WORK TO BE DONE BY NOVEMBER 6th

1. Carefully read 250-263 in your Hopfe textbook.

2. Post the write up of your observation of a religious rltual in the tradition you are studying. Make sure that you describe the setting (e.g. what did you see, hear, smell, feel) and your responses (feelings, thoughts, questions, etc.)

3. During the week, write at least one more post on a religion topic of your choosing. This could be comments on the assigned reading or from the introductory class material; a link to an interesting and relevant webpage, video, book review, or article (along with an explanation of why you’ve chosen it); questions that you might have for me or other students in the class; a description of a conversation or experience you have that’s connected with the course content; suggestions for further reading or thinking; etc

Some suggestions:

a. Read the profile and interview with Elie Wiesel found at http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/wie0pro-1 and then write up your reflections.

b. Listen to “Hannukah and a Rediscovery of Jewish Traditions”, the radio show from Speaking of Faith found at http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/hanukkah/index.shtml

4. If you have not already done so, you should read your classmates’ blog entries for this past week and write responses to at least three of the entries, posting them as comments directly below the entry upon which you’re commenting. Please note what a proper response is by rereading the section “blog responses” in your course outline. It is not just saying “I like your post” or “I agree with you.”

WORK TO BE DONE BY OCTOBER 30th

1 . Carefully read 233--250 in your Hopfe textbook.

2. Create your own Shinto kamidana and post it on your blog. Either:

a. gather the objects that would be important on your family kamidana and arrange them appropriately on your shrine and then take a photo of them, posting it on your blog along with an explanation of each object and why you’ve placed it on your kamidana. Also explain where in your home your kamidana will be located, why you’ve chosen that place, and how your kamidana meets the requirements of the Shinto religion.

OR

b. If you don’t have a way to post a photo you’ve taken on your blog, then instead find photos of the objects you’d put in your family shrine on the web and copy them onto your blog posting. Give a MUCH MORE DETAILED posting of why each object is being put on your kamidana, where it would be positioned, and why. Also explain where in your home your kamidana would be located, why you would choose that place, what kind of use you would make of your kamidana, and how your kamidana would meet the requirements of the Shinto religion.

3. During the week, write at least one more post on a religion topic of your choosing. This could be comments on the assigned reading or from the introductory class material; a link to an interesting and relevant webpage, video, book review, or article (along with an explanation of why you’ve chosen it); questions that you might have for me or other students in the class; a description of a conversation or experience you have that’s connected with the course content; suggestions for further reading or thinking; etc

4. If you have not already done so, you should read your classmates’ blog entries for this past week and write responses to at least three of the entries, posting them as comments directly below the entry upon which you’re commenting. You can access classmates’ blogs by clicking on the individual blogs listed on the right hand side of this class blog.

WORK TO BE DONE BY OCTOBER 23rd

1. Carefully read 197-209 in your Hopfe textbook.

2. For your first post of the week: Lao-Tzu and Confucius are asked to come speak to a group of Mercy College students about religion in China. Write an interesting, spirited dialogue in which these two wise specialists dialogue with one another on one of the following key issues:

• the question of human nature
• the meaning of life
• the nature of the Tao
• family and ancestors
• the role of government
• how to live a well-balanced life.

3. For your second post of the week: Consider how you would apply the ideas of the tao and wu wei to your own life and post your reflections, including your understanding of each term and what would be different in your life if you lived according to that principle. In other words, tell me both how your life would be changed and why.

4. If you have not already done so, you should read your classmates’ blog entries for this past week and write responses to at least three of the entries, posting them as comments directly below the entry upon which you’re commenting.

WORK TO BE DONE BY OCTOBER 16th

1. Carefully read 164-196 in your Hopfe textbook.

2. There are many fundamental or "big" questions to which all religions respond. Examples of "big" questions would include:

• What is ultimate reality/God?
• What is the nature of the cosmos?
• What is the nature of a person?
• What is the purpose of human life? Or how can we achieve "salvation"?
• What happens to us after death?
• What is morality or what is the basis of morality?
• What is the meaning of history?

