SYLLABUS (always in progress)

RlST 4830: SENIOR SEMINAR

SPRING, 2006

The basic theme of this year’s senior seminar is to compare the interpretation of religion in the U.S. in the 1960s with the interpretation of religion in academic Religious Studies as you are learning it today. The specific format of the seminar will be decided by the instructor and students together. Therefore, this syllabus covers only the first four weeks of the course, to get us started.

REQUIRED READINGS:

Herman Hesse, Siddartha

Herman Hesse, Steppenwolf

Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity

Alan Watts, The Way of Zen

Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane

Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle

These books are available at the Lefthand Bookstore, 1200 Pearl Street (just east of Broadway, south side of mall, lower level). They are usually open noon-9 weekdays; call 443-8252 to check exact hours. They take cash or check; no credit cards. The readings are also on reserve in Norlin Library.

In addition to these books, there will be some web-based reading. You will find links to all of this reading in the online syllabus: http://www.colorado.edu/ReligiousStudies/chernus/sixties/index.htm.

Please rely on the online syllabus, rather than this print version, because some of the readings are accessible only from the online syllabus, and the syllabus may change during the course.

OFFICE HOURS: Tuesday 5:30 - 6:30, Thursday 1:30 – 2:30, or by appointment

HUMN 284; phone: 492-6169; email: chernus@colorado.edu

I will be glad to make appropriate accommodations for any student with any kind of special needs for enhancing your education.

SCHEDULE OF READINGS:

January 26: Steppenwolf

February 2: Siddartha

February 9: The Wisdom of Insecurity;Alan Watts, “Psychedelics and Religious Experience,” The California Law Review, January, 1968, 74-85, http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/watts.htm

February 16: The Way of Zen

Feb. 25: Theodore Roszak, “The Myth of Objective Consciousness" (from The Making of a Counterculture), 210-229; Ira Chernus, “Henry David Thoreau,” http://spot.colorado.edu/~chernus/NonviolenceBook/Thoreau.htm; Thoreau, Walden, chapter 2, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” http://eserver.org/thoreau/walden02.html; Walt Whitman (from Leaves of Grass), "Song of Myself," http://etcweb1.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/mfs.batke/16/log_026.html; "I Sing the Body Electric," http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/logr/log_029.html; "Song of the Open Road," http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/logr/log_082.html; Carol Christ, "Rethinking Theology and Nature"

Mar. 2: Eros and Civilization, Introduction and chapters 1 - 4

Mar. 9: Eros and Civilization, chapters 6 - 11; Ira Chernus, “Herbert Marcuse: A Critique of Consumer Society”

Mar. 16: Film: "Woodstock"

Mid-term exam due

Mar. 23: Cat’s Cradle

Apr. 6: The Sacred and the Profane, Introduction and chapters 1 and 2

Apr. 13: The Sacred and the Profane, Chapters 3 and 4

Detailed outline and bibliography for research project due