Course Description / Course Readings / Course Requirements   |   SCHEDULE: September / October / November / December

Course Description and Objectives

In this course, we will read some key works in modern Western philosophy and religious thought that propose different ways of conceiving God and approaching religion.  We will begin with Descartes, whose philosophy helped establish a tradition in which the task of thinking about God is directly related to questions concerning the nature of knowledge and to confronting the challenge of skepticism.  We will then look at some decisive challenges to that tradition: Immanuel Kant identifies God not as something to be known theoretically, but links the idea of God to the question of morality or practical knowledge, whereas Rudolf Otto, Martin Buber, and Abraham Joshua Heschel, each in his own way, determine religion as an experience wholly unlike knowledge: Otto sees it as an experience of something "non-rational"; Heschel* conceives of God as a "question" posed to us; and Buber sees it as a "relation" or "dialogue" between an "I" and a "Thou."

*A highlight of the course will be attendance of McMaster's annual Goldblatt Lecture in Jewish Studies on October 22.  In honor of the centenary of Abraham Joshua Heschel's birth, Susannah Heschel, a professor of Jewish Studies and Religion from Dartmouth College, will be speaking about her father's work and legacy.

A core objective of this class is to develop skills of close reading, textual analysis, and strong writing.  Our in-class work on the texts we are reading and the writing assignments are designed for you to use and improve those skills; the midterm and final exams consist of open-book essay questions that require you to apply those skills.  The course is structured in a way that encourages students to approach their education as a process that both requires and rewards active engagement.  Because the course presupposes that successful education requires the active, informed participation of students, the course requires participants to complete assigned readings prior to the course meeting at which they will be discussed, to attend all sessions, and to participate actively in course and tutorial meetings.  Preparation for, attendance at, and participation in course and tutorial meetings are required and will count toward the final grade.

Course Readings

You can generally obtain these in a number of ways - see details for each title on the syllabus.

• Books for this course have been ordered with Titles (visit the "Tank": TSH B203).  In addition to the books that contain course readings, I am asking you to purchase two writing reference books:
  • Diana Hacker, A Pocket Style Manual, 4th ed. (2004) (required) | companion website
  • Gordon Harvey, Writing with Sources. A Student Guide (1998) (recommended)
• All the readings and reference works are also on reserve at Mills Library. Look up the Mills Library reserve lists under "Hollander" in MORRIS.   
• A coursepack containing some of the readings for October 15 and after is available from Custom CourseWare at Titles.  However, since it is much cheaper to make personal copies of readings from the books on reserve than to buy the coursepack (this would cost you about $3.20 as opposed to the coursepack price of $18.95, which includes a hefty copyright fee that the bookstore is obliged to pay), I encourage you to do the former.  Only a limited number of coursepacks have been ordered in advance; if they are no longer in stock, you can order one on a "raincheck" basis, which will be ready in 2 days' time - please plan ahead to ensure you can prepare the texts in time for our in-class work on them.

At times you may be asked to consult or make your own copy from a book on reserve.

You must have your own copy of all the texts to be discussed--with the same pagination as the edition selected for the class--whether in book or xeroxed form, so that you can mark them as you read and be prepared to refer to specific passages in class and tutorial, and when you write the exams.

Course Requirements

• One Text Preparation (2-3 pages) on the assigned readings for Oct. 15, Oct. 22, Nov. 5, Nov. 12, Nov. 19, or Nov. 26, to be handed in at the end of the class session on the day we are discussing the selection they are on (specific assignments will be posted).  

The purpose of the Text Summaries and the Text Preparation is (1) to encourage you to read carefully and reflect on issues that come up in the reading, so that you are in a position to participate knowledgeably and actively in class and tutorial; and (2) to give you feedback on your writing and on working with primary texts, in preparation for writing the exam essays for this class.