• The Program
• The Problem
• The Strategy
• The Surprise or "Oh!" Event
• Resistance
• Weekly Papers

1. The Program

The Comparative Religion and Culture Program is an intensive 30 week series of lectures, workshops, readings and field trips which introduces students to the Religions and Cultures of Taiwan, India and Turkey. Scheduled events include lectures on, and visits to: Lung-shan Buddhist Temple and Hsin-chuang's Temples, Taoist Shrines, and the Confucian Day ceremony in Taiwan; the Gandhian Peace Foundation, the Taj Mahal, the Tibetan community in Dharmsala, the Jain temple and pilgrimage site in Sravanabelagola, and Sufi and Sikh temples in New Delhi in India; Cappadocia, Atatürk's Mausoleum and the Haci Bayram Mosque to observe noon prayers in Turkey. In addition to the Director's year-long seminar on Comparative Religion, at least one course on the religions and culture of each country will be part of each ten week segment. Students write a series of weekly papers synthesizing readings and field trips and one final reflective response in each ten week term. The program culminates in a year-end paper which integrates the sixty-plus papers and reflects upon the issues involved in cross-cultural study.

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2. The Problem

In thinking about religious or cultural traditions other than our own, we tend to want to bring them into the range of the familiar. When we read a sentence in a religious text, we make sense of it by placing it within the context of images, stories, concepts, metaphors and analogies we already know. We understand the unfamiliar by relating it to the familiar. Our own tradition (whether a religion or a way of thinking) is the norm against which the Other is understood. But there is a problem here when reading texts of religious traditions other than our own: we may inadvertently impose our own intellectual framework on behaviors and texts that exist in an entirely different religious or cultural context -- in its extreme forms, this is a form of violence and might well be called "intellectual or religious imperialism." Translating all that we read into our own way of thinking reduces all difference to sameness and turns all others into only slightly different versions of ourselves -- our multi-faceted world is impoverished and our range of possibilities becomes smaller and smaller. How, then, can we think other than we do about other religious and cultural traditions' How might things look quite different rather than quite the same from our usual way of seeing' And how might this new way of seeing help us understand human problems or social issues in a new way'

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3. The Strategy

One strategy for dealing with this problem is to seek out that which is unfamiliar (the sentences or stories with which we can make no links, or for which we have no context) and attempt to build a new understanding -- through the construction and adoption of dozens of new images, stories, concepts, metaphors and analogies. We thus create a new context within which to understand the stories (and our experience) of traditions and cultures not our own. This process requires a willingness to welcome a compassionate challenging of our own (and others) ideas. Constructing a new and different way of thinking is the work of the program. It is meant to be a creative challenge -- an exercise in constructive thinking -- How can we think other than we do'

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4. The Surprise or "Oh!" Event

Or "Uh, Oh!, or Whoa! (also: woe) event... How do we put this strategy into practice' While doing your reading, focus on the surprise or the distortion--something that startles, upsets, amuses, insults, or amazes you so much so that you put the book down for a minute (or are compelled to highlight, underline or write in the margins) and reflect upon what you have read. This is an instance when you, and your present way of thinking, have been "jarred" by the text. Writing on an OH! (or Uh, oh!, or even Wow!) is the weekly assignment for most of the term. The assumption is that something in the texts will annoy, irritate, provoke, intrigue---start your written reflection here.

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5. Resistance

The purpose of the weekly response papers is to work through your own ideas with and against the text. You should be exercising your mind. One way to do this is by working with a place of resistance -- either an "Oh" event where something has shifted (and opened up) or a place of significant disagreement with the text (where something has closed down). The issue is not who is right or who is wrong but the fact that some sort of exercise is taking place. In this course you have the opportunity to try on a different pair of "glasses" and see what things look like when they are on. ( I do not ask that you buy them, take them home and wear them everyday!) It is an exercise in religious and cultural empathy -- it is part of what makes this a "cross-cultural" program.

