GEN1000 Perspectives on General Education
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Religions deal with the fundamental concern of the meaning of human existence. Does life really have any meaning—any real meaning—or do we just live and die in a small frame of a pointless, accidental cycle of the universe? In such concerns we are dealing with the spiritual quests of our human consciousness with a history of religions. In this module, students are invited to explore (i) human engagement with what is considered to be the realm of sacred; (ii) its expression in thought, action/practices and social forms; (iii) its path of ultimate transformation.
Upon completion of this module, students should be able to:
a. describe the nature, methodology and scope of theories of religion;
b. identify key questions and answers of the study object from an interdisciplinary approach.
c. explain and critically evaluate various thoughts of religious traditions;
d. develop their own argument, answer and experience to the questions of the study object;
e. integrate the knowledge acquired from the module with daily life
1. Religious experience: past and present
1.1 Theories of the origin of religions
1.2 Types of religions
1.3 Religions and in search of wisdom
1.4 Introduction to religious studies from interdisciplinary approach
2. Characteristics of basic religions
2.1 Common features of basic religions
2.2 Mythologies
2.3 Ritual and Religious language
2.4 History and revelation
2.5 Is there Universal “Goodness”? Discussing from believers’ dietary habits
2.6 Religion in the contemporary world
3. Chinese religion and its spiritual quest
3.1 Filial piety and ancestor worship
3.2 Teachings of the Daoist traditions
3.3 Towards a religion of community
3.4 Chinese religions in contemporary world
4. Buddhism and its spiritual quest
4.1 The life of Gautama
4.2 The teaching of the Buddha
4.3 The development of Buddhism
4.4 The rise of Humanistic Buddhism
5. Abrahamic faiths and the spiritual quests
5.1 Biblical patriarchs and Jewish spirituality
5.2 The life of Muhammad and the spread of Islam
5.3 Spiritual quest in Islam
5.4 Are all Muslims terrorists? No!
6. The future of religion
6.1 Is M. Weber right? Re-enchantment of the world
6.2 Interfaith dialogue and spiritual innovations in the contemporary world
6.3 The cosmotheandric experience: emerging religious consciousness.
1. Class participation (10%)
2. Individual short papers (20%)
3. Group oral presentation (20%)
4. Individual final essay (50%)
1. De Bary, W. T., Chan, W.-t. & Watson, B. complied (1964). Sources of Chinese Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press.
2. Dupré, L. K.著，傅佩榮譯 (1988)。《人的宗教向度》(The Other Dimension)。臺北：幼獅文化。
3. Hopfe, L. M. & Woodward, M. (2012). Religions of the World (12 th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
4. Smith, H. (1991). The World’s Religions. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
5. Vaux, K. L (2003). Jew, Christian, Muslim: Faithful Unification or Fateful Trifurcation? Word, Way, Worship and War in the Abrahamic Faiths. Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers.
6. 休斯頓．史密士（Smith, Huston）著，劉安雲譯 (1998)。《人的宗教：人類偉大的智慧傳統》。臺北：立緒文化。
7. 陳慎慶編 (2002)。《諸神嘉年華：香港宗教研究》。香港：牛津大學出版社。
8. 崔默（Tremmel, W.）著，賴妙淨 (2000)。《宗教學導論》。臺北：桂冠。
9. 潘尼卡 (Panikkar, R.) 著，思竹譯 (2005)。《宇宙-神-人共融的經驗》(The Cosmotheandric Experience)。北京：宗教文化出版社。
