Steve Smith (smithsg)
Christian Center 11--office hours posted
Home phone 354-2290

Philosophy/Religious Studies 3310
PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
Fall 2003

The purpose of this course is to learn some of the most important strengths and weaknesses of different ways of thinking about religious issues through philosophical analysis and conversation. We will work toward a more precise understanding of key religious concepts like "religion" itself, "God" or "divine reality," "faith," and "soul." Historically important thinkers will serve as resources for us, but we will never simply be learning what someone else thinks; we will always be working to clarify and improve our own thinking. Reading and writing assignments as well as classroom procedures are meant to advance this aim.

Clouds of important questions surround us. Some popular religious questions include the following:

Do any divine beings exist? If so, do they affect us? What should we do in relation to them?
Does or can a person live forever?
What, if anything, makes suffering tolerable?
Is perfect happiness attainable? What does it (or would it) consist of?
Are our lives fated?
Is nothing sacred?

Some questions about religion that get a lot of philosophical attention include these:

What is religion? How do "religions" relate to human "religiousness"?
What is possible and impossible in the nature of a divine reality and the relation of such a reality to the world of our everyday experience?
How do faith and reason differ? Are they reconcilable?
How are religion and morality related? Are they harmonious?
How do the claims of different religions differ? Are they reconcilable?

Fundamental questions for our philosophical inquiry into religion this semester are:

What are the most compelling and relevant religious ideals? What makes them compelling and relevant? How compelling and relevant are they? To what extent can we use reasonable criteria in determining this?

Grading will be based on class participation (10%), journals (20%), a midterm take-home essay exam (20%), a major essay (30%), and a final take-home essay exam (20%).

The required books on sale in the Millsaps bookstore are:

Al-Ghazali, The Faith and Practice of al-Ghazali [his autobiography, also known as Deliverance from Error and Freedom and Fulfillment]
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason
Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling/Repetition
Martin Buber, I and Thou--the Walter Kaufmann translation
Simone Weil, Waiting for God

There will also be required reading in handouts and e-mails.

SCHEDULE

Revisions to this schedule may be announced in class or by e-mail.

Week of 8/25 Introduction to course. Survey of philosophical issues in religion.
READ [primary religious material]

Week of 9/1 Survey, cont. What are the relevant religious ideals?
READ Plato's Euthyphro and Laws Book 10, Daodejing 1-34

Week of 9/8 Al-Ghazali's religious epistemology: authority, reason, mysticism.
READ The Faith and Practice of al-Ghazali

Week of 9/15 Kant's critique of religious knowledge. The turn to practical reason.
READ from Critique of Pure Reason; Critique of Practical Reason, the Analytic

Week of 9/22 Kant's moral postulates of God, immortality, and virtue's reward.
READ Critique of Practical Reason, the Dialectic

Week of 9/29 Kierkegaard: does the religious transcend the ethical?
READ Fear and Trembling, first parts

Week of 10/6 Kierkegaard, cont.
READ Fear and Trembling, the Problemata

Week of 10/13 Kierkegaard's problem of repetition.
READ Repetition

Week of 10/20 FALL BREAK. Neokantianism, "life philosophy," and Buber.
READ TBA

Week of 10/27 Buber, cont.
READ I and Thou, Parts One and Two

Week of 11/3 Buber, cont.
READ I and Thou, Part Three
NO CLASS FRIDAY (Instructor out of town).

Week of 11/10 Weil.
READ Waiting for God

Week of 11/17 Contemporary issues.
READ TBA

Week of 11/24 Contemporary issues, cont.
READ TBA
NO CLASS MONDAY (Instructor out of town). THANKSGIVING.

Week of 12/1 Discussion of student projects.

FINAL EXAM DUE 12/9.

JOURNAL GUIDELINES

For your course notebook, a loose-leaf binder is strongly recommended. This will allow you to hand in just the newest pages of your journal each week, and also to incorporate the course materials that are handed out with your own writings. You have the option of e-mailing your journal assignments, but you might still want to keep print copies of these and of the responses you get.

Each week you will be asked to write one page in answer to a particular question, usually bearing on the week's readings. You will also be expected to turn in another page (or more--but please not much more) of independent reflections on what you observe and learn about religion. The general purpose of this requirement is to encourage you to pay thoughtful attention to religious phenomena and to give you practice in articulating your thoughts and relating them to the arguments about religion that we study in the course. A more specific purpose is to help you develop your major essay for the course, as you can explore possible topics, questions, objections, etc. relating to this project.

You can skip two pages of work without penalty--either by not turning in the entire assignment for one week or by leaving out parts of assignments on two separate occasions.

The journal will be graded unsatisfactory - , satisfactory \/ , or very good + depending on the sensitivity and persistence of the thinking it shows.

GUIDELINES FOR THE MAJOR ESSAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

1. Definition of the problem. By the end of your introductory paragraph, the reader should know what issue you are addressing in your paper. It should be an issue that you care about, that is personally worth wrestling with. (You will be working toward defining this issue from the first day of the semester.)

2. Explanation of the problem. Show why the answer to the question you are posing is not obvious and straightforward. Usually this involves setting forth conflicting points of view on it, especially any view that stands as a strong objection to the one you are going to defend. (For example, if you are going to argue that history or nature offer respectable evidence to back up certain types of religious assertions, you first want to discuss the contrary view that anything offered as evidence in religion is only deemed "evidence" by the arbitrary interpretation of the beholder.) Further, you want to show, as best you can, the force of the conflicting views, and especially of the one hostile to your own.

3. Solution of the problem. Now explain the right way to think about the issue and the reasons that should decide us in favor of this way. Here you may or may not be helped by readings you have done, but in any case, you are taking responsibility here for the solution.
Remember to be reasonable. Don't preach. Don't dogmatize. Don't simply report opinions. Don't just kid around. This is a philosophy assignment. A good philosophical essay probes for convincing justifications. Remember too that a good essay in philosophy of religion stays in touch with its subject-matter. Don't let the "God of the philosophers" become so remote from what religious persons are actually serious about that you end up solving an artificial problem.

4. Defense of the solution. Since you did such a good job of presenting an objection to your own view in step #2, you now had better handle the objection. Show the mistake in it, or show how to interpret the point so that it harmonizes with your view. Possibly you were able to do this in step #3, but in most cases it will be worthwhile to write an extra paragraph or two just for this purpose.

5. Enjoy. What could be more rewarding than seeing your own thought take shape on a vitally important question? If you turn in your essay on time you will certainly have the opportunity to rewrite it, so don't be too anxious to make it perfect on your first go-round. Care about it, but don't worry about it. Often the best reasoning comes out in response to questions and challenges from the reader.