2010-2011
2010-11
COMPREHENSIVE QUESTION #1
Against the backdrop of this current debate over emergence of Islam as a part of the American landscape and given the fact that as a department we are emphasizing the increasing diversity of religious affiliation in the United States, write an essay in which you draw on core courses that seem to deal primarily with the Abrahamic traditions, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, religions of immigrants from Asia.
· To what extent do you find commonalities between religions so they can speak to each other and to a common human (and American?) experience?
· To what extent do their particular religious beliefs and practices appear irreconcilable to each other.
All but four of you have had Hinduism and the other four of you, at least, have had Asian Religion in the U.S. Others of you have had “Religious Pluralism and American Identity,” so you ought to be able to address this essay not just in vague, general terms but with a mind to supporting your conclusions with concrete data.
COMPREHENSIVE QUESTION #2
In what ways might peoples’ expressions of their religious experiences and insights reveal the influence of the specific conditions into which they are born and raised?
How might this, in turn, determine such things as what comes down to us as received tradition; how that tradition is reinterpreted as new conditions arise; and which innovations are included into a tradition and which are rejected?
Do remember to call on your work from all four of your core courses in mining for theoretical underpinnings to your argument, as well as illustrative examples.
COMPREHENSIVE QUESTION #3
Human society has been experiencing religious conflict and armed conflict due to different faiths. On the one hand, however, diverse world religions have developed war and peace traditions within their respective religious practice. Argue one particular religious tradition on war and peace and in what way this tradition connects or conflicts with other religious traditions.
COMPREHENSIVE QUESTION #4
Peter Berger defines religion as “audacious attempt to conceive of the entire universe as being humanly significant” (The Sacred Canopy, p. 28). Berger is claiming that religion is a human construction within which a meaningful existence is possible. Choose two religious traditions, one of which cannot be Christianity or Judaism.
- Explore the validity of this definition.
- Explore the role of rituals in at least two religious traditions.
- Explore the implication of the definition for ethical discourse.
- Explore the role of transcendence in relation to this definition.