#  RELIGION 22 Interpreting Humanity, Interpreting Religion (Boylston) 

 





 Semester:   Spring 

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 Year offered:  2020 

 

 

 

 This course is a gateway to the Study of Religion, presented against the backdrop of a larger question: What is the purpose of the humanities in the 21st century?

 Based on the premise that solely Eurocentric approaches to what it means to be human are shortsighted at best, we seek to think through new ways of engaging with global sources that shed light on our common humanity. The course develops around a critical engagement with the concept ‘transcendence’, which will help us to approach alternative worldviews without eliminating difference.

 After thinking about the stakes involved in cultivating the life of the mind in a crisis point for human existence, we begin with an extended reflection on the intellectual and cultural moment in which we find ourselves, investigating how this conditions the way we frame questions of what it means to be human. Next, we take an honest look at the ways in which the dominant modes of knowledge and culture in the North Atlantic have been responsible for cultural, material and epistemic violence. Our exploration of diverse approaches to the human condition begins here, as we think through a range of responses to human-caused suffering. We then approach a range of questions of universal concern: What is ultimately real and how do we know what we know? What is the good, and how is it to be attained? How are we to relate to our fellow human beings, particularly when they seem deeply antagonistic?

 This course is designed for freshmen and sophomores who are interested in exploring a vocation in the humanities. Throughout we will draw out the implications of the readings for our own intellectual and practical lives. Readings will include primary texts in translation drawn from traditions across the globe, as well as selected secondary literature.