intro to sacred texts spelman

8/12/2019 Intro to Sacred Texts Spelman

1/7

1

Professor: Catherine Prueitt

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

Office: Cosby 433Phone: 404-270-5199

Cell (for urgent contact only): 678-358-1186

[email protected]

Introduction to Sacred Texts

Overall Goals and Structur e of the Class:This course is an introduction to three world religionsHinduism, Buddhism, and

Islamthrough a selection of texts that each tradition considers to be sacred. Three major

questions will guide our studies: What makes a text sacred? How do we know what

sacred texts mean? What do sacred texts do? We will explore sacred texts in translationand investigate their origins, their transmission, and the ways in which they shape the

lives of individuals and communities. We will study ways the texts were interpreted in

the past as well as how they are used and understood today.

Grading structure:

1) Blog and Class Engagement: 30% (15% for doing it and 15% for quality).

Each weeks engagement is worth3% of your final class grade. Your blog post serves asthe justification for our 4

thcredit hour. We will have a total of 10 blog posts. The 15% for

quality is measured by the extent to which your discussions on and off-line thoughtfully

engage with the readings. In order to get full credit, you must specifically cite someportion of the readings in your blog post. The other 15% comes just for attending class

and putting up something related to our weekly topic. You can post under a pseudonym if

want; just make sure I know who you are so I can give you credit.

One post can simply say "I'm sorry I got overwhelmed this week and cannot post" and

still earn full credit. You can respond to other students' posts, but please do this on your

own post and not as a comment on someone elses post. You can ask questions or say thatyou don't understand some part of the reading. If you ask me a direct question in a post, I

will respond to it on the forum. Just post something. Posts are due by midnight on

Wednesday so that I have time to read them and prepare for our discussion on Thursday.Late posts get half credit if they're done within 2 weeks of when they were due.

2) Unit Papers: 3 papers at 15% each = 45%.900-1500 words (approximately 3-5 pages). Ill provide a topic at least one week beforethe paper is due.

3) Final Take Home Exam: 25%.

Ill give you the exam on the last day of class and itll be due on our exam day. It willcomprehensively address the overall themes and topics weve studied. It will consist of 3

short essay questions (about 2-3 pages each).

The Honor Code is in effect at all times in this class, including for blog posts.


2/7

2

Office Hours:Tuesday/Thursday from noon to 1pm or by appointment

Late Policy:If you do not ask me for an extension, I will deduct 1% from your final grade on an essay

for each day it is late. This is a hard and fast policy. If you would like an extension,please send me a ridiculous excuse. It can be a story about how an alien in a bluetelephone booth whisked you away to the far corners of the universe, an account of how

mutant dinosaurs devoured your computer, or anything else you fancy. It can be short and

you can ask for the extension on midnight the day the essay is due if you need to. Justtalk to me and try not to worry.

Texts:

Many of our readings will be selections from longer works. I will post these readings onMoodle. All readings are due the day they are listed; we will discuss them in class.

Required:Sells, Michael, trans.Approaching the Quran. Second Edition. Ashland, Oregon: White

Cloud Press, 2007.

Ganeri, Jonardon. The Concealed Art of the Soul: Theories of Self and Practices of Truthin Indian Ethics and Epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Cour se Schedule

January 16th

: Go over the syllabus and talk about our guiding questions; listen torecitations if we have time. Short in-class film clip:John Kerry on religion and the State

Department; River and Book talk about the Bible, Janestown,Firefly

Unit I: What Makes a Text Sacred?

Week One:

January 21st: Introduction to the Vedas

Reading assignment:Patton, Veda and Upaniad, from The Hindu World, 37-51; Ganeri, The Concealed Art of the Soul, Hidden in the Cave: the Upaniadic

Self, 13-38; Selections from the g Veda and Upaniads

Bl og entry #1 due Wednesday, January 22nd

January 23rd

: Introduction to the PaliNikyas

Reading Assignment:Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism, Chapter 3: FourTruths, 59-84, and Chapter Six: No Self, 133-162

Week Two:


3/7

3

January 28th

: Introduction to the Quran

Reading Assignment:Sells,Approaching the Quran, Introduction and

Glossary of Key Terms, 1-40; Selected Suras: "The Opening" and "The Star," p.42-47; "The Most High," p. 72-73; "The Dawn," 78-81; "The Ground," p. 82-83;

"The Laying Open," p. 92-93; "Destiny, Al-Qadr," 100-103; "The Epoch," 116-

117.

Bl og entry #2 due Wednesday, January 29th

January 30th: Questions, review, and a cool story

Reading Assignment:Rotman, The Story of KoikaraDivine Stories, 39-70

Short in-class film clip:The Blanket Scene fromI Heart Huckabees

***Unit I paper topic handed out in class***

Week Three:

February 4

th

: Discussion about origins (authorship and cosmogony)Reading assignment:Selections from Rg Veda and Upaniads; Gethin, The

Sayings of the Buddha, The Origin of Things, 116-128; Sells,Approaching the

Qur'an, selected Suras: "The Night-Traveling Star," 68-71; "The Morning Hours,"

90-91; "The Fig," 94-95; "Sincerity/Unity," 136-137; "The Compassionate," 145-157

February 6th

: Discussion about ends (values and apocalypses)

Reading assignment:Selections from theRg Vedaand Upaniads; Collins,

Nirvana, Nirvana as concept, 29-60; Sells,Approaching the Qur'an, selected

Suras: "The Overturning," "The Tearing," "The Cheats," and "The Splitting," 48-

63; "The Darkening," 74-76; "The Quaking," 108-109; "The Calamity," 112-113

***Unit I paper due Friday, February 7th

by 11:59pm via Moodle***

Unit II: How Do We Know What a Sacred Text Means?

