Course Info: HACU-0164

This course was designed to introduce students to several religious traditions of the world through a selective study of their chief canonical texts. The class had three primary objectives: 1) to provide a general acquaintance with each of the six traditions studied—Judaic, Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Chinese—through study of some of the scriptural texts that have shaped these traditions historically; 2) to examine and compare the stories, histories, parables, myths, and revelations from each tradition for what they may say about how each tradition views such questions as the nature of life and death, sin and suffering, divine and the human, morality and salvation; and, 3) to consider and assess the significance of the notion of "scripture" as a cross-cultural category, through investigation of the meaning, authority, function, and interpretive context of these texts in their respective religious traditions. The principal reading in this course was drawn from the Veda, Bhagavad Gita, Buddhacarita, Lotus Sutra, Confucian Analects, Chuang Tzu, Torah, New Testament, and Qur'an. To receive an evaluation for this course students were expected to attend class regularly and participate actively in our twice-weekly meetings, participate in one group presentation, submit two mid-term papers of between three and four pages each, and complete a final research project of eight to ten pages in length.