Religion & the Meaning of Life

Together, we shall go on an existential journey to discover religion’s role in the meaning of life. The red thread of this course that we will continue returning to is the following question: What makes life worth living? We shall evaluate different answers to this question and also investigate spiritual practices that support those answers. Additionally, we will discuss practical approaches to respectful collaboration with peers across a diverse range of belief paradigms. Students will gain the skill sets necessary to think critically, evaluate controversial arguments, and engage in theoretical discussions pertaining to respect for religious/spiritual beliefs.

Students should be able to demonstrate an understanding of their own values in addition to the values of others, and they should be willing to discuss their values with peers who may not share them. Moreover, students will be provided with opportunities to collaborate with their peers about critical moments/experiences in the human lifecycle and the meaning to be found therein (i.e., Death, Obstacles, Boredom, Suffering, etc.).

This interdisciplinary course also emphasizes the components of an ERCE course at USF, although it is not yet certified. As such, it is intended to prepare students for their public lives as members of our local and global communities. Students should be able to demonstrate an understanding of their own values, in addition to the values of their peers, and they should be able to articulate why they hold the values that they do by the end of this course. One practical way that we shall discuss and apply the values of students is via our engagement with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly as they relate to local problems affecting the Tampa Bay area, such as religious discrimination, for example. Moreover, students will be provided with two opportunities to express their values in action within our communities through a process of positive civic engagement, via the two GEA field assignment projects assigned for this course.

ERCE-Specific Outcomes and Indicators of Achievement:

1. Students will be able to evaluate the impact of individual choices on local and global communities. Students will be able to communicate ideas and information to diverse audiences.
2. Students will connect and extend knowledge (facts, theories, etc.) from their own academic fields of study to civic engagement and their own participation in civic life, politics, and government.
3. Students will demonstrate the ability to comprehend, express, and adapt to ideas based on others’ perspectives.
4. Students will work across and within community contexts to achieve a civic aim.
5. Students will independently and accurately apply ethical perspectives and concepts to ethical questions and a civic project as appropriate and demonstrate the ability to consider the full implications of this application.
6. Students will demonstrate the ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities.
7. Students will cultivate oral and written critical and analytical thinking skills via class discussions and assignments.
8. Students will engage in problem solving to address global and regional issues pertaining to the intersection of religion and the meaning of life.

Required Readings & Book Descriptions:

Religion and the Meaning of Life, Clifford Williams

Description: As humans, we want to live meaningfully, yet we are often driven by impulse. In Religion and the Meaning of Life, Williams investigates this paradox—one with profound implications. Delving into felt realities pertinent to meaning, such as boredom, trauma, suicide, denial of death, and indifference, Williams describes ways to acquire meaning and potential obstacles to its acquisition. This book is unique in its willingness to transcend a more secular stance and explore how one's belief in God may be relevant to life's meaning. Religion and the Meaning of Life's interdisciplinary approach makes it useful to philosophers, religious studies scholars, psychologists, students, and general readers alike. The insights from this book have profound real-world applications—they can transform how readers search for meaning and, consequently, how readers see and exist in the world.

Spirituality & the Good Life: Philosophical Approaches, David McPherson

Description: This book presents a broad philosophical study of the nature of spirituality and its relationship to human well-being, addressing an area of contemporary philosophy that has been largely underexplored. David McPherson brings together a team of scholars to examine the importance of specific spiritual practices
(including prayer, contemplation, and ritual observance) and spiritually informed virtues (such as piety, humility, and existential gratitude) for 'the good life'. This volume also considers and exemplifies how philosophy itself, when undertaken as a humanistic rather than scientistic enterprise, can be a spiritual exercise and part of a spiritual way of life. Clarifying key concepts, and engaging with major religious traditions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Confucianism, this book will appeal to students and scholars from various disciplines, including theology, sociology, and psychology, as well as to philosophers, ethicists, and other readers who are interested in modern spiritual life.

Interfaith Leadership: A Primer, Eboo Patel

Description: In this book, renowned interfaith leader Eboo Patel offers a clear, detailed, and practical guide to interfaith leadership, illustrated with compelling examples. Patel explains what interfaith leadership is and explores the core competencies and skills of interfaith leadership, before turning to the issues interfaith leaders face and how they can prepare to solve them. Interfaith leaders seek points of connection and commonality—in their neighborhoods, schools, college campuses, companies, organizations, hospitals, and other spaces where people of different faiths interact with one another. While it can be challenging to navigate the differences and disagreements that can arise from these interactions, skilled interfaith leaders are vital if we are to have a strong, religiously diverse democracy. This primer presents readers with the philosophical underpinnings of interfaith theory and outlines the skills necessary to practice interfaith leadership today.

