Approaching Religion
Level:
Master's CEU credits:
2 ECTS credits:
4 Semester:
Winter Start and end dates:
8 Aug 2009 Co-hosting Unit(s) [if applicable]:
CEU Instructor(s):
Matthias Riedl CEU Instructor(s):
Nadia Al-Bagdadi Learning Outcomes:
It is expected that the students will acquire
a) an introduction to the central concepts and ideas of the world’s major religions;
b) interdisciplinary methods coming from the fields of history and the history of religion, sociology, anthropology, and political science. Assessment :
The grade is composed by a) one class presentation 30% (Mid-Term) b) the Final Paper (50%) and c) active participation in class discussion (20%). The Mid-Term consists of a class presentation and a comprehensive handout on one of the class readings, the Final paper consists of an assigned essay work at the end of the term. Full description:
Part II
1. Introduction
2. Judaism – historical views
• Deuteronomy 4 and 5 (transl. by Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses), [
pdf]
3. Judaism – foundational texts
• Gershom Scholem, The Messianic Idea in Judaism and other essays on Jewish Spirituality (selection), [pdf]
4. Religions of China – historical overview
• The Analects of Confucius (selection) [pdf]
5. Religions of China – historical overview
• Lao Tsu: Tao Te Ching (selection) [pdf]
6. Religions of India – historical overview
• The Mahabharata/Bhagavad Gita (selection) [pdf]
7. Religions of India – historical overview
• The Upanishads (selection) [pdf]
8. Religions of India – foundational texts
• The Teachings of the Buddha (selection) [pdf]
9. Emile Durkheim – Ritual, the Sacred, and Society
• Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, (shorter excerpts from various chapters, and chap. 8, The idea of the soul..[pdf]
• _________, ‘Concerning the Definition of Religious Phenomena’, in Durkheim on Religion, ed. by W.S.F. Pickering, Atlanta 1994 [First published as “De la Définition des phénomènes religieux, in L’Année sociologique,II, 1-28] [pdf]
10. Max Weber: The Religious Genesis of Western Modernity, rationality and charisma: Max Weber
• Max Weber, “Churches” and “Sects” in America”, in idem, The Protestant Ethics and the “Spirit” of Capitalism and other Writings. New York, 2002. [pdf]
• _______, Prefatory Remarks to Collected Essays in the Sociology of Religion, in idem, The Protestant Ethics and the “Spirit” of Capitalism and other Writings. New York, 2002. [pdf]
11. Contemporary Approaches to Religious Studies I – anthropological
- Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: an Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London 1996. (selections) [pdf]
-Clifford Geertz, “Religion as a Cultural System”, in ibid, The Interpretation of Cultures. New York 1973. [pdf]
12. Contemporary Approaches to Religious Studies – sociological
• Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy: elements of a sociological theory of religion. New York 1967. (selection) [pdf]
• S.N. Eisenstadt, ‘The Reconstruction of Religious Arenas in the Framework of ‘Multiple Modernities’, in Islam: Critical Concepts in Sociology. Ed. Bryan S. Turner (vol. 4), Islam and Social Movements. London, NY 2003, pp. 1-22. [pdf]