Fall 2007
Special Topics Course Descriptions

RELI 140:C From Sacraments to Sex: Introduction to Catholicism
MW 2:55-4:20

The branch of Christianity called Catholicism is big and still growing: Catholics comprise one-sixth of the entire human population and live in all parts of the globe. Among their diverse cultures and languages, there are also many versions of the faith and many ways people throughout history have practiced it. Yet, like all religions, Catholicism offers its adherents particular and powerful means to negotiate the boundaries of this world and beyond, as traditions like sacramental ritual, sexual regulation, and social justice order and disorder Catholics' lives. In this class, we ask what various Catholic communities have meant by the word “Catholic” and become familiar with its complicated history, global varieties, contested characteristics, and current events. In the process, we will make use of theology and ethics, biography and spirituality, history and popular culture. Though the course will primarily be conducted through lectures and primary source reading, we will also undertake semester-long discussion of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, which deals with the people and history of the imaginary city of Macondo in the majority-Catholic country of Colombia, South America.

RELI 140:E Questioning Religious Belief: Religion and the Skeptical Mind
Instructor: John Teehan
MW 2:55-4:20PM

Religious beliefs are central to the lives of vast numbers of people, all over the world. Even in our technological, materialistic modern age polls show up to 93% of people still confess a belief in God (however properly qualified). However, despite the overwhelming popular support for a religious world view there has always been a subset of dissenters, those who question the validity of particular religious beliefs or even raise doubts as to the very existence of God(s). In this course we are going to examine the bases of religious skepticism. Why do skeptics not recognize what the majority recognizes as the Truth? Why do they not accept the evidence that seems compelling to the greater part of humankind? The course is structured to allow us to understand the criticisms brought by religious dissenters against the traditional arguments for belief. We will consider, in turn, the arguments for belief based on revelation, reason and experience and the grounds for rejecting those arguments. Then we will allow the critics of religion to offer their explanations for the ubiquity of religious belief. By doing so we hopefully will gain some insight into the mind of the religious skeptic, and perhaps shed some light on the state of religious belief in the modern world.