Be ready to discuss the way that at least two of the religions from Religious Traditions categories A and B (four altogether) deal with the following "potential questions."
N.B.: The self-scheduled final exam is not an open book exam, contrary to what was posted here earlier.
You may find it helpful to use Mary Pat Fisher's Living Religions and James Livingston's Anatomy of the Sacred to prepare for the final exam.
I. Potential Questions:
What is the nature of suffering?
What is the source of human suffering?
What is "evil" and is it a source of human suffering?
What kinds of suffering are most characteristic of human experience?
What is the way out - "salvation"- from that suffering?
What role do deities or "the sacred" play in the process of salvation?
Are suffering and salvation individual or collective experiences - do they affect primarily the individual or the community as a whole?
How should we live our life?
What role does gender play in this religion?
II. Religious traditions
Group A
Hinduism
Buddhism
Confucianism/Taoism
Shinto
Group B
Indigenous Religions (pick one discussed in Fisher’s Living Religions )
Judaism
Christianity
Islam
*Extra Credit Question (up to 10 extra points):
Answer one of the two following questions in a separate essay:
1. What is the difference between the mythic and doctrinal dimensions of worldviews according to Ninian Smart's theory? Use specific examples from two religious traditions we studied to support your argument.
2. True or false? The non-Western religious traditions from group A above tend to emphasize the experiential dimension of religion much more than the Western religious traditions from group B: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. TheWestern religions on the other hand seem much more interested in emphasizing orthodoxy (right doctrine) or orthopraxis (right ethical and/or ritual practices) than the non-Western traditions.
Pick what you think are the four best specific examples from these religious traditions that prove or disprove these two statements.