Browse Content
Life Worth Living is an initiative of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School.
Baldwin Wallace Univ REL193
Life Worth Living (Baldwin Wallace University)
Dr. Ellen Posman is Chair and Professor of Religion at Baldwin Wallace University where she teaches comparative religions with specializations in Buddhism and Judaism.
What is a life well lived? What do we mean when we consider ourselves “happy” or “successful” or “fulfilled” or “good people,” and how do these exist in relationship to one another?
Listen on
Life Worth Living
REL193
Baldwin Wallace University
Taught by Ellen Posman
Course Description:
What is a life well lived? What do we mean when we consider ourselves “happy” or “successful” or “fulfilled” or “good people”, and how do these exist in relationship to one another? What role does suffering play in all this, and what role does spirituality play, or a relationship to God or a quest for Transcendence? How can we utilize the wisdom of those who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of the answers to these questions as we determine our own answers? This course draws on philosophical and religious voices, texts, and traditions to provide a variety of answers to the questions of what it means to live a flourishing life in terms of happiness, success, purpose, pleasure, justice, ethics, love, and/or transcendence as we debate and discuss the meaning of these terms and their worth in a life that inevitably ends in death. The traditions we will examine to help clarify our individual answers will include Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Greek Philosophy, Marxism, and Existentialism (maybe Utilitarianism instead of one of these?) in addition to works from African American and Indigenous traditions (and/or Feminist traditions).
This course draws on the expertise of faculty from Religious Studies, Philosophy, and History as well as insider perspectives from video clips and in-person guests from within these traditions who will share with us what it means to them to pursue a well-lived life. After giving serious consideration to the visions provided by these philosophical and religious perspectives, students will analyze our contemporary society to articulate an understanding of how our modern everyday culture construes a life well-lived and to express their own individual views.
Sources and Thinkers Include:
Excerpts from: the New Testament, the Qur'an, the Hebrew Bible, Katha Upanishad, the Analects, Buddhist Sutras, among others.
Texts authored by: Thich Nhat Hanh, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Heschel, Al-Ghazali, Aristotle, Wang Yingming, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and bell hooks among others.
Life Worth Living
REL193
Baldwin Wallace University
Taught by Ellen Posman
Course Description:
What is a life well lived? What do we mean when we consider ourselves “happy” or “successful” or “fulfilled” or “good people”, and how do these exist in relationship to one another? What role does suffering play in all this, and what role does spirituality play, or a relationship to God or a quest for Transcendence? How can we utilize the wisdom of those who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of the answers to these questions as we determine our own answers? This course draws on philosophical and religious voices, texts, and traditions to provide a variety of answers to the questions of what it means to live a flourishing life in terms of happiness, success, purpose, pleasure, justice, ethics, love, and/or transcendence as we debate and discuss the meaning of these terms and their worth in a life that inevitably ends in death. The traditions we will examine to help clarify our individual answers will include Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Greek Philosophy, Marxism, and Existentialism (maybe Utilitarianism instead of one of these?) in addition to works from African American and Indigenous traditions (and/or Feminist traditions).
This course draws on the expertise of faculty from Religious Studies, Philosophy, and History as well as insider perspectives from video clips and in-person guests from within these traditions who will share with us what it means to them to pursue a well-lived life. After giving serious consideration to the visions provided by these philosophical and religious perspectives, students will analyze our contemporary society to articulate an understanding of how our modern everyday culture construes a life well-lived and to express their own individual views.
Sources and Thinkers Include:
Excerpts from: the New Testament, the Qur'an, the Hebrew Bible, Katha Upanishad, the Analects, Buddhist Sutras, among others.
Texts authored by: Thich Nhat Hanh, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Heschel, Al-Ghazali, Aristotle, Wang Yingming, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and bell hooks among others.
Keep browsing
Join the LWL Community
