RELG 005. World Religions

Wars are fought; walls go up; hope marches on. Religion plays a crucial role in culture, politics, global events, and in the lives of contemporary peoples world-wide. This class, by examining what religion is and how it manifests itself in multiple ways around the world and in the United States, provides students with religious literacy and analytic skills to better engage as citizens of the world in the 21st century. This course introduces students to both the academic study of religion and to religions as practiced around the world. We will explore textual traditions and lived practices of religions-and investigate the relationships between such texts and practices-in numerous historical and cultural contexts. Topics covered include: definitions and meanings of the term “religion;” understandings and expressions of the sacred; the relationship between violence and religion. We will examine the myths and rituals, the beliefs and practices, institutions, and expression of global religious traditions.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Eligible for GLBL-core
Catalog chapter: Religion
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/religion

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