ENST 250 - Across Religious Boundaries: Understanding Differences

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

The study of a selected topic or theme in religious studies that cuts across the boundaries of particular religions, allowing opportunities for comparison as well as contrast of religious traditions, beliefs, values and practices.

Topic for 2018/19b: Spirituality, Ecology, and the Environment. (Same as RELI 250) This course investigates the many relationships between spirituality, religion, and nature. How do emerging ecological paradigms challenge conventional religious worldviews? How have conventional religious traditions (Buddhism, Christianity, etc.) responded to this? How can Earth based traditions (Native American, South American Shamanic, etc.), Eco-feminism, and other nature-informed discourses revision our spiritual understanding of the natural world? What spiritual paradigms may emerge from the environmental movements of the last fifty-plus years? How is this relevant to myself and my community? Topics covered include environmental ethics, science and religion, cosmologies of humanity and nature, relationship between humans, plants, and animals, practices of “the wild.” Rick Jarow.

Two 75-minute periods.