Faculty Syllabus

This course can be seen as an in-depth exploration of the fundamental religious themes that shape and connect cultures across the globe, offering a comparative perspective on the expansive religious experience. The work we will do in this class is primarily collaborative, which means that together, through discussions on the online forum, we’ll explore how different societies grapple with life’s big, enduring questions, such as the meaning of religion, the nature of suffering and evil, and ideas about death and the afterlife.

Image from Peter Vredeveld, “Buddhist Rituals and Religious Practices,” Original Buddhas (blog), n.d., accessed September 13, 2025, https://www.originalbuddhas.com/blog/buddhist-rituals?srsltid=AfmBOoplfBPZdDazJZqRQhnrEINFEhymaqMmZVwH8B-6jt-NiU7dLHSG.

Our class is organized around thematic areas, and each unit will explore both primary sources and related scholarship on those themes.

Unit 1: Introduction: Studying Religion in a Global Society

Unit 2: What is Religon?

Unit 3: The Absolute, the Ultimate, the Holy

Unit 4: Origins and Founders

Unit 5: World Scriptures

Unit 6: Myths, Stories, and Histories

Unit 7: Suffering and Evil

Unit 8: Religion and Art

Unit 9: Ritual

Unit 10: Religion, Morality, and Ethics

Unit 11: Religious Experience

Unit 12: Salvation and the Meaning of Life

Unit 13: Religion, Personality, and the Individual

Unit 14: Religion and Society in a Global Age

Textbooks:

• Kent E. Richter, Understanding Religion in a Global Society
  (Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, Belmont, CA, 2005).
• Hedges, Paul Michael. Understanding Religion: Theories and Methods for
  Studying Religiously Diverse Societies. University of California Press, 2021.

Further readings (non-mandatory):

• Ninian Smart, The World’s Religions (2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press, 1998)

This is a breakdown of the course requirements. The specifics of these course tasks can be found below. 

1. Participation: Comparative Religion Discussion Forum – 30%
2. “Sacred Narratives” Podcast Project
3. Podcast Script draft (1,000 words) – 30%
4. Final Podcast (Final Project) – 40%

• Communication Skills: Develop, interpret, and express ideas and information through written, oral, and visual communication that is adapted to purpose, structure, audience, and medium.
• Critical Thinking Skills: Gather, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and apply information for the purposes of innovation, inquiry, and creative thinking.
• Personal Responsibility: Identify and apply ethical principles and practices to decision-making by connecting choices, actions, and consequences.
• Social Responsibility (Civic and Cultural Awareness): Analyze differences and commonalities among peoples, ideas, aesthetic traditions, and cultural practices to include intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities.