SYLLABUS-IN-PROGRESS

RS 788/792 - STUDIES IN RELIGIOUS ETHICS (Winter 2003)

Messianism and Ethics

 updated January 30, 2003

This syllabus is posted at http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/danahol/792 and can also be accessed by way of Dana Hollander's  home page http://univmail.cis.mcmaster.ca/~danahol.  It will be updated periodically. Please be sure to consult it regularly during the semester, as it will be subject to change from week to week.

CLASS MEETINGS: Thursdays, 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m., University Hall 122

INSTRUCTORS:

Travis Kroeker

Address: 
Department of Religious Studies, University Hall 123

Tel.: (905) 525-9140, ext. 23385

E-mail: kroekert@mcmaster.ca 

Office Hours:  Wednesdays, 4-5 p.m.

Dana Hollander

Address: 
Department of Religious Studies, University Hall 109

Tel.: (905) 525-9140, ext. 24759

E-mail: danahol@mcmaster.ca
(please include your phone number)

Web Address: http://univmail.cis.mcmaster.ca/~danahol/

Office Hours: Mondays, 1-2 p.m., or by appointment 

Description / Course Requirements / Schedule


Course Description

This seminar will examine interpretations of messianism in modern and postmodern Jewish and Christian literature, with particular attention to the implications for ethics and political thought. Possible readings to include works by Marx, Lowith, Hermann Cohen, Barth, Rosenzweig, Scholem, Benjamin, Yoder, Girard, Agamben, Jacob Taubes, as well as Biblical texts.


Course Readings

There is usually more than one way to obtain each reading on this syllabus; these are/will be indicated for each title.

A book order for this class has been placed with Titles, and there will also be items on reserve at Mills Library--including all the German and French originals of the works we are reading.   Check MORRIS to see the status of individual titles.

In addition, master copies of some of the shorter texts we are reading will be made available in the Religious Studies Department office (UH 104), to use for making personal copies.


Course Requirements

Presentation (details TBA), final paper (15-20 pp.): Please plan to consult with one of us about your proposed topic by the week of February 27.

Grades will be based on participation (25%), presentation (25%), final paper (50%)

 


January 9 - ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING


January 16

Emmanuel Levinas, "Dialogue with Richard Kearney" (1984) [from Face to Face With Levinas, photocopy of interview on reserve; master copy in office], Preface to Totality and Infinity (1961) [book available for purchase/on reserve; master copy in office]

January 23

Levinas, Time and the Other: Parts I, II (skim), III; "Diachrony and Representation" (in Time and the Other) [master copies of both texts in the office]

Resources and Links on Levinas

Presentation - Sarah Pelton

 


January 30

Hermann Cohen, chapter 13 ("The Idea of the Messiah and Mankind") from Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism (1919) [book available for purchase/on reserve; master copy in office]

Walter Benjamin, "Theological-Political Fragment" (1920/21); "Theses on the Philosophy of History" (1940) [master copies in office]

Gershom Scholem, "Toward an Understanding of the Messianic Idea in Judaism" (1959) from The Messianic Idea in Judaism [book on reserve; master copy in office]

Presentation - Jacob Letkemann

 


February 6

Jacques Derrida,  Specters of Marx (1993) [book available for purchase/on reserve]: Exordium (pp. xvii-xx); chaps. 2 and 3  (pp. 49-94).

Supplementary:  "Force of Law" (1989) in Drucilla Cornell, ed., Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice [book on reserve] or in Andrew Benjamin, ed., The Philosophy of Walter Benjamin [book available for purchase/on reserve]

Resources and Links on Derrida

Presentation - Andrew Muncaster

 


February 13

Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Grand Inquisitor" selection from The Brothers Karamazov, trans. Pevear/Volokhonsky, book 5, chaps. 3-5 [book available for purchase/on reserve]

Matthew 4

Book of Revelation

Presentation - Leo Stan

 


February 27

Soren Kierkegaard, "Of the Difference Between a Genius and an Apostle" in Of the Present Age... [book available for purchase/on reserve]

Karl Barth, Epistle to the Romans (1922) [book available for purchase/on reserve], Prefaces and chap. 1 (esp. part 2: "The Night")

Presentation - Justin Klassen

March 6

Barth, selection from Epistle to the Romans, chap. 8

Presentation - Darren Dahl

March 13

Barth, selection from Epistle to the Romans, chap. 13

 


March 20, 27, April 3

Carl Schmitt, selection from Political Theology (1922) [book available for purchase/on reserve]

Jacob Taubes, selection from Die politische Theologie des Paulus (1993) [details of availability pending]

Presentation - Peter Killam


Giorgio Agamben, Le temps qui reste (2000) [details of availability pending], Days 1-4

Presentation - Jennifer Selby

 


Recommended Secondary Literature/Background Reading: