Course Outline: 2015-16
Religious Studies 1015G
Religion and Difference
Location:
Day(s):
Time:
HC-V208
Thursday
6:00-9:00 p.m.
Instructor: Murray Watson, M.Div. (King’s College, Western), Ph.D. (Trinity College,
Dublin)
Contact info:
E-mail: [email protected] AND [email protected]
Phone: 519-331-3213 (Cell)
I will be very happy to meet with students by prior appointment.
Course Description:
An introduction to religion and theology, this course considers the way religious beliefs
and practices draw distinctions, create boundaries, and establish limits. In addition to
exploring how these lines are drawn, and why they matter, we consider strategies to
close the distance these domains create in everyday life. (3 hours per week)
Week 1
Course Rationale, Introduction and Overview
The Perennial Religious (and Cultural) Challenge of “the Other” (however defined)
How do we view those who are qualitatively different from us (culturally, religiously,
theologically, etc.)?
Difference viewed as positive/enrichment (e.g. Andalusian Spain) vs. Difference viewed
as negative/threat (e.g. Jews in Middle Ages; Muslims post-9/11)
The Overall State of Contemporary Interfaith and Ecumenical Relations in the Early 21st
Century
Week 2
To read: Deuteronomy chapter 10:17-19; chapter 20; chapter 27:19
Exploring the Roots of Religious Thinking About Religious Difference
“The Other” in the Hebrew Scriptures: Different voices and approaches
Foreign cultures and religions: The Hebrew concept of kadosh (“otherness/differentness/holiness”) as the characteristic toward which Israel was to aspire
Should they be exterminated, or should they simply be converted away from their sinful ways?
(The scandal of “divinely-commanded genocide” of non-Israelite peoples)
The Obligation to Defend the Marginalized: The “Deuteronomic Triad” of the Widow, the Orphan
… and the Stranger
Categories of non-Israelites [ger, toshav, nokri]; the “goy”
Positive Views of “The Other”: The [Gentile] Women in Jesus’ Genealogy in Matthew (Rahab,
Ruth, Tamar, Bathsheba), Jonah, and their treatment in the rabbinic tradition
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Week 3
To read: Marcus, Joel. "Jewish Christianity", The Cambridge History of
Christianity. Edited by Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young. 1st ed. Vol. 1.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. pp. 85-102. Cambridge Histories
Online.
http://dx.doi.org.proxy1.lib.uwo.ca/10.1017/CHOL9780521812399.006
The Beginnings of Christianity
The Broad Spectrum of Second Temple (=pre-70) Judaism(s)
The Tensions Between “the Hebrews” and “the Hellenists” in Acts
The Parting of the Ways: The Jewish-Christian “Proto-Schism”
Awkward Hybrids: The Persistence of “Jewish Christianity”
Week 4
To read: David Novak, “Gentiles in Rabbinic Thought”. Chapter 25 in The
Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period.
Edited by William David Davies, Louis Finkelstein, Steven T. Katz, pp. 647-662;
online at: http://dx.doi.org.proxy1.lib.uwo.ca/10.1017/CHOL9780521772488.027
The Birkat ha-Minim: To whom did it refer, and what were its implications?
Post-Temple Jewish Attitudes Toward Gentiles
The Changing Meaning of Hebrew “Goy” and “Goyim” (into largely pejorative/negative
terms)
Week 5
To read: Radko Popov, “Speaking His Mind in a Multi-Cultural and Multi-Religious
Society: John of Damascus and His Knowledge of Islam in Chapter 101 of His
Work Concerning Heresy,” in George C. Papademetriou, ed., Two Traditions, One
Space: Orthodox Christians and Muslims in Dialogue. Boston, Mass: Somerset
Hall Press, 2011, 109-143.
The Advent of Islam
Early Christian Views of Islam and Muslims
Early Muslim Views of Christianity and Christians
Week 6:
To read: Ralph Keen, “Launching the Reformation: Martin Luther’s Revolution,”
in Keen, The Christian Tradition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2004, 20325.
The Fracturing of Christianity: Christians as “the Other”
The Eastern and Western Churches
The Protestant Reformation and Its Aftermath
Week 6
To read: Michael Wyschogrod, “A Letter to Cardinal Lustiger,” in Abraham’s
Promise: Judaism and Jewish-Christian Relations (edited by R. Kendall Soulen).
Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004, 202-10.
