Description:

 We live deeper than we think. In both our individual lives and in our lives with others, we are aware of a depth dimension in human experience that we can scarcely think about. Minimally, we can think of this "depth dimension" as the source and goal of ultimate meanings and values in life. It is what gives humans hope for the future, courage to deal with the threats to their existence, and love of the world and others. This dimension of depth sometimes eludes us. We may be aware of it only as an ideal or as a demand that is remote from real life—as something that we feel compelled to pursue, but that we never seem to have. At other times, this dimension of depth actually breaks into everyday experience. It intrudes on us and overwhelms us. In both cases, when we touch the depth dimension we find ourselves in contact with the sacred or holy dimension of life. Somehow we understand that contact with the depth dimension can result in spiritual knowledge, power, and conviction. As a result of such contact, we discover that our familiar understanding of what life means is overturned, transformed, and empowered in a new direction. Religion is about gaining, sustaining, and directing our contact with that depth dimension. This is how the course proposes to understand religion.

 

Approved GE:

Religion Major Foundation Credit:

 

 

Humanities

 

 

Theoretical and Comparitive Studies in Religion

 

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