Introduction to Religion
Professor Helen Lee Turner, Religion Department, Furman University

The central goal of this course is an appreciation and understanding of the nature of religion and the important role it plays in the lives of individuals and in all societies, and even in the lives of people who are not religious in traditional ways. As the subtitle suggests, this will be done in each phase of the course by looking first at the biblical traditions of Judaism and Christianity tradition and then moving out from there to see similar phenomena elsewhere (Muslim, Native American, Hindu, Buddhist, etc.).  The presupposition here is that one needs a substantial understanding of one religious heritage before comparative study is meaningful.  The role of Christianity in American history and its importance in the heritage of Furman University make the biblical tradition an appropriate place to begin. 

While the approach to religion in this course is an academic one, the religious commitment and experiences of the persons identified with the traditions studied, as well as the religious perspective of students in the class, are taken seriously. 

The basic building blocks of the uniquely human phenomenon of religion are the experience of the holy, symbol, sacred story, and ritual. In this course we will examine these as avenues through which people encounter that which is deemed greater than themselves. Again, although these and other aspects of religion will be considered from the perspective of several other traditions, the Bible will provide primary readings for this undertaking.  Indeed, because of the extremely significant role the Bible has played in the development of western culture, the knowledge of central biblical stories and characters is one goal of the course. Although we will look at various aspects of the classical world religions, we will not study them in a comprehensive way; that is done in Religion 125.