WORLD RELIGIONS Upper School SPRING 2013
Dr. Neve TMI – The Episcopal School of Texas
Classroom: Coates 120 Office: Coates 105
Email: d.neve@tmi-sa.org Phone: 210-564-6223

Course Description
The goal of this course is to familiarize ourselves with the great religious traditions of the world through a reading of some of the foundational texts of these traditions. We will be aided in our understanding of these texts by our textbook and by class lectures and discussions. The primary religious traditions that we will cover are Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism, but we will also gain some familiarity with primal religious traditions. We will examine both similarities and differences among these various religious traditions, as well as their ongoing influence in the world today. Our focus will be on gaining an accurate understanding and respectful appreciation of the basic beliefs and practices of the world’s religions and how they work as a way of life.
Texts: The World’s Religions. By Huston Smith. HarperOne Publishers. The World’s Wisdom. Edited by Philip Novak. HarperCollins.

Outline of Course Content
Unit 1: Religion, the Academic Study of Religion, & Primal Religions
Unit 2: Judaism & Christianity
Unit 3: Islam
Unit 4: Hinduism
Unit 5: Buddhism
Unit 6: Confucianism & Daosim

ASSIGNMENTS
The quarterly grades will be figured according the breakdown below.
Unit Tests 50%
Pop Quizzes 20%
Reflective Responses 30%
The semester grade in the course will average the quarterly results as 80%, with 20% coming from the comprehensive Final Exam.

The Reflective Responses are papers written in response to the primary source readings. Each will be a single typed page dealing with an issue that the student finds in the primary source material. One Reflective Response will be written for six of the religions studied this semester. A rubric to guide the student’s writing and to indicate how these papers will be graded will be provided.
Course Schedule
Week of
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
August
12-16
ACADEMIC STUDY OF RELIGION
Syllabus

What is Religion?
Smith xi-11
Novak ix-xvi
What is Religion?
Definitions Handout
What is Religion?
Handout
Why Study Religion?
Handout: Prothero 7-24
August
19-23
ACADEMIC STUDY OF RELIGION and
PRIMAL RELIGIONS
How to Study Religion http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/ReligiousS.htm How to Study Religion
“Insides, Outsides” article.

Primal Religions
S365-382
Primal Religions:
Creation Myths
N333-350

Primal Religions: Sacred Time & Space, N350-354 August
26-30
PRIMAL RELIGIONS
Primal Religions: The Shaman
N354-362
Primal Religions: The Land
N365-372
Primal Religions: Grace Notes
N372-379
P.R. R.R. DUE
Review
Test 1
September
2-6
JUDAISM
Labor Day
The Monotheistic Revolution
S271-279
Retreats
Life with God
S279-286
Religion as History
N191-224[39]
September
9-13
JUDAISM/
Christianity
Torah
S286-307
N171-191[12]

Torah
N213-218
Religion as a People
S307-315
JUD. R.R. DUE
Christianity’s Jewish Matric
Handout
Jesus of Nazareth
S317-330; N228-237
September
16-20
CHRISTIANITY
Jesus’ Message
S330-335; N237-253
The Underground Church
S336-339; N253-262
The Imperial Church
S339-346
N263-4, 265-266
Eastern Orthodoxy
S352-356; N274[52]
Roman Catholicism
S346-352; N266[40]-274[51]; 276
September
23-27
CHRISTIANITY
Protestantism
S356-362; N277-279
XNTY R.R. DUE
Review
Test 2

Muhammad
S 221-231; N 312-322
No Homework Night
Muhammad

September 30 to October 4
ISLAM
The Quran
S231-242
The Quran
N281-296
The Five Acts of Worship
S242-248; N296-300
The Five Points of Faith
Handout
Holiday
October
7-11
ISLAM
Islam as Society & Law
S248-257
N301-310
The Sunni-Shia Divide
Handout

Sufism
S257-266; N322-331
Jihad