Week Four:

February 11th

: Lecture on Hermeneutics

Reading assignment: Slid Gilhus, Hermeneutics,Routledge Handbook of

Research Methods in the Study of Religion, 275-284; Barthes, The Death of theAuthor

Bl og entry #3 due Wednesday, February 12th

February 13th

: What does philosophy do?

Reading assignment:Ganeri, The Concealed Art of the Soul, Dangerous Truths,

39-60 and Words that Burn, 97-123


4/7

4

Week Five:

February 18th

: Commentaries and Interpretive Traditions: Hindu Traditions

Reading Assignment: Bartley,An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, Skhyaand Yoga, Nyya and Vaieika, The Mms Vision, Vednta, andAdvaita Vedanta up to p. 143, 82-143.

Bl og entry #4 due Wednesday, February 19th

February 20th

: Commentaries and Interpretive Traditions: Buddhist traditions

Reading Assignment:Williams,Mahyna Buddhism, Introduction, 1-44.

***Unit II paper topic handed out in class***

Week Six:

February 25th

: Commentaries and Interpretive Traditions: Islamic traditions

Reading Assignment:Saeed, Ethico-legal Teachings, Selected Exegetical

Principles and Ideas, and Approaches to Quranic Exegesis,Introduction to theQuran, 161- 216

February 27th

: What makes a tradition? How are there so many interpretations?

Reading Assignment:Ram-Prasad, Multiplist Metaphysics and Ethics,Indian

Philosophy and the Consequences of Knowledge, 1-50.

***Unit II paper due Friday, February 28th

by 11:59pm via Moodle***

Unit III: What Do Sacred Texts Do?

Week Seven:

March 4th

: Lecture on philosophy as practice

Reading assignment: Sells,Mystical Languages of Unsaying, Introduction, 1-

13; Ram-Prasad, Knowledge and Action: On How to Attain the Highest Good,

Indian Philosophy and the Consequences of Knowledge, 101-132.

Bl og entry #6 due Wednesday, March 5th

March 6th

: The Experience of Texts: Islamic Traditions

Reading Assignment:Sells,Mystical Languages of Unsaying, Ibn ArabisPolished Mirror and Ibn Arabis Garden among the Flames: The Heart

Receptive of Every Form, 63-115.


5/7

5

SPRING BREAK MARCH 10TH

-14TH

Week Eight:

March 18th: The Experience of Texts: Buddhist Traditions

Reading Assignment:Selections from the Vimalakrti Nirdea Stra(focus on

the highlighted parts in your PDF).


March 20th: The Experience of Texts: Hindu Traditions

Reading Assignment:Goldman and Goldman, Rmyaa, from The Hindu

World, 75-96; Selections from theRmyana

In-Class Film:Sita Sings the Blues

Week Nine:

March 25th: Classical Indian Aesthetic Theory and Sita Sings the Blues

Reading assignment: Gnoli, The Aesthetic Experience According to

Abhinavagupta, Introduction, XIV-LII


March 27th

:Narrative: Hindu Epics (lecture focused on theBhagavad Gita)

Reading Assignment:Selections from theMahbhrata

***Hand out Unit III paper topic in class***

Week Ten:

April 1st: Ritual: Buddhist Mahmudr and tantra

Reading Assignment:Wedemeyer, Beef, Dog, and Other Mythologies:

Connotative Semiotics in Mahyoga Tantra Ritual and Scripture, 383-417;

Selections from Namgyal, Clarifying the Natural State

April 3rd: Recitation: The Quran

Reading Assignment:Sells,Approaching the Quran, Hearing the Quran: TheCall to Prayer and Six Suras, 145-182 and corresponding sections from the CD;

Graham,Beyond the Written Word, Introduction and "Part III: An Arabic

Reciting: Qur'an as Spoken Book," 1-8 and 79-115.

In-class film:Koran by Heart


6/7

6

***Unit III paper due Friday, April 4th by 11:59pm via Moodle***

Unit IV: Sacred Texts in the Contemporary World

Week Eleven:

April 8th

: Discussion ofKoran by Heart; Islamism Part I

Reading Assignment: Tariq Ramadan,Islam and the Arab Awakening, "Chapter

3: Islam, Islamism, Secularization, 67-95.

Blog entr y #9 due Wednesday, Apr il 9th

April 10th

: Islam and the Arab Spring, Part II

Reading assignment:Tariq Ramadan,Islam and the Arab Awakening, "Chapter

4: The Islamic Reference," p. 96-140.

Week Twelve:

April 15th

:DROP THIS CLASS

Blog entr y #10 due Wednesday, Apr il 16th

April 17th

: something about Buddhist extremism/Buddhist tolerance;

Week Thirteen:

April 22nd

:Hindutva and Contemporary Indian Politics

Reading assignment:Ram-Prasad, Contemporary Political Hinduism, The

Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, 526-550; Savarkar, Who is a Hindu?, fromHindutva: The Essence of Hinduism, 102-116;Narula, Law and Hindu

Nationalist Movements,Hinduism and Law, 234-251.

April 24th

: selections from Gurus in America

Week Fourteen:

April 29th

:Concluding Reflections

Reading assignment:Ganeri, Concealed Art of the Soul, Self as Performance,

183-215***Hand out final exam in class***


7/7

7

May 1st:Questions about the Final Exam and Review

* * * Fi nal Exam Due via Moodle on Our Exam Date* * *

intro to sacred texts spelman

Documents