PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES IN RELIGION
RP 2070 — Spring Semester
2002
Lecturer: Dr. Stephen
Palmquist
“Try to reason about love and
you will lose your reason.”
—French proverb
“... human love is incarnate
[i.e., expressed in the flesh].” —Maurice Nédoncelle
“[God] said, ‘For this
reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and
the two will become one flesh’”...
So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let
man not separate.” —Jesus (Matt. 19:5-6)
“The bird a nest,/ The spider
a web,/ Man friendship.” —William Blake
Aims and Objectives
What
is love? How does it influence
the way we experience our sexuality?
Why is marriage so universally
regarded as the most appropriate context for sharing deep expressions of love
and sex? And how (if at all!) is friendship related to love, sex, and marriage? These and many
other similar questions will be the focus of our attention in this class.
That
such questions raise philosophical
issues should be evident to anyone who has previously studied philosophy.
Philosophy (“love of wisdom”) is a discipline that attempts to
clarify our understanding of both theoretical and practical issues relating to
human life. As we shall see, its four main parts (as explained in the book, The
Tree of Philosophy) correspond
nicely to the four issues we will be looking at: the “metaphysics”
of love; the “logic” of sex; the “science” of marriage;
and the “ontology” of friendship.
That
these four topics are not only related to religion, but arise out of it, is a
claim that may seem strange to anyone who does not have a personal faith or
commitment to practice a specific religious tradition. But as we shall see,
religion (the discipline human beings use to become “tied back” [re-ligare] to the transcendent source of their existence,
usually called “God”) is integrally bound up with these four
topics. Not only do the basic problems relating to love, sex, marriage, and
friendship typically arise out of the religious tradition of each culture, but
their ultimate solution (though philosophical in nature) is very often to be
found only in the discovery of a still deeper religious commitment.
As
such, our focus on these four issues will be a good way of accomplishing what
the standard syllabus for this subject lists as its three general objectives:
(1) to equip students with an understanding of some of the fundamental
philosophical issues related to religion; (2) to familiarize students with the
approaches to dealing with such issues that have been proposed by both
classical and contemporary philosophers of religion; and (3) to stimulate
students to consider at a deep level how religion functions (or should
function) in their daily life.
Requirements and Grade Assessment
A
tentative lecture outline will be given separately. Recommended readings (also
listed separately) will be placed on reserve in the library throughout the
semester. If you wish to improve your understanding of the lecturer’s
views on various related philosophical and psychological issues, you should
consult the books, The Tree of Philosophy and Dreams of Wholeness (available in the Campus Bookshop). Grades will be
determined as follows:
20%: attendance, plus 4 debates (see separate handout
for details)
30%: three short (1-2 page) book reports (see
separate list of suitable books)
50%: final examination
Office Hours (and other ways of contacting the
lecturer outside of class)
My
office hours this semester will be Tuesdays from 1:30pm to 4:20pm and Thursdays
from 12:30pm to 3:20pm. I will (normally) be in my office (CEC905) during those
hours, so you may come without a prior appointment if you wish to discuss
anything with me. If you need (or would prefer) to see me at a different time,
please make an appointment first (phone: 2339-7289). Alternatively, you
may send questions or comments to me by email
(stevepq@hkbu.edu.hk)—though if my response is relevant to the whole
class, I might
wait to answer
your question until the next
class session. Alternatively, I might reply by email to the whole class,
using the special address set up for that purpose (i.e.,
&R.P.2070-00001@net1.hkbu.edu.hk). NOTE: submitting classwork by email is NOT ALLOWED;
please use email only as a method of communicating, not to hand in assignments.
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This
page was last updated on 20 June 2002.