Professor: Catherine Prueitt

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

Office: Cosby 433
Phone: 404-270-5199
Cell (for urgent contact only): 678-358-1186
cprueitt@spelman.edu

Introduction to Sacred Texts

Overall Goals and Structure of the Class:

This course is an introduction to three world religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, and
Islam—through a selection of texts that each tradition considers to be sacred. Three major
questions will guide our studies: What makes a text sacred? How do we know what
sacred texts mean? What do sacred texts do? We will explore sacred texts in translation
and investigate their origins, their transmission, and the ways in which they shape the
lives of individuals and communities. We will study ways the texts were interpreted in
the past as well as how they are used and understood today.

Grading structure:
1) Blog and Class Engagement: 30% (15% for doing it and 15% for quality).
Each week’s engagement is worth 3% of your final class grade. Your blog post serves as
the justification for our 4th credit hour. We will have a total of 10 blog posts. The 15% for
quality is measured by the extent to which your discussions on and off-line thoughtfully
engage with the readings. In order to get full credit, you must specifically cite some
portion of the readings in your blog post. The other 15% comes just for attending class
and putting up something related to our weekly topic. You can post under a pseudonym if
want; just make sure I know who you are so I can give you credit.

One post can simply say "I'm sorry I got overwhelmed this week and cannot post" and
still earn full credit. You can respond to other students' posts, but please do this on your
own post and not as a comment on someone else’s post. You can ask questions or say that
you don't understand some part of the reading. If you ask me a direct question in a post, I
will respond to it on the forum. Just post something. Posts are due by midnight on
Wednesday so that I have time to read them and prepare for our discussion on Thursday.
Late posts get half credit if they're done within 2 weeks of when they were due.

2) Unit Papers: 3 papers at 15% each = 45%.

900-1500 words (approximately 3-5 pages). I’ll provide a topic at least one week before
the paper is due.

3) Final Take Home Exam: 25%.

I’ll give you the exam on the last day of class and it’ll be due on our exam day. It will
comprehensively address the overall themes and topics we’ve studied. It will consist of 3
short essay questions (about 2-3 pages each).

The Honor Code is in effect at all times in this class, including for blog posts.

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Office Hours: Tuesday/Thursday from noon to 1pm or by appointment

Late Policy:
If you do not ask me for an extension, I will deduct 1% from your final grade on an essay
for each day it is late. This is a hard and fast policy. If you would like an extension,
please send me a ridiculous excuse. It can be a story about how an alien in a blue
telephone booth whisked you away to the far corners of the universe, an account of how
mutant dinosaurs devoured your computer, or anything else you fancy. It can be short and
you can ask for the extension on midnight the day the essay is due if you need to. Just
talk to me and try not to worry.

Texts:
Many of our readings will be selections from longer works. I will post these readings on
Moodle. All readings are due the day they are listed; we will discuss them in class.

Required:
Sells, Michael, trans. Approaching the Qur’an. Second Edition. Ashland, Oregon: White
Cloud Press, 2007.

Ganeri, Jonardon. The Concealed Art of the Soul: Theories of Self and Practices of Truth
in Indian Ethics and Epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Course Schedule
January 16th: Go over the syllabus and talk about our guiding questions; listen to
recitations if we have time. Short in-class film clip: John Kerry on religion and the State
Department; River and Book talk about the Bible, “Janestown,” Firefly

Unit I: What Makes a Text Sacred?

Week One:

January 21st: Introduction to the Vedas

Reading assignment: Patton, “Veda and Upaniṣad,” from The Hindu World, 37-
51; Ganeri, The Concealed Art of the Soul, “Hidden in the Cave: the Upaniṣadic
Self,” 13-38; Selections from the Ṛg Veda and Upaniṣads

Blog entry #1 due Wednesday, January 22nd

January 23rd: Introduction to the Pali Nikāyas

Reading Assignment: Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism, “Chapter 3: Four
Truths,” 59-84, and “Chapter Six: No Self,” 133-162

Week Two:

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January 28th: Introduction to the Qur’an
Reading Assignment: Sells, Approaching the Qur’an, “Introduction and
Glossary of Key Terms,” 1-40; Selected Suras: "The Opening" and "The Star," p.
42-47; "The Most High," p. 72-73; "The Dawn," 78-81; "The Ground," p. 82-83;
"The Laying Open," p. 92-93; "Destiny, Al-Qadr," 100-103; "The Epoch," 116-
117.

Blog entry #2 due Wednesday, January 29th

January 30th: Questions, review, and a cool story

Reading Assignment: Rotman, “The Story of Koṭikarṇa” Divine Stories, 39-70
Short in-class film clip: The Blanket Scene from I Heart Huckabees
***Unit I paper topic handed out in class***

Week Three:

February 4th: Discussion about origins (authorship and cosmogony)

Reading assignment: Selections from Rg Veda and Upaniṣads; Gethin, The
Sayings of the Buddha, “The Origin of Things,” 116-128; Sells, Approaching the
Qur'an, selected Suras: "The Night-Traveling Star," 68-71; "The Morning Hours,"
90-91; "The Fig," 94-95; "Sincerity/Unity," 136-137; "The Compassionate," 145-
157

February 6th: Discussion about ends (values and apocalypses)

Reading assignment: Selections from the Rg Veda and Upaniṣads; Collins,
Nirvana, “Nirvana as concept,” 29-60; Sells, Approaching the Qur'an, selected
Suras: "The Overturning," "The Tearing," "The Cheats," and "The Splitting," 48-
63; "The Darkening," 74-76; "The Quaking," 108-109; "The Calamity," 112-113

***Unit I paper due Friday, February 7th by 11:59pm via Moodle***

Unit II: How Do We Know What a Sacred Text Means?