Grading Distribution:

10% Oral Communication/Participation
40% Written Communication/Discussion Board Posts
40% GEA Field Assignments
10% Reading Quizzes

Oral Communication/Participation:

As humans, we are dialogical beings, meaning that engaged exchanges with one another enable us to be er construct meaning for ourselves and the world around us. In order to receive full credit for participation (10% of your grade) you must come to class having done the reading and also be able to meaningfully contribute to our discussions. Participation entails engaging with the comments of your fellow classmates as well as formulating your own thoughts/questions.

During class conversations, students should exhibit the cultivation of a vocabulary of theoretical terms as they pertain to the intersection of religion and meaning. Full credit for the oral communication/participation components of students’ grades also requires sound demonstration of problem solving and critical/analytical thinking skills while discussing global and regional issues and UN Sustainable Development Goals.

GEA Field Assignments

GEA Field Assignment #1

For this field assignment, you shall write a minimum of 2 pages (no maximum), double-spaced, and using 12pt Times New Roman font, addressing what is known by Clifford Williams as the ‘paradox of our humanity.’ By this, Williams means that “we intensely want our lives to be meaningful, to count for something, to ma er not only in the individual and social ways, but in a ‘cosmic’ way. At the same time, we often evade thinking about meaning and let ourselves be driven by impulse instead of meaningfulness” (2020, I).

Your primary resources for this assignment will be Religion and the Meaning of Life (2020), by Clifford Williams, and the New York Times article, “Happiness 101,” by D.T. Max. Additionally, you should find and cite at least one more scholarly source from Lib.USF.Edu to support your answers to the questions below. (Note: For this assignment, you may use whichever citation style you prefer – MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.).

Within your paper, please be sure to substantively answer the following 4 questions:

1. In your own words, how would you describe the ‘paradox of our humanity’? Draw on an example from your personal experience to support your description.
2. In Happiness 101, Max speaks about consequences related to being on the ‘hedonic treadmill.’ What is this syndrome, and how is it related to the paradox of our humanity that Williams addresses?
3. After reviewing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, look more closely at Goal 16: The Promotion of Peace, Justice, & Strong Institutions. Imagine for a moment that our local and global communities began to discover the ways that happiness and meaning ensue at the individual level as a result of one’s commitment to a noble cause. How would a life marked by pursuing meaning in this way look different than a life marked by the hedonic treadmill, and what effect might such a life have on the promotion of peace, justice, and strong institutions? Can you think of a moral exemplar from a tradition that you admire as an example to support your claim?
4. After reading the primary sources for this GEA Field Assignment, has your own view of the pursuit of meaning changed at all? If so, how?

GEA Field Assignment #2

In lieu of a final exam, you shall write a minimum of 2 pages (no maximum), double-spaced, and using 12pt Times New Roman font, wherein you define, in your own words, pluralism, and outline a vision for pluralistic, or inter-traditional, collaboration.

In addition to drawing on our class conversations, your primary resource for this assignment will be Interfaith Leadership: A Primer, by Eboo Patel (2016) and the Introduction to God is Not One, by Stephen Prothero (2010), which you will find in the Files section of our course on Canvas. You should also find and cite two additional scholarly sources from Lib.USF.Edu to support your answers to the questions below. (Note: For this assignment, you may use whichever citation style you prefer – MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.).

Within your paper, please be sure to substantively answer the following 4 questions:

1. What problems, if any, do you see with the ways that pluralism and tolerance are defined today? (i.e., is anyone left out, can you identify any double standards, etc.?)
2. In the Introduction to God is Not One, Prothero addresses what he calls the ‘mythical ideal of pluralism’ that dominates contemporary discourse on the subject. By this what does he mean, and what problems does he find with it? Do you think Patel’s ideal of pluralism is at any point susceptible to Prothero’s critique? Why or why not?
3. In your own words, taking into account Prothero’s critique and the positive vision imagined by Patel, establish an appropriate definition of pluralism in your own words and outline some ground rules for pluralistic, or
   inter-faith, collaboration (i.e., What are the requirements for participation? For those involved in such a conversation, what does respect, tolerance, etc. look like?)
4. Organize a 1-hour event with 3 or more of your peers (either within the class or outside of the class, and either in-person or virtually) wherein you a empt to engage in pluralistic collaboration. Discuss how each of your religious/spiritual perspectives leads you to a certain understanding of finding peace, meaning, and experiencing human flourishing. Discuss what it is like to be a person of your religious (or non-religious) background, and spend some time seeking to understand your peers who are on a different religious journey than you. What did you take away from this exercise, and how has it shaped your vision of engaging in public dialogue about religion with others? (Note: For this exercise, it will be important to partner with peers from at least one or more different religious traditions than you).