Course Schedule

 

Week 1 (9/3-4): Introduction

Nature

Week 2 (9/8, 9/10-11): The Conundrum of the Absolute

 

Week 3 (9/15, 9/17-18): Nature Before Nature

 

Week 4 (9/22, 9/24-25): First Nature

 

Week 5 (9/30, 10/1-2): The Danger of Nature

 

Faith

Week 6 (10/6, 10/8-9): Pagan Monotheism and the Two Evils

 

Week 7 (10/13, 10/15-16): Why Jesus Never Talked about Farming

 

Week 8 (10/20, 10/22-23): Great Departures: Buddha, Zoroaster, Plato, and the Axial Age

 

Week 9 (10/27, 10/29-30): Midterm exam

 

Week 10 (11/3, 11/4-6): Great Syntheses: Vyasa, Muhammad, Quetzelcoatl, and Divergence from the Axis

 

Week 11 (11/10, 11/11-12): Paganism, Magic, and Folk Belief in the Modern World

 

Community

Week 12 (11/17, 11/19-20): Religion, Capitalism, and the Domination of Nature

 

Week 13 (11/24, no sections): The Greening of Religion

 

Week 14 (12/1, 3-4): Denying Science: Religion and Identity

 

Week 15 (12/8, 12/10-11): Awesome Coolness and the Politics of Nature

 

Week 16 (12/15, no sections): The Multilogics of Truth

 

Week 17: Final Exam