Fixing the Boundaries of Orthodoxy (and Heterodoxy): Creeds, Professions of Faith and
Catechisms (in Judaism, Christianity and Islam)
One of the classic Jewish questions: How to define “who is Jewish?”
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Week 7
To read: Cardinal Charles Journet, “The Sins That Divide the Church and the
Punishment of Excommunication,” in Journet, The Theology of the Church.
Transl. Victor Szcurek. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2004, 289-97.
“The Other” Within: Schism, Heresy, Apostasy and Excommunication (in Judaism,
Christianity and Islam)
Week 8
To read: G. R. Evans, “The Church Defines the Outsider,” in Evans, The Church in
the Early Middle Ages. London: I.B. Tauris, 2007, 19-35 (on Christian views of
Judaism and Islam)
Medieval Christian Views of Jews and Muslims
Islam as “defective Christianity” or as a Christian heresy (“The Heresy of the
Ishmaelites”)
Week 9
To read: Thomas E. Fitzgerald, The Ecumenical Movement: An Introductory
History. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004, Chapters 4 to 6 (First Steps Toward New
Relationships, Early Church Unity Movements, The Founding and Development of
the World Council of Churches) [Huron: BX6.5.F58 2004]
Healing Differences – Part I
The Birth and Early Years of the Ecumenical Movement
Week 10
To read: Michael Kinnamon, "New Contours of Ecumenism." The Ecumenical
Review 66.1 (2014): 16-24; Avery Cardinal Dulles, "Saving Ecumenism from
itself." First Things.178 (2007): 23-7 (both articles available online)
The Ecumenical Movement Today
Week 11
To read: Marco Morselli, “Jules Isaac and the Origins of Nostra Aetate,” in:
Neville Lamdan and Alberto Melloni, eds. Nostra Aetate: Origins, Promulgation,
Impact on Jewish-Catholic Relations: Proceedings of the International
Conference, Jerusalem, 30 October-1 November 2005. Berlin: Lit, 2007, 21-28
(also available through Google Books:
https://books.google.ca/books?id=rM5BZRhMxxcC&lpg=PA21&dq=%22jules%20i
saac%22%20%22nostra%20aetate%22&pg=PA28#v=onepage&q=%22jules%20isa
ac%22%20%22nostra%20aetate%22&f=false
Healing Differences – Part II
The Birth of Modern Interreligious Dialogue: Jules Isaac, Charles de Foucauld, Louis
Massignon, etc.
Week 12
Contemporary Interreligious Dialogue: The Other as “Not So ‘Other’ After All”
Course Review
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Course Materials:
A course pack of required readings will be available for purchase from the Western book store
at the beginning of the semester.
Some course readings will be available in electronic format from Western Library’s databases,
and will be available for online consultation using your university library access.
Additional hard-copy readings may be placed on reserve in the Huron University College library,
where they may be consulted and copied for student use.
Assignments & Method of Evaluation of Assignments:
Assignments:
1. There will be 10 weekly in-class quizzes on key material from the previous
week’s lecture and readings (2% each, for a total of 20%).
2. Read carefully and thoughtfully through the study “God and War: An Audit & An
Exploration” (BBC News, by Greg Austin, Todd Kranock and Thom Oommen;
available online at: http://goo.gl/NHyidI ). In 5 double-spaced typed pages
(1” margins, 12-point type), explain what you see as the major findings of the
studies summarized here, and what you find most worthwhile, interesting and/or
challenging about them. Present the article’s major conclusions, and why you do
or do not agree with them. (20%; due on or before January 31, 2016).
3. Prepare four one-page, single-spaced historical overviews of any four of the
following events or concepts, concisely explaining their importance and impact
(positively or negatively) on relationships between and among the Abrahamic
faiths, and providing a short bibliography of 3 to 5 key scholarly references for
each (i.e., not primarily Wikipedia!) for further reading or study (online or in print)
of this topic:
- The Assisi Days of Prayer held by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI (1986, 2002, 2011)
- The Disputation of Barcelona (July 1263)
- The Meeting of the Sultan al-Kamil and St. Francis of Assisi (1219)
- The stories recounted in the movie “Besa: The Promise” (trailer on YouTube)
th
- The “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (early 20 century and after)
- The Achtiname (Covenant) of the Prophet Muhammad and St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount
Sinai (ca. 626)
- The Seelisberg Conference and the “10 Points of Seelisberg” (1947)
- The Trappist Monks of Tibhirine, Algeria (prior to 1996)
- The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492)
- The Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif / Western Wall complex in Jerusalem
- The meeting of Theodor Herzl and Pope Pius X (1904)
- Andalusia (al-Andalus) and the “Golden Age” of Spain
- St. Thomas Aquinas and his use of Maimonides, Averroes and Avicenna
- Chief Rabbi Israel Zolli (1930s and 1940s)
- The role of the Grand Mosque in Paris during the Holocaust
(5% each, for a total of 20%; due on or before February 29, 2016)
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4. Arrange interviews (at least 20 minutes each in length) with recognized leaders
of two different Abrahamic religious traditions (i.e., Jewish, Christian, Muslim).
