Undergraduate - UnitATS3862 - Thinking about religion

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Philosophy
Offered	Not offered in 2015
Coordinator(s)	Dr. Monima Chadha

Synopsis

This unit considers different ways of thinking about religion and religious belief, both phenomenological (historical, social scientific, etc) and philosophical. It raises philosophical questions about the role of religious discourse and the relationship of evidence to religious belief, examining classic texts on questions such as omniscience, simplicity and eternity. It also examines religious pluralism, and the range of responses that can be made to diverse views about salvation or enlightenment.

Outcomes

The objectives of this unit are:

to offer students the opportunity to improve their understanding of the history, beliefs, practices and sacred texts of various religious traditions
to help students develop their hermeneutical and exegetical skills, so that they can interpret, contextualise and explain passages and texts from different religious traditions, as well as integrate their analysis of scriptural texts with contemporary scholarly and critical material
to develop the capacities of students to engage in reflective and critical thinking, particularly the capacity to critically analyse and evaluate concepts, doctrines and arguments that have played a central role in the world's religions, as well as to put forward ideas and arguments of their own in a clear and cogent way.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 80%
Exam: 20%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.