RELT10180 Introduction to the Study of Religions and Theology Core Course (Social Anthropology Integration)

 

Meeting times: Autumn 2007 - Spring 2008, Wed 11 - 11.50am

Tutor: Timothy Stanley, timothy.stanley@manchester.ac.uk, Samuel Alexander WLG5

Course requirements:

  • assigned readings
  • one 2000 word essay worth 30% of your grade (due Tue, Dec 5)
  • group presentation worth 30% of your grade (due Wed, April 23)
  • one final one and a half hour exam worth 30% of your grade (to take place in the exam period in May)
  • mandatory participation is worth 10% of your grade and includes all seminars plus a 1000 word reflection (due Wed, Apr 30)

Key texts: the readings can be found in a course pack which can be purchased from the school office (A6). As well, a good source for supplementary readings which offer secondary accounts of the primary texts we will be engaging is The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion, which can be purchased at the precinct centre Blackwells or found in the John Rylands Library.

Overview: In each week of this year long course we will cover methodological approaches to the study of religions and theology. We will discuss key readings for each approach in each weekly tutorial seminar. This course is designed to be an introduction to your Religions and Theology degree at the University of Manchester. It should therefore enable you to make the transition into higher education by developing study and other transferable skills as a basis for later learning. By the end of this course you should be aware of the intellectual history of ways of studying religion and theology and start to be able to demonstrate some understanding of different theoretical and analytical approaches.

Introduction to the Study of Religions and Theology Core Course

 

Week by Week Guide to the Course

 

Orientation Week

  • Fri, Sept 21, 10-10.50am, The core course convenor, Dr. Nile Green, will give a brief overview lecture for the course.
  • Fri, Sept 21, 11-11.50am, Meet your tutor and receive course syllabus.

Introducing the Question, "What is Religion?"

  • Wed, Sept 26, 11 - 11.50am, (Reading 1) Smart, Ninian. "Religion." In A New Dictionary of Christian Theology, edited by Alan Richardson and John Bowden. London: SCM Press, 1983. (Reading 2) Fitzgerald, Timothy. "Introduction." In The Ideology of Religious Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, pgs, 3-10.
  • Wed, Oct 3, 11 - 11.50am, Geertz, Clifford. "'Religion as a Cultural System." In Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach, 4th edition, edited by William A. Lessa and Evon Z. Vogt. London: Harper & Row, 1979.

Approaching the Study of Religion

  • Wed, Oct 10, 11-11.50am, Connolly, Peter. "Introduction," in Approaches to the Study of Religion. (London: Cassell, 1999).
  • Wed, Oct 17, 11 - 11.50am, Hinnells, John R. "Why Study Religions?" In The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion, edited by John R. Hinnells. London: Routledge Press, 2005.
  • Wed, Oct 24, 11 - 11.50am, Wiles, Maurice. "Introduction" in What is Theology? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976. 

Reading Week

  • Oct 29 - Nov 3, This is a chance to catch up on reading for the course and focus on completing your essay which is due on Tuesday, Dec 5 by 4pm to the school office A6.

Anthropological Approaches

  • Wed, Nov 7, 11 - 11.50am, (Primary Source) "Genesis 1-3" from The Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995). (Secondary Source) Van Baaren, Th P, "The Flexibility of Myth" in ed. Alan Dundes, Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).
  • Wed, Nov 14, 11 - 11.50am, (Reading 1) Douglas, Mary. "Purity and Pollution," in Implicit Meanings: Essays in Anthropology. (London: RKP, 1975). (Reading 2) Fuller, Christ. The Camphor Flame. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992) ch. 2.

Textual Approaches

  • Wed, Nov 21, 11 - 11.50am, (Primary Source) Holy Bible. "Esther."  In The New Revised Standard Version, Anglicized Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. (Secondary Source) Clines, David J. A. "Reading Esther from Left to Right: Contemporary Strategies for Reading a Biblical Text." In The Bible in Three Dimensions: Essays in Celebration of Forty Years of Biblical Studies in the University of Sheffield, edited by David J. A. Clines et. al.  Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1990.
  • Wed, Nov 28, 11 - 11.50am, (Reading 1) Barton, John. "Canon," in ed. R J Coggins and J L Houlden, Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation. (London: SCM, 1990). (Reading 2) Patton, Laurie. "Afterword," in Authority, Anxiety and Canon: Essays in Vedic Interpretation. (New York: SUNY, 1994), pp309-316.
  • Tue, Dec 5, 4pm, 2000 word essay due.
  • Wed, Dec 6, 11 - 11.50am, Participation review and meetings with individual students.

Christmas Break

  • From Dec15 - Jan 13 there is a break between semesters.

Sociological Approaches

  • Wed, Jan 30, 11 - 11.50am, (Reading 1) Durkheim, Emile. "Conclusion," in The Elementary Form of Religious Life. (Oxford: OUP, 2001). (Reading 2) Weber, Max. "Protestant Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism" in Max Weber: Selections in Translation (Cambridge: CUP, 1978) extracts from pp138-73.
  • Wed, Feb 6, 11 - 11.50am, Hamilton, Malcolm. "Introduction," in The Sociology of Religion: Theoretical and Comparative Approaches. (London: Routledge, 2005).

Psychological Approaches

  • Wed, Feb 13, 11 - 11.50am, James, William. "Lecture XVI and XVII Mysticism," in The Varieties of Religious Experience. (London: 2002).
  • Wed, Feb 20, 11 - 11.50am, (Reading 1) Freud, Sigmund. "The Future of an Illusion." In The Freud Reader, edited by P. Gay. London: Vintage, 1995. (Reading 2) Jung, Carl. "Freud and Jung: Contrasts." In Modern Man in Search of a Soul. London: Routledge Kegan and Paul, 1945.

Comparative Approaches

  • Wed, Feb 27, 11 - 11.50am, Otto, Rudolph. "On Numinous Experience." In Experience of the Sacred: Readings in the Phenomenology of Religion, edited by Wumner B. Twiss and Wlater H. Conser Jr. London: University Press of New England, 1992.
  • Wed, Mar 5, 11 - 11.50am, Fitzgerald, Timothy. "Introduction." In The Ideology of Religious Studies. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

Approaching Sacred Space

  • Wed, Mar 12, 11 - 11.50am, Hand out Sacred Space group presentation instructions.  

Easter Break

  • Three week break from Mar 14 - Apr 5. During this time students should read key texts to prepare for their sacred space group presentation as well as plan to visit their specific sacred space in Manchester.

Approaching Sacred Space

  • Wed, Apr 9, 11 - 11.50, Visit sacred spaces in Manchester City Centre
  • Wed, Apr 16, 11 - 11.50, Prepare for sacred space presentations
  • Wed, Apr 23, 11-11.50, Sacred space group presentations

Review and Exam Preparation

Exam Period

  • May 15 - June 6