Critical Thinking Approaches to Religion

“Religion” might be defined as a way of life organized around shared experiences, beliefs, and social practices that relate to a “higher” or “ultimate power.” A critical approach to religion should explore what might be valuable as well as questionable in a number of real-life examples, at least some of which intersect with students’ own experience. Topics include the relation of faith to reason (both philosophical and scientific), miracles (signs, visitations, trances, visions, effective prayer), religious diversity, the relation of religion to ethics, and the social and political function of religion. Students will explore scholarly answers to these questions, and this course aims to lead students in thinking, speaking, and writing about questions on religion, in an effort to come to a greater understanding of what religion means to them and what it means to the world in which they live.

Fall, Spring

034260