PHIL107 - Philosophy of World Religions

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Teaching organisation

Unit rationale, description and aim

Religious thought and practice provide lived answers to compelling human questions and needs. Thinking philosophically about diverse religious beliefs and practices provides a crucial vantage point for understanding the fundamental commonalities and differerences among religious traditions. This unit assists students to develop a critical understanding of the variety of religious belief and practices found in major eastern and western world religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Focusing on the philosophical dimensions underlying these faith traditions, it examines issues such as the nature of the self, understandings of suffering and liberation, metaphysical concepts used in the explication of religious doctrines, the relationship between faith and reason in religious commitment, and the nature and implications of religious pluralism.

The unit aims to assist students to develop an understanding of key concepts, doctrines and practices of these religions, and to apply this understanding to contemporary debates and events. It also looks to enhance students' skills in the analysis of arguments, and the formulation and communication of coherent positions of their own.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Content

Topics relating to world religions will include the following:

• Key beliefs and concepts in selected world religions, in historical perspective
• The relationship between faith and reason in terms of religious commitment
• The interpretation of suffering and evil 
• The problem of religious pluralism, in the context of conflicting truth-claims made by world religions 

Issues relating to specific religious traditions include topics such as the following:

• The concepts of karma and rebirth in Hinduism
•  Nirvana and the no-self view in Buddhism 
• God, history and suffering in recent Jewish thought. 
• The epistemology of religious belief in Islamic philosophy, and debates about Divine causation, providence and free will
• The category of sharia in Islamic legal and political philosophy 
• The concepts of personhood and embodiment in the Christian doctrines of Trinity and incarnation
• Miracles in the Christian tradition

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit involves 150 hours of focused learning, or the equivalent of 10 hours per week for 15 weeks. Student learning will be facilitated through classroom engagement in lectures and tutorials, unit-specific online resourcing, structured reading requirements and research tasks, and the preparation of items of assessment. Where possible, learned representatives of faith traditions will be invited to engage with students in class to expose students to lived experience within the faith traditions studied.   

The unit has been designed as a blend of project learning along with direct instruction within a collaborative context. As a philosophical introduction to world religions, it is designed not only as an opportunity for students to explore various religious traditions, but to engage with the material philosophically. Given that many students will be new to philosophy, the emphasis is on the development of relevant skills of understanding, interpretation, logical thinking, and critical analysis, through oral and written argumentation. Central to this is engaging students in discussion and debate during class (especially in tutorials), encouraging them to take responsibility for their responses to ideas by giving reasons for them and seeking the reasoning of others. Equally important is practice in these skills in active reading and study outside of class. 

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment strategy for this unit is designed to examine both knowledge of major religious traditions and understanding of philosophical issues arising within them, and analytical skills pertinent to this field. The first short written task is designed to assess students’ understanding of key beliefs and practices of some major world religions in light of their philosophical importance. The second short written task builds on this by assessing students’ ability to analyse key texts in this context. Finally, the research essay assesses students’ ability to critically respond to a research question relating to an important philosophical issue raised in or by religion/s and to argue for a coherent position in relation to it. Together, these assessment tasks look to consolidate understanding of the unit content while also providing students with graduated opportunities to develop critical analytical skills in the philosophy of religion.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Cenkner, W. (ed.) (1997). Evil and the Response of World Religion. St Paul, MN: Paragon House.

Hick, J. (1985). Problems of Religious Pluralism. London: Macmillan.

Hick, J. (2004). An Interpretation of Religion: Human Responses to the Transcendent, 2nd edition. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Kessler, G. (2008). Studying Religion: An Introduction Through Cases, 3rd edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Laumakis, S. (2008). An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Oppy, G. and Trakakis, N. (eds) (2009). The History of Western Philosophy of Religion, volumes 1-5. London: Acumen.

Peterson, M., Hasker, W., Reichenbach, B. and Basinger, D. (2012). Reason and Religious Belief: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, 5th edition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Smart, N. (1998). The World’s Religions, 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Smith, Huston. (2008). The World’s Religions. 50th Anniversary edition. New York: HarperCollins.

Strenski, I (2015) Understanding Theories of Religion: an Introduction, 2nd edition, Malden: Wiley-Blackwell