* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Units Running in Teaching Block 1
Buddhism and psychology wikipedia , lookup
Early Buddhist schools wikipedia , lookup
Triratna Buddhist Community wikipedia , lookup
Buddhist ethics wikipedia , lookup
History of Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Dhyāna in Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Nirvana (Buddhism) wikipedia , lookup
Buddhist texts wikipedia , lookup
History of Buddhism in India wikipedia , lookup
Mahayana sutras wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism and Western philosophy wikipedia , lookup
Enlightenment in Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Women in Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism in Thailand wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism in Myanmar wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism and sexual orientation wikipedia , lookup
History of Buddhism in Cambodia wikipedia , lookup
Decline of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism in Vietnam wikipedia , lookup
2014/15 Units Running in the Department of Religion and Theology for Year 3 Students The descriptions below are intended to act as a brief and user-friendly guide to the units we are offering in 2014/15. Please note that we do not guarantee that all the listed units will run. A unit may be withdrawn, for instance, if there is insufficient demand for it. If you have any queries regarding the information below, we would strongly recommend that you seek advice from your Personal Tutor Units Running in Teaching Block 1 THRS30068 Jesus in the Age of Colonialism Unit Director: Dr John Lyons TB1 Before and during the expansion of the colonial enterprise in Africa known as the scramble for Africa, Christian missionaries played a significant role in the cultural exchanges that took place between Europeans and their colonial subjects. This unit will focus on the role that scriptures, narratives, histories, and practices took in the ongoing development of Christianity in West Africa, taking the German scholar and physician, Albert Schweitzer, as its exemplary subject. His attitudes to the historical Jesus, the mysticism of Paul, and his description of Christian ethics as a commitment to reverence for lifeare examined in the twin-contexts of his move from turn of the century Europe to the Africa of 1915 onwards. Examination of the legacy of such missionary work in a postcolonial world completes the unit. THRS30019 Theravada Buddhist Practice in Asia Unit Director: Dr Rita Langer TB1 This unit aims to provide students with an overview of the history and development Theravåda Buddhism in practice in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia as well as in depth knowledge of several important topics. The unit focuses on a number of significant topics: the practice of monasticism, lay practice, the relationship between the monk and the laity, the position of women and Buddhist nuns, forest monks, magic and protection, protestant Buddhism, and Buddhism and conflict in Sri Lanka. These themes will be investigated by utilizing various kinds of sources primary textual sources, epigraphical sources in translation, the writings of historians and social anthropologists in order to illustrate a more general issue in the contemporary study of religion, namely the study of texts and doctrine versus the study of people and practice. Aims: to develop an overall sense of the actuality of Theravda Buddhism in Asia; to gain an in-depth knowledge of certain significant topics in the history of the practice of Theravda Buddhism in Asia; to encourage reflection on the nature of the relationship between religion's theory and practice; to develop skills in the researching, reading and presentation of complex material. THRS30050 Atheism Unit Director: Dr David Leech TB1 Today atheism is a major option for interpreting the world. This unit explores key issues in philosophy of religion through the lens of the development of modern unbelief. It pays attention to the emergence of modern atheism as a rejection of forms of early modern philosophical theology, and examines contemporary religious claims that atheism merely rejects an idolatrous concept of God and therefore fails to undermine the justification of religious beliefs. It also examines contemporary atheist arguments proposed by atheist philosophers of religion, as well as some arguments of popular atheism (e.g., New Atheism). Topics addressed will include the relationship between morality and atheism, whether modern science supports atheism, atheism and meaning, atheism and the problem of evil, and atheist claims about the incoherence of God-talk. Units Running in Teaching Block 2 THRS30075 Mahayana Buddhist Literature Unit Director: Dr Eric Greene TB2 … This unit will examine so-called Mahayana or “great vehicle” Buddhism through the medium of some of its most significant literary outputs. Rather than directly discussing Mahayana Buddhist doctrines as abstract ideas or ideals, we will explore Mahayana scriptures as literary objects and attempt to uncover how the Mahayana vision of the Buddhism, the cosmos, and the path to liberation was presented to its followers in the dramatic literature of its scriptures. We will pay especially close attention to the way that Mahayana scriptures use extended narratives, plot twists, humour, and other literary devices to convey their teachings and entice their readers. We will also consider the question of how the novel literary forms of Mahayana scriptures – and indeed writing itself – may have contributed to the spread of Mahayana Buddhism in India and the rest of Asia. THRS30078 The True, The Good and the Beautiful Unit Director: Dr David Leech TB2 In this unit students are introduced to Neoplatonism, a major philosophical influence on the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions. The unit will focus on the historical development of the tradition, drawing on Jewish, Christian, and Islamic texts and finishing with some contemporary defences. Focuses will include: love; the reality of the Good; religious experience; and the articulation of God’s nature as absolutely simple (‘the One’). Through a study of Neoplatonic motifs in a range of figures across the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions, students will develop an appreciation of the pervasiveness of this philosophical tradition in the Abrahamic faiths and its continued vitality in the contemporary intellectual context. Aims: To introduce students to a number of key issues in classical and contemporary metaphysics/ethics through the lens of a major philosophical tradition. To provide an overview of a major philosophical tradition which has deeply shaped the philosophical theologies of the Abrahamic faiths. To develop critical interaction with primary and secondary materials. To develop written presentation skills through the course assessment. THRS30077 Sex, Marriage and Deviance Unit Director: Dr Jon Balserak TB2 This unit explores aspects of Western understandings of human relationships: marriage, family, sex, divorce, celibacy, and social notions of ‘deviance’ and the ramifications of all of these ideas. It examines sex as conceived of by the church, the law, and civil society in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. In considering views and practices which deviated from what was deemed appropriate, this unit will explore issues related to cross-dressing, gender, homosexuality and the like, and will examine how such conduct was dealt with by both church and state. Aims: (1)To provide a detailed introduction the sexual lives of Early Modern Europeans. (2)To develop an in-depth understanding of the religious, cultural and institutional contexts informing this (3)To develop the skills necessary for identifying and evaluating pertinent evidence/data in order to illustrate/demonstrate a cogent arguments (4)To develop written presentation skills through the course assessment.