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6. Weekly Papers

Writing the weekly paper is at the heart of the program. This exercise is seen not only as a way of communicating what you already know, but as a vehicle for learning. We will learn as we write, as we reflect and analyze what we have written, and as we listen to others read what they have written. Over the course of the year, the weekly paper should move (eventually) through the five different approaches to the text, each of which requires a slightly different form of thinking. This is a skill to be learned -- complete mastery is not expected in the first week of the course! (All papers must include references to specific passages in the text. When asking you to read aloud in class, I will often ask you to give us a page number so that we can refer to our books while you read.)

I. Descriptive
what does the text say' The paper should begin by proposing that one particular theme, concept or argument is the most important in the text, and then continue with a brief argument stating why you think this is so (with specific page reference to verses in the readings).

II. Analytical
what is the set of terms necessary for us to understand this particular theme, concept or argument within the tradition' (Or, if attending an event or a ceremony, what are the key terms or concepts in which our understanding of the ceremony should be situated') Construct a network or web of terms and explain how these might inform our understanding of decision-making in daily life.

III. Reflective
this is an analysis not of the text, but of the thinking you bring to the text. The text functions as a mirror here allowing you to see more clearly the presuppositions (or the interpretive framework) you are using to process the text. Ask yourself: Is there a theme to the sections that you underlined' We often underline only that with which we agree. Take the next step in analyzing your response: Have you avoided or ignored verses of the text that you found offensive or with which you disagreed' Is there a theme to those as well' (This can be a struggle.) It is this second (and often negative or disturbing) response that acts as a critical check on the first. Without this critical check we will end up always reading and seeing only that which we already believe. How does your difficulty in understanding (or accepting) the second theme affect your understanding of the first'

A good example here are the related Confucian concepts of jen and li, the former meaning humanity or goodness and the latter meaning ritual propriety or customary behaviour. Recently, while teaching at a Lutheran college, I noticed that while most students embraced jen, there was often some difficulty with li. Yet in the Chinese tradition, li is the key to the expression of jen. Li without jen is empty, and jen without li is chaos. When one highlights jen without li, one not only misunderstands Confucianism but misses an opportunity to learn from a very rich tradition. This same issue will play itself out over and over again as we are exposed to texts and events in traditions and cultures other than our own. We need to find a way to identify and work with our 'blind spots' -- for these blind spots are the keys to learning from others. This is part of the 'OH' event strategy.

IV. Constructive
This is an advanced step in "thinking about thinking" and may be difficult for the first few responses. Has your own thinking allowed you to adequately explore the theme in this text' Was there something in the text you could not grasp with your present thinking' This is an opportunity to challenge your own understanding of the text. My own question here is always "how can we think other than we do'"

The assumption in this step (and the previous 'reflective' one) is that our thinking is patterned and that it is possible to take a step back from that thinking and try to see what that pattern is. A helpful metaphor here is that of a food processing machine where you change the fitting on the end of the machine depending on how you want the vegetables to look after they are run through the machine. The reflective exercise is not in looking at the nature of that which was processed, but trying to understand the fitting that must have been used. The constructive exercise notes that the present fitting on the processor may be inadequate and attempts to build a new one. It may be that for each new religious or cultural tradition we need a new way of thinking as well -- a new way of processing our world.

A follow-up question: what is the difference between understanding 'diversity' as lots of vegetables and understanding diversity as multiple fittings'

V. Cross-cultural
Having constructed a new way of thinking, what does it mean to bring this new fitting or framework back home' How do we now see our own culture differently' Constructing a new interpretive framework allows us to see our own culture through a new lens and to think through familiar problems in a new way. What does this new framework help us see that we did not see before' What does it highlight or foreground' What does this inspire you to do at home'

There are a vast array of political, economic and social issues facing us today: human rights, our relationship to nature, our relationship to each other, gender issues, poverty, homelessness, international conflicts (China and Tibet). We have the opportunity to rethink an important issue by situating it in the categories, concepts, stories and metaphors of a new religious or cultural tradition. Constructing a new and different way of thinking -- and then using it to rethink one of these issues (either in America or abroad) -- is one of the most exciting and meaningful parts of the course.