Faith and Critical Reason: Pursuing a Life Worth Living

THEO 1000 introduces students to basic theological issues as well as some of the ways that various religious communities and individuals have confronted the pressing questions of meaning in human life. Readings ordinarily include historical theological sources, modern critiques of traditional religious belief and practice, and materials from religious traditions other than Christianity, as appropriate. Important issues may include the challenges inherent in religious ways of knowing, interaction of religion and the moral life, religious efforts to make sense of evil and suffering, the relationships among religion, culture, and social structures, and the validity of religious claims in the context of religious diversity.

This class will pursue these central aims under the direction of the guiding question – “what makes a life worth living.” What does it mean for a life to go well? We will explore these questions by exploring three central units:

1. Religious and Spiritual Traditions: we will begin our class by exploring the resources offered by specific religious and spiritual traditions – Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Indigenous Ecology. In addition to developing an appreciation for the diversity within these traditions, we will explore the way people inside these traditions have answered the questions “what is the purpose of life” and “how should we live our lives?”
2. Secular and Scientific Traditions: our second unit will focus on secular philosophical, artistic, and scientific traditions that help answer the question of meaning in human life. We will think about authenticity (what it means to be true to ourselves), reading literature and art in the good life, altruism and our obligations to others, and what we can learn about the purpose of human life from evolutionary science.
3. Living the Good Life in Community: our final unit will turn from questions of personal meaning making and self-examination to ask what kinds of communities we should foster and live within. We will two explore radical experiments in communal living: the Shakers (who were most prominent in the 19th century but still exist today) and Soul Fire Farm, a Black and Indigenous land collective in upstate New York.