Document this person’s role, background and qualifications, and discuss with
them about:
- how they and their tradition understand and speak about those outside their
faith;
- what religious or theological resources are available in their faith to facilitate
outreach to other religious groups;
- how their training did (or perhaps did not) equip them to understand religions
beyond their own;
- what hopes or potential they might see in improved interreligious relations
today;
- what challenges or dangers they see in growing interreligious relations today.
Present your findings in a five-page paper that introduces these individuals and
their background, any interreligious activity they have been involved in, and that
summarizes your kind findings from your conversations with them. (25%; due on
or before March 25, 2016)
A take-home exam on the course material, to be submitted electronically. (15%; due on
or before April 20, 2016)
Assignments may be submitted in hard copy to the instructor during class, or
may be submitted electronically (by e-mail) any time before midnight on the due
date.
Additional Statements:
1.
Statement on Use of Electronic Devices during Tests and Exams
It is not appropriate to use technology (such as, but not limited, to laptops, PDAs, cell phones) in the
classroom for non-classroom activities. Such activity is disruptive and is distracting to other students
and to the instructor, and can inhibit learning. Students are expected to respect the classroom
environment and to refrain from inappropriate use of technology and other electronic devices in class.
2.
Statement on Academic Offences: Scholastic offences are taken seriously and students are
directed to read the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a Scholastic
Offence, at the following web site: http://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/2014/pg113.html.
3.
Plagiarism-detecting Software/Computer Marking:
All required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to the
commercial plagiarism detection software under license to the University for the detection
of plagiarism. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents
in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently
submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently
between The University of Western Ontario and Turnitin.com ( http://www.turnitin.com ).
4.
Support Services:
• Huron’s Faculty of Theology, Office of the Dean:
http://www.huronuc.on.ca/faculty_of_theology/info_for_current_students
• Faculty of Theology office: [email protected], 519-438-7224, ext. 289
• Coordinator of Continuing Education and Non-Degree Programs: [email protected], 519438-7224 ext 289
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5.
Accommodation for absences:
If documentation is required for either medical or non-medical academic accommodation, then such
documentation must be submitted by the student directly to your Faculty’s Dean’s office (or academic
counselor), and not to the instructor. For the Faculty of Theology, all such documentation must be
submitted to room A227. It will be the Dean`s office that will determine if accommodation is
warranted.
a) Non-medical absences:
Should you be required, for an important personal reason (apart from sickness or injury), to miss
a scheduled class, or to submit a class assignment later than the specified deadline, it is your
obligation to contact the instructor promptly, to explain the situation and discuss how the absence
might best be addressed. In the case of a final exam, documentation and a request for
accommodation may be required to be submitted to the Dean’s Office. In the case of an
assignment, failure to do so will result in a deduction of 10% per day from your final grade for the
assignment in question.
b) Medical absences: See also the Policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness
—Undergraduate Students, at http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/medical.pdf)
For work representing 10% or more of the overall grade for the course, a student must
present documentation indicating that the student was seriously affected by illness and could not
reasonably be expected to meet his/her academic responsibilities. Documentation must be
submitted as soon as possible to your Faculty Dean’s office (Huron Arts & Social Science
students should take their documentation to the Academic Counsellor, through the Academic
Services Centre at Huron), together with a Request for Relief specifying the nature of the
accommodation requested. The request and documentation will be assessed and appropriate
accommodation will be determined by the Dean’s office in consultation with the instructor(s.)
Academic accommodation will be granted ONLY where the documentation indicates that the
onset, duration and severity of the illness are such that the student could not reasonably be
expected to complete his/her academic responsibilities.
The UWO Student Medical Certificate (SMC) and Request for Relief are available at the Student
Centre website (https://studentservices.uwo.ca/secure/index.cfm), Huron University College
Academic Counselling website (www.huronuc.on.ca) or from the Dean’s Office or Academic
Services Centre at Huron.