REL 195C - Introductory Special Topic: Religion in East Asia

4 credits (Fall and Spring)

This introduces some fundamental features of the religious cultures of China, Korea, and Japan. We will also see how the “traditional” and the “modern” intersect in contemporary society in each country. At the same time, the course might well be subtitled “A Taste of East Asia”, for it is not intended to offer a full menu of East Asian religious ideas and practices, much less a full serving of even the “major entrees”. While this is a general introduction to East Asian religious cultures, it is also and essentially a course in critical thinking. Using evidence from Asia, we will be considering ways people have thought about their worlds and acted on those thoughts in the world, as well as the ways other people have thought about those peoples’s ideas and activities.

Prerequisite: None.