Religion 111 - Introduction to Religion

This course will explore the meaning, significance, and role of mysticism in two different religious traditions. It has been argued that mysticism is the highest manifestation of religion, and that mystical awareness or experience is the ultimate human goal. Our deeper study of this manifestation, awareness, and experience promises to illuminate the ideals and practices which are subsumed under the category of mysticism. Our engagement will be comparative in nature, focusing on African Religious Traditions and Islam. We will read biographies of mystics, poetry, manuals for mystical practice, ethical treatises on the cultivation of the self or soul, and ethnographies. Our goals will be to understand the different dimensions of mysticism (psychological, ethical, institutional, political, etc.), and to understand the meaning of its theoretical and practical aspects from the perspective of its adherents.

Fall semester. Professors Brodnicka and Jaffer.

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Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on readings.