Initial Reading List and preliminary notes on the course:(to be edited)
1) Karen Armstrong, A History of God. Random
House, Incorporated, 1994 (ISBN: 0345384563, $ 15.-)
2) Youssef Courbage et al., Christians and Jews
Under Islam, I B Tauris & Co Ltd, 1998.
(ISBN: 1860642853, $ 22>50)
3) R. Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475 : Stories of a
Ritual Murder Trial. New Haven: Yale Univ Press, 1996 (ISBN:
0300068727, $ 16.- )
The books can be ordered at your local bookstore, or you can order them
online at Barnes and Noble (www.bn.com), or Amazon.com. If
you order online, you might want to check the Website bigbigsavings.com,
or other coupon Websites for possible savings / coupons.
Over the summer, you want to get as much reading done as possible:
Probably start with Karen Armstrong’s book to get a very general historical
overview of all three Abrahamic religious traditions (Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam), and then read Courbage and Po-Chia Hsia. You might want
to take some notes while reading the books; in your reading, you should
focus on the broader story lines as they are presented in the books.
In the fall term, you will take tests that will examine your degree
of familiarity with the materials discussed in the books. Results
of these tests will account for no more than 30% of the entire grade.
Also, for our discussions in weekly meetings in the fall term, acquaintance
with the materials will be presupposed.
In addition to reading the books, you can already start thinking about
possible sites on which you would like to focus. Early in the fall
term, we will assign a site to each student. Students will research
the historical and religious significance of the site, and share their
findings with the entire class. Where feasible, students will introduce
their findings during our visit to the specific site; such presentation
will be accompanied by a written report on the site, to be turned in during
the fall term. In addition to such report, students will write a
more thorough research paper, that takes the particular site at hand as
its point of departure, and then studies the interconnections between two
or more religious traditions or ideologies, and addresses questions of
influences, relationships, common origins, or some other bridges.
Of course, such deeper engagement with the site can take a wide variety
of forms; please feel free to contact me if you have any questions on this.
The research paper will count for 15% of the grade.
Grading:
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Tests on three books:
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30 %
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Report on site:
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10 %
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Research Paper:
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15 %
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scholarly comportment:
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20 %
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Final Exam:
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25 %
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Other Grades ?
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0-10 %
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Feel free to contact me if you have questions. I will be in Greenville for most of the summer; from August 28-Sptember 14th I will be in Germany.
Have a great summer, enjoy the readings; I’m already looking forward to our learning and travelling together!
PEACE!
Alfons
alfons.teipen@furman.edu
(864) 294-3310