A New Course in the Spring

In the Spring I will be teaching a new course entitled Different Voices: Christianity, Atheism and World Religions.  The course deals with the collision between our faith commitments and the varied ways of interpreting our existence in this world.  How do we live with such a myriad of religious interpretations swirling around us?  Some believers in each interpretation seem to trust they have acquired the truth while the rest of us have been at best mistaken and at worst deceived.  And as the world gets smaller and smaller these different voices are in our faces.

All of you will not be there for the course but all of us live with this confusing array of interpretations of reality.

This course is really about the conflict and confusion caused by so many religious interpretations.  Where do they come from and why are some of us so sure we are right?  We will think about how we are trained to look at the world through certain glasses and how these glasses allow and disallow us to consider other interpretations.

 We know there have always been different voices, different perspectives, different political opinions and different religions.  We may be more aware today of these voices, but they have always been there.  Our job, as people with brains, is not to be frightened of other interpretations.  Aggravating and difficult as it may be, we will engage these interpretations and evaluate what they are saying.

Try to avoid the extremes of interpretive absolutism and Interpretive relativism.  One says, “we have the absolute truth.”  The other says, “There is no truth.  It’s all relative.”  As in the course, we all ought to listen, engage, argue and evaluate.  Whatever else students take from the course, my hope is, we all will not escape the vulnerability of our interpretations and face up to the fragility of our cherished beliefs.  Faith is trusting without knowing for sure.  Let’s be honest about that.