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WORLD RELIGIONS

Textbooks,
Mary Pat Fisher, Living Religions (ninth edition, 2013) “LR”
Fisher and Bailey, Anthology of Living Religions (3rd ed., 2011) “AR”
Smith-Christopher, Subverting Hatred: Nonviolence in Religious Traditions (2007) “SH”
Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation (2008) “LCN”

Course Description
The historical origins, central teachings, and devotional practices of the major religious traditions Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—are considered in relation to common themes of human experience: the holy or sacred, evil and suffering, love and compassion, wisdom and justice, death and deliverance. Interpretive skills appropriate to religious studies will be explored through opportunities to write and revise descriptive and critical essays.
The goals of the course are to impart understanding of the essential doctrines and institutions of the world’s religions, stressing their founding and normative principles; to identify similarities and differences of thought and practice among the traditions; and to clarify and articulate one’s own religious attitudes and orientations in the context of comparative study.
Writing Assignments
Please avoid plagiarism, the failure to identify another author’s words or ideas when they appear in your paper. Remember that direct quotations require quotation marks or indentation in your paper to separate your words from that of your source. Interpretations and theories not your own, even paraphrased in your own words, should be credited to their source.

The Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd Edition (Mircea Eliade, ed., New York: Macmillan, 2004), available in the Grossman Library, 3rd Floor, Sever Hall, is an excellent source on world religions. The course textbook and anthology contain useful bibliographies. The Wikipedia is useful, but should not be cited as an authoritative source since it can be changed at will by virtually any reader.

General…