Week Four:

February 11th: Lecture on Hermeneutics

Reading assignment: Sælid Gilhus, “Hermeneutics,” Routledge Handbook of
Research Methods in the Study of Religion, 275-284; Barthes, “The Death of the
Author”

Blog entry #3 due Wednesday, February 12th

February 13th: What does philosophy do?

Reading assignment: Ganeri, The Concealed Art of the Soul, “Dangerous Truths,”
39-60 and “Words that Burn,” 97-123

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Week Five:

February 18th: Commentaries and Interpretive Traditions: Hindu Traditions

Reading Assignment: Bartley, An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, “Sāṃkhya
and Yoga,” “Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika,” “The Mīmāṃsā Vision,” “Vedānta,” and
“Advaita Vedanta” up to p. 143, 82-143.

Blog entry #4 due Wednesday, February 19th

February 20th: Commentaries and Interpretive Traditions: Buddhist traditions

Reading Assignment: Williams, Mahāyāna Buddhism, “Introduction,” 1-44.
***Unit II paper topic handed out in class***

Week Six:

February 25th: Commentaries and Interpretive Traditions: Islamic traditions

Reading Assignment: Saeed, “Ethico-legal Teachings,” “Selected Exegetical
Principles and Ideas,” and “Approaches to Qur’anic Exegesis,” Introduction to the
Qur’an, 161- 216

February 27th: What makes a tradition? How are there so many interpretations?
Reading Assignment: Ram-Prasad, “Multiplist Metaphysics and Ethics,” Indian
Philosophy and the Consequences of Knowledge, 1-50.

***Unit II paper due Friday, February 28th by 11:59pm via Moodle***

Unit III: What Do Sacred Texts Do?

Week Seven:

March 4th: Lecture on philosophy as practice

Reading assignment: Sells, Mystical Languages of Unsaying, “Introduction,” 1-
13; Ram-Prasad, “Knowledge and Action: On How to Attain the Highest Good,”
Indian Philosophy and the Consequences of Knowledge, 101-132.

Blog entry #6 due Wednesday, March 5th

March 6th: The Experience of Texts: Islamic Traditions

Reading Assignment: Sells, Mystical Languages of Unsaying, “Ibn ‘Arabi’s
Polished Mirror” and “Ibn ‘Arabi’s Garden among the Flames: The Heart
Receptive of Every Form,” 63-115.

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SPRING BREAK MARCH 10TH-14TH

Week Eight:

March 18th: The Experience of Texts: Buddhist Traditions

Reading Assignment: Selections from the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra (focus on
the highlighted parts in your PDF).

Blog entry #7 due Wednesday, March 19th

March 20th: The Experience of Texts: Hindu Traditions

Reading Assignment: Goldman and Goldman, “Rāmāyaṇa,” from The Hindu
World, 75-96; Selections from the Rāmāyana
In-Class Film: Sita Sings the Blues

Week Nine:

March 25th: Classical Indian Aesthetic Theory and Sita Sings the Blues
Reading assignment: Gnoli, The Aesthetic Experience According to
Abhinavagupta, “Introduction,” XIV-LII

Blog entry #8 due Wednesday, March 26th

March 27th: Narrative: Hindu Epics (lecture focused on the Bhagavad Gita)
Reading Assignment: Selections from the Mahābhārata
***Hand out Unit III paper topic in class***

Week Ten:

April 1st: Ritual: Buddhist Mahāmudrā and tantra

Reading Assignment: Wedemeyer, “Beef, Dog, and Other Mythologies:
Connotative Semiotics in Mahāyoga Tantra Ritual and Scripture,” 383-417;
Selections from Namgyal, Clarifying the Natural State

April 3rd: Recitation: The Qur’an

Reading Assignment: Sells, Approaching the Qur’an, “Hearing the Qur’an: The
Call to Prayer and Six Suras,” 145-182 and corresponding sections from the CD;
Graham, Beyond the Written Word, “Introduction” and "Part III: An Arabic
Reciting: Qur'an as Spoken Book," 1-8 and 79-115.
In-class film: Koran by Heart

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***Unit III paper due Friday, April 4th by 11:59pm via Moodle***

Unit IV: Sacred Texts in the Contemporary World

Week Eleven:

April 8th: Discussion of Koran by Heart; Islamism Part I

Reading Assignment: Tariq Ramadan, Islam and the Arab Awakening, "Chapter
3: Islam, Islamism, Secularization,” 67-95.

Blog entry #9 due Wednesday, April 9th

April 10th: Islam and the Arab Spring, Part II

Reading assignment: Tariq Ramadan, Islam and the Arab Awakening, "Chapter
4: The Islamic Reference," p. 96-140.

Week Twelve:

April 15th: DROP THIS CLASS

Blog entry #10 due Wednesday, April 16th

April 17th: something about Buddhist extremism/Buddhist tolerance;

Week Thirteen:

April 22nd: Hindutva and Contemporary Indian Politics

Reading assignment: Ram-Prasad, “Contemporary Political Hinduism,” The
Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, 526-550; Savarkar, “Who is a Hindu?,” from
Hindutva: The Essence of Hinduism, 102-116; Narula, “Law and Hindu
Nationalist Movements,” Hinduism and Law, 234-251.

April 24th: selections from Gurus in America

Week Fourteen:

April 29th: Concluding Reflections

Reading assignment: Ganeri, Concealed Art of the Soul, “Self as Performance,”
183-215
***Hand out final exam in class***

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May 1st: Questions about the Final Exam and Review

***Final Exam Due via Moodle on Our Exam Date***