REL 1300
A copy of the syllabus is available here.
I also have some advice to offer to help you
write better papers.
Using FSU's on-line
resources
As long as you are studying at FSU, you
have access to on-line resources that the university has
paid for. When you pay tuition fees, one thing you are
paying for is the right to access these resources. Why
spend all your time looking at free sources, when you
have paid for high quality sources?
So, open this link in a new tab: Off-campus
Access
First, you will need to enter the username and password
that you use for your FSU e-mail account.
Encyclopedia Britannica.
Some people say its even better than Wikipedia!
From Oxford University Press we have:
The Oxford English Dictionary: the best source
to use if you want to find out the history of a word in
English.
Oxford Reference Online: introductory secondary
sources.
Oxford Handbooks Online: more advanced secondary
source material.
Oxford Scholarship Online: very advanced
secondary source material.
EBSCO e-book collection. 30,000 on-line
books. That's a complete library in itself. You have
various search options. Usually, it isn't best to start
with a full-text search. That would give you a list of
every book that contains the word you are searching for.
There are 329 books that contain the words "Hindu
Goddesses", but only four books for which "Hindu
Goddesses" is a key-word. Those are the books I'd want
to start with. Of those four books, I recommend the ones
by Kinsley and John Stratton Hawley. Kinsley devotes
each chapter to a particular goddess, Hawley's book is a
collection of articles by different scholars, each about
a different goddess. You don't have time to read a whole
book, but you could easily read and use a couple of
these essays.
Then, go back to the original library page. Underneath
where it say "Find articles, journals and data-bases",
you have the option to go to the most used databases.
Click on it, then select JSTOR. JSTOR is a
collection of academic journals. For example, there are
33 articles in the religion journals about "Mahadevi".
You need to learn how to pick out the best articles. Pay
attention to the date of publication. An article
published in 1894 about Hinduism's Contact With
Christian Salvation is not useful, because of the date
and topic. Nor is an article about "Sun and Earth
Rulers: What Eyes Cannot See in Mesoamerica", nor is an
article about Buddhism. But that leaves more than enough
articles that will be helpful to you.
Any further questions, please e-mail me: bmurphy@fsu.edu
Paper 1, Spring 2017
(Santoshi Maa)
Responses to Comparative paper
Responses
to Paper 1, Summer 2015
Highlights and Lowlights Spring 2015
Responses to the fact that bad things happen to good
people. (Comparative paper)
Monkey paper
Is Buddhism an Atheistic Religion?
Jai Santoshi Maa
paper
Highlights and Lowlights Fall 2014:
Paper 4
Paper 2
Highlights and Lowlights Fall 2013:
Paper 4
Paper 1
Highlights and
Lowlights Fall 2012:
Paper 3
Highlights and Lowlights Spring 2012
Paper 3
Highlights and
Lowlights, Spring 2011
Paper 3
Paper 2
Highlights and
Lowlights, Spring 2010
The second paper
The first paper
Highlights and
Lowlights from Fall 2009
The third paper
The second
paper.
The first paper.
I've also repaired some of the links below - see how
students fared last semester.
Highlights and Lowlights from Summer 2009:
The first paper.
Highlights and Lowlights from Spring 2009:
This contains some of the best and worst writing
from last semester. Avoid the mistakes and be inspired
by what's good! Don't slavishly copy the best papers
though: really good work displays independent thought.
As we go through this semester, more will be added.
The second paper and the
third paper.
The readings we discuss in class are essential for
you to follow the course. However, in order to get a
good grade, you will have to carry out further reading -
the papers are intended to be a test of your research
skills. Below are some useful links to help you with
your research. I have also put some useful supplementary
readings in the library. If you are really adventurous,
you might even check a book out of the library!
Useful
Links:
There is a lot of useful
information on the web, there is also a lot of rubbish -
so think carefully about the sources that you use!
Also, remember that you should start by using the
sources that I have compiled for you in the library. I
suggest that you read through the information that's
available there, then ask yourself what further
information you need to help with your paper, and see
whether it is available on the web.
A final warning: Do not plagiarize! (If in doubt, read
the notes on plagiarism!) Keep
track of what sources from the web you use, and always
give proper citations. Be careful about cutting and
pasting material into your paper.
Is Buddhism an Atheistic Religion?
Is Buddhism an Atheistic Religion? For
this paper, I have prepared a
guide to topics you should consider and sources
you can use.
General Religion Resources:
Virtual
Religion Index
Goddesses in
Hinduism:
Introducing
Devi produced by the Smithsonian to
accompany an exhibition. A basic introduction - good
place to start if you're finding the whole topic
confusing.
