starters and not as exhaustive guidance.
1) Arrange to visit an important site (worship or otherwise) of a tradition not your own. In addition to researching the tradition ahead of time, you should also arrange to speak with adherents and practitioners of that tradition. Then write up a 5-6 page (double-spaced) report on your experience, spending the majority of your time analyzing the similarities and differences you see between this tradition and your own.
2) Create a Power Point presentation that would introduce a Sunday School class or other group to a tradition unfamiliar to them. The presentation should run about 30 minutes. You will be given the opportunity to present these one evening this Spring in Wilson Auditorium.
3) Create an annotated web page introducing non-specialists to the study of a non-Protestant tradition not taken up in this course. The page should introduce inquirers to the full range of materials that make up a tradition (history, art, revered texts, rituals, beliefs, etc.) Outstanding pages will be posted to our Comparative Religions Page. 4) Read a biography or autobiography of an adherent of a "religious" tradition and write an 8-10 page report (double-spaced) on the impact which this tradition seems to have had on this person’s life and thought.

WEB PAGE
Part of your grade will be based on your contributions to our "Comparative Religions Page." I have set up the site with some general resources and have left some student contributions from the last time the course was taught. You should peruse these (and other) resources throughout the semester and send me an e-mail message recommending links to other resources, commentary on current events (not simply news stories), images, scholarly articles, etc., that you think merit including on our Web page (All material must be accessible via the Web.) To receive full credit, your recommendations must 1) not already be listed on the page, duplicate material already on the page, or been received by me from another student (I will post accepted recommendations to the page as quickly as possible); 2) be accompanied by an detailed annotation that explains what the item is and why you think this material is important; 3) be received by me no later than Monday noon the week prior to our first treatment of the tradition under consideration. (For example, if you have material you think should be posted to the Hindu section of our site, you must send them to me by noon, Feb. 7th.) I will acknowledge all contributions by return e-mail. You will receive 2 points for each item that meets the above requirements and is posted (up to a maximum of 10 points for the semester.) Recommendations received after the Monday deadline may still be accepted, but they earn a maximum of 1 pt each. Remember: there’s a lot of stuff out there, some helpful and much not-so-helpful. We’d like our page to be a genuine learning tool for us and others, so please be selective.

REQUIRED TEXTS
Comstock, Gary L. Religious Autobiographies. Wadsworth, 1995.
Eastman, Roger, ed. The Ways of Religion: An Introduction to the Major Traditions. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1993.
Smith, Huston. The Illustrated World's Religions: A Guide To Our Wisdom Traditions. Harper Collins, 1994.

In addition to the above required readings, students are also responsible for the material posted to this online version of the syllabus that will be updated throughout the semester (partly as a result of your own contributions). Material for which you are responsible will always be posted no later than one week prior to the due date. (Please make sure that if you visit the syllabus frequently that you "reload" it each week in order to update the assignments.)

NOTE: The schedule below lists the days on which students will be quizzed on the readings and films. Normally, you will need to arrange to view the film in the library (preferably with a small group, since there's only one VCR in the library). Unless otherwise noted, the films are part of the "Long Search" series and last 52 minutes.

Jan. 17     Welcome to the Adventure

Jan. 24     The Problems with "Religions"
--Comstock, ix-xiii, xvii-44
--Smith, 6-15
--Film: Taoism--A Question of Balance. Although we are not taking up Taoism as one of the foci of our study, this film may go a long way toward helping us see some of the ways in which people in the West have constructed the category of "religion," and how some traditions (and the ways people live in and through them) don't really fit our neat definitions. View the film with this in mind.
--John K. Nelson, "A Field Statement on the Anthropology of Religion (1990)." This is a helpful overview of the anthropological study of "religion." It's about 15 pages long, with another 25 pages of bibliography attached at the end. Try not to get bogged down in all the details; rather, try to pay attention to some of the broader changes in how "religion" has been understood within this discipline.
--Click here for a sampling of definitions of "religion" (Don't panic, this won't be on the quiz.)

Jan 31     Primal Traditions [Web Resources]
--Smith, 230-43
--Eastman, 421-450
--Film: The Way of the Ancestors.
     Pay particular attention to 1) how these traditions challenge you view of "religion"; 2) how Ronald Eyre ends up defining "primal"; and 3) how these people are being pressured to "modernize" their traditions.
--Two-part interview on aboriginal spirituality with Robert Bropho, custodian of the values of Nyoongar spirituality (handout).

Feb 7     Native American Traditions (Lakota) [Web Resources]
--Comstock, 47-89
--Eastman, 483-88
--Film: Wiping the Tears of Seven Generations (Not available in library; we will view this together in class)
--"Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality"
--Why I am a Pagan" by Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons)

Feb 14     Hindu Traditions [Web Resources]
--Smith, 15-57
--Eastman, 3-60
--Film: 330 Million Gods

Feb 21     Hindu Traditions
--Comstock, 91-135
--Nine Frequently Asked Questions About Hinduism

Feb 28     Buddhist Traditions (Theravada and Mahayana) [Web Resources]
--Smith, 58-85
--Eastman, 61-112
--Film: Footprint of the Buddha

March 6     Buddhist Traditions (Zen and Tibetan)
--Smith, 87-97
--Comstock, 137-82
--Eastman, 113-44
--Film: The Land of the Disappearing Buddha
Last day to submit a semester project proposal.

March 20     Jewish Traditions [Web Resources]
--Smith, 178-203
--Eastman, 261-309
--Film: Judaism--The Chosen People

March 27     Jewish Traditions
--Comstock, 183-232
--Please read the following articles from the "Judaism 101" web site: Who is a Jew?; Movements of Judaism; Jewish Attitudes Toward Non-Jews; and Signs and Symbols. While you are encouraged to follow the hypertext links from these pages whenever you desire further information, you are only responsible for the material found on these four pages.

April 3     Roman Catholic Traditions [Web Resources]
--Smith, 204-225
--Comstock, 233-77
--Eastman, 350-55
--Film: Catholicism--Rome, Leeds, and the Desert
--Conservative Protestants often have misconceptions about Catholics, misconceptions that often stem from what they've been told (often by non-Catholics) about what Catholics believe and practice. To help offer a more balanced perspective, you are asked to read the following articles, written from a Catholic point of view, that attempt to address common misgivings that Protestants often have about Roman Catholic faith and practice.
In what sense is Mary the Mother of God?
Why do Catholics pray to Mary and to the saints?
Do Catholics worship Mary and the saints?
Isn't it a problem that Catholics don't practice baptism by immersion?
Why do Catholics baptize infants?
Why do Catholics call their priests "Father"?

April 10     Orthodox Traditions [Web Resources]
--Smith, 226-27
--Film: Orthodox Christianity--The Romanian Solution
"In the Passenger Seat," by Frederica Mathewes-Green
"First Visit to an Orthodox Church: 12 Things I Wish I'd Known," by Frederica Mathewes-Green
"Icons" by Frederica Mathewes-Green
"The Fundamental Teachings of the Eastern Orthodox Church," by Rev. George Mastrantonis
Last day to turn in semester project 

April 17     Islamic Traditions [Web Resources]
--Smith, 144-77
--Eastman, 367-419

April 24     Islamic Traditions
--Comstock, 331-75
--Film: There is No God but God

May 2      4:00-6:00 pm   FINAL EXAM