REL 295 - Special Topics in Religion

FDR: HU
Credits: 3-4
Prerequisite varies according to the topic.A course offered from time to time in a selected problem or topic in religion. May be repeated for degree credit with permission and if the topics are different.

Topic for Spring 2011:

REL 295: Special Topics in Religion: Buddhist Meditation (4). For nearly 2500 years, Buddhists have promoted meditation as a simple means to realize total liberation from all suffering. Often with sights set a bit lower, in the last century the West took notice on a number of levels. Western Buddhists have adopted the Buddha’s teachings from several teaching traditions, and often emphasize meditation even more enthusiastically than their Asian counterparts. Psychologists and physicians now recognize mental and physical benefits to meditation. Neuroscientists are beginning to employ the insights of Buddhist meditation teachings to better understand mind, brain, emotion, and cognition, and have gone as far as to map the brains of meditators to try to isolate the activity of meditation in the brain. Obviously meditation is not as simple as we may have once thought. What can these various sources teach us about religion, the human condition, the mind, and the cultures from which they emerge? (HU) Haskett.

Topics for Winter 2011:

REL 295A: Religion and Existentialism (3). Students of any year and any major welcome. A consideration of the accounts of human existence (faith and doubt; death and being-in-the-world; anxiety, boredom, and hope; sin and evil; etc.) elaborated by philosophers and theologians in the 19th and 20th centuries. The central figures to be considered are G.W.F. Hegel, Søren Kierkegaard, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Attention is paid to the religious context in which these philosophies were elaborated and to their significance for future philosophers, theologians, artists, and literary figures. Additional writers and artists to be considered may include Fyodor Dostoevsky, Martin Heidegger, Samuel Beckett, Maurice Blanchot, Jean-Paul Sartre, Anselm Kiefer, and others. (HU) Kosky.

REL 295B: Jainism (3). Jainism, a 3,000 year old religion indigenous to India, is notorious for naked monks and rigorous asceticism, but Jainism also promotes compassion for all living things and a steadfast commitment to total non-violence. In this course, we focus on the rich philosophical and literary tradition of Jainism, the deep ritual life of Jain communities, and the applications of Jain ethics to the modern world. We also consider questions of Jain identity (“Is Jain a caste, an ethnicity, or a religious identifier?”) as well as the experience and challenges of living as a religious minority in Hindu India and in the West. (HU) Haskett.