Taught by

This program will take students on an exploration of the persistent human quest to locate, identify, describe, ascribe power to, and/or worship deities or phenomena outside ourselves. We take as a point of departure that this impulse has been with us as a species since the beginning of recorded human history. As such, by investigating extant sources that document this, we can ask why and how this instinct developed—and why it continues to sustain itself. We begin with ancient Chinese, African, Mesopotamian, Indus (Hindu and Buddhist), Greek, and Egyptian religions (all the while problematizing the meaning of the word "religion"), and move on to the development of monotheism begun by Hebrew tribes, to the development of Western philosophies rooted in these traditions, to the present where the insistence on no (sure) God(s) (atheism and agnosticism) has gathered steam and developed its own ideologies, including scientism.

Students will develop analytic skills in critical historical method, history, philosophy, critical theory, and the study of religion. Readings will include primary sources from each tradition we study, in addition to secondary sources that come to terms with them. Readings include, for example, selections from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Homer, the Upanishads, the Hebrew Bible, Kant, Islamic exegesis, and readings in the New Atheist movement.

Quarters

Winter Open

Location and Schedule

Campus Location

Olympia

Time Offered

Day