This survey course begins with an introduction to the field of Religious Studies, which as an academic endeavor, continues to encourage and invites analysis, questions and exploration from multiple perspectives, commitments and cultural locations. From the distribution of a wide range of beliefs, practices, customs, rituals to politics, science, economics, the arts, our bodies, language and popular culture-just about all aspects of our lives-are inflected by what may be called the religious. On the one hand, religious traditions and their actors who have competed against scientific, political and other spheres of authority and influence; then, on the other hand, religious traditions have cooperated and developed alongside other institutions of power and influence. Following an introduction to the nature of religion and its academic study, we will survey five of the major world religions in the following order: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Each section of this course begins with an overview of the historical, geographical and cultural background in which the respective religious tradition first emerged, then each unit transitions to an overview of the sacred writings, teachings, rituals and practices within, throughout and across the aforementioned religious traditions. In this introductory course in Religious Studies, we will evaluate how religious traditions have established (and continue to establish) ways of belonging, believing and becoming related to what may be known as the sacred and the profane, the divine and the humane, the transcendent and the immanent. We will conclude this survey course with an introduction to New Religious Movements with special attention afforded to The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints and The Nation of Islam. Recognizing that religious traditions continue to diversify when proliferated and transmitted, we shall seek to evaluate how these religious traditions are colored and textured within historical contexts. The underlying goal of this course is to encourage greater curiosity, appreciation, and cultivation of the interrelated disciplines of listening, reading, reflecting and writing to demonstrate an informed, nuanced and empathetic understanding of world religions. "Normally persons talk about other people's religions as they are, and about their own as it ought to be."
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Course Purpose: This course is designed to fulfill the need for a course covering “other world civilizations” within UNYT’s general educational criteria. As a history course, the focus of this course is to introduce the students to a brief overview of the major world religions with an emphasis on the development of their belief systems. Throughout this process attention will be given to the motivations and worldviews of each religion in order to better understand how a given religion helped shape its culture and adherents throughout history and vice versa. In this context culture includes perceptions of the human being (anthropology), the soul or lack thereof (death and afterlife), the organization of society (politics), value systems (ethics), sacred texts (literature), and the purpose and goal of human existence (meaning). In the end it is hoped that a comprehensive picture of global religious beliefs and cultures will be provided in order for the students to better contextualize social and political norms and behaviours as well as various religious expressions.
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Book Review: A World Religions Reader by Ian Markham and Lohr Christy
