Honors: World Religions

Professor Charles Townsend

Online Asynchronous Format

Register for PHL 205 HC1 (CRN: 31676)

Gen Eds: Humanities; Global Studies

Concentrations: Global Studies; Great Books

The class will introduce students to the academic study of religion (Religious Studies) through a survey of various beliefs and practices of major living world religions (specifically: Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).

The class will cover key readings (scriptures and other documents) from diverse global religious traditions through engaged asynchronous discussions. There will be opportunities for those who want to for making in-person site visits with local religious communities, as well as online options for ‘virtual’ visits to religious sites of global significance.

The assignments are structured to offer flexible options for fulfilling the course requirements (you can tailor a mixture of different kinds of response papers, site visits, and/or thematic papers). Students will finish the course with an individually guided final project on a current topic of their choice in World Religions.

In past semesters, students taking Honors World Religions have gone on to publish and present their final projects, and add their projects to chicagoreligions.com, and those who are interested will be given help finding possibilities for presenting or disseminating their work.