RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

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1 RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE SEMESTER AT SEA COURSE SYLLABUS University of Virginia, Academic Sponsor Voyage: Fall 2015 Discipline: Religious Studies RELG 2559: Religious Experience in Comparative Perspective Division: Lower Faculty Name: John Nemec Credit Hours: 3; Contact Hours: 38 Pre-requisites: Students are recommended, but not required, to have some experience with the study of religion and/or of particular religious traditions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, African Religions, Native American Religions, etc.), prior to taking this course. COURSE DESCRIPTION This course will address a single, fundamental question in the study of religion: what is the nature of religious experience? In doing so, we will examine the great varieties of religious experiences, the different modes of religiosity as they appear in personal and, to a secondary degree, corporate or social religious practice. Contemplation, meditation, and prayer, exstatic and enstatic, and other types of experiences will be considered. Mysticism will form a central concern of this course. COURSE OBJECTIVES The dual objectives of this course are to come to understand the many varieties of religious experiences and to gain familiarity with and appreciation for the various approaches to religious experience offered in differing religious traditions and in differing geographic locales in history and today. In the process, students will be encouraged to learn to think critically, read analytically, and write argumentatively. REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS AUTHOR: James, William. TITLE: The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature PUBLISHER: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN #: DATE/EDITION: 2013 AUTHOR: Katz, Steven T, Ed. TITLE: Mysticism and Religious Traditions PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press 1

2 ISBN #: DATE/EDITION: 1983/first AUTHOR: Otto, Rudolph TITLE: The Idea of the Holy PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press ISBN #: DATE/EDITION: 1958/second AUTHOR: Proudfoot, Wayne. TITLE: Religious Experience PUBLISHER: University of California Press ISBN #: DATE/EDITION: 1987/first TOPICAL OUTLINE OF COURSE Depart Tilbury September 13 A1 September 15: Introduction to the Course Read: Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture I (pp ) A2 September 17: The Unseen and Healthy-Mindedness Read: Varieties of Religious Experience, Lectures II-V (pp ) A3 September 19: Case Study: Francis of Assisi Read: Mysticism and Religious Traditions, pp **Civitavecchia September **Naples September A4 September 27: The Sick Soul, the Wounded Self, and Conversaion. Read: Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture VI-IX (pp ); A5 September 29: Mysticism and Philosophy; Case Study: Sufism Read: Varieties of Religious Experience, Lectures XVI-XX (pp ); Mysticism and Religious Traditions, pp **Istanbul September 30-October 5 A6 October 7: The Rational, the Numinous, the mysterium tremendum and fascinans Read: The Idea of the Holy, pp Study Day October 8 A7 October 10: Case Study: Nachmanides/Nahmanides and Kabbalah in Barcelona 2

3 **Barcelona October Read: Nahmanides in Medieval Catalonia (by Nina Caputo, Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007), pp (pdf). A8 October 18: The Numinous in Christianity, and the Holy as an a priori Category Read: The Idea of the Holy, pp Study Day October 20 A9 October 21: Otto s Theory Concluded Read: The Idea of the Holy, pp A10 October 23: Case Study: Abd al-qadir al-jilani, founder of the Qādiriyya order. Read: The Book of the Secret of Secrets and the Manifestation of Lights (Kitab Sirr al-asrar a Mazhar al-anwar), excerpts (pdf). **Dakar October A11 October 30: Towards a History of Interpretation: A Christian Orientation to Religious Experience (Schliermacher and following) Read: Religious Experience, pp A12 November 1: Case Study: Christianity in Ghana. Read: Encountering Jesus in African Christianity: A Ghanaian evangelical/pentecostal thought on faith, experience, and hope in Christ by J Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu (Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Accra, Ghana) (pdf). **Takoradi November 2-6 A13 November 8: Interpretive Models Read: Religious Experience, pp Study Day November 10 A14 November 11: Notes on Interpretations of Mysticism and Emotion Read: Religious Experience, pp A15 November 13: Case Study: African Religions and Mysticism in Brazil Read: Roger Bastid, The African Religions of Brazil: Toward a Sociology of the Interpenetration: Toward a Sociology of the Interpretation of Civilizations, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, [1978] 2007, pp (pdf). **Salvador November

4 A16 November 21: Explication and Explanation of Religious Experience Read: Religious Experience, pp A17 November 23: Theory and Its Place in the Study of Religious Experience Read: Religious Experience, pp Study Day November 25 A18 November 26: The Conservative Character of Religious Experience Read: Mysticism and Religious Traditions, pp A19 November 28: Conceiving Hindu Bhakti as Theistic Mysticism Read: Mysticism and Religious Traditions, pp **Arrive/Depart Port of Spain November 29 A20 December 1: Mysticism in its Contexts Read: Mysticism and Religious Traditions, pp Study Day December 2 A21 December 4: Case Study: Yoga and Mystical Retreats in Costa Rica Read: Castaneda, Carolina, "America the Yogiful: Insights Into American Yoga Culture Today" (pdf). **Puntarenas December 6-11 A22 December 12: The Mystical Illusion Read: Mysticism and Religious Traditions, pp A23 December 14: The Purification of Consciousness and the Negative Path Read: Mysticism and Religious Traditions, pp Study Day December 16 A24 December 17; A-Day Finals Arrive San Diego December 21 FIELD WORK 4

5 Field lab attendance is mandatory for all students enrolled in this course. Do not book individual travel plans or a Semester at Sea sponsored trip on the day of your field lab. Students should use the fieldwork portion of this class to visit famous sites of religious/mystical practices. These may be found literally in any place on earth, and of course in the major religious centers to be visited on our voyage: Assisi in Italy, the whirling dervishes in Turkey, and so on. I propose as a field lab the following: A visit to Galata Mevlevihanesi, located on Galipdede Caddesi, not far from Tünel at the end of Istiklal Caddesi in Istanbul to see the Whirling Dervishes. As an alternative, we could visit a sufi shrine in Senegal, at the Great Mosque of Touba, where Ahmadou Bamba, founder of the Mouride sufi order, is entombed. This would be more complicated, however, as the mosque lies some distance from the port of Dakar. HONOR CODE Semester at Sea students enroll in an academic program administered by the University of Virginia, and thus bind themselves to the University s honor code. The code prohibits all acts of lying, cheating, and stealing. Please consult the Voyager s Handbook for further explanation of what constitutes an honor offense. Each written assignment for this course must be pledged by the student as follows: On my honor as a student, I pledge that I have neither given nor received aid on this assignment. The pledge must be signed, or, in the case of an electronic file, signed [signed]. 5