Essay
on Kali from Exotic Indian Art Site. Good
discussion of iconography.
Kali
in California Hinduism is a world-religion,
well established outside India.
Cooking
for the Gods Another exhibition web-site, this
one from the University of Pennsylvania.
Indus
Valley This is by far the best web-site I
know for the Indus Valley - the next best thing to
organising a field-trip.
Devotional Web-Site
intended for the glorification of the Divine Mother.
A glimpse into contemporary goddess worship.
For the position of women in Hinduism, one important
source is the Laws
of Manu, which also explains the roles of the
4 varnas, and the asrama system.
Complete text of Devi
Mahatmya, important primary source for goddess
worship.
Christianity
and Judaism:
The New Testament
Gateway. The best place to start looking for
information on the New Testament.
The
Five Gospel Parallels.
When studying the Gospels, particularly the Synoptics,
its essential that
you
check
parallel passages in the other Gospels. This web-site
also
includes
parallel
passages from Thomas.
Into His Own
Collection of
primary source material relevent to early Christianity
and Judaism.
Highly recommended!
Jewish History
Resources Center Access to materials
(primary and secondary) concerning Judaism in the era of
the Second Temple. Remember, your paper must examine the
history of Judaism during this period, as well as the
origins of Christianity. Highly recommended!
All in one
Biblical Resources Search. General resource
for Biblical studies.
I have now up-dated the sources in the library. The
folder contains a selection of secondary source material.
Also, there are some useful books on reserve in the
library: Harris, The New
Testament: A Student's Introduction; Schiffman, From Text To Tradition; Theissen
and Merz, The
Historical Jesus, A Comprehensive Guide and
Barton and Muddiman (eds.) The Oxford One Volume Bible Commentary.
For primary sources, you should use the two highly
recommended web-sites above. Some of your primary source
material will be Biblical. A good Bible commentary, such
as the one edited by Barton and Muddiman, goes through
every book of the Bible one verse at a time, pointing out
the kind of information that you need in order to
understand the passages in their original context. So,
when you've chosen the passages you want to use, you might
check what the commentary says. Please note that Barton
and Muddiman are the editors, but each section has a
different author - for example, the commentary on
Luke's Gospel is written by Eric Franklin. You include
Barton and Muddiman in a citation, because anyone looking
for the book needs to know the name of the editors, but if
you are referring to a passage, you should mention the
author of that particular section.
Another useful source available on request in the library
is the DVD Jesus: The
Complete Story. The main advisor for this
documentary was Tom Wright, an Anglican clergyman who is
now the Bishop of Durham, who has written a series of
highly influential studies of the historical Jesus. Treat
the video as you would any other secondary source
material; it is useful, but some of the claims are
contentious.
Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism
Dao De Jing:
Analects
of
Confucius
Chuang
Tzu
Platform
Sutra
Early Chinese Buddhism Re-Examined by Heinrich Dumoulin.
A supplement to his book on Zen Buddhism (which is
available in our library). I can't put up a link
directly to this article, but you can access it through
JSTOR, using EZ-Proxy.
The article is in the Journal of Japanese Religious
Studies, 1993.
Hui
Neng
vs. Shen Hsiu: what really happened?
ISLAM:
Osama
bin
Laden and Muslim tradition on warfare article by
John Kelsay. John Kelsay is the head of FSU's
department of Religious Studies. He is also an expert
on Islam and warfare: his book is available in the
bookstore, an extract is on file. In this brief
article he responds to 911.
The
Quran, the Hadith and the Prophet Muhammad This
site has links to some excellent primary and secondary
sources.
Final Exam,
The first section of the final exam, worth 50%,
will consist of 30 multiple choice questions, based on the
sections of the text-book you studied for the quizzes.
The second section will consist of a series of essays, of
which you will answer one. The essays will be similar to the
questions "For Further Reflection" at the end of each
chapter of the text-book. Some of these essays will give you
a chance to compare two different religions, others will
give you a chance to discuss the way one particular religion
has changed over time.
Examples:
How similar were the lives and teachings of Jesus and
Confucius?
How do the differences between Buddhism and Islam reflect
the different conditions in which these religions
originated?
Explain the changes in authority structures in Judaism from
the time of the patriarchs to the dawn of the rabbinic era.
Does the Dao De Jing have any useful lessons for today's
world?
Compare and contrast the political agendas of Confucius and
Muhammad.
Explain the relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism.
Is Hinduism a single religion, or a family of related
religions?
link
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