Compare and contrast how Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism would each answer three of the "big" questions above. Make sure you refer to specific doctrines or concepts—e.g. nirvana, or the Eightfold Path— not ungrounded, abstract statements--as you answer these questions. Post your answer on your blog.

3. During the week, write at least one more post on a religion topic of your choosing. This could be comments on the assigned reading or from the introductory class material; a link to an interesting and relevant webpage, video, book review, or article (along with an explanation of why you’ve chosen it); questions that you might have for me or other students in the class; a description of a conversation or experience you have that’s connected with the course content; suggestions for further reading or thinking; etc

Some possibilities:

-- Read the Kabir poems handed out in class and reflect on them. In what ways do they reflect the teachings of Sikhism?

--Read Karen Ellison’s Mastering Your Own Mind article, Psychology Today 9/2006 found at psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-4146.html and discuss how its findings agree or disagree with the view of meditation taken by eastern religions.

--Read selections from the Analects of Confucius. You may get a copy from a bookstore or library or read it at one of the following two links:

• http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/rel/conf/Analects.html
• http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/CHPHIL/ANALECTS.HTM

and write about what you learned from it.

--Read the Tao Te Ching. You may get a copy from a bookstore or library or read it at one of the following two links:

• http://www.hm.tyg.jp/~acmuller/contao/daodejing.html
• http://www.religiousworlds.com/taoism/ttcmerel.html

and write about what you learned from it.

4. If you have not already done so, you should read your classmates’ blog entries for this past week and write responses to at least three of the entries, posting them as comments directly below the entry upon which you’re commenting.
   

WORK TO BE DONE BY OCTOBER 9th

1. Carefully read 112-119 and 151-158 in your Hopfe textbook.

2. Since its inception, Buddhism has attempted to find contemporary ways to communicate its ancient truths. And, since very early in the religion, the Buddhist concept of the bodhisattva emphasizes compassion for all beings. This week you are to become compassionately aware of those around you. Observe your own community (local or national). What are its present spiritual struggles? (Spiritual here may be interpreted in a broad rather than narrowly ‘religious’ sense of the term. You may look around and see many people who are distracted with competition, commercialism, war, craziness, etc.)
   Come up with your own analysis of what troubles your community and keeps it from awakening. Then create a discourse,based on the best you find in Buddhist teachings, in which you speak a liberating message to address the trouble you observe in the community. Be specific in your suggestions to the community and make sure you explain how the suggestions are connected with Buddhist teachings.

In other words, this assignment-posting has three parts:

1)Describe the community you are addressing.

2) State what you find to be the spiritual challenges with which this community is struggling.

3) Offer a solution to the struggles, building on the best of what you have found in Buddhism, through a discourse to your community. This discourse may be done entirely in words, in words and pictures, in video, in music, etc. Be as creative as you need to be to reach the community you’ve chosen.

Post your answer to all three parts (the community, issue and your discourse) on your blog.

3. During the week, write at least one more post on a religion topic of your choosing. This could be comments on the assigned reading or from the introductory class material; a link to an interesting and relevant webpage, video, book review, or article (along with an explanation of why you’ve chosen it); questions that you might have for me or other students in the class; a description of a conversation or experience you have that’s connected with the course content; suggestions for further reading or thinking; etc

Some possibilities:

• Listen to”The Buddha in the World” the radio show from Speaking of Faith found at http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/buddhaintheworld/index.shtml and write about what you learned from it.

• Explore the site “The Eight Gates of Zen” - http://www.mro.org/zmm/training/eightgates.php -offered by the Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism. Focus on how these eight gates of American Zen Buddhism compare and contrast with the Eightfold path of the Buddha and traditional Asian Buddhism. (Make sure when you explore the site that you click on each of the “sublinks”—and consider the material linked there.)

4. If you have not already done so, you should read your classmates’ blog entries for this past week and write responses to at least three of the entries, posting them as comments directly below the entry upon which you’re commenting. You can access classmates’ blogs by clicking on the individual blogs listed on the right hand side of this class blog.