Religion and Literature Launch Zone (Osher)
In this course we focus upon literature as evidence of the tenacity of
religious paradigms in contemporary culture. The range of our considerations
will include everything from primary religious literature as encoded in
scripture and in the deep-structure religious paradigms at the core of cultures
to contemporary fiction and cinema as a way of doing "cultural
archeology" to unearth various strata of religious themes, dimensions,
insights and/or phenomena embedded there. The argument and exploration of this
course will be based on the premise that "in the history of religions
there are only documents and interpreters." We will test that premise over
a vast span of literary genres and cinematic works in the context of
contemporary social and literary multi-culturalism. Such themes as the identity
and purpose of humanity, the problems of suffering, ethics, the quests for
ultimate meaning, significance, authenticity, and transcendence; the prophetic
critiques of society and power; horror and the holy, wisdom, courage, destiny,
providence, and the silence of God will be among the topics of focus in this
course.
You will learn:
How religious paradigms, even when
apparent adherence to any concrete tradition seems to be absent, influence
a writers probings of the human condition, existence, and transcendence.
To recognize the discrete and particular
tenets borrowed from or analogous to a wide variety of religious phenomena
reflected in a vast array of the world religions.
To recognize paradigms in motion and
to identify and isolate their trajectories along the traces and trails of their
origins, incubation zones, intersections of transmission, pivotal junctures,
and resting repositories.
To pay attention to the particularities
and nuances of paradigms and phenomena inherent in the Abrahamic Religions
(Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and/or their Mediterranean pre-histories,
contexts, and multi-splendored splinters and spinoffs such as Zoroastrianism,
Neo-Platonism, Gnosticism, Humanism, Atheism, or New Age Thought, as well as
other religious precepts such as are found, for example in Yoga, Zen, Daoism,
indigenous and pre-historic patterns and paradigms.
To utilize elementary terms, tools and
techniques of contemporary theories of literary interpretation.
To discern the subtle influences of interpretation
translations can exercise on reader understandings.
New ways to talk about
"religion" and "the religious" particularly in regards to
literature but as well in the larger
context of contemporary culture as expressed in media, art, music, films,
politics, sports, and public discourses on science.
To appreciate literary portrayals of the
awesomely numinous or otherwise extraordinary experiences of transcendent
breakthroughs or deconstructed worldviews; agony and ecstasy, traumatic or
transformative paradigm shifts; loss/emergence of trust, hope love; moments of
ephemeral bliss or abject horror; paralyzing emotional eclipses or liberating
glimpses of the Unity of Reality; amnesia/ anamnesis; spectacular skepticisms
or great leaps of faith.
To become fluent, or at least
conversant, in a variety of diverse religious values, paradigms, patterns, and
practices as they manifest in multiple literary genres such as myths,
scripture, epics, sagas, folk tales, fairytales, short stories , novels, poems,
songs, movies, plays and other narrative vehicles such as jokes and anecdotes.
To become a much more interesting human
being, global citizen, and conversation partner whether as a participant at a
party or an executive retreat, whether
as a poet, priest, politician, pedagogue, patron of the arts, PTA president, or
simply a lifelong learner.
To understand and interpret everything
you just read.Helpful Websites (Read a Poe Story or two and perhaps a Kafka story or two...)
PowerPoint